I just started at a new company as their affiliate program manager, where the affiliate program has mainly been ignored. As a result of this, I have many affiliates who would not have been approved because they do not meet the requirements of disclosing their main source of traffic (i.e. their website URL or other means of delivering traffic). For some of these affiliates, they are earning significant commissions. My question is – how do I get rid of these affiliates who were grandfathered into the program before I started and are bringing down the credibility of the program properly? Our Affiliate Terms and Conditions allow me to disable affiliates with only written notice, which could work for affiliates with no activity in their account, but how do I do this for affiliates who are earning commissions? I have tried emailing some affiliates without success. Any tips or hints you can share would be much appreciated.
I would recommend making an expanded effort to reach the active affiliates that don’t currently meet your requirements. Try getting them to comply with your rules first.
Failing that, then explain that you will have to terminate their accounts.
In addition to e-mail, try contacting them by telephone. Also reach out to them via direct mail. You can get 100 full color postcards, printing and postage for $40 from Express Copy.
In the event your contact information is out of date, try looking at their domain registration information with a WHOIS search.
If you are unable to get a response after taking these steps, I think you’ve taken appropriate action to notify them, and it’s acceptable to suspend their account.