I open up my inbox occasionally and read the emails from CJ.com that say something like so-and-so advertiser is no longer in the program or has deleted you from their program and I immediately hit the delete button. After all, I didn’t really want to promote that guy anyway, never really managed to make that program work, or don’t remember why I signed up in the first place.

But what happens when the advertiser on that “no longer with CJ” list is your bread and butter? Or, what if your favorite advertiser changes his terms.  Sorry Charlie, those terms that are converting well for you are suddenly off-limits. Now what?

So, my new years resolution is to consider my affiliate business to be more like my stock portfolio. I would never pour all of my money into one single stock.  But yet, I found it all too easy to grow my favorite advertiser until it was a nice chunk of income, forgetting that I needed to look for new leads.

This is my recommended strategy for growth. Start with at least 2 solid advertisers on one affiliate network.  Then, try a new network, and see if you can grow a third and forth. Then, try a new network, or move back to affiliate network #1.  TIP: Remember that affiliate managers often make decisions about accepting new affiliates based on things like earnings, so if you’re only earning a few dollars with one affiliate network, it may make sense for you to work on getting more earnings per network before branching out too far.