Getting disapproved for an affiliate program happens more commonly than you think and while it can be depressing when you’re just getting started
Before I move forward, I need you to understand that this isn’t a big deal and it happens often, but I’ve run into numerous people asking this question who were so distraught over having a disapproval happen to their application that they even considered quitting the entire affiliate marketing business altogether.
Here’s the 6 things you can do if an affiliate program disapproved your application:
- Just find another affiliate program (it’s easy).
- Try places like Clickbank, Wealthy Affiliate and Amazon Associates. They have better approval rates.
- Try the Wealthy Affiliate program specifically because of it’s connection to AWIN, which is a huge network.
- Try alternatives to affiliate marketing in general (examples provided below).
- Improve your site’s look for affiliate networks to improve the odds of approval.
- Resubmit your application to the program that disapproved you originally.
I’ll go over each thing below, so don’t worry if these don’t make much sense yet.
Don’t quit if you get disapproved for an affiliate program!
For starters, that’s the worst thing you can do.
And second, “worst case” scenario, even if every single affiliate program on this planet disapproves you, there’s still many ways to make money online without them. So let’s dive into this whole thing can show you that it’s really not a problem:
3 common reasons why affiliate programs disapprove people:
1) Your website isn’t “complete” enough for them.
When joining an affiliate network or program, you will almost always be asked to provide the URL of a website.
Most people who apply for affiliate networks are new and make the common mistake of applying very early when their website doesn’t really have anything major to show.
And what I mean: No traffic, no real content, very little of it or just no high quality content to begin with, and no good resume basically to show that the website is worth approving of.
The key is to build up the website to make it valuable in the eyes of an affiliate program. After that approval is fairly simple to get. The goal is not to rush and build up the site first.
2) You don’t provide accurate information, especially tax info.
Legitimate affiliate programs will want to know this type of information and if you don’t provide it, it can impact the application’s approval process. I’ve even had people who are underage apply for affiliate programs be shocked when they got disapproved and it’s because they don’t pay taxes or have legit tax info to get approved.
In many cases, being over 18 is required. Some people seem to think that affiliate programs are not like regular jobs that would also ask for the same info but they are! Your income is going to have to be reported to government and the affiliate program you’re dealing with has to provide that type of info (as do you).
3) Some affiliate programs are simply incompetent and shouldn’t be dealt with to begin with.
I’ve had cases where I provided what I consider all the necessary info to show I am a legitimate affiliate marketer with the potential to help an affiliate program I want to be involved with grow. This typically happened on Commission Junction and it wasn’t the program itself, but the affiliate program within that network that declined my application.
Yet my application was declined, sometimes almost instantly and the faster that happens, the more I believe it shows the ineptitude of that affiliate program to begin with, so if this happens to you, don’t fret or get upset, it’s sometimes on the end of the affiliate program to begin with, so move on.
It was honestly absurd, but whatever, I don’t wait on these programs to fix things. I just scoffed sarcastically and moved onto other networks.
6 things you can do if you weren’t approved for an affiliate program (the next steps):
1) Just find another legitimate one. It isn’t difficult.
There are hundreds and thousands of actual affiliate programs you can register with. Just because one didn’t accept you doesn’t mean that another won’t offer the same terms/commissions and possibly a better one. And even if it doesn’t, you can always:
2) Try these alternative affiliate networks that usually approve people quickly:
3) I recommend the last program, Wealthy Affiliate because it opens doors for you to get approved for many networks. Here’s how:
- First, Wealthy Affiliate is itself an affiliate network that you can promote (See it’s bootcamp course for details).
- Second, Wealthy Affiliate provides training and tools to help you build an attractive site for affiliate networks to approve you.
- Third, Wealthy Affiliate provides access to a GIGANTIC affiliate network called AWIN which is a conglomerate of MANY other affiliate networks on the internet. Signing up with Wealthy Affiliate makes it easier to access these networks and here’s how.
4) Consider something outside affiliate marketing.
