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Earlier this month I looked at the problem that always seems to raise its ugly head about this time of year ... falling sales. Unfortunately this year seems to be worse than anything we've seen before with some affiliates suggesting that their sales dropped by up to 50% over the Memorial Day long weekend.

Just to make things even harder for some has been an increase in traffic and a drop in sales. Some affiliates have even been able to see how many potential sales have been rejected by the billing companies and that's lead a few to wonder if the scrub rate hasn't been increased due to something happening behind the scenes.

Despite the fact that some very experienced affiliate marketers are now suggesting that there needs to be more transparency on the part of the billing companies I doubt that's ever going to happen. All the billing companies have always been careful not to reveal too much about what goes on behind the scenes and they're in a position where they can go right on doing that.

For sponsors and affiliates the billing companies really are the only game in town so why should they become more transparent? They really have no competition so there's no reason to give in to requests and demands from relatively weak affiliates. Affiliates can make as much noise as they like; as long as the billing companies keep the sponsors happy the noise from the affiliates is of absolutely no account at all.

So now that you realize that, as an affiliate, you're basically powerless what can you do when sales figures go down the toilet?

Well now is the time to not give up. Yes, I know that things can seem pretty hopeless when sales aren't happening and the checks from sponsors have stopped coming but now is not the time to give up.

It's also not the time to panic. As I said earlier this month, don't run around in ever decreasing circles when you see just how bad your sales have been. Instead now is the time to look at what you're selling and how you're selling it and think about some alternatives.

If you've been selling general niches like teens, mature, Milf, big boobs and BBW then perhaps it's time to look a little deeper into those general niches for some more focused niches. Even look beyond what you've been selling and perhaps try something different ... but be sure to go deeper than just the general niche.

For example, if you've been selling your surfers on big boob sites then perhaps try big boob lactating sites (lets face it, if you've got milk then you've usually got big tits anyway so just about any girl is going to fit into a big boob lactating site). If you've been selling the Milf niche then look at Milfs who like to fuck in the office. If you've been selling the mature niche then think about mature babes who are getting their first anal experience. Look beyond the surface, go deep and find things that your surfers really want to see.

At times like these, when surfers are reluctant to spend a lot of money then perhaps going the opposite way from deep niches might be worth trying too. Look around for sponsors who are offering all their sites for the price of just one and sell your surfers hard on the advantages of a site that gives them more porn than they could possibly handle in their lifetime all for just $4.95.

Now just then I might have said something that hopefully made you wonder. Putting the hard sell on surfers when you only use banners can be rather tough. Of course, if you don't only use banners and do craft your own sales text you'll know how to sell hard but if all you're using are sponsor banners then you're going to be in trouble.

So for those of you who only use banners now is the time to go out and learn how to write solid, effective sales text. If things like banners worked here in online adult you would never see a poor affiliate. If banners, or their equivalent, worked in mainstream bricks and mortar you would never see a car salesman when you went to buy a car. But of course banners don't do much to make sales these days and they haven't for quite some time. They certainly don't work over in mainstream either.

So instead of relying only on banners learn how to write good sales text and you will have a better chance of making sales than those who stick with flashing arrows and banners that every surfer has seen a dozen times over.

There are just a few hints on what you can do to improve your sales in this dry period. While there are plenty of people who are saying that the dry period will go away and sales will rebound I'm not so optimistic. I think we're going to see sales remaining flat for quite some time to come so start looking at effective ways to improve your sales instead of trying to work with your fingers crossed and hope for the good times to return.