Why do sponsors hire reps that are useless to many of their affiliates?

some are good and some arn't... like everything else...

ya, but are they cute ?

The real question is... would a good program really need an affiliate rep if they had their site built the way it should be?

I always wondered how a rep would help "improve my ratio", or even why I would want their help... The only advice I've ever gotten was to make more descriptive links (ie. click here to join this site for $4.95)

The best part is these reps always offer to help you with your conversions after you complain about a strange anomaly in your stats (several months at 1:600 and then a week at 1:12000)...

I would love to see a rep hit me up tell me something along the line of "I see your conversion is at 1:1,500, let me help you tweak your pages so we increase it to 1:200 or less" instead of "can you send us a bit more traffic"

a rep is someone that should know what usually works on the programs paysites and help you think up new ways to market their sites, also a rep should be able to hook you up with things you need for promotion like banners/content/ etc, also a rep should be easily available for questions and general help with the program. Atleast that's what I would expect from a program rep.

A good rep should be able to assist you in tweaking your traffic path to that of of the sponsor's...

Reps should help to tweak sites and traffic to maximize profits!!! But for this you must know your shit, which 90% of them don't.

Egomancer

well, not all of them...

If they have a high post count or know how to stir up shit on a message board, they qualify.

Like most affiliates, I have no use of reps that looks good and know how wine and dine but can't help me increase my conversion ratio.

You have to be kidding me... Who will answer the technical problems ?

Most reps shouldn't know how to convert because they don't even have sites.

Certainly not an affiliate rep. How many do you know that can answer technical questions?

I know plenty of reps that can answer technical questions. If they can't answer them they are the conduit to finding an answer to your question. No program wants affiliates contacting the tech team directly.

I know plenty of reps who can't. And that don't have "tech teams" either.

Well then I guess with those companies you have to make the decision of using them or not. If you are making a decent profit with the company regardless of any deficiencies in those areas it would be a trade off worth taking.

Here's how it seems to go for me...

Rep: is there anything I can do to help you?

Me: well, some new FHGs or free content would be nice

Rep: OK, I'll see what I can do

Later...

Rep: hey, can we give this guy some new FHGs or free content?

Sponsor: no

Rep: OK! :D

Most reps do their job fine.

I only know a couple annoying ones and one that is totally useless...

i deffinatly make an effort to send more traffic, and more importantly more quality traffic to sponsors whos reps i like

thats pretty horrible

we do new content zips and new fhg every damn week and if thats not enough top affiliates get passes to just pick.

Content is a must.

there are tons of reasons to have a rep.. if the rep does his/her job correctly ..

answering all questions on icq or email,
writing and posting press releases when new programs, tours, banners or so on are released,
target spamming the boards,
cancelations,
we have a sponsor message board that I run,
going to shows to represent,
ordering affordable promo items for the shows or contests,
setting up link trades,
making our company as much money as possible. so on .. so on and so on..

If I can not solve the problem. I know how to get it solved ASAP...

If you can not keep your affiliates happy... you are in trouble.. with reps that do the job they are hired for.. you will not have this problem..

I know that my boss does not want to do all of this.. .. and this is why he has had me for 2 years now ..

notice clickcash dosent have a rep (will is self appointed)

yet they are one of the biggest sponsors out there

a quality product really helps

The answer is simple...if the reps for the companies don't know shit about the program, don't give you the tools you need, and can't assist with technical issues - do not promote that program (period).

Every rep should:
- know their program
- know how to drive and convert traffic
- be available and respond in a timely fashion
- give webmasters the tools they need
- and IMO, be an actual webmaster themselves who has experience running a variety of adult sites.

Only then can a rep truly be helpful in all areas.

Granted, there are exceptions to every rule...but after a decade in the online adult industry, I can tell you that there aren't many.



If you are looking for a good VOD program that has reps who are actual webmasters and know wtf is up...try us out (see sig).

"try some of our banners."

Has anyone ever bother to reply to these reps?

Reps are there to help you. If you ask for the help, you should be getting it. If you want them to follow your sales they should be doing it - just be aware that you're not alone - some of us have thousands of affiliates assigned to us.
There are hundreds upon hundreds of affiliates who've asked for help and then not followed through with the suggestions, didn't make the changes, didn't use the tools and just jump ship and rather complain that it doesn't convert.

