Private vs Public sponsor program?

[Sausage]

Is there a situation where we should not publicly push for affiliates?

We have been testing a couple of our new paysites for a few months now, and the signup ratios, trial to full ratios and initial retention is like nothing I have had before (a good thing). We have invited 2 affiliates to promote us, and that has largely been done on LL's and TGP, while we have done the testing on SE etc. The invited affiliates are enjoying the same conversions and retention we have been.

The ratios are fantastic, but I am afraid that if we accept any old joe as an affiliate the ratios we are enjoying now could be damaged. If we just had a handful of affiliates at these ratios I would be very happy indeed!

Better to be a private program or public program given this good start? I have never had to manage a private program before and only have experience with running public sponsorship progs .. so does anyone here run invite only programs that do well or have experience with them ?

[Raven]

If you've got webmasters who can send you traffic that isn't shit, I would create a private affiliate program...Invite only.

[Jimbo]

alot of programs push their paysite trough paid spots and shit while it's converting before recruting affiliates. Sounds shitty when you think of it as an affiliate, but thats often the case.

Thats why Big programs always did great for me, they have so much sites that when one comes out they give it straight to affiliates.

Maybe I'm just drunk, but that sounds like the reality to me right now.

[Krusty]

actually, I've recently been promoting both private and public programs.. I have to say that the private programs EASILY outperform the public ones!

[OzMan84]

post some private programs? and some not so well known public programs

[Sausage]

Originally posted by OzMan84
post some private programs? and some not so well known public programs

Nah I wont post the prog on here sorry.

So the general consensus is to keep it private until maybe conversions are down then put it out there. Cool

[Adult Site Traffic]

Originally posted by Raven
If you've got webmasters who can send you traffic that isn't shit, I would create a private affiliate program...Invite only.

I agree up to the point that you need enough of this traffic to make things happen.

[besterman]

the best arrangement is semi-public - have a page with a form, anybody can request to be an affiliate and then you screen them and make a decision based on what other sites people run, how they will promote, etc..