Program Owners,approve affiliate signups or not?
 

We don?t auto-approve our affiliate sign ups here at ProfitsDeluxe to curb fraud. Unfortunately a few of the affiliate signups take this as a personal attack on their integrity. Its not surprising how these mostly come from the noob group while the bigger ones who have had considerable time and experience in the biz don?t mind at all.

Do some of you auto approve your affiliate signups? What are the benefits of this?

If not, what steps do you take before you approve an affiliate sign up?

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

are you revshare or PPS ... ?

many maybe most of the programs that are on manual approval will never get back to you, that is why some affiliates may feel it like attack, and i understand ... :2 cents:

Both

I get with them within 24hrs via email or icq if thats included in their sign up details, except on weekends tho

We manually approve affiliates within 2 business days.
We just want to sort out the legitimate webmasters from the surfers looking for a freebie.

affiliates who take it personally aren't going to be worth having as affiliates. Wouldn't sweat it in the slightest.

Yep.

The other thing is that often the companies who do this are often some of the most unethical ones (this is how it used to be at least). Especially troubling is when they want to see stats with other sponsors when you have other proof which makes it obvious you are legit and have been in the industry for years. It's none of your business how I do with other businesses.

If you are going to do it at least make it very clear on the signup form. It really pisses me off when the program collects my information and then tells me I need to be approved. Tell me in advance because then I may not even want to bother with you. I should know BEFORE giving you my personal and financial information.

edit: And a part of the reason why I want to know if you require approval in advance is due to what Teencat said:

Many of those who require it never get back to you. So the question becomes, WHO did I just give my personal information to and what exactly is going to be done with it? We all know programs in adult often don't have the best ethics or track record.

Its not the ones looking for freebies that we are really concerned with, its the sleeping accounts who would out of nowhere start sending bad joins. They never make it to payout of course but the CBs they create can be a bit of a headache. Thanks for your feedback.

Well,it annoys me only if i want to add some new content really fast on my network.But if i think how some sponsor will bring me good money,then i will follow no matter what kind of demands are.

I normally dislike it because when I sign up for a program, it's because I've noticed a trend somewhere, they have the content / models I need to capitalize on that trend, and waiting 72hrs for a rep to get back in touch with me is unreasonable. I 100% understand why programs do it, though. I'll just promote someone else more heavily that I've already got accounts with in this situation - no skin off my back.

With that said, I've been meaning to check you guys out.

No, we do not ask how they are doing with other companies or who they promote. The red flags are usually those who sign up with a free email account like yahoo or gmail.

What we first is check their declared main url, if its an adult domain, if not we ask what adult domains they own and if that checks out, we ask them if they could email us from [email protected] or [email protected] or whichever is available. If that proves to be too much of a hassle, we simply ask if they could make a temp dir like http://adultdomain.com/profitsdeluxe

Is this too much?

Thanks for your feedback.

We do get back to you as soon as we can (within 24hrs) except on weekends but be assured you will get an email from us first thing monday.

With cam affiliate programs I can imagine them looking into an affiliate's rep, sites, etc. there must be a fuckload of affiliate fraud with cams and dating.

When it comes to paysites here's a good example, from this very day:

4 affiliate signups, including 3 from well known websites.
Prediction: 0 traffic, 0 sales, 0 email responses, 0 activity AT ALL. ZERO.

While I do not claim to have THE best Affiliate Program or Promo Tools available I will say my (3) Affiliate Programs DO have a LOT of tools on them. And yet I see, day after day after day, affiliates signing up - and never grabbing promo tools, never sending traffic, never responding to emails....I mean seriously now: WHY THE FUCK DO PEOPLE SIGNUP AS AFFILIATES THEN DO JACK ZIP AFTER THEY SIGNUP?

As a program Owner it drives me crazy.
Short drive, I know.....:D

No that isn't too much at all. Although many people like free addresses - particularly Gmail for the spam detection. The key is to just be upfront about the requirement and try to get back to people within two business days. If you can do it the same day that is a REALLY good sign to an affiliate.

Hey, feel free to check us out ;-) If you use a proper domain email during signup and you confirm your email, you will most likely be approved without hearing from us for any proof of legitimacy.

I use gmail for all the things in most cases, but I'll setup a forwarder from my main domain to sign up with you guys.

I know right! You're spot on with those numbers too! Thats why we do a review every three months and try to get with the inactive affiliates. We ask them what will it take for them to start. Some reply, some dont, and those that do, 3 out of 4 remain inactive still despite all the talk of sending traffic soon.

Thanks for the feedback, very useful.

