So many Resellers so little traffic........

[ArmpitLover]

Why does a potential reseller take the time to sign up to your affililiate program and then send 5 hits in a 2 month period.

My first thought was:

a) They have no traffic

b) The banner they are using is not working for them

c) They had 1.5 minutes to spare between laundry loads and they had already checked their TiVO so there was nothing else to do?

I'm actually really puzzled........

Your thoughts?
Dave

BTW This is not aimed at anyone here. Just wanted to make that very clear LOL

[marcjacob]

this is the big problem that just about every program owner faces.

when i first started porn i knew banners were part of porn so threw some up with little thought as to their placement and thought banners alone would do. of course id didnt. maybe you should try teaching the affiliates about banner placement, text links and anchor text.

of course when you get affiliates that send you traffic, look after them!

[basschick]

if you really want to know, check the pages the hits are coming from. i was suprirsed that a few webmasters who seem to really know their stuff have our links on main pages and still only send 4 - 15 hits per day.

Of course in your case part of the problem could be that affiliates have traffic, but it's pretty mainstream traffic that doesn't get your niches.

[Chilihost]

yup, its the same with every affiliate programs, you get 1 out of every 500 affiliates that actually send you a decent amount of traffic.

[CorbinFisher_BD]

Heck, if they were only using banners that'd be great thing.
I get tons of e-mails from webmasters requesting free content or access to the site so they can retrieve content to use to promote us. I check each one's referred traffic or, in the case of new affiliates, their URL to see if their site has the potential to send traffic, in order to determine whether or not to fulfill their request.

You'd be amazed how many webmasters I've had get irate and ticked off and unable to understand why I'd not provide them with free content when they've referred a grand total of a dozen clicks over the last 3 months. Giving that webmaster a few photos to create their own banners, if they'd like, is one thing. Giving them access to the site so they can put 20 pictures a day up on their blog that doesn't send any referrals? That's something else entirely.

I want to be as understanding as possible and understand that a new webmaster could very well have the potential to become a major referrer (very slim chance, if you ask me, but a chance nonetheless) but it's simply not worth going too far out of one's way for someone who's not demonstrated an ability to send referrals.

Other things I look out for -

- A "non-domain". Someone attempting to be an affiliate who does not have their own URL, and is instead using Blogspot or MySpace or Yahoo or some other such free service like that upon which to "host" their site and send traffic from. Always trouble and, quite frankly, if you can't take the time to register and host your own domain I'd rather not accept traffic (likely in violation of your own service provider's TOS, mid you) from ya.
- A purely ad-word affiliate. As in someone who does not have their own site but solely promotes you through their referral code inserted in to a Google adwords campaign. I don't mind if an affiliate does that, so long as they have an actual site as well.

Really, though, traffic distribution almost seems just like wealth distribution in the US... 5% of the affiliates refer 95% of the traffic. hehe.

[Dzinerbear]

A couple of thoughts here:

In my case I suffer from too much to do, so it's hard to keep ahead of everything. And also, I look at a lot of my projects as long term. I spend a great deal of time optimizing my sites for search engines, so it just takes more time to build traffic at my end. But I suspect a lot of webmasters are just overloaded and don't manage their time well.

Also, a lot of wm's are looking for a big hit, like $35 PPS, so they probably focus on those, not realizing that tons of other wm's are doing the same thing.

Finally, could be your content as well. You're in a pretty limited niche with armpits, they're simply not everyone's cup of tea.

I experienced a similar thing with Bearbound, I figure that site would sell like hot cakes, but then I figured out that even though they're bears, not a lot of traffic wants to see them tied up.

Michael

[ArmpitLover]

Finally, could be your content as well. You're in a pretty limited niche with armpits, they're simply not everyone's cup of tea.

Hey Michael I hear what you are saying but just wanted to point out that in terms of conversions, retention, and overall member base..I have nooooooooooooooo problem with a r m p i t s .com at all. Two seasoned pros were actually amazed at what it was doing...though I always say it can do better

My point was purely with the 'sign-up and don't do' scenario with resellers.

Even myself I have signed up for programs and then taken a good hard look at the site and seen something like a major traffic leak or links to their 'other sites' bolder than the enter button so not proceeded with sending traffic. That I understand. I just can't see the point of 'signing up and forgetting it'.

It must waste hours of their week?????

[djdez]

Welcome to the party!

[Xstr8guy]

I have two perspective on this, one as a paysite owner and one as an affiliate.

