Quote:
Originally Posted by bdeforest
Hey Socks - Michelle rudely interrupted me watching the tigers game to get me to come in here and chat with you. She's awfully brave to do that LOL. Anyway, yes we did do a whole portfolio change in 2003 because of TMF threats for chargebacks and horrible member retention. Our solution didn't help anything and it was pretty awful. I've talked about this in other threads and don't want to get into it again here.
In 2004 I opened up my own company to create the paysites for the ARS program, and those paysites are still around. I do believe that we had to close approximately 5 sites because of 2257 reasons, but otherwise, the portfolio is intact and growing.
We never did drop payouts, but we did make changes to payout amounts depending on which trial price you were sending to or if you were sending to BYOTs (which have always paid $5 less). With the launch of ARS 2008, we took away the lower $5 payout to BYOTs and those now pay the same rate as the rest of the portfolio. All signups, including check signups pay the same rate as credit card signups.
As for dropping ratios, I do see that as well. And I don't think it can be pointed solely at ARS. I think all sites are experiencing downward ratios based on where the industry is and where it is going. But, I constantly watch ratios and try to tweak things to improve them as best I can. Recently, I implemented processing the BYOT program on my own merchant account (almost 2 weeks ago) and so far have seen much better ratios. I'm sure as the other sites get moved over to the MA, their ratios will improve as well.
I am always willing to work with all affiliates on their ideas and try to cater to their needs. So if you need anything, please dont hesitate to contact me. I'm always available.
mhende6600 - if you don't want to promote ARS, then don't. And thanks for stirring up the shit. I might be able to get a few affiliates promoting ARS because they see that I will be honest, take the time to share what is going on, and work them on a personal level to help us improve our relationship together. So thank you and GFY!!!
Oh and GO TIGERS!!!
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Thanks you for taking time to respond to my issues Becky.
I don't fault ARS for site lineup changes, a lot of programs have done it, and I think I proved I'm not that angry since I went back and updated my site several times to adapt. I don't love being forced to do extra work or lose money, but you don't either, and we all want to make money together. I chalk that up to doing business. Whats a TMF?
As for how much you pay per signup, how did I lose $20 per signup, or 50%? I see you mentioned $5, but I'm talking a full 20 bones here! I don't know how much you pay me, I just know that when I divide totals by # of sales I get $19 vs $39. I'm still confused about that. You guys paid $40 a signup before! $19 is a long way off. I also traditionally pick the highest trial amount possible, to promote full month sales. I often turn off trials if the sites are good enough and I have a choice. I rarely if ever promote $1 joins etc. So I'm 90% sure whatever my linkcodes "translated to" after your change is what I was being paid on, so it's whatever you guys set it to! y'know?
As for ratios, we've all seen the decline. But 10x is not the decline we've all seen either. It's been a lot more gradual than that. I've seen ratios go from 1:200 to 1:400, but not 1:200 to 1:500 to 1:1700 to 0:2100.. I mean that's just appalling, I'm sure to both of us.
So what's the solution here for ARS affiliates? Am I to give you another week of my time writing new articles for ARS sites, after seeing how this has played out? I might even do it, but convince me!
What is ARS offering in 2008? Not to webmasters, but to CUSTOMERS? What are you doing to win over their hearts and wallets? I don't care about your new FHG's or 15 different linkcodes or 400 different internal programs. I hardly know what BYOT means, luckily I do..
All I know is I sell memberships to websites, as honestly as possible. What can I tell my customers to expect at ARS sites? What are they? Do they shoot exclusive content? Do you update them, and how often? Do members get access to a network of sites?
Just being honest, your program is confusing, even to me after 6 years of logging in.
I mean shit, just look at the Stats dropdown, this pretty much sums it all up:
Overall Stats
Paysite Stats
BYOT Stats
HSN Stats
XXX Stream Stats
Referring URL Stats
Campaign Tracking Stats
Period to Period Stats
WM Ref Stats
FHG Stats
HFS Stats
BYOT Owner Stats
FHG Owner Stats
CSV/PDF Stats Export