Speaking from past experience in general and not specifically about your program:

1. Doesn't have the site I am looking for.
2. Doesn't have the type of promo content I want (type, too big urls on content, not best for my traffic,etc)
3. Payment terms (such as minimum) are not what I am looking for.
4. Laziness (I'll perhaps get to it next month!)
5. Something turned me off (news not updated since 2008, has epassporte, etc)

It depends on how much people can see prior to signing up. Often affiliates have to sign up before they see all the payment terms and promo content available.

This, and especially #2.

I've got a work flow that I've used for 10 years + and any program that slows that down or makes it more complicated, I'm less likely to push traffic towards unless I know that they'll convert well, or they have something I REALLY would like to test / try.

Can't say I've really seen many programs who manually approve do all that, they usually just want me to shoot them an email and let them know how I'll be promoting them (and I just tell them I send organic traffic from blogs) and they'll approve.

That does apply on the majority but you'ld be surprised how some of them will actually send send joins. Respectfully, you may want to reconsider :-)

From those who post their main urls being blogs etc, just them getting back to us is already a good sign. Most wont get back at all but that cant be helped much. After we get to know them more, we can actually tell if they know what theyre talking about or not, and if its convincing, we approve, but keep an eye out just in case. Not a bulletproof plan but it helps a little.

Reword that, I can't get what you're saying. Big traffic affiliates *do* take it personally if you manually approve, is that what you are saying?

If you run a program and do not manually approve affiliates, you're an idiot.

Despite the objections of whiny cunts in this thread.

Sorry, I was pertaining to the small/starting/noob affiliates who take it personally. Didnt mean to confuse you.

Right now we are with ccbill so its an auto approve. Its sad to see really how many sign up and never do anything.

No problem w no-auto-approve IF the account application is reviewed in 24 hours. However I am against it. I am happy if I sign up and can start building creatives and sending hits right then. I don't give a flying fuck if there's a payment hold - this should be the fraud protection imo..

This is perhaps the one reason I wouldn't ever do manual approvals if I had my own program again - simply because I know myself if I am looking for content or a certain site I want to promote, I want to do it while I am there working on it, not 3-4 days later - by then I have filled the spot I was trying to fill.

HOWEVER - nothing says if you auto approve an account and you watch it, check it and all that, that you can't shut it down if you feel jumpy about it, of if you have questions, reach out to the affiliate.

I don't think anything less of a company that does the manual approval - but it does lessen the chances I am going to put links up -

One thing, a cheater is a cheater and they don't give a fuck whether they have to wait a day, a week or whatever time period they have to, if your pps or whatever is high enough, they will wait you out - so it REALLY, in my experience, isn't going to detour them just by making them wait - not that I've seen.

You should know this as well - :thumbsup

Point taken. I know there are more than just a few of you who feel that way and thats why we do our best to get with you within 24hrs. However there a so many webmasters who never reply back after I request them to contact me for approval :(

This is also a very bad attitude to have - just because they have a small website or they are just starting out, it isn't really right to treat them like they are some "Stupid noob", because this is going to bite you in the ass as well. They may be testing you to see how you are treating them now so they know if you treat them better as a whale that you are just licking their asses - treat EVERYONE the same because you just don't know what size sites they have that they are NOT showing you! This is a no brainer!

Careful how you treat them when they are new - :thumbsup

Not sure if you read the thread before you posted this. I did not mention it anywhere that we have ever discriminated anyone for signing up because they are small. Maybe you meant to quote someone else?

Yes I read it, thanks for making me go and show you I did - just saying to have the attitude of trying to decide whether they are "noobs" isn't very good - because they may be testing you! Which is exactly what I said based on exactly what you said.. maybe YOU should have read before you called me out on it. :1orglaugh

That wasn't a sterotype or a discrimination, its a fact that most who take it personally are from either the noob group or small side of the signups we get Also, I dont think being called a noob is a bad thing. We've all started there and if you cant admit that and you very well are, well....

I get what you are saying but I would question this:

1. Doesn't have the site I am looking for.
Then why signup to begin with? Almost every AP has a 'Sites' link where they show the sites they have for promotion.

2. Doesn't have the type of promo content I want (type, too big urls on content, not best for my traffic,etc)
THIS I can understand, especially for those affs who want to make their own creatives. Other than providing raw images/videos I don't see a way around this is affs won't interact and ask for what they do not see. As I stated, I have a fuckload of promo tools on my APs.

3. Payment terms (such as minimum) are not what I am looking for.
Don't most APs list if they are CCBill or NATS programs? Being CCBill the advantages should be obvious.

4. Laziness (I'll perhaps get to it next month!)
5. Something turned me off (news not updated since 2008, has epassporte, etc)
THESE are the real reasons I believe. Can't do anything about an aff's 'laziness' and trying to fix something that turned off this aff or that aff is a fool's game.

