How often do you validate your affiliate links?

As we all know, just like other links, affiliate links can go bad. So it makes sense to audit them periodically to verify they all still work properly.

For this week's poll I ask how frequently you validate your affiliate links.

Besides voting in the poll, please share the process you use to check links, and whether you use any tools to help. And also share what your experience is with links that stop working and what actions do you typically have to take.

For the affiliate sites I'm involved with, we run a weekly report that checks every affiliate link to determine if it works property. For example, on the most recent report, there was an affiliate link that produced a 404 error and another that produced a dns name lookup error to investigate and resolve. We've found that sometimes this is because links have changed and need to be updated for a program we want to continue working with. And sometimes it is because an affiliate program has ceased operating.

Michael

I've said monthly but that may be being a little generous.

I run a broken links checker every now and then which tends to pick most of them up as and when they occur. The most obvious sign though is if clicks/FTDs suddenly dry up on a given program or product so that tends to spark further investigation.

Not often enough. Will generate reports to ping links and update however this can be a huge task. I am now always checking links for programs I am actively working with or updating. I will only use links that appear in our accounts and no longer simply copy/paste links sent to me, I have found too many errors.