Can you be an affiliate with too many sponsors?

[Rainbo1956]

We've sorta scattered our selves about a bit and not making anything from anyone of them so far.

We've got about 20 affiliate programs we're members of. We have them listed anywhere from our paysites, free sites, to our tgp galleries...yet, it seems that there are too few hits and sales are sucking big time :-(

Do you think you can be an affiliate with too many sponsors?

[dirtygeek]

yes, I do think that. Mainly because of our program, there people have 500 banners on every page and can't figure out why they don't make money.

It could also be that the programs you are promoting are to main stream and your traffic seems to want something else. (Just a thought)

[Dzinerbear]

Good question.

I feel overwhelmed at times because I've got so many sponsors throwing content at me, talking to me, e-mailing, PMing me, and I can't seem to stay on top of it all and I can't promote everyone.

I think it's more about how and where they're presented. I run a link list and I've got about 30 different sponsors in there, most of them are merged under one ccbill account, so I get one big cheque.

Maybe you could create a page that reviews some of these sites, features a hot porn star of the week, displays a pic of the week, make it look like a little one-page magazine, try something different. Send traffic there and see if it converts better. I'm having success with this kind of thing. And certainly sites like Just Us Boys and Juicy Goo seem to be having success with those kinds of things.

If your using TGP and free sites, I think that's the problem. Those things attract people looking for FREE stuff. Sure you can convert, sure you can sell to that traffic, but overwhelmingly those people aren't looking to buy anything. And if you're selling the same stuff everyone else is selling, and if you're just selling in the same old way that everyone else does (with banners) then it becomes old really quickly.

If you want to sell stuff you have to write, write, write, and then, write some more. Yes people want pictures, but you can also get them to buy if you can write really hot copy, and you'll also be dragging in a lot of search engine traffic.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[Mamakity]

Note to self; Learn to write!

Good thread!:kitten:

[Dawgy]

Originally posted by Dzinerbear
I feel overwhelmed at times because I've got so many sponsors throwing content at me, talking to me, e-mailing, PMing me, and I can't seem to stay on top of it all and I can't promote everyone.

wow, i have to bug sponsors constantly to talk to me or help me promote their sites. i guess im not a big enough player for them to spend time on. sad huh

[dirtygeek]

Or maybe you just promote the wrong programs.... :specs:

[Rainbo1956]

Ya know, I hate to say it...but, we really have some "select" sponsors.

We usually make a clean links page that we put the links on...

One page for each sponsor (so to speak)...or at least they'll have the most links.

But, I'm finding a rather HUGE dif between some of them.

For an example, TopBucks has about the least ammount of clicks.

Funny, but I am getting some clicks for the "gay" links I have listed...however, I've been running some straight tgp's, free sites, etc...and have a few other straight sites with my code for TB, and they get some traffic, but no clicks for any of my straights for TopBucks....never seen one yet.

I gotta figure it's cause TB is so popular...and maybe a 'lil over saturated.

[desslock]

Try some things that non-adult ad agencies are doing.

For example, run a top of the fold banner and a pop-up ad both advertising the same program. This doubles the exposure --- the customer is seeing the ad twice. Or another way to do this is to run two different sized banners for the same program on a page.

I have been experimenting with this. I also noticed that Fleshbot runs a skyscraper block of text ads - mirroring how Google Adwords and Overture work. That is a neat way of consensing and selling a number of programs together. I'll bet that is effective.

Steve

[Chilihost]

first off i think 20 affiliate is a very low number given there are prolly about 20,000 affiliate programs out there and growing every day.

second off, who cares if you join too many affiliate programs, if you try a program and it works for you then keep it, if it doesn't work for you then ignore it (its not costing you anything) and if you stop signing up for new affiliate programs, how do you know you have found the right one? and you will ABSOLUTELY be missing out on "the next best thing" when it gets released and you don't join the program.

just my 2 cents!

cheers,
Luke

[BDBionic]

I don't think it's at all a question or quantity as it is one of quality.

If you have 500 sponsors that are all producing, then well done and keep workin' it!

If you have a buncha sponsors, many of whom aren't producing however, then try out some more programs. Sign up for more sponsors. Throw new ones up in place of non-producing ones. Get rid of the programs that aren't doing you any good and obviously don't seem to work with your traffic.

I can't even count all the programs I've signed up for and, like Michael (dzinerbear), am constantly flooded with requests to join programs, check out sites and movies and ad consoles and links and galleries and so on so forth. Unfortunately, I just can't get around to putting them all up. Unfortunately as well, some I do give a whirl just don't work out for my sites. Some I know just won't do well from the get go, so I never get around to signing up for them.

But if I had the time and the confidence a new sponsor would convert and earn well, I'd be puttin new ones up everyday.

[RainGurl]

i've been there before with building free sites.. not enough traffic to test out all of the sponsors i want. in the past, i've selected say 5 programs instead of 20, then rotated them weekly. From there, you'll get more traffic to each program and will be able to see which sponsors work well with your traffic.

[Xstr8guy]

My best sponsors are usually the ones that excite me the most. I probably belong to 50 affiliate programs, but at any given time, I'm only actively promoting 3 or 4... and they are always the sponsors with sites that I would actually join.

I never have had any luck with "big" sponsors... the ones that have 50 straight sites and 3 gay sites. These sponsors are usually over-exposed because they have so many straight affiliates that also promote their gay sites. The sponsors that work the best for me are the single site programs or the 100% gay programs.

[dirtygeek]

I'm with you on that one. The only programs that I really ever had any luck with are all gay, and not over exposed. (i.e. pridebucks and JockCash)

Both programs I have received checks from that where over $100.00. :specs:

[BDBionic]

Originally posted by Xstr8guy
The sponsors that work the best for me are the single site programs or the 100% gay programs.

Ditto. I don't promote the huge programs. Almost entirely just single site ones. I ain't knockin' big programs like TopBucks and what not. I know plenty of people that make plenty of dough with them. It just ain't my thing or what my surfers go for.

There's a lot of self fulfilling prophecy involved, too, so to speak.

When I started out my free site, my twink sponsors offered up the most content to use to promote them. That in turn created a twink-heavy site, which attracted twink-lovin bookmarkers and traffic, which again in turn led to the better performance of twink sponsors.

I've been able to do well with college guy sites and military sites - always focusing on the younger guys. And those work well too. But if I were to attempt to promote a site with tons of 25+ year old guys? No go. Experimented with it, it didn't work.

Fortunately, I also really like twinks and college guys So I can spot guys my surfers would love, I can be genuine in the descriptions and reviews and tap in to things my surfers also like.

[Lee]

Absolutely

However, the trick is finding out which sponsors work for you on an individual basis.

I know when i first started in the industry i signed up for pretty much every sponsor i could find and threw their banner up on my sites in rotation however, i soon discovered that didnt work so i had to be methodical in my approach.

Basically i decided to try a different sponsor every week for 3 months, i would build a site or tgp gallery, submit it to the same traffic sources but making sure that whenever the 'new' week came, i used a different sponsor than the one i did before.

After a few months i found a list of around 10 sponsors that converted on a varying range of traffic sources, niches and marketing scenarios and to this day i still use almost all of the same sponsors, i do still add new ones into the mix though. But, inevitably, i always seem to end up back with the 10 i had in my list after i ran my test.

Basically, try a variety of approaches and sponsors and pick say 5-10 that work for you on an individual basis. Then, build from that point forward to grow your business.

Regards,

Lee