So there we are: affs signup like crazy (daily) and do jack squat. Then they turn around and bitch on GFY and elsewhere how the porn biz is dying. Amazing.

Also Tam, pls check post #22

Good points there. Which is why we try to reach those inactive affiliates after 3 months of inactivity asking them why thay aren't promoting us and do they need to start. Feedback we get (if we ever get replies) are gold for the dev team.

We manually approve all webmaster signups.

IMO anybody who has serious interest in promoting our sites wouldn't mind the extra check from our side.

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

You said it right here in this thread, I didn't one time say you disrespected people in a private chat with them - I said mind your words carefully - simply because I have been tested in this very way more than a few times by some VERY big site owners - to just see how I treated the everyday average webmaster when I thought they were new - and calling them noobs here is the same thing -

But you call them what you want, that's all fine, I was trying to help with a question you asked people - you wanted opinions and you didn't say mine wasn't allowed. Won't happen again dear - I was merely trying to help based on my own experience.

But I am done here - you go about your happy little way!

we auto approve and review in detail after.

i hate waiting as i assume do most people.

Good for you!! It's very hard to judge someone before they've even walked into your house - right? :winkwink:

One thing that really annoys me is when sponsors have dead/redirected links to embeds and galleries or galleries with img 404s listed in a dump. If there are too many, it's not worth my time to pick them out.

On a new program i'd even go a step further and close down the complete signup process and make it invite only.

Sure you might miss out on the small time webmaster who makes it big over time but that's hardly happening these days. Besides when they do get big you can still send the invite.

Do you mean review them in detail after a couple a days or so? We used to autoapprove affiliates before but this resulted in some affiliates passing the initial review and later on, usually after a few months of very little or no activity, send us bad joins.

Doesnt it also result in having the need to occasionally re-review ton of affiliates who've passed your initial reviews?

It did for us and we simply couldnt keep up. This resulted in occassional CBs that couldve been prevented in the first place.

If I may ask, what do you look for in affiliate sign ups that result in them remaining as affiliates?

Thanks!

Well to be honest the whole affiliate paysite thing is pretty dead now in comparison to then but one thing to understand is that the long term full time affiliate eventually learned to start being very picky about who they pushed after being fucked over a few times. At least most did. It only took being screwed once or twice to learn.

For the site thing believe it or not but not everyone kept their site listings updated. Also it was often a lack of promo material/tours which matched the site and niche combination we were trying to promote. For instance maybe it was a handjob site but we were looking for something with more of a CFNM angle and there were no banners which did the trick. Sure we could make our own banners but that takes time and there are other sites out there to toss up right now with less hassle. "Maybe I'll get to it next month." See how that works?

I liked to be very picky about things. If I saw that it looked like a secondary processor was in there but that affiliates weren't getting credit I usually passed. You wouldn't believe how many programs this took out. Then there were the ones with banners with huge urls. That meant a pass then unless I felt it would convert well enough that it was worth my time to edit the banners. It also told me that the owner didn't respect me to have those urls on the banner. You might not like it but this really is how a lot of affiliates thought and still do. But most of those guys are long gone from the industry now. Better options.

One thing about pimproll. They didn't convert worth shit for me since about 2008 but they did the promo thing right. It was easy to get tools by niche or site from them and they had a ton of banners. You probably wouldn't believe how much making it EASY increased the chances of affiliates promoting you back then. It made a huge difference! So bottomline - if you are serious still about getting affiliates and them actually promoting you then "make it as easy as possible to do so." Common sense sometimes isn't very common though!

You guys are HUGE and you can do whatever you want :)

Maybe some day we can afford to completely go to invite only, perhaps not with PD, but just like you, maybe for a new program. We do have quite a few whales on board who cover about 80% of our joins just by themselves. They surely will be the ones we'll invite first if ever.

i hope not everyone will go private and invite only in the future. it will mean small affiliates will have no chance to grow, and become whale, then affiliate model will be totally dead and it will not help adult business as the serps will be overtaken by pirates, and doesnt matter what someone thinks, search traffic is and always will be the king :2 cents:

I would't know -- when you don't do PPS affiliate fraud is not a big problem ...

Most people start out with good intentions but when it comes to getting work done -- they have other interests (apparently.)

I hear what you are saying. It's just a shame so many signup and do nothing. Why bother?

Yes but other than YOU please name an affiliate who started out a guppy and became a whale in the past 3 years. That's the problem there, too. I am in agreement with you, in principle, but the reality is most affiliates now stay at whatever level they are at and rarely grow to 'whale' status anymore.

It's a vicious cycle: affs don't grow, programs don't help affs grow.