After 6 months, not one sale

Should I be suspicious?

[Lokutus]

We are an affiliate for a big and reasonably well known public company that sells lifestyle products. They have some of the best looking banner ads in the industry. Very eye-catching and pleasing. The program is operated by linkshare. Our new site is getting good traffic, but we haven't had one sale yet. Not even for the low priced impulse type items.

We do get sales through other affiliate programs, but never through Linkshare.

Should I be looking into the matter?

[vincevincevince]

Are you getting lots of clicks?

[Lokutus]

Yes, we are getting clicks--but no sales.

I'm beginning to wonder how accurate the reporting system at Linkshare really is.

Another question: when someone running an affiliate program brags that their cookies last a year, should I be impressed?

[vincevincevince]

Cookies lasting a year is normally a good thing. It means that someone can see your site today, get the cookie, buy something next April, and you still get paid. Assuming they haven't cleared their cookies, got a new browser or visited another affiliate for the same program in the meantime.

You may want to ask linkshare to check up on the program, just in case there is something wrong. Lots of people are paid by linkshare for affiliate activities so the company itself is not a front to get free clicks at your expense!

Remember many programs average around 1% or lower click-to-sale conversion rate. You have to fight against this!

[Lokutus]

Thanks.

With a 1% conversion rate we should have had 10 sales by now.

[antoine]

It doesn't matter if they are tracking properly or not. Bottom line is they are not converting and you are losing money. You need to replace them.

[TrustNo1]

"They have some of the best looking banner ads in the industry."

Maybe that's the problem. Are those the only types of links you're using?

And it's not a Linkshare problem. I have a big shopping site with lots of merchants. And i get daily sales with a lot of them that happen to be at Linkshare. Either you haven't found the right way to promote them so they work for you, haven't sent them enough traffic yet or on the rare occurence, there is a tracking problem.