Gothweb,

Thanks for starting (and continuing) this thread. I've been getting ready to revamp our own affilliate program site and all of this advice is great.

We have quite a few affiliates and the ones that send decent traffic do great on sales, but I'm fully aware that our web site for the program is pretty lame at this point. We offer 40% as a main and go up from there for the people really pushing our stuff. Plus we have a 5% webmaster referral in place.

What I've been thinking of doing lately is tightening up the reigns a bit and not just letting anyone into the program. In order to join there would have to be a certain level of traffic supplied, and in return we'd set up those who get in with nice percentages reflecting the effort they're putting in. That would also cut down on the number of people promoting the site, so it doesn't get so watered down after a while to mean horrible ratios. We wouldn't have as many people spreading the word, but those that would be would reap the benefits.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on, but I'm enjoying this thread and I wish you the best of luck with your program. Hell I signed up for it a while ago but haven't yet found the right place to promote (we only have a few sites), but I do really like your stuff. :)

Jak

It has been a real learning experience for me, and hopefully most of the info is useful to a general audience. I think that is why threads like these work... I mean, who wants to spend their time on her just helping "Gothweb"... but helping out a few people who are reading, that's cool.

So, when you going to make a StripKitten based on one of our girls so we can do a little cross promotion? ;)

By the way, I am currently too stupid to find the right option on the site, but I should have the webmaster referral working some time tomorrow. Should I do 10% or 5%? And should I multi-tier it or not? What do people like?

As a webmaster promoting affiliate programs, I won't touch a sponsor that has a "one month non recurring option". I get screwed in the end? Why. Cookies, simple as that. The person signs up, I get credit at 50% less billing fees. so that is like $8. No, much, but over 8 months, that will add up. If the person joins, and only does a 1 month to try it out. Boom, I get $8. They come back next month and join again or join with recurring, the cookie that lets me get credit is now gone. Boom, I get $8, the paysite gets all the rest of the money. I spent hard work to get that surfer to join, now I am getting the shaft. Don't have an affiliate program with a 1 month or less no rebill. I don't mind places that have a 3 month non-rebill. I still prefer if their 3 month is a rebilling option though.
My $0.02 canadian, worth less then $0.01 American.
ZoiNk

I agree. This is a damn good thread! :D

I just opened stormyfriday.com

And do all the work myself. No expert (obviously) and most of the ppl here are light years ahead of me. But... I make a buck. :)

Thing is I am testing the site for what kind of traffic works best for me. Softcore is choice of course, works well with what the site is about, but its hard to find decent links. But I also have only been tweaking for the last 15 days and have not spent hardly any time getting more traffic. I just want to find some good amateur teen sites to trade with and am having a damn hard time finding them.

After reading this thread, I realize my affiliate program looks pathetic. :(

here

Fuck. lol.

At any rate, just wanted to say to Goth that I love your site and will sign up to promote it mate! :) Also, that this thread has helped alot of us out I am sure...

Not to take away from the main idea of the thread but if anyone wants to help my ass, PLEASE SIGN UP or tell me what to do different to make my site bad ass! PUH-LEASE! :)

ICQ: 144735794
email: [email protected]

I am beat, see ya'll tomorrow!

Smiley

I have talked with CCBill about this, and you need not worry. I am assured that the cookie lasts even after the initial sale. As such, *all* sales within six months are credited, even repeat non-recurring sales, of which we get a lot. That is why we have such a long-term cookie, as is explained on the page.

See what you started Gothweb? LOL

Smiley,

We work with softcore traffic a lot, and there is actually a lot of it out there, you just have to know where to look. If I were you, I would go to Jane's Gide, get listed ASAP, and also take a look around for well-reviewed sites similar to yours. The hunt starts there, and should end with some good traffic.

A few places to look...
http://www.indienudes.com
http://www.eroticandy.com
http://www.amateurempire.com
http://erotic.ranks.com

Also, check out exit the popup on GothicAmateur.com
http://www.gothicamateur.com/links.html
you should find some good sites on there, with URLs I can't remember off the top of my head.

As for your affiliate program page, that is what I had for almost two years, and it got me a few really good affiliates. (Well, probably talking to people did, but I got by with a page like that.) Recently, I beefed the page up a little, and it was horrible. All of this new site is brand new as of yesterday. I decided to give the affiliate program as much attention as a small actual site, since it is at least as important.

I am glad you like the site, and look forward to having you aboard as a partner. Let me know if you need anything, and if you find anything useful to be missing from Blood Money.

Thanks,
Ian

Okay. I am ready to add a webmaster referral bonus to the program. However, I still haven't decided what percentage to go with. I am sure most people would prefer to get 10%, but is 5% also reasonable? Here's your chance to convince me how to go...

I think anyone here is going to tell you 10%. Is there a button for my sig I can use?

here's the animated button, my bandwidth of course...

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-m...lood-money.gif
http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-m...lood-money.gif

(Looks best with a border of 1 around it, in my opinion.)

If you want to hone-in on just one of the features, check out this directory for some useful non-animated images...

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/jpegs/

As for the webmaster referral thing.. I am leaning towards 10% anyhow. It looks like, though I am not sure, that the cookie you get from regular referral links work as webmaster referrals. If that is the case, then just use your referral code to link directly to http://www.blood-money.com

You mispelled "Partners?"

Yes, it appears I did. Though I prefer to think of it as a typo. ;) I have already fixed the still jpeg, gimme a sec to fix the animated gif as well.

