We expect this number to be reduced significantly, through attrition. We have concluded that quality is more important than quantity. We are hopeful that our relationship with our affiliates will evolve into one where the Net Detective affiliate membership is seen as having inherent long-term value. Our plan is to ultimately allow our affiliates to build up their business and then sell it to other qualified people, should they wish to do so. Our model for this is the basic automobile franchise arrangement.
Many details remain to be worked out, but that is our goal.
Perhaps in the not too distant future you will see an ad on eBay offering a Net Detective affiliate membership for sale by the owners, with price based on revenues. I'm guessing that the server-side product will be number three. Congrats to Net Detective. Jim Reardon, who does very well with the WebSponsors program, has created a new free program called WebSponsors.pl which scans your website files and searches for expired WebSponsors links. Jim says WebSponsors has about 500 offers, and about 300 which have expired - a hassle to keep track of, especially since they don't typically tell you when they expire.