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I was researching a particular topic when I saw an ad for an ebook which looked interesting. Unfortunately when I got to the site, the author had a big notice up saying that the ebook version of the product is no longer for sale, and you couldn’t buy anything else on the page.

So my first thoughts were…‘if the ebook is not for sale anymore, why was someone spending money to promote it?’

I hit my back button, and it was then I realized that 8 out of the 10 pay-per-click ads were all promoting the same product. 3 of the ads were sending traffic direct to the site using different display url’s. The others were sending the traffic to a landing page on their site, where they had written a review.

‘In every case’ they were spending and wasting money, promoting an affiliate program they couldn’t make any money from!

The author’s statement was dated 24 June, so all the affiliates have been wasting money on pay-per-click ads for over 2 weeks already.

The product is being sold via ClickBank which is one reason why this is happening. Unfortunately, ClickBank doesn’t give the seller the option of emailing their affiliates, unless you have used a third party affiliate script like: ‘EasyClickMate’.

If they had this option, the seller could of sent out a note to all affiliates informing them that the ebook is no longer for sale. The way it is, the affiliates won’t know about it unless they visit the affiliate site again, or if they happen to notice that their ad is no longer making any sales.

Here Are My Tips:

1. If you are spending money on advertising you should keep an eye on your sales conversion rates, and if you notice a dip you should try and find out why. It should go without saying that if the product is no longer available…stop your ads!
   If for some reason you have to keep the ad running if it’s a pre-paid advertising deal or something, try and redirect the traffic a different product.
2. If you are selling a product with your own affiliate program, and then make a big change like pulling the product, ALWAYS e-mail your affiliates to tell them.
3. If you have no way of contacting your affiliates (if you happen to be using Clickbank for example), try and contact the affiliates that you can see are still spending money on advertising.

With tip 3 I’m not saying you should spend time scouring the web looking for affiliates advertising, but it doesn’t take long to quickly check Google with your main keyword.

If your affiliates are advertising on Google, they are going to be pretty peeved when they find out they’ve been wasting money promoting your product. Chances are; they probably won’t consider promoting any of your other products again when they find out.

…Now you’ve just lost yourself a load of good affiliates, who are willing to spend money on advertising!

If it was me, I would spend a few minutes to track down a contact address for the affiliates advertising, and shoot them a quick courtesy email to inform them.

Instead of losing good affiliates you tried hard to get, you’ll earn their respect and they’ll be much more likely to promote your products in the future.

Jason Lewis