LFGSS in numbers

Some companies exited affiliates altogether:

i.e. Rapha, and British Cycling (BC do partnerships with companies like Evans, but few to no affiliates with forums, etc)

Some companies revised their agreements:

i.e. eBay pay far less on bids, have a far shorter cookie which means unless someone bids immediately we aren't credited with it, and they also reduced the % paid out

Some companies geo-fenced their payments:

i.e. As a UK Amazon account I no longer get the US Amazon referrals

Some companies just reduced their payments:

i.e. Wiggle and Chain Reaction merged and normalised their payments to the lowest % either was using.

Some companies added delays to handle returned items:

i.e. If you earn a referral, you have to wait 30-60 days for it to be confirmed, I don't believe as many people return items as transactions later are not confirmed but as a publisher have no power to dispute this.

Some users use browser add-ons:

i.e. cashback extensions that hijack the cookies so we are never even acknowledged as the referrer

Some users use cashback codes:

i.e. agreements state that if such codes are used the payments are lower or non-existant

In essence: From almost every angle, the affiliate revenue has been sliced down to the bone.

There is still revenue, but like when eBay did their change and that caused the biggest collapse in revenue, now everyone else has done changes at much the same time and that's wiped out the lion's share of the rest.

What remains isn't a reliable source of revenue, nor predictable. It can still be a couple of hundred £ in a month, but then will sometimes surprise me by being £30 (and the finances fall short that month) and then a couple of months later spike to closer to £500 (and then I leave the money in PayPal and it irons out any drops in the following months).

The unpredictability is really the issue. Our costs are stable, the donations are fairly stable (gently declining due to me not really pushing it and reminding people, but made up by a few exceptional one-offs each month in the £50 ballpark).

Stability is ultimately the goal on revenue, to be comfortable not thinking about it, not chasing it, it just ticking over peacefully and letting us all get on with stuff.