Affiliate Programs... Invite Only?

[DEVELISH]

Hey y'all

i heared the rumors of the long gone days of about 2000/2002 where there were sponsor programs one had to pay to promote the site.

Now in the days where virtually anybody can market a site and where you see one site at almost every corner of the internet, "your" content on virtually every TGP out there, freesites blowing away vast amounts of the same recycled stuff... would it be wise to turn back time a little bit?

Would it be wise to build an affiliate program which is invite only, where the Sponsor itself goes out to webmasters telling them "hey, this is my site, I will only accept X affiliates for that, I will bend backwards for you".
An affiliate program where webmasters apply to promote the site, show proof that they have the traffic (quality traffic: what good would bear-traffic do for twinks and vice versa?). "proof" would have to be defined, though and can vary...

What'cha thinkin? Would you want to promote such a site? What must the site be like in order for you to promote the program?

DEVELISH

[Lee]

Why?

When Condom Cash was in beta i invited a few people to join the program to help me test it out before its full launch in October last year, of the 20 or so people that joined up to help with beta testing, very few of them had productive traffic, if they sent traffic at all.

You have to remember, if you run an invite only program, you dont want traffic, traffic itself is useless, you want sales, thats what pays the bills.

If you only invite the people you know (or think you know) that have traffic, the chances are, you are losing out on a lot of sales its best to have a public program where affiliates can choose to promote you based on what they know they can send you traffic and sales wise for your sites niches.

I have potential affiliates contacting me on an almost daily basis telling me they can send millions of hits to my sites in a month and they dont seem to understand that it isnt about how much traffic they can send but, how many sales they send.

Traffic doesnt pay the bills... Sales do.

Regards,

Lee

[maxpower]

See this is where I disagree with Lee, its the job of the program to convert the traffic not the other way around. If you are sending gay traffic in that niche as a promoter you are doing your job, the program should convert it or I would find a program that will. If you have to send the traffic and make the sales what do you need the program for at all? :penny:

[Lee]

See this is where I disagree with Lee, its the job of the program to convert the traffic not the other way around. If you are sending gay traffic in that niche as a promoter you are doing your job, the program should convert it or I would find a program that will. If you have to send the traffic and make the sales what do you need the program for at all? :penny:

Cool,

When does your paysite launch?

Please do let me know and ill be sure to send you thousands of hits from 404 pages.

Im looking forward to making millions from your site when it launches.

Regards,

Lee

[Squirt]

[marcjacob]

I wouldnt do invite only unless, like lee says, your testing the system. You dont really want to turn down affiliates unless there dody as you dont know if they will send sales or not.

I dont run an affiliate program so i can only guess but as a guess id say its probably about getting as many affiliates as you can too join, knowing that some will send sales but many will either send nothing or just waste bandwidth.

[Paco]

Hmm, the intention is somewhat unbeknownst to me, but for some reason, I suddenly feel I have to relieve myself.

[maxpower]

Cool,

When does your paysite launch?

Please do let me know and ill be sure to send you thousands of hits from 404 pages.

Im looking forward to making millions from your site when it launches.

Regards,

Lee

I did say “If you are sending gay traffic in that niche” not sure I would call 404 that. I am sure their are exceptions for every thing but its not the job of the promoter to convert the traffic. That is the programs job if you ask me.

BTW I will start testing on my new members site at the start on next month, but it might be 2-3 months before I offer it to affiliates. I want to prefect its conversion ration before I allow more than just a few to use it. I am sure in the future when I have many more sites to promote I will not do all this, and offer it to them as soon as its open, but right now it is VERY important that this site converts the best it possibly can.

[Squirt]

Hmm, the intention is somewhat unbeknownst to me, but for some reason, I suddenly feel I have to relieve myself.

It symbolizes a pissing contest :high:

[Paco]

When does your paysite launch?
Please do let me know and ill be sure to send you thousands of hits from 404 pages.
Im looking forward to making millions from your site when it launches.

DAMN YOU!
I just bump my head, 'cause I was ROTFLMAO (it's quite the booty, so it took sometime)! Now I am going to have to scour the building, looking for my lumps, my lovely olive lumps <-- go on ... sing it like you mean it!