As long as you have a website and the skills to get traffic, there is so much more beyond affiliate marketing that you can do with such skills. For example:
- Offering online consultations.
- Doing local marketing.
- Sticking to display network marketing like using Adsense, and programs like Mediavine.
5) Improve the quality of your website (Grow it to become more attractive to programs).
Since this is one of the reasons why applications for affiliate programs get disapproved, you will want to make it better. So grow the content on the website by knowing what to blog about to make that possible.
6) Come back to the same affiliate network later and try to sign up again.
If you grow your website and you haven’t already found a better alternative program that the one which originally disapproved you, then you can go back later (months later) and try again. If they still decline you, forget it and follow the 5 steps above. There’s always better options.
My final thoughts:
All these other options can provide people with awesome results. And I assure you, that if you’re still focused on only doing affiliate marketing, you have many opportunities beyond just the one that didn’t approve you to join and get approved for.
Being that I’ve personally been through that experience, as well as other “nightmare” scenarios in my online business, I assure you, it’s not the end. And if you just look beyond the one affiliate program you were looking to join, you’ll find plenty that will accept you.
I promise you that there’s plenty of networks out there which would happily pay you more and much more easily accept you into their program if you applied. You just need to know how to look and the Wealthy Affiliate program would be where I’d do it.
But before you go ahead and start signing up to other networks, don’t forget these 2 things:
1) You have to have a good website or reputation with affiliate marketing to increase your chance of getting approved. No good company will ever let “any” affiliate join, remember that.
2) If you’re a beginner, then don’t even worry about joining these programs yet. Get awesome training first at Wealthy Affiliate which will help you become more than eligible for these networks and then start applying.
3) You can also get more free tips on affiliate marketing on my other site HelpingHandAffiliate.com, but I do also recommend Wealthy Affiliate there too.
Hi Vitaliy,
Thank you for writing this insightful post. I haven’t applied for any affiliate program yet, since my websites are still new and need more content, but I’m bookmarking this article for future reference.
With your reasons and action steps that you share here, I can make sure I’m totally prepared before applying to an affiliate program, lowering my chances of a possible disapproval and saving myself some disappointment.
I understand that a website owner should know the ins and outs of measuring their website’s traffic before even considering to become an affiliate!
Hi Nicky, you’re absolutely going in the right direction on holding off on registering with any affiliate programs. By the time you’re ready, you can bet most of them will easily approve you for their program, by that time, your site will be valuable to them 🙂
This information is awesome. Thank you! Fortunately I haven’t been refused by an affiliate program however I picked up a few things that I should be doing better. It really is like a business relationship and it’s in our interests to be trying to earn money for our “employers/business partners”. I was thinking that there are a couple of sites I have that could really do with a bit of TLC so thanks for the gentle nudge 🙂
It’s a valid point you make in point 3 which I found quite reassuring and comforting – our websites are an asset. Hmm, yes, a lot of food for thought. Thank you!
They are indeed an asset Gaz, and not just to potential affiliate programs, but to yourself since you can sell your own products/services if the affiliate programs you are interested in do not offer a good enough products/services as well as a fair compensation.
Thanks for writing this post. I am one of these who were rejected for the longest time from Adsense. I was at first, affected but then after a while chose to move on with other opportunities than to think too much about it. I will be exploring alternatives soon as you mention there are a lot of others around. Thanks for enlighting us with the info.
I think a lot of people assume that just because you have a website then you can add what you want to it with regards to outside sources.
I also have heard people get rejected by Affiliate Programs – and Adsense as you mentioned, but I think a lot of the time this can happen through being impatient.
There are things to consider when registering for these programs. Content on your site is important, means of contacting you, does your site have traffic?
In my opinion, rushing in can cause you to be rejected, thus leading you to throw in the towel.
I think you provide some excellent information here, and before people start rushing out to monetize their site, they should read information such as yours here.
A little more knowledge to make sure things are right will stand you in a better position for being accepted!
Thanks
Chris
This is what I needed to read today because I was turned down by an affiliate through CJ earlier today. I didn’t let it bother me because I am still promoting their product through Amazon Associates but it did have me asking questions to myself of why.
After reading your article it made sense as to why because my website is new and doesn’t have much traffic at this time.
I do have a question for you. Can I reapply with that company after I get more visitors and my website has been online longer?
Chad
I think so Chad, it wouldn’t make sense for affiliates who get disapproved to forever be “banned” from doing it again, it would hurt CJ in the long run.
Hi Vitaliy
I have personally applied for the all those affiliate programs and I was approved without experiencing any problems.
My site at this time wasn’t even getting ranked in google, and it was an amazon associates account.
What could have caused them to highly regard my site even though it was not ranking?
I like ClickBank, because it’s like an open source affiliate network, it never disqualifies any of their affiliate, neither does it disapprove any affiliates.
I never experienced this problem, but great info, should I run into a similar problem…I’ll know what to do!
-COOL 😉
To be honest, I don’t know Khanya. I have also been approved on every program I’ve signed up with, and in some cases, I never even provided an active site.
Nice read, I used to have a blog and I believe the traffic wasn’t really that great. I tried to applied google ad sense in hopes that as the site goes my traffic will grow and I can earn some money from Adsense. However I kept on getting rejected by them and I had no idea why.
Your article gave me new insights and I realize I need to establish something of quality to able to earn some income. Thanks for the article. Keep on writing and all the best!
I actually didn’t know that affiliate programs rejected people! You are definitely right, some affiliate programs want to see that you have some base like a website off of which to promote them, otherwise its a risk for them.
If you are an actual user of the product though, is it still possible to get rejected from an affiliate program?
Thanks for the insightful article 🙂
I actually think if you purchased the product, that, this for some affiliate programs is already the only thing you need to prove. MLM programs do this when they force people to buy their business packages and while I don’t agree with that, certainly buying the product can help make your case that you’d like to promote it.
Your post on affiliate programs was refreshing to read. I applied to so many and felt frustrated that no one responded to my application.
You make very good points and I will be following some of your tips on how to increase traffic. I thought was doing all the right things but obviously not. I think to be successful one has to follow those who are and duplicate it
Hi Vitaliy. Great article you have here. But I would suggest for those starting out to understand that Amazon ( and also Ebay if I renter correctly) will deactivate any accounts without any sale for the first 6 months.
Speaking from experience when I first started out, I changed my niche a couple of times and didn’t make any sale until the fifth month.
So for any of your starting out and reading this, please take more time to think about your niche and things you want to market. Once you get a feasible plan, then apply for the associate program. Cheers:)
Great point Isaac! When I registered with Amazon Associates, I don’t recall them having that 6 month rule, but now that it appears to be the case, people should definitely develop their site first to make it more traffic friendly, and thus more sales friendly when they register.
Hi, thank you for your article. I can definitely agree with you that reapplying after getting more content into your website will help. I was rejected by Google before and later found out that they look for a site with content and also at least the Privacy Policy and About Me pages.
One thing i would like to know though, is whether Amazon or Google will cancel your affiliate membership if you don’t send enough traffic their way?
Appreciate if you can share your thoughts with me on this…
I have heard that Amazon Associates has a 6 month “trial” period where you need to make a sale, although when I signed up with them, I didn’t make sales for the company for a long time and my account has always been active.
As for Google (Adsense), no I don’t think so, once an account is approved, you should be fine to send traffic there and/or if you take a break, come back and re-send traffic again.
I find that a lot of people get turned down by affiliate programs and Adsense is because they are too hasty.
New online developers are eager to see the money rolling in and sometimes they cut corners to try and make this happen faster.
One of the biggest problems is trying to get the thumbs up from an affiliate program when your site does not have customers.
Why would they approve you when your shop door is still closed? Get your customers first, then apply…
My thoughts anyway 🙂
Thanks
Chris
And your thoughts are totally right Chris!