For better or worse, my daily perusal of our affiliate applicants through Commission Junction often reminds me of this clip from South Park, where the boys find out who has been stealing their classmate’s underpants, and why:

Having a good business plan is important when you are an affiliate. It helps guide you to your ultimate goal, profit. Strangely, a large number of web entrepreneurs feel that the following, which I like to refer to as the Underpants Gnome Strategy, is an appropriate business plan:

Phase 1 – Build Website
Phase 2 – ?
Phase 3 – Profit

It’s not.

Phase 2 is always the tough part, and if you have no real plan for getting from phase 1 to phase 3, you’re going to struggle. “Virtual malls” tend to be a prime example of the Underpants Gnome Strategy. Thanks to Amazon and mass use of search engines no one is out there looking for a place where they can click through a thousand affiliate banner ads to find a product. Sorry, but they’re just not.

So, if you are one of the many affiliates running with an Underpants Gnome Strategy, today is the day to reset you course and figure out the all important phase 2.