Affiliate program section up BUT few signing up - WHY?

[MiamiB]

We have added an affiliate program to our site but are not getting as many new affiliates as expected. Our billing company is CCBill so that's not the problem. Could you guys check out the affiliate section of the site and give recommendations on your impressions of it...weakness, strengths, improvments, etc.

The program is for our site MiamiBoyz.com which is a site that has been online since 1999 offering exclusive Latino models.

The site url is: http://www.miamiboyz.com

And the affiliate section url is:
http://www.miamiboyz.com/revshare/index.html

Thanks for the feedback!

Lee

[basschick]

you've got a pm

[Lippi]

Hey cool! Soon you will be listed on a1gaylinks.com!

[Chilihost]

I still think you should be charging $30 membership, that would also increase the revshare 50% to $15 per month for your affiliates which would no doubt attract a lot more affiliates.

You should also look as creating FreeHostedGalleries and HostedFreeSites and get them added into the various resource sites like freehostedgalleries.com and greenguy's section. Even though these are generally money losers, a large % of webmasters use them now and will not even bother joining your affiliate program unless you have them.

One other question, how are you getting word out about your program? Are you only posting here or other boards as well? Although I am not a fan of GFY, it is the biggest board out there and becoming an active player over there and showing your sig a lot will get you a lot of affiliates.

cheers,
Luke

[Lee]

What i would suggest, and bare in mind this is just my opinion, but the affiliate page doesnt look very 'affiliate like' it seems to be full of half naked men and, in my experience at least, this really isnt going to help you attract affiliates other than those who are hobbyists running porn sites for their free porn and beer money fix.

Also, as Luke mentioned, in order to attract more affiliates, you really should consider raising your price point, even if its just on a tour that only affiliates use.

Another thing to consider is that a lot of webmasters may not even know you have an affiliate program to start with, where are you promoting your program? Ive only really seen you mention it on GWW a couple of times, most webmasters need to see a program between 10-20 times before they even consider signing up in my experience.

Based on that, a mention of your program once or twice every few months, probably isnt going to make you rich unless you happen to pick up an affiliate with a lot of latin traffic.

You might also want to put a button in your GWW signature space in addition to a couple of lines of text, again, in my experience, i have found this a great way to get additional affiliates to our programs.

Hope this helps a little

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

i mostly promote programs that charge $24.95 a month, myself.

[MiamiB]

my concern is that pricing must remain competitive within a specific sites niche. With surfers growing more savvy they DO comparison shopping and if a site is over priced when compared to similar sites what is the surfers motivation to: a) take the initial leap to pull out that credit card and join and b) to continue as a long term member (recurring sales are the key to a sites growth and longevity and therefore in the long run, for more money for the affiliate who takes the time and effort to promote that site).

Yes, a higher priced site might initially SEEM more attractive to an affiliate for promotion BUT what if they are perceived by the surfer to be over priced and thus have lower member retention? While you might make a higher initial commission where are your rebills? Do you just intend to make money in the short term (with initial sales and poor rebills) and then abondon promoting the site? Is it all about price or quality?

Perhaps I am missing something?

Thoughts?

Lee

[basschick]

all the sites i continue to promote have good retention at $24.95 - or i wouldn't promote them the 3 best retaining sites i've promoted are all over $19.95:

bfcollection - $29.99
dominanttvs.com - $29.95
myfirstsexteacher.com - $24.95

why not mirror your tour and let your webmasters choose whether they want to promote the site at $19.95 or $24.95?

[Chilihost]

try it out for a month and see if it makes a real difference in the overall bottom line, sure you will lose some cheapass bitches but I am willing to bet the loss of sales from a few members will not be as much as the gain in money from all others.

cheers,
Luke

[Huskyhunks]

I would say proceed with caution. Not all sites are created equal and shouldn't be marketed the same way. Obviously twink sites have a wide appeal and thus, members will be easier to find than niche sites like your own.

Niche sites do not have the luxury of loosing members for the sake of gaining more affluent ones. It just doesn't work that way. Keep as many members rebilling as possible. They are the ones that are gonna get you through slow times.

You are your number one affiliate and you know your members. Don't cave into pressure from webmasters who don't exhibit flexibility. As an affiliate myself of several ccbill programs, I can tell you that the memberships with $19.95 price points did several times the volume as the ones with $24.95 a month and higher. There's not alot of disposable income out there. Alot of surfers just can't afford $24.95 a month and they will pass on your site.

One more thing, I offer a 3 month pass for $34.95 and a 6 month pass for $49.95 and they sell really well. If you go that route, you can play up that larger payout on the six month just like all the other affiliate programs do.

[basschick]

Huskyhunks - niche sites retain better than something like twinks, not worse, because there are less sites the members can join to get the same content. i don't know how much content there is in your site, and that is something that can make a difference with retention. miamiboyz has a lot of content in there.

anyway, if you let the webmasters choose prices, you can sorta get an idea of what their $24.95 members do without risking your own traffic at a new price.

[Huskyhunks]

I hear what your saying basschick but there is a point where a surfer won't rebill because of cost and I think it's too risky to push a good rebiller too far with a price increase.

Higher prices do not in themselves make for higher sales volume. But you're right, in the end, only a webmaster can choose that for themselves.

[MiamiB]

Thanks for the great discussion and suggestions! I agree that pricing is very important and that the "rules" of pricing do vary depending on specific niches. You always have to consider the other sites in your niche and if you price yourself out of your specific niche's market you are not going to get rebills which as I said are the key to long term growth UNLESS you are just in it to make a ton of money in the sort term and then get out. We are in it for the long term and doing quite well having been growing steadily (albiet slowly) over the past 6 years.

Thanks again for all of the ideas...they have given us a LOT to think about!!

You guys are GREAT!!

Lee

[basschick]

we saw virtually no difference in sales OR retention when we changed from $19.95 to $24.95 on jackoffguys.

why not mirror the tour - allowing you to keep your regular price stream so you are not changing the price your regular traffic sees - and allow your webmasters to choose what they want. you could be surprised and discover - as all the people i know did - that their sales and retention was unchanged and they simply made more money.

or mirror the tour, buy 10,000 hits from google adwords for each price point, and then follow along with the members and see the difference in rebills for each price.

of course, it is possible that for sites with very little content, it could be a problem, but i've seen sites with less than 20 videos make that change without hurting anything.

I hear what your saying basschick but there is a point where a surfer won't rebill because of cost and I think it's too risky to push a good rebiller too far with a price increase.

Higher prices do not in themselves make for higher sales volume. But you're right, in the end, only a webmaster can choose that for themselves.