The importance of refactoring is well documented in the programming world. But I haven’t seen it mentioned in an affiliate marketing context.
So what is refactoring?
Basically 
starting again from scratch. So instead adding variations to your banners or landing pages, start again and use everything you’ve learned to produce a better campaign.
If you have a campaign that is over a year old and still making money then you are sitting on a cash cow. It makes a good ROI but you shouldn’t be complacent. What is the harm in putting a bit of extra work in and rewriting everything that is needed to produce the campaign. Think of it as a brainstorming exercise. As you rewrite the code or redesign those banners you will naturally come up with better ideas than what you had a year ago. You should have been split testing variations and learned from previous mistakes and wins. That knowledge should in theory be able to enable you to redesign your campaign and get improved ROI.
Ideas for refactoring:-
- Landing pages – recode them from scratch, redesign logos. Give it a complete overhaul
- Banners – Come up with a completely new idea/design that hasn’t been tested before.
- Review Ins/Outs – Retest traffic sources and affiliate offers.
Each should be tested against the original separately of course. Perhaps you got it right first time but the chances are your new campaign will perform better than the year old campaign and then you can start the process of split testing individual components again till next year.
