Affiliate Theme is developed by the people at Unique Blog Designs (Nate Whitehill, Josh Mullineaux and Matthew Blancarte.) They are also the people behind Theme Wars, and Squeeze Theme.

The only reason I am including the links to the above sites, is to avoid confusion with other similarly named sites. There are a couple of other affiliate type themes for Word Press available on the internet.

What the Affiliate Theme is Supposed to Do

• Make building and customizing affiliate sites using Word Press easy
• 6 unique layouts
• Built in color picker
• Lifetime access to Resource Center and Support
• Optimized for PPC and SEO campaigns
• Ability to build dynamic, high converting affiliate marketing web sites using a single theme

Where the Affiliate Theme Fails

• The Affiliate Theme is buggy
• Support is not handled in a timely manner
• It is not easy and very time consuming if you have to deal with Affiliate Theme support and buggy issues
• They do not post or offer any money back guarantee with their product on their sales page
• It is over priced

My Experience with Affiliate Theme

I purchased the Affiliate Theme from Unique Blog Designs on September 29, 2009 for $124.95, but it was not until December 22, 2009 when I actually installed the theme. Major fail on my part, I admit, for not testing this sooner so my chances of getting a refund would be greater. Lesson learned

I assumed this would be  a great product and didn’t think I would have  issues since some big players in affiliate and internet marketing were singing the praises of this product, such as: John Chow, John Reese, Johnathan Volk, Yaro Starak, and Zac Johnson.

From the  first installation of Affiliate Theme I was having problems. I joined the Affiliate Theme support forum and posted my first support issue on December 23, 2009. It took 7 days for a forum moderator to reply to my post. This should have been an immediate red flag. It was suggested that I submit a support ticket and I did so on January 3, 2010 and it was January 6, 2009 before anyone attempted to check out my support issues.

By that time I had uninstalled and reinstalled Word Press and uninstalled the affiliate theme as well. I reinstalled theme, placed another post on the support forum that support was not being handled in a timely manner. That post was deleted by the forum moderators.

On January 26, 2010 I was finally contacted by support about the issues I was having and on January 28, 2010 was advised the problem was corrected and the thread I had posted on the forum was closed.

On January 29, 2010 I emailed Nate Whitehill back that I was still having issues and the problem was not resolved. As of today I have not received a reply. *See update below*

On February 5, 2010 I sent a tweet to Nate Whitehill, a post on the forum, a support ticket and a screen shot of the formatting issues. The forum moderators have now set my comments up where that do not post immediately and have to be approved.

February 7, 2010 I removed the Affiliate Theme from my web site because I cannot afford to waste any more time on this theme. Time is money

I purchased this theme (developers option) because I owned several domains and I wanted to build affiliate sites using this theme. So far I have yet to build one site much less multiple sites.

I have been dealing with buggy issues with this theme since December 23, 2010 and as of February 7, 2010 it is still not working correctly.

Update

February 8, 2010 I was sent the following tweet from Nate Whitehill:

“Sorry for the delay – will have a response for you tonight.”

February 9, 2010 I received an email:

Hi Renee,

I understand by your tweet you are no longer using Affiliate Theme. I would be happy to give you a refund if that is the case. Let me know.

Thanks,

Nate

February 9, 2010: I sent an email to Nate that I would like a refund since I was unable to use this Wordpress Theme.

I received the following email from Nate Whitehill tonight at 7:08 PM:

Hi Renee,

Not a problem. I am sorry you had trouble using Affiliate Theme. We are almost finished with version 2.0 of the software which adds a lot of great new features and makes integrating affiliate offers even easier.

I just sent you the refund.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks,

Nate Whitehill | Co-Founder | Unique Blog Designs, LLC

I am happy to report I have checked my PayPal account and I do have a refund

My Issues With the Affiliate Theme

• Control panel was not showing up correctly as shown in their video tutorial (corrected)
• At first offers were not appearing on the main page like they were supposed to (corrected)
• The header and sub title are linked to the conversion URL instead of the post as checked on the settings (corrected)
• Categories were not displaying correctly and the page was scrambled mess and not readable (semi-corrected) Appears correctly sometimes and other times the sidebar and the link post title is scrambled and not readable.
• Control panel showing version 1.2 when I was using version 1.3 (corrected)
• If visitors can not read the page, I’m not going to be able to sell affiliate products
• Shady practice of deleting negative comments and issues on the support forum
• This theme has not been completely developed and is not stable enough to use on multiple sites
• In viewing the Support Forum post of other users, on some occasions it is 1-2 weeks before a post is answered by a moderator

While searching the web for Affiliate Theme reviews I stumbled across a review of Unique Blog Designs Squeeze Theme. This is an excellent in depth and honest review.

Had the Affiliate Theme lived up to my expectations, I would have purchased the Squeeze Theme and joined their affiliate program for both themes. I cannot in all honesty recommend nor promote their products via affiliate links.

Related posts:

1. My First Blog Entry
2. Still Working on Blog Design and Content
3. What is Affiliate Marketing? – The Brief Definition

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No, I’m not there yet, but I’m on my way….just be quiet and let me drive!

Today I stumbled across a blog by Andy Hagans, Tropical SEO, and I loved his post on The Dream.

I don’t personally know Andy Hagans, so I did what any internet savvy person would do I Googled him…’cause I was curious if we were near the same age. Well long story short he’s probably a few years younger than I am.

No doubt age is probably a factor in one’s goals. In my younger days I would probably have wanted the jag (I’m a sucker for nice wheels – it could end up on the list) and a 3,000 square foot house. I realize not everyone shares the same dream as an internet or affiliate marketer and I’m quite sure my dreams in my thirties were different from my dreams now.

My dreams contain some of the elements Andy pointed out in his post. So I thought I would share some of my dreams and what I envisioned as my ultimate “wealthy affiliate lifestyle”.

1. Life on a tropical island or houseboat – where I could wear shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops year round
2. A pimped out ride – actually I do LOVE my 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS, it just needs some TLC
3. Passive income – so I could work less and play more
4. Work for myself
5. Be debt free – pay for everything with cash
6. Contribute something to society – either with monetary donations or my time (volunteer work)
7. Sleep late every day – of course I would have plenty of extra money to buy cool pajamas, a pair for every day of the month!

I probably could have written more on what I didn’t want, but why focus on the negative? Bottom line is I’m striving for simplicity and self sufficiency.

What are your dreams?

Related posts:

1. What is Affiliate Marketing? – The Brief Definition
2. Affiliate Marketing Might Not Be For You, If

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Affiliate marketing is an internet-based marketing practice in which a business (Affiliate or Associates Program) rewards affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

Simple explanation – Affiliate Marketing is commission based selling on the internet.

Commissions are based on the purchase price of the product offered (Pay per Sale), a set value based on clicks generated (Pay per Click), or by actions such as new user registrations or downloaded products (Pay per Lead).

Merchants benefit from partnering with affiliates because it is an inexpensive way to increase their sales, generate leads, drive traffic to their sites, and promote their products.

Affiliates benefit because these programs are free to join and it’s a inexpensive way to start an internet or home-based business.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Programs – The Signup Process
2. Affiliate Marketing Might Not Be For You, If
3. About

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.