What Makes You Pick A Sponser?

[Chris Alan]

I was just wondering, what makes you choose a sponsor?

Is it the site tour, niche, free content offering, payouts etc... What makes you decide?

CA

[AusCoding Allan]

A combination of all the above really but what's most important to me is that the sponsors site converts and also that above all else at the end of the pay period they send me my cheque.

Other than that all the other stuff improves a sponsors reputation in my view and they will generally get better placement for it in return.

Cheers,

Allan

[Dzinerbear]

These days, it's freshness. As I said in another post, for me Randy Blue and Sean Cody are both selling well, but they're become over-exposed. They'll become the new Bear Lovin'. (Remember that site, remember how it popped up every freakin' place you ever went.)

So while both SC and RB are still excellent products. Surfers have seen all the banners, so they start to fade into the background.

I'm trying out a number of "new" sponsors that I haven't seen all over the place.

And honestly, the biggest thing for me is customer service. Before I sign up with a sponsor, I'll e-mail them and introduce myself, ask a bunch of questions about their program, ask about the possibility of getting custom-made banners, whatever. If I don't hear back from them, I don't bother. On the other hand, if you're like Curious Cash and you got back to me within hours, I'm loving you.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[basschick]

first and most important to me is the site have a good tour in a niche i can work with. i generally know what i can sell.

next would be that either the sponsor has a good rep for paying or else pays frequently. and then promo content that is easily used in the ways i use it. and customer service should reply within 24 hours or less (even better is phone or icq support). put those things together and i have another new sponsor :-)

[RedShoe]

In a new niche (such as this one for me) I just picked a few that looked appealing (tour, cash program) and am trying them out. In time I'll be able to know more about them.

In the str8 ebony niche (where I dominate, LOL) I have built up a relationship with the sponsors and I know wheich ones perform well for me even if their cash programs look like shit or their tours are even uglier, I know they sell well for me, and so I use them. So for ebony it's all about the personal relationship I have with the program owner.

I'm sure for gay it'll be the same way I'll slowly come out of my shell a little and hit them up and get to know them better.

[dirtygeek]

I thought I was the only one that wanted to know about this. With my new programs, I give phone sex, I mean support, ICQ support, and answer emails between 7am - 3am est. think that will do ok?

We also give away about 800 free pictures and soon to be video clips also. We update our sites weekly, but film on location ever 2 months. I’ve been really been focusing on finding affiliate members and what they want. Without them we might as well shut the doors and sell cars or bibles. So any incite on this from other webmasters, and EXPECIALLY from webmasters that promote sponsors is greatly appreciated. You know someone else that gave me some really great advice about everything was Harlan.

[Lee]

First and foremost for me its reputation.

Secondly, if they advertise on any of our resources they automatically get used

Third is making sure they have niche paysites to fit the areas i currently promote.

Then it comes down to a mixture of support and payouts.

Regards,

Lee

[desslock]

Originally posted by Chris Alan
I was just wondering, what makes you choose a sponsor?
Is it the site tour, niche, free content offering, payouts etc... What makes you decide?
CA

well I'll definately describe several things that I look at:

Number One -- does your affiliate program limit itself to just a fraction of the products you are selling? For example, do you only give credit for membership signups, but not (for example) dvd's which you might also be aggressively selling? Sometimes it is okay, but in other cases when those additional products are also a significant part of your own site, that definately is discouraging.

Number Two -- what kind of statistics do you provide your affiliates? We all know as webmasters how beneficial it is when we go over our website stats. Well, lots of affiliate programs are woefully short on giving data to us affilaites. iBill springs to mind here.

Knowing my signups and renewals are nice. But where are they coming from?

Maybe my links on my latino pages are sending clickthroughs and signups, but my twink pages do nothing. Well if we knew what was working, we could obviously maginify what works, and make even more money.

[by the way, I'll plug here one GWW member's program - Brian at GunzBlazing/Raging Stallion - their affiliate software is full of helpful statistics like this, which I have used to hone my site]

Number Three -- Cookie Duration?
Non adult affiliate programs make a big deal about cookies and cookie duration, but I've noticed this in the adult area. It's not an issue, and I don't know why. But if I send you a referral, does that referral have to immediately join in order for me to get credit? Or do you send a cookie to their browser marked with my affiliate code? Is it timed to 7, 30 or 60 days?

If you want to find good selling points for your affiliate program, amplify this policy. I would much rather work with a program that issues a 30 day cookie that tracks my potential referral. Another point here is if I send you a referral, and they don't join as a membership, but subscribe to your newsletter --- what happens? Do you send newsletters to that lead, and overwrite the original tracking cookie?

Think of it like this --- I put your banners on my site giving you free brand advertising for your website. Affiliates would definately appreciate a tracking cookie with a reasonable length, and newsletters that do not overwrite them in the future.

Like I said, I don't know why this isn't really talked about much with adult affiliate programs. If you really spell this out in your T.O.S. i'm sure it would be pursuasive to potential affilates.

A final note --- what about commission level? Actually for me that is not as important as other factors. On one of my sites I sell cigarettes through a website affiliate program. There are a lot out of tobacco affiliate programs out there. Some have pretty good 5 - 8% commissions. I picked the one with a 4% comission because I get commissions from that referred customer forever. They also spelled out a clear cookie policy: 365 days, which they never overwrite from their own email newsletters.

And that's a nice little program. ;-)

Steve

[gaystoryman]

Damn desslock, that's some good info that to be honest I never really considered much. Thanks for that insight.

For myself I tend to look at how I can promote it beyond just the banners and galleries, does it give me good keywords to use for the site, does it have good ad copy I can use to push the surfer along.

Now though I need to rethink a lot on what I just learned, cool as like I needed more things to ponder on..:crybaby: :grin: