I just got an email today that confirmed some suspicions I had after receiving emails from a few affiliates and merchants who were reporting login issues. After 2 years of making a go at running one of the first Christian focused affiliate/CPA networks in the industry, John and Jack decided to call it quits (at least temporarily) last week.

The email from John indicated that all affiliates owed $10 or more in commissions would have a check coming their way by May 31st 2008 to close out the books. He also indicated that the hope at USN would be to resume operations if enough well converting Faith and Family friendly offers were identified.

I’m sad to see this happen within 1 month of Manna Marketing also going under. John and Jack are great guys, were excellent to work for (even though things didn’t work out) and were inspirations to me in my faith walk.

Christian merchants will now need to look to the secular platforms for their affiliate programs or to self hosted software applications. My recommendations for affiliate networks of choice are Shareasale for the budget conscious merchant, or AvantLink for the really serious Christian retail merchant who is looking for advanced datafeed handling and merchandising features.

I know there is a pretty serious concentration of Christian affiliates at Shareasale that are working with IBS Direct and Faithwear as well as SinglesofFaith, and I would love to see a good core of Christian affiliates at AvantLink as well.

Any existing USN affiliates or merchants with questions should contact John Porricolo at jjp [ at ] unitedsharingnetwork.com

I am also looking into another promising affiliate/ecommerce system targeted at the faith-based market, but I have some tire kicking to do before I recommend it.

Good luck and Godspeed to John and Jack in whatever venture they decide to attack next.