Our paysite affiliate program is "invite only". Which essentially means if you bother to send us an email with you url(s) and request to join, we will accept you. And almost without exception, the traffic has been phenomenal. I guess asking the potential affiliate to go the extra mile has limited our exposure to low-traffic affiliates. In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised just how much traffic some of these unfamiliar sites send.

On the other hand, as an AVS gallery maker, I send very little traffic to new sponsor programs at first. It's so easy to join a CCbill sponsor program that when I come across something interesting... I join... whether I actually intend to promote them or not. And when I actually try promoting something new, I usually start small. And depending on the inital response, I either increase or discontinue my promotion. I have dozens (maybe hundreds) of single banners floating out there on old AVS galleries for sponsors that I no longer promote... hence the 5 clicks per month I may send.

[Dzinerbear]

Sorry I wasn't implying that there's anything wrong with armpits.com, I think it's a great site. I was simply trying to say that when we get into micro niches, we may have to throw a lot more traffic at a site to get it to convert.

So, for instance, if I were promoting an uncut cock site on a bear hub, I'd probably wouldn't be getting a lot of clicks on those banners even though I think it's a great site.

I'd expect the same thing if I were promoting of site featuring bears peeing on one another. Just because I have a lot of bear traffic doesn't necessarily mean they're into watersports, and a lot of the traffic probably wouldn't even click.

Cheers
Michael

[desslock]

Hey Michael I hear what you are saying but just wanted to point out that in terms of conversions, retention, and overall member base..I have nooooooooooooooo problem with a r m p i t s .com at all. Two seasoned pros were actually amazed at what it was doing...though I always say it can do better

My point was purely with the 'sign-up and don't do' scenario with resellers.

Even myself I have signed up for programs and then taken a good hard look at the site and seen something like a major traffic leak or links to their 'other sites' bolder than the enter button so not proceeded with sending traffic. That I understand. I just can't see the point of 'signing up and forgetting it'.

It must waste hours of their week?????

We sign up to affiliate programs in many cases because we're interested, and so that we can look around the affiliate side of your program. Plus, at that point I will get your newsletters and other ticklers in the future. If I do not join the program, it will be quickly become "Out of sight, out of mind."

It is very common that I do not get around to implementing affiliate marketing ideas for months. And you may not see this, but very often it is not easy to integrate the way I run my website with affiliate programs. I'm sure other affiliate webmasters could attest to this.

For example, one clash I had with Armpits.com is that for the most part, I do not promote porn as simple commodities.... like crude oil or porkbellies. If it makes no difference that I use oil from Venezuela versus Canada or Kuwait, what is the difference between your Armpits membership website versus someone else's? And what does that mean to my readers?

That's just a hypothetical. Because I've promoted Armpits.com on my site, using Brad Slater's armpits - because that adds some value. Or at least I've found some added value which I can sell to my leads. But that took time on my part to identify and fish his flesh out of your photosets, where I just happened to recognize him, and then at that point create some kind of value added affiliate page that could close a sale. :high:

Steve

[Dzinerbear]

Plus, at that point I will get your newsletters and other ticklers in the future.

This is a good point.

I'm very busy, so I find that the people that get my attention are (a) the ones who bug me on ICQ or (b) the ones who e-mail me stuff.

Michael

[ArmpitLover]

This is a good point.

I'm very busy, so I find that the people that get my attention are (a) the ones who bug me on ICQ or (b) the ones who e-mail me stuff.

Michael

Just read all the responses btween this post and my last, I found myself nodding in agreement with ya'll many times.

With regard to the emails or ticklers...I have always shyed away from bugging WM's coz I know how much crap we already get.

Having said that I kinda agree with maybe a monthly update newsletter in future with some pics and New Model info

I'll keep you posted,

Thansk for all the input as always

Hugs
Dave

[desslock]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

not to be confused with the infamous Squeaky WAV



Steve

[tigermom]

Good replies there, and I share the same reasons. Long terms projects, lack of time to carry them out properly, and just signing up sometime to check out the webmasters area.

I do keep track of my sign ups and have all the logins and passwords in place, so I can come back to them when I need something new. For example, I run a uniforms blog. I went ahead and joined several sponsors that seemed to have good military/uniforms sites. I then take a better look and start working with what I have. It may take a while for traffic to build up for the posts, and I may start with only promoting such a sponsor with 1 post and then move on. Traffic builds up eventually and then I check to see. If a sponsor converts well for me with the first 500-1000 cilcks that I sent them, I'll be more likely to push forward with that sponsor. It could take months before I send enough traffic to judge. Hey, I don't have that much traffic anyways