If you run an affiliate program, you need to ensure your affiliates are doing their part. They must use your coded links and banners. If not, they are doing nothing to generate sales for you. In fact, they are wasting your time. With that said, don’t write off each of these individuals as lazy. There are many cases in which those new to affiliate programs need a little help and support, be sure to give it to your members.

As previously stated, you need to provide all of your affiliates, especially those new to the program, with support. Why? Better yet, focus on the dangers of not. If you setup an affiliate program, give a few coded links, make payments when needed, but then just disappear what could happen? Continue reading on to find out.

You may lose quality affiliates. Do not make the mistake of assuming all good affiliates can do the job without asking questions. Some may be unable to access your website, may have trouble uploading your graphics, and others may have payment related questions. Anyone can have a question at anytime, including your best performing affiliates. Don’t let them get angry and jump ship because it takes you one week or never to answer a question.

You may create a bad name for your affiliate program. Affiliate programs do work. They are successful. The business person using an affiliate program, which would be you, sees an increase in sales. Better yet, the affiliates who help generate those sales are paid. This information will spread like wildfire online. People are always taking about how they make money online. Don’t be surprised to see an influx of applications after your payments are sent out. This is because your affiliates are talking about the opportunity online. Unfortunately, people don’t just talk about good things. They share problems and complaints online. If an affiliate of yours cannot get a response from you, they may turn to the internet and broadcast their complaint. Anyone who reads it may later think twice about joining your affiliate program.

You may cause unintentional rule breaking. Many affiliate programs prohibit affiliates from using their own links to buy. The goal of affiliate programs is to generate unique sales, not planned or staged sales. If your rule on this practice is not outlined in your terms and conditions, you are likely to get an email asking about the rule. However, if you don’t respond, the affiliate may go ahead and use their affiliate links to make a purchase. Not only do they get the items they ordered, but they get money from the commission too. If you catch the person, they can claim they didn’t technically break the rules because they weren’t highlight and because you didn’t respond to their original message.

You can lose money. As previously stated, you need to cater to all of your affiliates. Whether they have a question, suggestion, or complaint, it needs to be address. If you just ignore your affiliates, you will anger some. These angry individuals are likely to jump ship. When that happens, you lose money. Don’t just think about the money lost immediately, but the long-term. You had an affiliate who was having problems getting your embedded banners to display on their website. You ignored their question and they left. This is bad if they had a well designed, easy to navigate, and marketed website. You may have cost yourself thousand of dollars in sales, just in the first year!

As you can see, there are many consequences to avoiding your affiliates. Never do it. If you don’t already provide your affiliates with helpful support, start now before you staring seeing the consequences.