how many affiliate programs are there, in total?
 

looks like shitloads, more than ever. also looks like many are setting up programs on a shoe string budgets.

do any of these cash-starved programs manage to take off these days?

lots :) and how many of them shave? or dont payout?

You should have worked "x-box" into your thread title... Would have elicited more responses.

At Sponsors List.com, there are over 800 in the database and you can see who is out there by niche...

yep. and there is far more than that...

People are too lazy to get their own traffic.

remember the pib cash stats? more amazing than the supposed shaving, was the traffic. it was a fucking joke. and they were supposedly a successful program at the time.

Weren't they doing like $16K a month for the whole program or something? I'd go and look for it but the damn search is still broken.

something like that. hilarious.

IF I recall some of the stats showed less than 16K and we're talking GROSS profits too. :uhoh

I think many programmes nowadays are pretty much self-reliant on getting their own sales and look upon their programmes as bonus traffic/sales etc.
We have been working that way since we started in 96. It was only a few months ago we actually started any form of promoting the programme - And it did have some kind of effect on the way we work. As the % sales of partner sales grew higher, and our own sales diminished (only as per %), we found ourselves working twice as hard to create more of our own sales! (Which meant spending less time on the programme - )
But - we do realise the importance of the programme and will be launching something very unique in a few days time - Very much a partner marketing tool which is a completely new idea -
If it works, we will quickly move to 100% partner orientation - If it doesn't, we don't lose anything - But I am confident about this being quite a popular addition -

:)

i don't think it is mathematically possible for a progg ie to payout anything over $25 per sign up and not shave :2 cents:

times are a changing!

programs better learn fast!

I think over 1 million all around the world

thats not great when you conisder all the work involved you can do that from tgp galleries

It is a point that many members signing on a cheap triel cancel before actually entering the web site -
So the site operators make a dollar - and have to pay out X
So they have to make this up -
Obviously cross selling will make back X% (But not every surfer will cross sell) And that other cherry, upsells brings in something.
Then the email address will be spammed - So this has it's short term value, too.

At the end of the day, this system is ripe for abuse, and the member is going to think twice before joining more sites -

I find it much more profitable looking after the member I have, rather than getting involved with all the other stuff. Hence my rebills are pretty good, and members come back time and again.

The whole problem is everybody wants more, more and more - Everybody wants to be a Big Player and to get there as quickly as possible. But unfortunately, this short term view is having drastic effects - ala Visa etc.

There are huge amounts of money to be made in this biz, but we are running at a pace without looking at the track -

Alot are asking to be bought up

Thousands.. Ones i would trust,, ( i can count those on one hand )