I have had success using Tumblr too, but you really need to treat it as it is supposed to be treated. It is not the kind of place where you can just whack up affiliate posts and expect to get away with it.

Use it to drive traffic to your own blogs. Make the sales from them, not from Tumblr itself. You can get a plug-in for WP that adds a share button to the post images allowing visitors to share the pic on Tumblr too, that can draw in a lot of traffic when the right person with a lot of followers picks it up.

I have been saying it for a long time but I am gonna say it again, affiliates need to get back to BLOGGING, rather than just SELLING. That is the secret to building a good following, whether you are doing it on Tumblr or your own WP blog.

Too many affiliates are what I call “drive-by”. It is like yelling your sales pitch from a passing car. Stop, talk, persuade, convince and sell.

Retailers know that it is MUCH easier to sell to people who are engaged with you and your site/business than it is to try to sell to passing visitors.