When the create new account button works on your signup page I will link your porogram.

ICQ me when it is all good. 164717763

I know that page isn't working, and it pisses me off. CCBill's helpful answer was "tell them to hit 'back' and reload and try again"... I will see if I can get something better out of my rep than that. In the meantime, re-loading does often seem to work.

In other news... the 10% Webmaster referral is live. Its on the site, its in the banners, and the back-end is switched on. Hope that it some incentive for people to put the program in their sigs. ;)

Still no worky, tried the refresh thingy too. Lemme know when you are done kicking CCBill's ass.

Will-do. Sorry about this. :(

On the up-side, my rep Sean E. has been very helpful lately, so hopefully we will get some resolution on this. In my opinion, the user end of their referral programs nead a heck of a lot of work. The different codes aren't clear, the linking between codes is funky, and that form sucks. Hopefully with more people starting to seriously use their referral features, that end will get cleaned up. The back end, on the other hand, is really tight. Can't beat it.

:karaoke

:Oh crap

GW, you know what I mean:winkwink:

Yeah, man. I love to sing too. ;)


Anyhow, back to work... Can anyone who has gotten errors with my CCBill form let me know more specifics. My rep needs details, and I don't really have any.

Update: Oh, hey.. I see. Click on the new member link, and it goes back to the same page. I'll work that out as quickly as I can. Hopefully existing CCBill partners can sign up okay.

Got the gif, I will link it when I can get a referal code off your site.

Funny enough I've been thinking the same thing myself. :)

http://www.stripkittens.com/temp/blackkitty.jpg

Jak

Ratboy, and others. The form is all fixed, and the 10% webmaster referral is live. Now is a good time to see how insanely you can pimp this program in your sig and elsewhere, and get in on the future of an up-and-coming program.

Jak-- We have to talk! This would be some cool stuff. Starting to look like GemmyC, there... though she's got a fuller figure. ;) I'd love to do some cross-promotion if you're up for it.

Hey There

The site looks good and unique!!

Hit me up on Icq 162898694
for any Sponsorship questions!!

Take Care

Tony

Okay. Nest step... Pimping the ol' links. That is to say... What are the best places to submit this program for a link on webmaster resource sites? And hey, if you beat me to a site, you get your 10% off anyone who joins through them, right? ;)

Can't name names here, bad form (they have their own message boards usually).

Heh. Good point.

I have added us to a few sites. Their recips are on the bottom of the page. If anyone knows of any more that are especially worthwhile, please let me know. Like my content, it doesn't matter how good this program is if nobody sees it! ;)

UPDATE: Heh. I don't wanna blow my 1000th post, so I have to add this as a comment in here...

Someone from DarkDollars drop me a line. I want to swap links with your program. I'd rather work with similar programs than compete. Plenty of room for love. ;)

UPDATE 2: Whoops. Looks like I blew it somehow anyways. Wonder which post I miscounted on?

What now?

This is a great thread. This board has had some of the best threads I have have ever seen on any board and also some of the dumbest.

It is great how helpful people have been. It can be rare on this board, but it does happen. In some ways, its not the greatest thread, because it is just people helping out one guy stumbling around his affiliate program. In general, though, I am really impressed with how helpful people have been.

For me, it was a great boon. Normally, I can at least bounce ideas off my girlfriend. She is out of town this week, though, which led me to bounce ideas off of some industry professionals, instead. Probably a little more useful... ;)

The program is off and running. It is a much better program than I had before at any stage, and I think it should be able to compete. It doesn't have the biggest payouts, and I can't run a drawing to win a car, but it is a solid program, with good payouts, and plenty of the features people want. It wouldn't have turned out like this without all the help I got right here.

There is still a lot to do, though...

I need more free content packs. So, in the next week, I will work on those and make them available. Hopefully, I can make the content usage clear, and have more of the stuff people need ready for download when they want it.

I will also be toying with the pricing on the sites, to make sure it makes as much money as possible, so we can all prosper from the program. Along with that, of course, I will do what I can to make the sites convert better and better, in terms of layout, content, and so on. Hopefully, my new partners in this program will feel free to offer suggestions to make this work well for all of us.

goth.... i'd never thought i'd find myself on a straight goth site but..... cuz of this damn thread... there I was...

You've got a majorly kewl site, great gifs, and the referral page looks good to.

Congrats definately in order!

I hope you used MY sig:helpme

Gothweb, new marketing idea: "Blood-money... so good it turns gay men straight!"

jk Archer.

That's what I like to hear, thank you! :) I figure if someone who is, uh, into a different niche (so to speak ;) ) appreciates the site, I am doing something right. Thans for the praise. Let me know if you see anything I should work on.

Heh. I don't think so. Though... my cooking does that with vegetarians... ;)

So, anyone want to keep helping me out? I'm looking for constructive criticism before I actually officially launch this puppy. What are the two biggest problems with this program? Hurt me, baby.

The Gothic Amatuers banners could be better. The Undine banner rocks by the way. O, and ICQ me.

You don't like the GA banners? I find them to be waay nicer than most of the Blood Dolls banners. Maybe that's just me.

I like the Undine banner best because your artistic photography shows more in it. Also, skin sells better than fonts any day.

I'd put it this way... The highest quality banners are the GA ones. The best converting ones will be the newer Blood Dolls ones. The worst of them all are the early Blood Dolls ones. We live and learn. I leave them all there so webmasters can decide what will work for them.