Spring cleaning isn’t just for basements, closets, or garages.

Even if you’re new to affiliate marketing, you’ve probably already discovered just how quickly the details can get out of hand. Which means it’s timefor Spring cleaning!  Now if this all sounds like a lot of work, remember that dealing with a backlog of disorganization is the toughest part.

So here’s our checklist for “Spring cleaning” your affiliate business, along with suggestions for making your life easier at every stage.

#1 – Get Organized!

Even if your desk is neat and your surroundings spotless, what about your affiliate IDs, passwords, to-do lists, email folders, ads and campaigns, address book, site blueprints, article submissions, bookmarks, spreadsheets, and computer files? We thought so.

If the idea of slogging through all those old files to collect information sounds like a horrible chore, it’s time to look at project management tools. Programs such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Outlook and Excel can help you gather all those loose ends into tidy little files that will be your central base. You can create individual spreadsheets for listing IDs and passwords, tracking progress on site development, managing link partners, tracking ad campaigns and recording article submissions. And you can use Outlook to make to-do lists and organize your schedule.

It takes about five to seven days of organizing to get the clutter under control, and to start making your “organized business lifestyle” into a habit.
#2 – Get Rid of, or Monetize, Unproductive Domains

Are you a domain collector? You know, somebody who owns dozens, even hundreds of domain names that you just can’t seem to get around to using? That’s okay. Use this Spring cleaning project to go through your domains and put them to some kind of use.

If you’ve got domains you simply don’t want, put them up for sale at an easy-to-use brokerage like Sedo.com. Redirect the ones that are worth developing someday to one of your existing sites, or even to an affiliate link. Or sign up for a service like Kanoodle’s DomainSponsor, where you can park your domains and get directory content and ads placed on your site for free. You can also sell them at a “garage sale” (See item #10 in Part 2 of this blog).

#3 – Review Your Product Offerings and Merchants

Let’s face it, not every product or merchant is a winner. Some products go out of date quickly, like many Internet marketing ebooks and courses. And with the growth of affiliate marketing, new merchants are popping up all the time. Some of them might offer higher commissions, lower minimum payouts, and better affiliate support than your current programs.

So spend some time this Spring taking a long, hard look at your product offerings. Find the new merchants in your niche, and research their affiliate programs. In fact, this isn’t a bad time to look for additional, complementary products, as well as resale and reprint rights that could enhance your product mix.

#4 – Analyze ROI

You hear it over and over again: the most successful online marketers test everything and track everything. So why aren’t you? Products like Hypertracker are cheap, easy to set up, and do most of the hard work of calculating ROI for you.

If you need motivation, simply ask yourself whether you’d like to sell twice as much as you do right now. In so many cases, it’s drop dead easy to achieve that kind of growth – simply by knowing which links, keywords, and ads are bringing in the most sales.

#5 – Update “Aging” Sites

Why? Because relevance has a lot to do with timeliness – and a recently updated site appears more up-to-date than a page built at the turn of the millenium.

So make a plan for adding or changing a few things to any sites that you haven’t updated in a few months. Sometimes it’s as easy as adding an RSS feed, throwing in some really good articles, modifying your colors or layouts a little bit, or adding a few pages with new products.

Please look for the remaining items on our Spring cleaning checklist in part two of this blog post tomorrow!