jayeff

Unfortunately, what this thread has really demonstrated is that most affiliates apparently don't give a damn

That apart, underpinning this issue is that no matter how successful people are, in this business they always seem to fear it is about to end. They think that if they don't grab every chance to make some extra money today, they will be gone tomorrow. They rarely consider how today's decisions will affect tomorrow's revenue.

It is a no-brainer that if your site is highlighted with a discount, your sales will increase. That doesn't only apply to review sites: if TGPs replaced the hall-of-fame commonly at the top of the front page with a section devoted to galleries from discounted sponsors, their sales would increase. For that matter, if you stuck a "special this week" notice with a reduced price on your signup page, your conversions would increase. Etc. Discounts work, we all know that and it isn't the issue here.

Nor is the issue whether big sellers are rewarded more than small-time affiliates (although I guarantee this industry is wasting a fortune on backend incentives which don't pay for themselves).

The point is this. Porn affiliates are cyberspace middlemen, passing surfers on to sponsors. We cannot choose whether to put carpet or vinyl tiles on our stores' floors, because we have no stores. We cannot add value via after-sales service and we don't have a way to make more money off a surfer once we have passed him along. So we can use a variety of traffic models and we can play with the cosmetics of our sites. But what we cannot do is choose whether we operate as the porn equivalent of Sam's Cl*b or as an online Neiman Marc*s of smut. And we are already open 24/7.

Therefore if sponsors begin offering special prices to only a limited number of sellers, basically everyone else is screwed. We have nothing whatever to offer surfers as justification for higher prices.

"So what? I'm making lots of money from TBP (or whoever), I don't need your trickle of sales". True of itself, except that there are a thousand affiliates producing a "trickle of sales". And next year some of those will be producing a steady stream of sales. The year after, a few will be a significant presence in the market. Why should those who become successful working with sponsors who offered them a level playing field from day one, switch to you later?

Oh well. There's only so many ways to make an argument and anyway, for the first time since Thursday my angina has backed off so my meds are back to normal. I can actually hold a thought for more than a couple of minutes at a time and type without my fingers tripping over themselves. So my posting spree is over and I'm back to work. I have a trickle of sales to send somewhere else...