Who should be grateful? Programs or webmasters?

[chadknowslaw]

Should Program owners treat webmasters as if the webmasters are responsible for putting food on their table??

OR

Should webmasters treat program owners as if it was the program owners who put food on the webmasters' table??


Will program owners continue to move away from the affiliate model and focus on paid advertising? Many program owners are going in this direction as they feel the Return on Investment is better using paid advertising, traffic buys, and Search Engine Optimization. The cost of recruiting an affiliate, who might send some traffic that might result in a join that might rebill and then paying that affiliate 50% or 60% of the sale and then paying to maintain that affiliate and keep them happy is becoming harder and harder to justify.

What do programs do to recruit and retain good affiliates?

What do affiliates do that makes their value added greater than their cost?

[gaystoryman]

I think it depends a lot on the just who the affiliate is. I mean without the sponsor there wouldn't be affiliates, but it is sort of the 'chicken or egg' quandary.

I think sponsors should be more 'selective' in who promotes their sites, and affiliates need to also be more selective, to choose programs they can effectively promote, spend time working with.

I think that tools for marketing need revamping, so that not everyone and their dog has the same selling tools. It waters down the sponsor site, though some argue it brands them. I think what some sponsors are doing, being more selective in their affiliate base, dropping the one or two selling affiliates (like me for example) makes better sense.

A good affiliate, who pushes the site properly, well, is worth a lot more than some paid ads in trade journals or skin mags.

just my 2 cents :morning:

[basschick]

affiliates and programs should respect and appreciate each other since a program is useless without affiliates and affiliates certainly couldn't make a living without programs. we're all part of a give and take system, but unfortunately some people feel that they aren't part of that system.

[Oogleman]

It used to be one cant exist without the other,

Today sponsors can generate a load of their traffic from other sources but theres always whales floating around that can be hooked so they need to keep accepting new affiliates.

Traffic is the real king - bow down to it!

[basschick]

while sponsors can generate their own traffic, if that was all the traffic they wanted, they wouldn't have started affiliate programs.

[BananaMan]

Should Program owners treat webmasters as if the webmasters are responsible for putting food on their table??

OR

Should webmasters treat program owners as if it was the program owners who put food on the webmasters' table??
What do affiliates do that makes their value added greater than their cost?

I would say that it is a reciprocal relationship benefitting both parties, rather than one benefitting at the expense of the other.

[Matt 26z]

What do affiliates do that makes their value added greater than their cost?

Affiliates have value because a paysite could never expand their own marketing efforts to such a level that affiliates are just sending the same joins the paysite would have gotten on it's own anyway.

As for who has the upper hand in the sponsor affiliate relationship, I think that depends on what type of sponsor we are talking about. Some paysites are a small part of a much larger empire that revolves around affiliate marketing. On the far other end paysites exist to be paysites that just so happen to have an affiliate program with a few crappy banners as promo tools. Somewhere in the middle of those two is where you find the top tier paysites in each niche, and everyone involved just wants to make money with each other.

Will program owners continue to move away from the affiliate model and focus on paid advertising?

I wouldn't equate an expansion of self marketing to dumping affiliates. It's probably the other way around actually. There are so many sponsor programs and paysites being launched and only so much affiliate traffic to go around. It doesn't surprise me that sponsors are becoming more involved in selling themselves.

[Xstr8guy]

As Matt 26z says, there are so many different levels of paysites/programs and each has a different relationship with it's affiliates. Here is my take... and remember, this is only my opinion.

SITES THAT SELL THEMSELVES
For example, sites like Corbin Fisher, Randy Blue, Sean Cody, etc. could probably go on forever without another single affiliate sale and continue to be successfull. They feature outstanding exclusive content that almost sells itself and you can tell a lot of love is poured into these sites. They also have such an incredible presence with their branding. Of course that branding was mostly due to all of the marketing efforts of their affiliates over the years. I would hazard a guess that the majority of their sales now come from type-ins, SE traffic and PPC marketing.
Verdict: Affiliates not necessary

MEGA STRAIGHT PROGRAMS
Then you have the mega-programs with their gay sites like Topbucks, WEG, ARS, etc. that I would guess, rely almost completely on the efforts of their affiliates. They have mostly generic looking sites that NEED strong affiliate marketing to get noticed in the crowded market because their product is substandard. They need to offer every marketing tool available and saturate the market to maintain their high level of sales. And when was the last time you saw a mega-program site with good SEO?
Verdict: Affiliates ABSOLUTELY necessary

MEGA GAY PROGRAMS
This category of sponsor programs include programs like Pridebucks, Gunzblazing, Intense Cash, etc. And they take their main cue from the Mega Straight Programs. They offer a large variety of affiliate marketing tools BUT generally have excellent quality content. Affiliate support is usually needed for these programs because their branding and/or SEO is often not as strong as the "Sites That Sell Themselves". Broke Straight Boys (from Intense Cash) is probably the only site in this category that would fit comfortably in the "Sites that Sell Themselves".
Verdict: Affiliates necessary

THE UP-AND-COMERS
Sites like Blake Mason, Chaos Men, Buzz West, (dare I say) UK Naked Men, etc. try to model themselves after the "Sites That Sell Themselves". And despite the high level of their content and efforts at branding, just aren't quite there yet. Often, they only have the one site in their portfolio and are very passionate about their baby. These guys often try harder with their SEO and self-marketing. The usually offer some affiliate tools but don't focus real hard on them... yet. Perhaps, because they have managed to slip under the radar of the "whales". Once the whales catch their scent and demand the whole plethora of sophisticated marketing tools so they can send dozens of sales per day, then the "Up And Comers" may become more advanced with their use of marketing tools. Or perhaps they will just continue to steadily build their membership base themselves and one day move up into the big leagues. But these are often the sites that will sell best for smaller affiliates who are willing to work a little harder by building their own galleries, etc. because their affiliate marketing tools haven't saturated the market... yet.
Verdict: Affiliates optional for site owner. Self-marketing and SEO often shows better returns

THE SCRAPPY SITES
These are usually fetish sites or sites started by newbies that have no clue. They are often processed by Verotel or some other even-less reputable processor. Updates are usually infrequent. The tours are usually VERY amateur looking and minimal. They don't appeal to a broad audience but often convert like CRAZY with the right kind of traffic.
Verdict: Sometimes they don't even have affiliate programs and when they do, may have multiple processors on the join page. But these sites can be unpolished gems for affiliates who can send the right kind of traffic.