Sponsor 'gift' signups - am I paranoid?
 

Hi all
Seems to me that there's a recurring pattern almost whenever I sign up with a new sponsor (now 4 times out of 7) - within about a day I get one or two signups, then nothing for ages.

I have a feeling (call me paranoid) that the sponsor gives you a fake signup quickly so that you think they're a great site and you'll focus on them. They have nothing to lose, since you won't make the $100 payout just with that 1 or 2 signups they give you. Then maybe when you get your first real signup they ignore it, then after that they proceed legitimately..

Is this a well-known trick? Seems like it should be cos it certainly works on me - I get one signup and I'm excited and I divert all my resources to that sponsor, then I send them 1000 more unique hits and nothing..

Anyone else noticed this or am I paranoid?!
Thanks guys
Jake

Never. Have you not noticed honesty prevails in this biz.

your too paranoid ... but not such an unusual thought as i have also thought that with 1 or 2 sponsors.. either way it doesn't hurt you..

although if your that paranoid they might also be shaving the first 2 sales to make up for the one free one they give you..

perhaps you are introducing sponsers content into your traffic streams that isnt saturated yet... and you get a few signups because of that and then its back to normal conversion rations

sure it does, it tricks you into thinking the sponsor converts better than it really does, so you end up wasting time promoting that sponsor...

Its Called Padding. Happens all day long. They will also re calculate the retention of your sales to work out your conversion ratio.

bingo. New sites rock at first too, then some crash, good ones stablize, although usually at a lower level.

I'd also add that 1000 uniques isn't really a large enough traffic test to really see how a sponsor does. Our rule is generally 10k uniques, or 1 month. If it works or not, you'll know in a month.

Steve Lightspeed

2-3 sales is enough to reach payout anways.

If you get "tricked" into sending a bunch of traffic based on a ratio from your "first" sale then your prob not wasting your time heh :winkwink:

But seriously i'm sure that are a few programs that would try and trick you into sending more signups thier way but it's not that bad in this industry as many would make you think.

Its also not smart for the sponsor to do this. He'd be giving you bad information about your traffic, and the odds are you would think that kind of traffic works, and send even more.

Why would a sponsor want more of traffic that wasn't converting in the first pace?

Its like when a woman fakes an orgasm. Her lover will do the same thing that didn't work for her the next time too, she trained him to do it wrong. Think she will want to stay with that lover for long?

Steve Lightspeed

edit: lol, not that any woman has ever faked an orgasm with me, just an analogy!

That makes perfect sense. Thanks.

You speak as if all program owners know their ass from a hole in the ground. :1orglaugh

Thanks for all the replies - seems some think it happens, some say it doesn't..

At any rate, I think there is good motivation for sponsors to do it. I just signed up with 3 sponsors. Guess which one is given the most prominence on my site right now - yep, the one that gave me a signup almost immediately - maybe it is fake, but it's the best choice to go with since it's 1 more than the other sponsors.. I like your orgasm analogy, lightspeed, but I don't think it's so applicable here. If an affiliate has decent traffic, all sponsors are competing for it, so if you can make the affiliate think you convert better than the other sponsors, you have motivation to do that.. In your analogy, if the guy wanted a woman he could make come and he'd buy her gifts and shit if she did, and all she wanted was the money, it would make sense for her to fake it, cos she's competing with all the other women out there who are going to fake it too. It's also never happened to me of course :-)

I can say for certainty the big ones do, they would have never made it this far without some smart people at the helm. There are some very impressive sponsors out there. I seriously doubt many big programs even bother looking much at affiliates with under 1000 hits and no joins.

Steve Lightspeed

i post galleries, and i post them to the same tgps. also i list avs sites at link lists - usually the same ones. so i always see a burst of sales from a new sponsor, because the regular surfers from those tgps and link lists haven't seen my sponsors before.

after the honeymoon period, the regulars from those tgps and lists who really wanted to buy already have.

the same thing happens on my own paysite, and i don't think i'm shaving myself :eek2

Touche. Ok, I'll say that this comes down to trust too. If you believe sponsors are GIVING you joins, its only a small leap until you believe they are TAKING your joins too. Work with honest sponsors. Ask GFY who can be trusted, you'll get a million replies. If a company is pulling shady shit, it always comes out sooner or later on these boards.

Steve Lightspeed