The ones that want help will get it. Some newer guys to the program have proposterous requests - others keep it real or know the limitations of what can be done 'now' and what will come with time. The ones that keep it real, test, tweak and grow - test, tweak and grow. Most times, the problems arise when there's a slowdown in sales - is it the sponsor, is it scrubbing, is it places that you trade with that lost a valuable source of traffic and are filling it with a less 'good' source, is it the place you submit to that has replaced some of their traffic sources, is it consumers changing & methods no longer working? There are thousands of reasons that can affect 'why' sales are down - switching your methods too quick can cause a few 'slow' months rather than just a one or two week period.

One of my biggest mistakes was to stop submissions - at the time I thought it would be best 'not' to compete with my affiliates & to be available 18-20 hours a day for them. Today, I can no longer relate to the new TGP submission/free site/AVS hurdles firsthand - however, I have a higher level of knowledge, secondhand yes but from multiple affiliates/traffic sources/marketing methods from my relationship with my affiliates. I have more concrete information on our program (and sometimes other programs too in terms of basing trends) than you could possibly get otherwise. Will I tell you how some guys do 300-3000 sales a month - no. I can tell you what you're doing that I see a pattern on it not working from all the rest though. If you want the golden route, I'm afraid that there are too many intricate factors that can make your situation different from the rest so there's no guarantee, but with what you know about your traffic and we know from the heaps of info we get, can prove to be less time consuming and better performing for you.

As a rep, I try my best to help - I don't 'need' to be hot, I want people who are focused on sales, marketing, growth & this industry as a business with as much dedication as my own - for this, I have been blessed.

I see a trend growing, my affiliates are changing somewhat, most want me to be reactive rather than proactive. Their stuff is tweaked enough to continue to perform - when sales go down, we search for the culprit. Most times, the only thing that solves it is time. After a few days, conversions are back to normal - now, is it the sponsor, scrubbing, trades, server issues (and on what end - affiliates servers or sponsors?) - there's no way to say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what was the cause but switching what worked in the past, most times, won't solve it in the short-term either.

Regarding the technical part - I'm far from technical but in our case we have a large team and there's an 'on call' schedule to make sure there's always someone available to fix things should something go wrong. Although I have everyone's number - when something isn't right for more than 5 minutes on any of our systems I call the VP or text message her. Any problem for you, means a problem for me and a problem for the company.

Saying we are not needed, is exaggerated. If you have no need for them, great & all the better for you. There are alot that think otherwise. Your willingness to work with your rep is what will open your doors and perhaps a give you a new perspective on your business as a whole. They can't help you if you don't ask and doing one week of research for each affiliate who 'may' take the advice is not feasible either.

**Also, I'm not perfect and I've probably dropped the ball more times than I would have liked, but I do have a huge affiliate base and can sometimes overlook even the important stuff - not an excuse but now I try to set reminders and stickies all over my screen and thankfully talk to my people often enough.

DAMN it's a long post.......sorry

nope, no reps at clickcash.

A rep should be used more as customer service / technical support for webmasters. 99% of reps, if they were good at advertising they wouldn't be a rep, they would be advertising the company making a lot more money. Seriously doubt anyone is going to tell you where to go advertise and get traffic, rep or not (even if they knew this information which most of them don't) they would use it for themselves.

What i do for clickcash is effictive because i personal know what promos work the best and can help people tweak their sites (when i have the time). You can't expect a rep to know this, only a good affiliate would know this.

Reps are good for, hey i lost my password, when are checks going out? any new sites coming up? how do i use this link code? etc....

A good rep would also ask, what tools or promos would you like to see us ad? what niches would you like to see next, what can we do, in your opinion, to make our site better and help you make more money. feedback from affiliates is golden info for the sponsor program, lets face it most sponsors out there are not advertisers, they create what they *think* will work the best, only a good affiliate *knows* what will work the best. If they listen to affiliates and get feedback they would make their program a lot better and enable their affiliates to make a lot more money. Unfortunetly, some companies think they know it all and have no need to listen to their affiliates.

Your post is indeed long.

I'm not convince most reps are there to help us, more like they're there to help themself. But there are some good ones that know what it takes to improve affiliates conversion ratio and know how to work with various traffic sources.

hm, many people said here programs do fine without reps...

well, IMO sales rep is another word for affiliate support and every program has such people

if a program is doing very well, then the owner is making millions and he hires someone to handle the support for $3-4k per month rather than answering 100 questions daily like "how do i change my payment method from epassporte to wire?" by himself

Think about it like this.. If the rep really knew their shit enough to tell you how to make more money.. Well then why the hell wouldn't that rep be doing it for themselves and making more than a few 100 a week working for some affiliate program?

