When a sponsor

[spazlabz]

What do you think when a sponsor does the whole redesign/rerelease of their program thingy? Do you ever think that the sponsor hasnt changed anything? Or do you think that the new look and attitude signal a true change in the way that sponsor wants to do business with you? Does a sponsor that can afford PPS convince you quicker to join up then say one whose best is 50/50 rev? What about when they say things like "We've added ______ # of hosted galleries"? Or "We have all sorts of tools for you to use."? what makes you want to take the effort to Join a sponsor and really check out their new look? or maybe reinvestigate a sponsor that says they are 'totally redone!!!'? Does a quick reply to a support question make you more inclined to slap up links? Does tracking first page hits mean more to you then say tracking second page hits? I would give you all my opinions on this right now, but that would be a book, and I am curious what everyone else thinks

[spazlabz]

I am a firm believer that stats can only beuseful from a sponsor if those stats accurrately reflect the traffic that hits the first page of the tour from a gallery. So when i say first page hits, I mean the first page of the tour and not the warning page.
So if I ask a sponsor "What is your conversion ratio?" I exspect to hear a number from 1:1 to 1:6000 (I guess any higher then 6000 and they arent a sponsor for long LOL) and that number representing the number of hits I send with my code to the very first page of the tour. I think that is useful information.
But what I want to know is how useful is tracking second page hits INSTEAD of first page hits? and should a sponsor tell you right up front, before you even join their program, which hits they track?

[Greenguy]

That's a lot of questions

What do you think when a sponsor does the whole redesign/rerelease of their program thingy? Do you ever think that the sponsor hasnt changed anything? Or do you think that the new look and attitude signal a true change in the way that sponsor wants to do business with you?

I really don't care if there's all kinds of bells & whistles or if the entire webmaster area was text - it has no bearing what-so-ever on how much money I'd make with them.

Does a sponsor that can afford PPS convince you quicker to join up then say one whose best is 50/50 rev?

Not really, but I do prefer PPS.

What about when they say things like "We've added ______ # of hosted galleries"? Or "We have all sorts of tools for you to use."? what makes you want to take the effort to Join a sponsor and really check out their new look? or maybe reinvestigate a sponsor that says they are 'totally redone!!!'?

Sponsors should be adding new promo material as often as possible - give us more to work with & give them an excuse to get their name out there.

Does a quick reply to a support question make you more inclined to slap up links?

Yes.

Does tracking first page hits mean more to you then say tracking second page hits?

Tracking 2nd page hits is the stupidest idea that was ever created - it does no one any good unless you can see the 1st page hits as well. Sponsors that only publish 2nd page hits are trying to hide something. Of course, those that publish 1st, 2nd, join, etc are really good, because you can see better numbers as far as how far the surfer got on the tour.

[Greenguy]

PS - I merged these 2 threads because the 2nd one was part of the 1st one

[spazlabz]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

PS - I merged these 2 threads because the 2nd one was part of the 1st one

LOL yeah I was scratching my head thinking 'didn't I make a new thread for that one?' Glad to know you combined them.
I completely agree with you on second page stats, unless there is a tracking all the way through the tour to join, then just putting out the second page hits only, IMO, benefits the sponsor. it makes the sponsor lok like they are converting better then anyone else on the net. I would rather promote a sponsor who does a first page 1:300 then a second page 1:75.

[Cleo]

I really hate it when a sponsor doesn't show raw hits.

[Useless]

Add another for raw hits. I want to know how many surfers that clicked thru from pages, not how many their suck-ass tour filtered out by the second or third page. That way I know if what I'm doing on my end is working or not.

I've been promoting almost entirely rev share programs with third party billers lately. My trust for the big PPS guys has dwindled over that last few months. I find it hard to believe that anyone giving me $35 per sale is crediting me for every sale.

As far as bells and whistles on the affiliate site, sure fancy shit impresses me, but it won't be the deciding factor for me joining. I have lots of sponsors which I only promote thru FHGs and HFSs (thanks Chop ), but there are very few that I actively promote with my own free sites or the occasional gallery. I like smaller programs where I feel that they need me as much as I need them.

[spazlabz]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

As far as bells and whistles on the affiliate site, sure fancy shit impresses me, but it won't be the deciding factor for me joining. I have lots of sponsors which I only promote thru FHGs and HFSs (thanks Chop ), but there are very few that I actively promote with my own free sites or the occasional gallery. I like smaller programs where I feel that they need me as much as I need them.

Ya know thats exactly what I think too. My only caveat is that I think no matter what the size of the program they should treat every affiliate like they need them (because they DO) and never forget that. Personally I think it is important to remember that if affiliates go by by, then so does the sponsor.

[Rorschach]

Half the time when a sponsor goes to the next version of their affiliate program they just fuck up a good thing... silvercash used to rock hard when they were $40 PPS, then they dropped payouts to $35, then $30 and adopted that stupid IE-only affiliate area... and lost my traffic. When triplexcash moved to their latest incarnation their conversions went to shit for me as well... I don't know why they do it.

Re: click tracking - I think for some programs, it is in their best interests to show low click counts - eg. look at people's published stats - TCG, ************* and Topbucks usually show up near the top of the $/click chart - and yet if you've ever sent any traffic to any of them, they all have really fucked up methods of counting clicks, and when you run your own click counter you can see that the conversions are really no better than anyone else's.

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by Greenguy

Tracking 2nd page hits is the stupidest idea that was ever created - it does no one any good unless you can see the 1st page hits as well. Sponsors that only publish 2nd page hits are trying to hide something. Of course, those that publish 1st, 2nd, join, etc are really good, because you can see better numbers as far as how far the surfer got on the tour.

