What makes you choose to promote a site?

[Jasun]

Is it gut feeling, how good the customer service looks, how good the banners are and sponsor content is, how many sales you get told you'll make by the webmaster tour?

Is there more than that?

or is it just a niche that appeals to you and you think you could sell it?

Are you more likely to sign up to a program if you know the rep?

Are you more likely to sign up if they offer hosted galleries?

What will make you stop dead in your tracks and not take them on?

And what doesn't sway you one way or the other?

[Wowmediacash]

For us - unique content / site - images & video - good tour - not just a few pages. A site that matches and compliments the content we are advertising it on. Prompt & reliable support a must. Hosted galleries unimportant to us - banners not important either to us - reshare program - per sign up program - webmaster referal program - good stats - ontime payouts - we test first on a few sites - retention must be good for rebills etc so content must be good & updated very often - and if all goes well we will use long term.

[Rainbo1956]

We'll promote them if they're unique. I mean if I see a good design and their sites are set apart from the other "cookie cutter" type sites, I think they'll do better.
But, I'm finding that isn't "always" the way it goes either.

We also like hosted galleries (though, we like doing our own more as well)
Having content is always a plus.

What makes us run from a sponsor? When we ask them some questions before we sign up and get no answer back....really NOT a good impression as all when they do that.

We recently signed up with a place. We tried to log in after they said we were excepted, only we couldn't log in....so, we wrote them and asked what was going on. We've yet to hear back from them. (Kind of un-nearving to register, give all your fricking personal info and never hear from them again)

[robin]

Jasun, I look at most of what you've listed and take it into account -- except for anything about how many sales I'll make or could make. I know a lot of people look for this but for me it means ZIP.

What will usually stop me dead in my tracks is if I perceive that the person or company is totally anonomous and in hiding. I like to feel that I'm dealing with real people/company who are going to pay me and treat my customers/traffic right and not just take off with our loot.

Gut feelings are important

If I "know" or know of the rep or the product/service it helps

niches that appeal to me and that I think I can sell are tops

I really appreciate a good selection of banners/links/content -- It really helps me out

[Jasun]

Great answers here.

There's a lot, I guess, that a site should take into account when starting or relaunching an affiliate program, and I think a lot of them don't take themselves seriously enough, or they do the wrong things.

[dirtygeek]

I asked webmasters this questions a while back. It seems that most of them look for the same things that I do.

For me it would have to be the:
The Tour’s look
What billing company they use
What are their payout options (Check, money order, epass, ECT)
How often are their payout dates?
What sales tools do they give me (Hosted Galleries, Free content, banners, ECT)
How trust worthy are their stats.
If I have a question, can I talk to their support on ICQ, AIM, Phone, ECT.
If I ask a question, I get an answer back.

[LavenderLounge]

I agree with everything already mentioned, but I also consider this - how many other webmasters are promoting the same site? You can only cut the pie into a finite number of pieces.

I've lost interest in the site that used to be my main program because it's gotten too popular with other webmasters promoting it. My efforts are now diluted.

My advice - pick otherwise good programs that you can get in on the groundfloor.

[basschick]

assuming the content on the site isn't edgy, what does it for me is if it's

1. a niche i can sell

2. a tour i know i can sell

3. i have reason to believe they're gonna pay me.

and BIG bonus points if they offer content - especially if it's a niche i can't find content for or if they have exclusive.

[basschick]

come to think of it, here's what makes me NOT promote a site.

1. enter consoles on almost any program.

2. exit consoles i don't get a piece of on a 50% revshare program.

3. traffic leaks on the tour - stuff like links to the sponsor's video store, that us webmasters don't get a piece of or their link trades. no thanks!

4. terrible join pages - for example, i have seen both gay and shemale site with girls on the join pages. i've seen join pages with all the alternative options in bold print above the credit card option (affiliates don't get a piece of those alternatives).

5. a program whose rep is really horrible on the boards. there is one program where a rep - i believe the owner - admired hitler and said he should have gone further. people tell me he was just doing it for publicity - i don't care. i will live in a cardboard box under the freeway before i promote his programs.

[desslock]

come to think of it, here's what makes me NOT promote a site.
3. traffic leaks on the tour - stuff like links to the sponsor's video store, that us webmasters don't get a piece of or their link trades. no thanks!

traffic leaks on the tour :signhere:

And how about traffic leaks period.

:boo: :boo: :boo:

[basschick]

if they have traffic leaks on their OWN tour (one i don't send traffic to), that's not really my business.

and besides the tour, where else can traffic leaks be?

[mike-x]

Real Unique content!!
And site - images & video - good tours..!!!

[DigitalJay]

If it is a program for one or a few big sites and they are top quality I will promote it. If the content all comes from one set of photographers/videographers who are passionate about their art and have excellent taste, I will promote it.

What I will definately not promote is a program with many sites, put together in a hurry to cater to as many audiences as possible, with questionable content and "glossy" tours that rarely look good on any computer other than the one they were designed on. It's not that hard to use css to get text to look right in tables anyway. Howcome so many of these crapomatic paysites still have alignment issues?

[Dzinerbear]

Jasun,

I prefer single sites over the conglomerate-sites model. I find single sites are often run by one or two people and they're a labour of love, therefore, they're usually better quality.

I tend not to like cookie-cutter sites because they also tend to feature the same content over and over again.

I like gay sites made by gay people. There are a number of straight people who do gay sites well, but they're few and far between. So things like gays, gag that cocksucker, trick the "straight" guy don't appeal to me.

I like original content. I don't care about hosted galleries or free content. I don't use a lot of it. In fact, I tend to prefer programs that keep their content tight. Men at Play converts well for me because it's content hasn't been chewed up on TGPs.

I stay away from any sponsor that is based in Russia. Too much of their stuff looks dodgy, and judging how that part of the world acts on TGPs and AVS's, I'm never really sure if I'd get much of the money I earned anyway. Besides the English on their tour pages is often bad and as a credit card holder that makes me think, "Uh oh, is my credit card safe?"

I also steer clear of anything too young. I don't care if you claim to have 2257 docs. In my country, if the cops think he looks underage, they swoop in first, maybe ask questions later, and then, you spend the next five years of your life in court.

Finally, I tend to like sites that are niche specific like: English Lads, Men at Play, or Varisty Men.

Jasun, are you asking because Fratmen TV is thinking of starting one? It's exactly the kind of site I'd promote. BTW, you might want to tell them to fill up all that "white" space on the left side of their homepage ... tsk, tsk, tsk, what a waste of prime real estate.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[CBLCasey]

Personally I stay away from the big "cookie cutter" sites like ARS sites. It has to be content that is worth while to your visitor. It looks bad for your site if your sending your visitors to a site thats gonna rip them off. At the same time they have to be big enough to have been around a while. I like to know that we will receive our payout, and the site will be around for the customer next week.