SFI Affiliate Program: Did Upgrading Pay Off?
By Matt Jones on Aug 3, 2007 in Blog Money
Affiliate Programs are a fantastic way to monetize a blog. On My old blog I wrote extensively about the SFI affiliate program and acquired a fair number of referrals. I decided to upgrade to EA (executive affiliate) status to set an example to my referrals. It cost me $30 to upgrade. As an EA I was guaranteed earnings from the ‘executive bonus’ but did not know whether it would pay off over all.
Achievements
- I had a number of referrals upgrade to EA status, which contributed to the executive bonus, which ended up being $10.
- I also made a single sale, earning $15 despite not actively promoting any SFI products. I simply threw in an affiliate link during 1 blog post and it paid off handsomely.
- Total earnings were $25, so an overall loss of $5.
While this is a small loss I consider it a very successful experiment. SFI were deliberately unclear about how much would be earned from the executive bonus, and as I suspected, it is an amount worth taking into account but doesn’t overtake the cost to upgrade. If it did SFI would not be a viable business.
Conclusion:
I decided not to upgrade to EA status again this month (you have to do it each month) because I’m busy with other projects. However, it will be interesting to see if the referrals I made previously pay off or make a profit with out me doing anything. They would only have to generate about $5 this month to break even which shouldn’t be too hard for over 50 referrals.
If they do make a reasonable amount of money all by themselves I will start promoting SFI again, as it would have proved itself to be a great affiliate program. It will also be much easier to make referrals in the future because I will have this whole experience giving me valuable information about the earnings potential of becoming an SFI EA affiliate.
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[…] See original here: Matt Jones […]
It’s too bad they just don’t say that stuff up front - I mean, they may be good and such, but if I knew exactly how much I could make up front, then I could decide what would be good for me with all the information. Instead, signing up with them, I’ve wasted my time and their time - because they didn’t make any money off of me. That’s what I dislike most about these MLM type of affiliate programs - they just don’t disclose all the information upfront (one program did, but they turned out to be a scam after all - - adraker, I’m still smarting from that…grrrrr….those bastards.) Guess you can’t have it all.
You know, Matt, with all your experience in affiliate programs and such, you should start one that actually has all of the good qualities from above. I bet it would successful since it would have a solid basis for its foundation - instead of just trying to scam money off people.
Let me know if you do, I’ll join for sure.
I wish they were more open too. I like the idea of starting my own affiliate program… I just need my own product to sell!
LOL I think this is one of the very first affiliate programs I tried years ago. I had no idea they were still around!
Yes they seem to be going strong. How much did you make with them?
Hi Matt, I’ve been with SFI for almost three years now and have seen a lot of growth with them. At first I held off but after a couple of months I decided to go EA and it has been pretty decent.
I don’t make a lot with them but I do get a fairly decent check from them each month now.
I believe you have to constantly keep growing your business to see any decnt returns.
I never make anything..I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong…I spend the time, I don’t spend the money..All I want is to make a little bit so I can parlet it into paid advertising and get a pretty decent second Income..I’m not looking to get rich just get by…I feel like SFI and everyone else just lies