Why affiliates go quiet, and what to do about each kind

Name the stage first

"Inactive" hides three different problems. Before you write to anybody, sort your quiet partners by where they stopped:

Stage	What it looks like	What it usually needs
Never shared	Signed up, no clicks at all	Their link and code in hand, and one place to use them
Clicks, no sales	Visitors arrive and don't buy	A look at where the clicks land, and a code for buyers who come back later
Sold, then stopped	Earlier sales, nothing lately	A personal note, a check that they were paid, and perhaps a better rate

They never shared their link

Most often they joined meaning to, and the moment passed. Send their link and their code directly, in the first days, with one concrete suggestion: a post, a page, a newsletter issue. If two weeks pass with no click, ask once, plainly, whether they still want to take part.

They send clicks that don't buy

Look at the page their clicks land on. A link to your home page often loses people that a link to the right product would keep. Their audience may also buy later, on another device, so make sure their code works at your checkout: a code credits the sale even when there was no click at all.

They sold, then stopped

This is the partner most worth a personal message. Check first that they were paid, and that their payout details work: a missed payout is a quiet reason to stop. If they were among your best, ask what would bring them back, and consider a higher rate.

Measure time between stages with the median

When you track how long partners take from sign-up to first click to first sale, use the median, not the average. One partner who took a year makes the average useless, and the median tells you what is normal for your program.

Make it a weekly habit

A short list of the partners who need you this week, with the reason for each, does more than a monthly report nobody acts on. Keep it short enough to finish.