When joining an affiliate program, what matters the most?
 

Which information do you want to know about an affiliate program before you join?

Are they reputable, do they pay on time, do they answer emails promptly and do they have all the tools required to promote them successfully.

In reading a review, what sort of tools are you looking for. Would you want to see samples or just a list of them like banners, flash, rss, xml, etc...

Unique content
Payments on time
Updating sites
Don't fuck over me or my traffic

anything else like cookies info, white label programs identified, commission rates?

Do you pay
Do you convert


The rest is not that big a deal these days.

Just one.. Pay on time :)

good feedback. Thank you

Reputation
Access to content for promotion
Openness - If I ask for a login for the members area, my request should be granted. If I send traffic I want to know that what you're offering will convert AND retain. I never take an affiliate manager's word for that. I check it out for myself and make a decision.

Payout options are also important :pimp

- Reputation: do you pay?

- Do you convert? Are your tours optimized for the niche you are targeting or are just you hoping to take advantage of a popular niche without understanding the niche?

Also: if you don't pay on secondary billers: mention that in your faq so we can avoid you.

Be honest. People remember if you are, people will never forget when you aren't.

- promo tools available?
Are they useful or are you just cranking out high numbers of half baked tools in an attempt to get as many affiliates as possible?

In other words: A Sponsors with only 10 FHGs that were designed to convert and have matching descriptions will get more traffic from me than a sponsor with 10000 FHGs with crappy autogenerated descriptions.

Banners... Make sure people actually want to click those. and make it easy for your affiliates to download them. For example: put them all on 1 huge page or make them all available in a zip file. Nothing worse than having to click 4 times per banner or per banner size to be able to download them.

Links: Make it easy for us to export the links for all your sites. Having to click and copy for each site gets old real fast. Put "Sitename,url\nNetsite,url\nNextsite,url\netc" in a textarea so we can quickly copy and paste all links.

Hosted FLVs: we love them.

Members area access: if an affiliate asks for it and has a good reason, why not?

- Payouts: paxum, paypal etc...

Minimum payouts of $50 are fine. Minimum payouts of $200 are just a way to hang on to your affiliate's money a little longer :(
Want to prevent fraud? Fine, do your research before you send the (first) payment, but don't use the fraud argument to set $200 minimum payouts.
Some of us don't like to put all of our eggs in one basket and promote hundreds of programs (both adult and mainstream) and there's nothing worse than having $184 sit in your accounts because a certain sponsor suddenly stopped converting.

- tours:
If you change a tour, please make sure the old tour is still available as well. More tours = more options for your affiliates. More tours = a better chance your affiliates can match their traffic to your site. It's not as if keeping the old tour up will cost you anything, you already had it designed.

- the NATS payments page: don't hide it.

- Convert!

- Convert!

- Convert! It's better to get $10 per sale on a site that does 1:75 than $175pps on a site that does 1:15000.

- sound on tours or autoplaying trailers: don't do it.

As mentioned above, do you pay, do you convert and do I have more then a email way to contact you. I don't promote anyone that I don't have multiple ways to contact.

sounds like your looking to promote www.nichewealth.com then

how often they pay and what they pay with

:thumbsup:thumbsup stunningly well thought out response. Thank you

I wanted to point out that a lot of what the affiliates in this thread are looking for applies very well to our program. We have been around since 1996, we have a reputation for being available, helpful, honest and paying on time. So gaffg, if you are looking for other affiliate programs to review I would like you to consider our program. Dennis, Ralph and myself would be happy to provide any information or help you might need. :thumbsup

#1 is getting paid
#2 is they have a history of paying
#3 see #1 & #2 :thumbsup

good sites
good ratios
payout options
some tools like rss, banners, hosted vids etc
honest rep

I have read all of the above points in detail, and I agree with pretty much all of them - HOWEVER...

When it comes to the most IMPORTANT thing I look for in an affiliate program... ALL OF THE ABOVE TAKE SECOND PLACE.