Exactly. Those that show only 2nd page sure does'nt make them look good, except maybe to newbies. Just trying to cover up crappy conversions.

ronnie

[Kinky]

I absolutely love it when sponsors do re-designs of their program and fill their pages with tons and tons of flash banners with naked women all over them, that is what I am looking for when I log in to get stats or promo material

[Jel]

Originally Posted by kinky

I absolutely love it when sponsors do re-designs of their program and fill their pages with tons and tons of flash banners with naked women all over them, that is what I am looking for when I log in to get stats or promo material

lol, good one! Gotta wonder why some of them do that.

[AdultLoungeRaffi]

[quote=SexyCityJim]What do you think when a sponsor does the whole redesign/rerelease of their program thingy? Do you ever think that the sponsor hasnt changed anything? Or do you think that the new look and attitude signal a true change in the way that sponsor wants to do business with you?

Good questions...i think its important for a sponsor to update their site, that mean they keep up with the changes of this industry and keep up with whats new and hot....we update every 6 month..since the launch of our program Aug 2003, this is our 4th update... Version 4.0. Although sponsors who do update shouldnt just change design, they should add new tools constantly to help affiliate advance with easier ways of making money.


Does a sponsor that can afford PPS convince you quicker to join up then say one whose best is 50/50 rev?

It doesnt matter, rev share works great if that sponsors members area is nice and update monthly, weekly even better daily...



What about when they say things like "We've added ______ # of hosted galleries"? Or "We have all sorts of tools for you to use."? what makes you want to take the effort to Join a sponsor and really check out their new look? or maybe reinvestigate a sponsor that says they are 'totally redone!!!'? Does a quick reply to a support question make you more inclined to slap up links?

More galleries are always good...keep content fresh...Its important! Support is also very important...getting quetions answered quick is helpful to make things easier and that means more marketing and eventually quick bucks!


Does tracking first page hits mean more to you then say tracking second page hits?

Yes, tracking first page is better..although i am not to clear on this question?

[Tommy]

I dont get the sponsors sometimes, its like they never sold anything

what i hate is when sponsors dont have good promo materials, and most dont

I need big banners (big banners 500 x 150 not 468 x 80)
I need odd size banners
I need promo text (almost no one has decent text)
I need good gallerys and good content

invest in these and your affiliates WILL make more sales

[urb]

One thing that I think is risky is when Flash is added to tours.

Webmaster sites are different because a webmaster is more likely to have the latest Flash player, but I just wonder how many surfers will hit a tour with Flash on it and not see a thing?

I'd be happier knowing that the close of the sale was in the hands of the trusty gif and jpeg.

[Wizzo]

I personally have never cared how a sponsor tracks clicks or decides ratios, my concern is how they track sales.

I know from my end how many clicks are sent and I just want to know how much I make from those clicks.

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by Tommy

I dont get the sponsors sometimes, its like they never sold anything

what i hate is when sponsors dont have good promo materials, and most dont

I need big banners (big banners 500 x 150 not 468 x 80)
I need odd size banners
I need promo text (almost no one has decent text)

invest in these and your affiliates WILL make more sales

Bigger sized banners for sure, 99% still do 468 x 80 and we all know they dont pull crap. Text, I can't think of one sponsor that has "good" text. Writing text is one of the hardest things for most webmasters to do. Sponsors sure are missing out on text, big time.

ronnie

[spazlabz]

Ya know, I never even considered the option of making banners larger then 468x80, i guess I was caught in the paradigm, definitely time to rethink that thanks Tommy & ronnie

[dareutwo]

Originally Posted by Tommy

I dont get the sponsors sometimes, its like they never sold anything

what i hate is when sponsors dont have good promo materials, and most dont

I need big banners (big banners 500 x 150 not 468 x 80)
I need odd size banners
I need promo text (almost no one has decent text)
I need good gallerys and good content

invest in these and your affiliates WILL make more sales

LOL -

Does ANY sponsor run a traffic generation site?
I mean Actually run it, not buying ad spots?
I doubt it, because these questions would have been answered in month one.

"First time lesbians sex inside" That's cool, maybe New Banner Text!

Most backends are stale and suck.

And sponsors wonder why we don't like recurring???

[GeorgeTH]

Originally Posted by Tommy

I need promo text (almost no one has decent text)

How can you expect good text if even some tours and most of the hosted galleries don't have inspiring text? Many sponsors are so poor when it comes to writing good advertising text.

Not that I don't agree with you...

[plateman]

I agree with most and what pisses me off is that some sponsors have pop ups and other ads while logging in and they DONT keep up with updating of sponsor movie content or its ass 9 named or linked to the wrong movie and dont no one check there stuff anymore.. and I been looking for a sponsor that has easy to browse movie content thats not a pain in the ass the pick out and in order.. and playing music - why the fuck do I want to listen to BS music that almost blows my sub woofer and we know who that is *** cashless.. AdultLoungeRaffi is there any way to stop that stuff you have when I login to check my stats.. seems all these sponsors are trying to impress webmasters and forgetting about what they really need - simple easy admin !! with good stats - and thats it

and the last week I looked at 6 or 7 of the 50 some sponsors I have to promote and found that it isnt worth it to chase content and link codes and banners - give us a REASON to promote you and offer 35 to 40 a sale and go through hell getting it... and also if you dont have nats stats I dont even want to fuck with it...