According to an email received today from Cafepress, their affiliate program is not performing as they had hoped (i.e. they aren’t making enough money).  So they are going to outsource the affiliate program to (and I cringe saying this) Commission Junction.

DON’T SHOOT!  I’m just the messenger!

I can only speak from personal experience concerning CJ in the past and that experience is that they have always come across as a little shady.  Websites I have worked on and tried to use CJ as a revenue stream have always had bad experiences with the company.  I always found it odd that links from CJ would claim no clicks while every other advertisement link around the CJ links would show at least some traffic and I have had sites that I worked with have problems getting the correct payments as listed in their accounts or paid even at all.

A few years ago I swore off the company as just a poorly run business not worth my time.  Now Cafepress seems to look at Commission Junction as a the savior for their affiliate program.

A couple months ago something seemed to change with the CP affiliate program.  Despite visits continuing to grow to all sites on my networked linked to the affiliate program, affiliate referrals dropped sharply and so did revenues.  This is one of those things that causes you to scratch your head and I am not certain what happened.

>>> Problems With Affiliate Programs <<<

I’ll say this, affiliate programs are rough.  I’ve found that for every 100 sites that affiliate with you, maybe 1 is a quality affiliate that is capable of driving traffic to your site and boosting sales.  The other 99?  Well, they are what I call “hangers on”.

These hangers on are looking for a quick buck that will never come because their site gets about 50 hits a day which might translate to 1 or 2 sales a month and not enough to even generate enough sales to warrant a check.  For me, as the owner of sites that has a bunch of these types of affiliates, that is ok because 1 or 2 sales x 100 is a decent amount of added sales.

But it results in a lot of headaches as these sites are constantly complaining that they are not making sales and any money and questioning their affiliation.  You want to try and help because the success of their site means more success for you.

Eventually however this leads many to even question the products and services you are offering to let them have a cut of if they help sell them.  When you tell them that the problem is actually with the fact that sales is a numbers games (i.e. more views equals more potential customers) and that they are simply not getting enough traffic this only compounds the problem.

As of late I have been spending way too much time explaining to several affiliates that the problem is with them and their sites and NOT with the products I offer.  I know this because each month my sales continue to increase and the positive feedback is enormous.

Right now I am probably loosing money on affiliates simply from a time invested standpoint.

Text of email:

Hello,

About a year ago we launched the CafePress Affiliate Program. We saw it as a revolutionary program with benefits for Shopkeepers, Affiliates, and CafePress. As you know, the basic purpose of an affiliate program is to drive incremental external web traffic – and ultimately sales. Unfortunately this program did not meet that key objective, and a continued investment in a program that was not meeting this basic goal became difficult. Ultimately this program lacked ability to scale, build momentum, and ROI.

This led us to begin looking for a program that could meet the combined needs of our Shopkeeper and Affiliate partners, and CafePress. An external, third party affiliate network seemed an obvious choice, and Commission Junction matched all of our requirements. Our affiliate partners will be impressed by their unparalleled services, and Shopkeepers will benefit greatly by the exponential traffic, and ultimately revenue, delivered to the CafePress Marketplace.

We’re certain you’ll enjoy working with this best-in-breed affiliate industry leader. This program is scheduled to launch on April 10, 2007. To learn more about our migration to Commission Junction please join us for an invitation only chat on Monday, March 26 at 4pm PST. To RSVP and obtain more details on how to join the chat please contact affiliates@cafepress.com.

Sincerely,
The CafePress Affiliate Team

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts, Uber Gamer T-shirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.