Wanna Know what is FIRST PLACE???










The most important thing, is that there is a HOT, FEMALE, SEXY rep, assigned to my account, who will flirt with me, in order for her to get my traffic !

That means, I can hit her up, at all times of the day and night,
as and when I choose, and talk utter bollocks to her... But she will be nice to me, and put up with my nonsense, simply because SHE IS PAID TO DO SO!

THAT... Is the most important thing I look for in an affiliate program...

Honesty may hurt, but its TRUE!

Lets be 100% honest... JUST LOOK AT MY AVATAR!

Do you think I can get ANY FEMALE INTEREST Elsewhere???

EXACTLY... Give me a pretty face and a flirty attitude, and I, and my traffic, are YOURS!

I dont live in denial... I live in reality !!!

My experience with webmasters are similar to above

1) payout on time - accurate and trusted with flexibility
2) Honesty, respected - knowledgeable rep's with good work ethic
3) Proper up to date tools to help sell
4) Product whether it's tangible or digital - needs to be good
5) Traffic is respected
6) NAT's covers most of the above anyways
7) 24 to 48 turn around time in response or less
8) As much assistance as possible in converting
9) Sorry but hot rep's don't matter if they aren't making you money or answering your questions. I have no problem with attractive women but if they don't do their job at the end of the day - you're not making money - pay for a stripper if you have to

Pay on time. Pay all money owed. Convert. Revshare should not have any time limit.

Aside from Nats what other backends are there?

In addition to the previous comments above, these are some other important factors to consider.

- reputation with customers - Is it hard for a customer to cancel? Is a customer fraudulently charged with unexpected cross sales? If the sponsor will fuck over a customer, they might fuck over their affiliates too.

- reputation with models / performers - Are there payment issues with models or performers?

- leak-free tours - Are there links on the tours that overwrite my affiliate cookie, go to a different site in the sponsor's program without my affiliate tracking code or go to any other sites where I won't get paid? Are toll phone numbers displayed without an extension (affiliate code) on sites that sell physical goods?

Awiz, ElevatedX, MPA and porncms to name a few

What are some of the common payment methods available?

is mobile available on most programs in any form?

Any ideas of what percentages of programs will provide access to content?

Someone was talking to me about a program recently so while he was typing away, I went to the program site just to read their TOS. Lo and behold there was no TOS. There was a place for affiliates to join the program, but no link to TOS.

I dont know what to say about it other than.. if a program doesnt have a TOS for prospective affiliates to read, then thats what matters most, haha.

1) Give me sites that sell.
2) Know your niche. I know if you're faking it, so will surfers.
3) Pay me on time.
4) Site access or content zips.
5) Banners - lots of sizes
6) If I don't know you, know of you, or find someone who does, good chance I'm not going to give you a shot unless you have something beyond amazing to sell.

paxum is good.
okpays is good.
paypal is good if you use a nonadult email address.
some people like checks.
wires are good for larger amounts.

Good point.

btw: traffic leaks include links to twitter accounts, facebook pages etc.

I covered that, but thanks for clarifying it for others.

Another important issue is cookie duration. You know a sponsor is fucking the affiliate if their cookie is for session only or 1-day. I try to steer clear of programs with cookies shorter than 30 days.

Reputation is # 1. Period.

Sites I believe my audience will like, not just the tours, but the members areas.

Reliable payment.

Plausible payout threshold.

FHGs.

Standard IAB banner sizes.

No leaks in tours, including exits. SpookyCash pays on exit traffic and I expect programs I promote to do so as well.

have something that will actually sell and you actually pay on time. the rest is gravy/

Why they ask for my SSN or Tax id. :1orglaugh

I hate when they ask you that on a non-ssl page. :321GFY

If they are actually still in business.

:1orglaugh

Thanks for putting the time to post in this thread guys... I can admit fully we need to make some changes...

Are you freaking serious!?

payout methods
what tools they have (and how many, eg how many flash videos)
and contact email. some only have forms, this is annoying.