Actually, it's okay, I forgive you, Lee - the bump is well worth the extra years that I've gained from the amount you made me laugh.
[still wiping away the tears]

[gaystoryman]

Not sure I agree Lee. I think an invite only is a way for the sponsor to work better with the few to make the sales than to just open the door and let all the flies inside. A nice screen door helps keep them at bay and given too that it appears the prudes are going ot go after affiliates, gives the sponsor more control.

Yes the sponsor has the obligation of closing the sale, though its the affiliate who makes the contact and gets the customer inside. So for me, I'd rather have 10 or 20 good salesmen than every Tom Dick & Max running around stealing content, scamming people with unwanted emails and just generally giving my site a shit name.

But affiliates are also responsible for some of the things that frustrate Internet users. Because competition is fierce and affiliates get paid only when they get a user to click through to a porn site, affiliates often use aggressive tactics. Some have been behind massive spam campaigns, while others design Web sites that "trap" visitors with a never-ending stream of popup windows. Many porn sellers have policies officially prohibiting things like spamming, though enforcement is difficult. (source)

When everyone has access to the same product, its market viability suffers which reflects in lower individual sales. I would think that if you had 100 affiliates who each sent you 1 sale you would be happy but if you had 10 who each sent you 11 sales, it would not only be more economic, but easier too. You have 10 to work with instead of 100 so can better promote your work and concentrate on doing the closing.

It also costs you less. Less cheques to sent out, less stats to keep track of, I mean the list is endless. Sure shit traffic won't mean crap, but if you have 10 qualified sellers, the traffic they send isn't going to be 404 traffic, but eager buyers.. making the sponsor job a lot easier to convert.

my 2 cents :coffee:

[Lee]

Not sure I agree Lee. I think an invite only is a way for the sponsor to work better with the few to make the sales than to just open the door and let all the flies inside.

To a point i would say that is true but, what happens when you have exhausted your list of people to invite in to the program?

What happens if the people you have invited, dont make as many sales as you initially thought they would?

Pop quiz time...

Id also like to mention a sponsor that launched, a couple of years ago, it was invite only, does anyone here know its name or, what sites it ran or, how long after it launched did it close down?

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

What happens if the people you have invited, dont make as many sales as you initially thought they would?

You can be a hard ass and turf them and if you exhaust the supply, you find a new source... if you never make new friends or associates your business is gonna die, but it doesn't just rest with them, but with you too. If you don't experiment with new ideas and new techniques, your affiliates won't generate the sales. Then too if they don't generate the sales, what is the cause? Them or your product?

Too often we look at others and point the blame finger, when we should maybe look at our own product first...

Thing is, with 10 qualified sellers, it is easier to work with them to find those problems and then correct them. With a 100 you might never even know there is a problem... and you are actually missing out on way more sales than if you had fewer sellers.

added nickle's worth.. :coffee:

[maxpower]

I am all for letting anyone with-in reason promote a site, and would only hold back a site to prefect it and maybe to let a few webmasters get a jump on the rest. After all the first 3 months are the best for most sites, but I would not hold it back at all for more than just a few months if that.

All this said it is the reasonability of the program to convert good/normal traffic to sales, that’s about the most important job of any site. :thumbsup:

[Lee]

Thing is, with 10 qualified sellers, it is easier to work with them to find those problems and then correct them. With a 100 you might never even know there is a problem... and you are actually missing out on way more sales than if you had fewer sellers.

That is true also however, with 10 qualified sellers, you stand a much bigger chance of losing all of them to a newer program than you would 100 affiliates.

For example, lets say you have 10 affiliates making you 100 sales a month, and you are paying them, for arguments sake, $50 per signup.

Now i come along, and offer those 10 affiliates making you 100 sales a month $60 per signup, do you think they are going to still promote your sites or, my sites that convert the same where they earn and additional $10 per sale?

Lets be honest, 99% of affiliates in the industry today are after the quick money and will switch without giving it a second thought sure, they will switch back if you offer then $70 PPS but then, they'll switch again when they get a better deal.

Also, its going to be MUCH easier for me to actively approach your 10 affiliates and get them to switch than it is for me to actively approach all 100 of your affiliates and get them to switch.

As with anything in the industry, its a numbers game, probability and chance play a much higher role in the adult industry where affiliates are concerned than anywhere else.

Regards,

Lee