WooThemes, the premium theme provider recently announced it’s closing its affiliate program. Just a few hours ago, I received an email from Adii CEO of WooThemes, stating that they are closing their affiliate program.
WooThemes is the not the only one to close its door for affiliates, Standard Theme recently did the same thing as well.
On 8th of this month, all referral links will stop working and you will not be able to access your affiliate dashboard anymore said Adii.
The main reason for closing the affiliate program
I’m in the unfortunate position to let you know that we will be closing our referral program on Friday, 8 February 2013. In the last couple of months, the costs to maintain the referral program have exceeded the benefit of keeping it around. We have also experienced so much fraud & abuse on the referral program, which means it is currently losing money for us. – Adii said in the affiliate newsletter.
Though, he didn’t mention if they have any plans on re-opening the program to its users.
In the last few years, a lot of theme companies & shops closed down their affiliate program and within a few months, almost 80% of them re-opened the program. So I think it would be fair to say that WooThemes affiliate program might re-open in a few months.
I think affiliate program is a useful asset for a company selling digital goods or physical products, but as a business owner you need to make the decision if it’s worth your time and money.
I wish Woo team all the best and would really love to see them re-opening the program with more robust software or service.
Wow… I can’t really see how they are losing money even if people are abusing the system because that means the sales are being generated from affiliates one way or another but I do understand their concern.
But really? Are they really losing more money maintaining the affiliate system than what it’s bringing on sales? I hardly think so but hey, if they need to shut it down, then so be it.
I think it’s more their loss anyway.
Great article Dev!
So glad to see you here, Sergio and you summed up really well.
I still couldn’t able to understand how they are loosing money, but shutting down the affiliate program wasn’t a good decision, I guess.
Thanks so much for stopping by, bud.
-Dev
Obviously the reason of losing money is just an excuse. I have been one of their affiliates and already sent thousands of clicks via my affiliate link. Guess what, I only made less than $80 in commission. The same number of clicks sent to other providers would have made me at least $500.
If they re-open their affiliate program, I won’t bother to join again.
Sometimes companies stop their affiliate programs because they don’t make enough money to make it worth keeping up the overhead cost of maintaining the affiliate system. Sometimes, they make plenty of money and figure that they don’t need affiliates anymore to make a profit because they are well know enough to get lots of sales on their own.