They are normally reps for a reason.. typically they are an affiliate that wants some extra cash but isn't a big player or a pretty peice of ass..

I may be wrong but don't reps get a % from their the affiliates under them?

If so, the more they help affliates make money the more they make money too. If they have 100s affliates under them they could make much more money thru their affiliates than if they did it themselve!

Do you really need an affiliate rep to tell you how to make more money?

Most of this stuff you can figure out for yourself if you get away from thinking like everyone else. Everyone wants to focus on galleries, makeing a better gallery trying to compete against 1000 other people, on the same TGP posting the same gallery.

Here is a free tip, that you probably wil not hear from a affiliate rep on increasing your revenue.

take some time to surf the net for msg boards and newsgroups that relate to the product you are trying to sell. Do not spam the board or group, but get involved, talk to people, see what they are posting or talking about, then slowly, start telling people about the place you like to visit (your sponsor), post some pics from it, dont spam, but chat and post like you are into the subject you are discussing.
stay away from heavily spammed groups or boards, because those types of places run off most of the people interested in the subject being discussed.

Or start your own board under the subject you want to promote, eventually it will get users if it does not look like a spam board.

Surfers are not dumb, well, allot of them are not, they know spam when they see it, thats why you get involved in a community, be smart about how you advertise your product.
targeted advertising will make you more money on less traffic.

Get away from the constant competition where everyone is advertising the same exact thing you are and your sales will increase. Its time consuming, but as you are all saying, this is a business, you do what you have to do to make the most money for your time.

I am not saying do not post to TGP's, I am saying, branch out, refocus, realize you have other options. There is no reason to complain about needing a good rep to make you money, you know how you find places you like, use that to advertise your product.

I promise to help any of you promote AmateurWealth. Just signup.

Sponsors hire cute reps they can fuck after hours. I would do the same.

No but their help would be beneficial in tweaking my web pages assuming they know their paysites....

Bingo.....

If you are relying on a rep to make you money then you are in wrong biz

reps should be available! many programs reps are never around when i need them! they dont answer emails and they dont even add me on icq

stumps mad man - stumps mad

Or maybe it's the rep that is in the wrong business if he/she not able to help affiliates make money!

I think the problem is that a lot of programs want to hire a ton of affiliate reps. Instead of hiring 5 average reps, they should hire 1-2 really good reps who know what they are doing. Pay them double or triple.

You'd be surprised how many I've come across that can't answer simple questions like which one of your sites is doing best, which creatives are getting the best CTR, etc.

I made one of my long-winded posts on this topic in another thread a few days ago. I'm feeling lazy, so rather than rewrite the same opinion for this one: http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showpo...1&postcount=28

I'd love to give my hand at being an affiliate rep, hit me up if anyone wants to give me a shot

How in the world can an affiliate rep help reduce your ratios? I've always wondered about that.

There are different kinds of sales reps. Some don't know HTML, some can code PHP and JAVA, others are really good at stats and some are just idea people.

I feel sorry for sales reps that are the only rep the company really has - like Punker Barbie. She's expected to be online nearly twenty-four hours a day. On top of this she is expected to know every aspect of the business from SEO to TGP to Free Sites while trying to manage a marketing campaign for the entire company.

A good sales rep is a jack of all trades, and when they cannot handle a certain problem they hand it off to the right person - and then follow up on it.

Same here.. I have been the only customer service rep for Click Me Media for almost 2 years.. I have to be online alot.. but I love it.

If you think Brandon99 from DatingGold (DG) is cute??? Perhaps ya been hangin with BoyAlley too much these days.

A lot of verbiage in the posts above. Being a lazy sob, I didn't take the time to read every last word.

Say what you will about reps and I might agree for most of them. Then I look at my DG stats and know that Brandon helped them get there. In the end, its about the MONEY for most of us. Make a few friends and that's a bonus. So Brandon, even if you are butt ugly, thanks for the efforts!!!

Now that's suckin up to a good sponsor!

You too can win with DG - Here's the link

Well they should be able to help with what pages to send traffic to amongst other things. I would think that kind of stuff would be the most basic of all things. I've come across affiliate reps who don't even know a particular site is part of their program.

BTW - A DG check arrived in the mail today. That one I drive over to the bank same day. They'll do Epassporte too. I decided to spread risk and have some sponsor checks mailed and some Epass. Seems like more and more offer the Eppasporte these days. Off Topic---