(potentially?) controversial topic - Sponsors vs Affiliates

[tigermom]

The reason? Because a lot of these revshare program owners think they can open a program, make a post or two on the boards, offer FHGs, free sites, banners, blogs, etc etc and affiliates will promote them, thus contributing to what we're discussing here. It has become a staple of programs to do whatever their affiliates ask of them, to the point where now, if you launch a program without FHGs, nobody is going to promote you.

The other problem these programs are going to start seeing in the next few days is that if they dont have their own stable base of webmaster traffic, even if they offer affiliates the moon on a stick, they are still going to fail, because they are competing with the other 1000 affiliate programs offering the moon on a stick, in the same pool of affiliates.

Well, we agree then And it's the sheer availablility of too many programs at this point that makes for such a hard competition between program owners. It makes them offer the moon on a stick, like you said, including increasinly high payouts too. And it's the wrong way to go, IMHO, because it attracts the wrong kind of affiliates to your program to begin with.

I have sponsors that offer little in terms of FHG's and banners, yes they offer kick-ass sites that convert and retain. Guess what? I'm promoting them more and more.

[Lee]

Well, we agree then And it's the sheer availablility of too many programs at this point that makes for such a hard competition between program owners. It makes them offer the moon on a stick, like you said, including increasinly high payouts too. And it's the wrong way to go, IMHO, because it attracts the wrong kind of affiliates to your program to begin with.

Agreed.

However, as Becky, Brian and myself mentioned earlier in this thread, without having all of those things, raised payouts, hosted whatevers, etc (including the moon on a stick) potential affiliates arent even going to look at a program because that is the mindset that we [the industry] have bred in to affiliates these days, they want high payouts, they want hosted whatevers, they want instant payouts, they want, want, want...

Unfortunately for many (affiliates and program owners) until this bar is lowered dramatically, its always going to be the same way and every month we'll see 20 more sponsors, offering all those hosted whatevers, trying to outdo the other 19 sponsors that launched the same week.

Something HAS to give, and as much as i hate to say it, its going to be the programs consolidating before the affiliates start getting lower payouts, and thats going to hurt us all.

I remember when all you were given by a sponsor was a paysite to promote, a linking code, and a banner. Guess what? Back then, sales ratios were through the roof, you could submit a free site and a tgp gallery and have made $1000+ in a weekend. Of course, we didnt have the proliferation of affiliates back then either like we do now and im positive that had a lot to do with the changes over the years.

Regards,

Lee

[CorbinFisher_BD]

without having all of those things, raised payouts, hosted whatevers, etc (including the moon on a stick) potential affiliates arent even going to look at a program because that is the mindset that we [the industry] have bred in to affiliates these days, they want high payouts, they want hosted whatevers, they want instant payouts, they want, want, want...

Precisely.

I've received some rather venomous private messages on this board in the past, even, when someone was interested in promoting us and wanted free content and I told them I could not provide them with that. Or told them I could not continue to provide them with free content because, after letting them have it for several months, I didn't see enough of a return from it.

Like we don't have a right to be very careful about how, where, or by whom our content is displayed.

We've never offered FHGs from the get go because I've always felt they risk diluting the value of a site's content. You get people running to the boards to thrash ya in a post about how you wouldn't give them free content and they're then joined by a chorus of "Goodness! Any sponsor that is not willing to do anything and everything to help affiliates doesn't deserve sales!".

"Goodness! Any sponsor that is not willing to do anything and everything to help affiliates doesn't deserve sales!" - Do a little digging and you can probably find dozens of times that statement - or a statement to that effect - has been said on this board alone.

We are not willing to do anything and everything to help 1400 affiliates get sales because, quite frankly, what they might be requesting and demanding could actually hurt us more than help us. For a select group of affiliates, however, we can offer quite a great deal because we're able to look at them and easily see any investment with that affiliate will produce great returns.

