you can't even begin to compare percentage cuts between digital "goods" and other finite products in the "real world".... one could even argue for the side that an affiliate with a surfer that is ready to buy could even command a higher "cut" than 50/50 :2 cents:

Software is digital goods. I don't see Microsoft paying out a 50/50 split.

microsoft is a monopoly when it comes to most of their main product line, but if there were 1000 microsoft's competing equally on the net and selling their software digitally through downloads, you would see 50/50 and higher for affiliates I am pretty sure :2 cents:

These days, music is also digital goods.

Does iTunes have a 50/50 affiliate program? Or do you consider them a monopoly too?

There are a lot of software companies out there who offer similar products to one another and not a single one has a 50/50 program that I am aware of.

It's in affiliate's best interest to say there should be no watermark. It's in the program's interest to protect and brand their content.

You have fair people and unfair people. Fair people, IMO, will agree branding content is OK. Affiliates who try to squeeze every penny out, or who are struggling themselves, won't think its fair. People act in their own best interest. Affiliate programs have to be fair or else they risk losing affiliates. The main disconnect is some affiliates think affiliate programs are cake, and we are making money hand over fist - it just isnt true. Both sides need to make money. I'll say one thing, you can argue until you are blue in the face, every successful company will continue to brand - the biggest adult companies are the biggest brands, and you cannot argue with success. Also, all their success is predicated on the brand - you take away that, and they would all be in much more precarious situations :2cents

Brazzers, Bang Bros, Adult Friend Finder, Playboy, Hustler, Live Jasmine - I can go on and on. If you want to be a market player, you need a brand.

itunes doesn't even use affiliates, do they? seems to me they are all about huge money mainstream advertising and placement, whole different game, and in the realm of legal music catalog sales they are in a limited competition situation as well....

This thread is ridiculous, if you don't like how a program marks THEIR content, don't promote them. :2 cents:

You appear to be completely missing the point.

I don't give a rats ass if it's digital goods or not. There are PLENTY of mainstream products that are not digital goods and that compete with others and still have huge mark ups. 50/50 is more than MOST affiliates are worth.

uh, not if they haven't clicked through a link code yet... I mean, duh.

Itunes does have an affiliate program through LinkShare. Their payout is 5%...

So true. You can make more with $20 of content and your own shitty little avs than with any large sites. No leaks. :2 cents:

but if I was a large program owner, I'd do the same thing. Its business, not broness.

we spend a ton of money on producing original content and most of our effort is to be sure the affiliates have what they need to promote the site. funny I was just telling someone in the office that we should have our water mark on the screen caps. I guess there are two perspectives on this issue. I'm pretty sure if we caught affiliates removing out watermarks we would terminate their account. As far as I know the only affiliates we have had to terminate so far are ones that have 1:10 ratios and were sending fraudulent signups. But anyone using our content without linking to the site would be a big issue.

what about banners where the url takes up half the banner, what a traffic leak that is. what i do instead is create my own banners. voila.

The thing that's I find most bewildering about this entire debacle is that the power is in YOUR HANDS as an affiliate to do as you wish.

Let me highlight:
OK, so you're promoting bangbus, but it's watermarked as bangbros.com.

You've got three options here.
#1 - You decide to drop the program
OK, that's your choice. It's probably not the smartest thing to do, if they convert, but this is a choice you have. Noone is forcing you to promote them.

#2 - Promote the site in a fashion ALA CCBill
Get a redirect link setup, where the cookie is set before, on their domain, so if someone types-in, your cookie is there.
Yes, this may skew your stats, but that's why you have campaigns. More data: more results.

#3 - You embed an image in your page that sets a cookie for bangbros.com
That way, if the surfer types in bangbros.com - your cookie is magically there.
There's no secret to this - I *always* did this when promoting galleries to prevent leaks

So in a simple situation, you've got multiple options, and multiple ways to solve the problem.

Summary:
- Sometimes, you have to look to yourself for answers.
- You're in the game to make money via promoting sites.
- Sites are in the game to make money via promoting their brand

Be proactive. Speak to your sponsor, fix the problem, and chuckle at the next person who complains about the issue on the board, because you know you have the edge over them in business because you overcame the similar problem yourself..

Don't be a douche and spew crap over a board.

No doubt.

Say your linking code is: http://discount.teengfs.com/track/MzoyOjE/

Put this in your HTML:
<img src="http://discount.teengfs.com/track/MjoxOTox/" width="0" height="0" />

Load up that HTML page, and then type in: www.teengfs.com

Just like magic, your cookie is already there.

Oh shit, I hope I don't get killed by the brotherhood of oldschoolers for letting this one slip ;)

i stopped using free content because of watermarks. You really don't need any content at all to make sales....

I guess this is the reason I'm so perplexed about this 'issue' - it's not a problem at all.
You embed a link code in an image - hell, embed it w/ a campaign - and then not only do you get the typein traffic, but you also get to measure it...

BTW, just wait until you work out the effects of the tip above. It's called cookie crunching: you embed thousands of links to every major porn site out there on your page, so if the surfer happens to typein www.brazzers.com after being on your site (or whenever) - he's already cookied to you....

Edit: ...100 reasons to not run crying to a board

You can't promote Brazzers.com. There is no link code for it. Programs set their own affiliate code on type-ins these days.. So you're old school method is useless when the program is out to actually force more type ins from your traffic and then take those sales for themselves.

Maybe I picked a bad example..
In any case, the site that all the 'drama' started over yesterday: pornpros - the technique works perfectly for them, and i'd imagine 99% of sites out there.

At the end of the day, it doesn't sound like there's any pleasing you.
Seems you need to take the option number 1, and promote someone else.

For the others, they'll maximize their toolkits and their revenue.

So let me get this straight. The ones that spend all the money to produce the content, encode it, and provide it to their members AND their affiliates shouldn't put their name on it? Wow. All I gotta say.

Really, right? :disgust

You clearly don't read much..

There is pleasing me... I do maximize my "toolkit" and revenue.. perhaps you didn't read the thread fully.

I guess you didn't read the first post in this thread!!!!

I don't give a shit about watermarks so long as it's for the same site I am promoting, however, annoys the fucking shit out of me when a program uses watermarks to something not even related to what's being promoted.. I seen one of pimprolls sites videos using watermarks to a massivedollars site..

Wildcash watermarks theirs with movieprofits urls and aebn videos have urls to a vast variety of paysites from many programs.. the list is long..

Yawn ..

Which is about the value of your contribution to this thread... :1orglaugh

Sorry nig. Programs, and content owners need to stay in business for the long haul.

Branding and protecting content is part of it. This is long term planning. Not single minded vision for the 1 time PPS for some affiliate who may, or may not, promote you next month.

Their need, and desire to watermark their content supersedes the affiliates wish list IMHO.

:2 cents:

No, you're just tiresome. Getting fucked over by a sponsor? Move on.
Seriously..

Holy crap, your trying to be serious arnt you?

Can you tell me what you run etc.. I'd like to fuck you over... let you know I'm doing while I'm doing it... watch you take it and move on...

You didn't read the thread. I'm sure it's a pattern!

Lots of tempest and turbulence in this thread ;)

Bingo... The nice thing about GFY is you can just let er loose every once and awhile..

It's simple...

When you invest the massive time, effort and money it takes to create the content in the first place, you can put your name on it (or whoever you like).

But since we carry the lion's share of the financial responsibility to produce what we do, our name goes on the final product.

If you don't like the watermarking, go buy all your own content like older affiliates had to back in the day.