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Originally Posted by PBucksJohn
Regarding retension; Program A has 500 hours of exclusive video, multisite access to 30 sites, a well laid out members area and content that is exactly what the surfer signed up for along with a few cleanly placed upsells to other quality sites, Program B has a few non-exclusive photo sets, some plugin video feeds that don't quite fit the niche the surfer joined for, access to one site, and zero upsells to other sites.
Program A will out reatain program B very heavily. Two reasons, one, there are a lot more "Program B" type members areas out there than you would imagine, and two, surfers are smart these days. They're familiar with how paysites work, how trials work, how to find other sites, and what is good quality and bad quality, etc. They're not the sufers of the mid to late 90s where they rebilled blindly for months. They're staying becuase they choose to not becuase something else wasn't thrown in their face. If they're unhappy they'll go and find it, they know how. So the arguement that retension will be better without upsells really isn't a good one.
Regarding attracting affiliates; There are way too many factors to make an "always" blanket statement like that. And way too many intelligent affiliates out there also. Granted there are some who will base who they do business on such small generalizations but the majority of those who do are the smaller affiliates anyway.
If all it took to win affiliates over was not having upsells or paying out on them it would be a lot easier to grow an affiliate program.
If two affiliate programs were exactly the same with the exception of paying out on or not having upsells then obviously all affiliates would choose the one without them. But we both know that no two programs are even closely similiar. The smart affiliate will choose a quality product to promote over being greedy about that little bit of "leaked" revenue.
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The issue here isn't what you have or not. It's having affiliates get it through their thick skulls that what you have to offer will make them more money. It's that "elevator pitch" you have to make to each and every potential affiliate, which many a time will give your ad a total attention time of about 2-3s, the first time. It's about making your program so attractive to potential affiliates that, once they realize that you do actually have upsells, they feel that they could care less, since they make *so much more* with you, than with the competition.
Sure, there are smart affiliates out there, but let's face it, most of the time those smart ones are VERY loyal to sponsors they promote heavily, which they do for a reason. It's like trying to make people switch banks, most won't do it. At the end of the day you end up in the same position that most sponsors are in, namely trying to sell your program to the wide masses. Which is a bitch to do, if not done right, especially since competition is getting fiercer by the day.
Anna_O, good point.