[tigermom]

I actually happen to agree with most of what you said Brian and Lee, once you were more clear on which kind of affiliates you are referring to. It's how the thread started though that made me react the way I did. It also had to do with your initial statements that made me think you were going for nothing but hard cold numbers there. I am glad to see it's not the case. I'll email you with a few more questions though

[Lee]

I actually happen to agree with most of what you said Brian and Lee, once you were more clear on which kind of affiliates you are referring to.

Sorry i thought i was clear on that, the lazy webmasters that do nothing but take from a program.

I have to admit, now you have said why you didnt understand what the issue Brian and I had with these affiliates i understand why everyone was thinking that they were part of the 95% LOL

Regards,

Lee

[Squirt]

You seem to think your affiliates are lazy and overpaid?

No, i think pretty much all affiliates are lazy and over-paid. Granted there are some exceptions to that.

You only have to look around and see what affiliates are asking for these days to realize that they have become lazy..

oh keep backpeddling Lee ha ha ha :groovy:

[Lee]

oh keep backpeddling Lee ha ha ha :groovy:

Squirt,

I dont have to back peddle, most affiliates ARE lazy and ARE overpaid, that is a fact of life.

Regards,

Lee

[Carrie]

Precisely.

I've received some rather venomous private messages on this board in the past, even, when someone was interested in promoting us and wanted free content and I told them I could not provide them with that.

Not even 5 sample assorted pics? (As you can tell, I've never been inside your webmaster area, .)
I've signed up for lots of sponsors, gotten inside of their webmaster area and found they had no content available at all (not even 5 pics). The tours were fantastic and right on-target with their niche and I would have needed some of their specific content to do it right. With no pics at all, it was either email them and wait for a response, or move on... always I just moved on. When I have the opportunity to build (ie no kids around) and a specific idea burning in my head, waiting means the project gets put onto the eternal backburner, never to return.

What's really frightening is getting into these webmaster areas and finding notes like "we're reworking all of our content to comply with 2257 and will have some up for you when that's done". Makes me think the stuff inside the member's area isn't legal, and sometimes the date on the note is over a year old so it tells me they're really not interested in getting things fixed.

But, I would advocate at least having a *few* pics to promote with; there are different promotional styles. Like when I build an SE page, I usually put a nice 200x300 sample pic and wrap lots of good text around it. My need for a few pics doesn't automatically mean I'm going to go spam the TGPs or P2P networks, . (Although I do make TGP galleries from time to time if there's enough content or I can buy my own that'll fit the site. With sites getting more and more exclusive though, buying content gets harder.)

[CorbinFisher_BD]

hehe if they'd asked for 5 sample pictures that would have been something else entirely.

With these blog sites popping up left and right, the vast majority of content requests were webmasters asking for access to the site so they could post pictures with each update. So pretty much indefinite access to content. That's a big part of why we felt we had to step in and slow things down. A lot of affiliates were wanting unlimited amounts of content, seeing as they could pretty much get unlimited amounts of content and FHGs and video clips and this and that from so many other sponsors out there.

A few times, I tried saying "OK, but if you could only take like 15 or so pics per update that'd be great" the affiliate didn't much like that idea at all, said everyone else was giving them unlimited amounts, and needed unlimited if they were going to have any

So we did want to offer our affiliates more, but had to look at ways to do that while still retaining control over content distribution and not diluting our content or flooding the web with our stuff for free.

We will be launching CorbinPays.com shortly, which will be our webmaster resource site for our new and exclusive-access program that will have content for the select affiliates we will have, including:

- banners made specifically for individual affiliates (co-branded with us and them)
- content shot specifically for individual affiliates and provided to them to share with their surfers
- other free content to use on their sites
- a wide array of banners/graphics

among other things.

I definitely think you're right, Carrie, that affiliates obviously need resources from the sponsors and that'll help em both do well with the partnership. We just couldn't see how we'd go about giving as much as possible to affiliates without giving away the farm, so to speak. Until, that is, we decided to limit the number of affiliates and go controlled-access. Then, the problem was solved hehe