GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - NATS vs. MPA3 vs. Executive Stats

Courday · 04-12-2006, 05:39 PM

(I am coming out of hiding for this discussion again.)

Around September '04 we began looking for a turnkey affiliate program. We found MPA2/3 and determined that it was indeed the type of solution we were looking for. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), we were not able to come up with the funds nor were MPA and ourselves able to come to an agreement as it related to payment terms. So we dropped the idea focusing instead on improving our existing affiliate system on our own (bad idea when you?re not a serious programmer).

We were at the Jan '05 Internext when we came across the Zend booth (creators of PHP). We spoke with a gentleman there by the name of David Goodman. We explained to him that we were looking to get some custom PHP apps created to better our existing affiliate program. The conversation quickly turned to turnkey 3rd party affiliate applications. He immediately recommended Too Much Media and their NATS application. Stating that Nathan (Head Developer at TMM) was "the best" PHP developer he had ever met.

We found TMM to be very eager to work with us and our budget constraints. We came to an agreement and had our installation one month later. I personally am a feature/upgrade junky. This addiction was (and continues to be) very satisfied simply because the NATS application is actively being developed and refined on all fronts constantly.

We have been running two (of our own) merchant accounts for the last 6 years (only using 3rd Party billers/ISPS's when necessary for 900, Online Checks and such), which are interfaced with Netbilling (#1 & #2), Paycom (#2 only) & Jettis (#1 only). Too Much Media quickly revised there cascading feature to give us the ability to push our signups through a seamless/transparent "gateway/biller" cascade. This means we get four chances to convert the customers sign up attempt before they ever see a response from our system. We have found that on average over the last 12 months that 1 out of every 5 sales has been "saved" by the cascade. This feature alone justified the capitol outlay and efforts to get the new software in place.

As it relates to product support, I don't know where they find the time (honestly). Its mind blowing to me to think that they are developing, installing and supporting their products and still keeping everyone so happy. I have never once had a complaint about their operation. Even when I feel that I am really pushing the "support envelope" I never experience a lag in there response time.

Getting to the topic of members section security and authentication. We have been using a couple Apache modules by the name of Hack Detect and Hack Protect. The served there purpose for many years but, over the last 12 months we have seen an increasing number of compromised member accounts. Too Much Media's solution for this is SPARTA (also an Apache module). We have not seen a huge bandwidth spike since rolling it out! There really isn't that much to say about this product other than that it solved our problems in this area (see members.strapon.com for an example of our new login page).

StraponCash.com is a two man operation (one person for all affiliate support, "site partner" support, customer support and member/tour updates and one person to handle all the internal business operations). I reveal this because I think it clearly illustrates that one person (with NATS) can run the whole show! Not forgetting to mention that a solution of this caliber is not limited to big budgets and giant operations.

We are not "get under the hood" guys. NATS keeps us from screwing any of the backend up by making sure to provide us with access to everything we could possibly need in the admin interface.

I think on of the biggest things NATS has done for us is bring clarity as it relates to the fruits of our labors. We can now truly see what is working and what is not!

Our affiliate payouts have more than doubled in the last 5 months and we have had record breaking months (in terms of gross revenues) the last 4 months in a row! Now just to keep things in perspective our margins aren't what they used to be but we are defiantly back on track relative to the money we were "netting" 3 and 4 years ago.

I hope you found this post informative and feel free to contact me directly [email protected] at anytime if you have any questions.

Courday
StraponCash.com / Adult Ventures, Inc.

04-12-2006, 05:39 PM
Courday Registered User Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 3	Our Experience with NATS (I am coming out of hiding for this discussion again.) Around September '04 we began looking for a turnkey affiliate program. We found MPA2/3 and determined that it was indeed the type of solution we were looking for. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending how you look at it), we were not able to come up with the funds nor were MPA and ourselves able to come to an agreement as it related to payment terms. So we dropped the idea focusing instead on improving our existing affiliate system on our own (bad idea when you?re not a serious programmer). We were at the Jan '05 Internext when we came across the Zend booth (creators of PHP). We spoke with a gentleman there by the name of David Goodman. We explained to him that we were looking to get some custom PHP apps created to better our existing affiliate program. The conversation quickly turned to turnkey 3rd party affiliate applications. He immediately recommended Too Much Media and their NATS application. Stating that Nathan (Head Developer at TMM) was "the best" PHP developer he had ever met. We found TMM to be very eager to work with us and our budget constraints. We came to an agreement and had our installation one month later. I personally am a feature/upgrade junky. This addiction was (and continues to be) very satisfied simply because the NATS application is actively being developed and refined on all fronts constantly. We have been running two (of our own) merchant accounts for the last 6 years (only using 3rd Party billers/ISPS's when necessary for 900, Online Checks and such), which are interfaced with Netbilling (#1 & #2), Paycom (#2 only) & Jettis (#1 only). Too Much Media quickly revised there cascading feature to give us the ability to push our signups through a seamless/transparent "gateway/biller" cascade. This means we get four chances to convert the customers sign up attempt before they ever see a response from our system. We have found that on average over the last 12 months that 1 out of every 5 sales has been "saved" by the cascade. This feature alone justified the capitol outlay and efforts to get the new software in place. As it relates to product support, I don't know where they find the time (honestly). Its mind blowing to me to think that they are developing, installing and supporting their products and still keeping everyone so happy. I have never once had a complaint about their operation. Even when I feel that I am really pushing the "support envelope" I never experience a lag in there response time. Getting to the topic of members section security and authentication. We have been using a couple Apache modules by the name of Hack Detect and Hack Protect. The served there purpose for many years but, over the last 12 months we have seen an increasing number of compromised member accounts. Too Much Media's solution for this is SPARTA (also an Apache module). We have not seen a huge bandwidth spike since rolling it out! There really isn't that much to say about this product other than that it solved our problems in this area (see members.strapon.com for an example of our new login page). StraponCash.com is a two man operation (one person for all affiliate support, "site partner" support, customer support and member/tour updates and one person to handle all the internal business operations). I reveal this because I think it clearly illustrates that one person (with NATS) can run the whole show! Not forgetting to mention that a solution of this caliber is not limited to big budgets and giant operations. We are not "get under the hood" guys. NATS keeps us from screwing any of the backend up by making sure to provide us with access to everything we could possibly need in the admin interface. I think on of the biggest things NATS has done for us is bring clarity as it relates to the fruits of our labors. We can now truly see what is working and what is not! Our affiliate payouts have more than doubled in the last 5 months and we have had record breaking months (in terms of gross revenues) the last 4 months in a row! Now just to keep things in perspective our margins aren't what they used to be but we are defiantly back on track relative to the money we were "netting" 3 and 4 years ago. I hope you found this post informative and feel free to contact me directly [email protected] at anytime if you have any questions. Courday StraponCash.com / Adult Ventures, Inc.