NATS Sponsors, this was just brought to my attention
 

I was working on some tours to send traffic to a NATS sponsor and I was right-clicking on their tour to grab the link to the join page so I could send straight to it. Then someone pointed out to me that this won't work, I won't be credited any signups for this.

First, I need to verify the accuracy of this. Can I or can I not link to the join page (using the link from the tour) for a NATS sponsor?

Second, if this is, indeed, true, why can't such a simple feature be implemented? I'm ready to drop ALL sponsors using NATS, if I can't be given the flexibility of working with my own tours and sending traffic straight to the join page.

I would think that?s left up to the individual sponsor. What if you put CP or Beastiality on that tour page? or maybe promoted the site worng and said it's all free or something.

That doesn't answer my question. If you use NATS, give me a simple reply. If not, you don't have to accept my traffic if you don't want it. Plenty of sponsors around. :)

Anyone who can give me a proper answer on this?

The link to the join page from the tour does not set a cookie, thus, you MIGHT be lucky that the sale gets tracked, but no click is tracked without any question and if the surfer leaves and comes back later you defiantely get nothing.

NATS does however offer a direct to join link, and any sponsor would be able to give it to you if you just ask them. They might not know right away, but they could always ask us.

NATS even allows any kind of deep linking into the site and this is explaind in our knowledge base:
http://kb.getnats.com/idx/0/068/arti...king_done.html

There is a special "page" you can link to this way called "join" which will send directly to join. So simply add /join at the end of the normal link and it will work.

Be aware that not all of your sponsors might like this and you should ask them before you use this feature. We might also add a feature at some point which lets them disable this deep linking in the NATS Admin.

Exactly. We would not do a blanket feature allowing affiliates to set their own pricing just the same as we would not do a blanket feature allowing join page linking as sponsor programs might allow or not allow it. You need to ask the program permission to do this as the sponsor program has the option to disable it.

Thanks for the useful response. :)

It wont cookie the code so if they close and come back later it doesnt know it came from you.

:1orglaugh you got insane ideas.

Usually sponsors check all traffic sending sites which would include tours.

Generally less sponsors offer direct links without asking for them anyway DamageX because of lower conversion rates, high amount of chargebacks etc.

Being a little harsh a little quick aren't you? The "someone" you talked to was right, but NATS does allow join page linking. It would have been nicer to start a positive thread asking about the feature rather than a negative thread condemning the possible lack of. :2 cents:

While I might've sounded a bit harsh, I think a sponsor should be able to work with the affiliate. As should be the affiliate be allowed to send traffic any way he sees fit and to any part of the tour. I'm well aware that both me and the sponsor need to make money from my traffic. But I ain't gonna suck up to a sponsor who can't be bothered to work with me.

Nichepay uses NATS and we have link codes to the tours and link codes to the join pages for our affiliates to choose from.

So what this has to do with NATS, I don't know. If your sponsor doesn't want you to link to the join page, that's their problem.... not NATS.

As I said, the person brought it to my attention mentioned that you can't link to the join page if the sponsor uses NATS. That's what I was trying to get an answer on and I got one. Thanks for chipping in. :winkwink:

what if the tour page was explaining how to join on the trial and cancel? LOL there are some shady webmasters out there.

Nothing against DamageX at all! I was just pointing out why allowing straight to join page needs to be monitored by sponsors :2 cents:

this is still not quite clear -- if i understand the fellow from NATS correctly, the link option exists for ALL NATS sponsors, and requires no "activtion" by the sponsor -- correct -- ?

the issue, however, remains that using such direct-to-join links is risky because of erratic tracking -- is that equally true for all NATS sponsors -- ?

so, basically, the same technological conditions apply to all NATS sponsors, and all that varies is policy -- ?


2HP

Fact is, I agree with you. But if I linked to your joinpage, then you should probably be able to identify where the traffic comes from and see my tour, even if I was enough of an asshole not to let you know about my intentions. Now, don't tell me that if my traffic was so shitty and resulted in lots of cancellations/chargebacks, you wouldn't be able to identify where the traffic comes from and how I sent it to you... We're both in this to make money, if you lose money then I, as an affiliate, lose money.

Enough people do that without using direct links. Every sponsor who wants to stay in business for a while monitors traffic and sign ups that come from affiliates.

Quite a few sponsors offer join page links and most pay the exact same on join page and regular paysite tours. They are obviously profitable or else programs like Nastydollars, bangbros and TCG wouldn't offer join links. Webmasters can trick surfers just as easily by sending them to regular tours vs join pages using the same tricks you have mentioned.

I have noticed a pattern though that most NATS sponsors do not offer join page links for whatever that may be.

I totally agree and we are like a loose slot machine right now.

Yes but if you had control of the page you could change it so I would never know whats on that page.. just pointing out why sponsors need to watch out is all.
Personally I would want the webmaster to contact me if he wanted to go direct to the join page but thats just me.
I like working one on one with everyone for best conversions

totally alot has changed now and everyone is fighting over scraps and allowing everything under the sun to get a sale. including us :1orglaugh



I'm just being the devils advocate here I could care less..


It's all about Mad viewsssssssss

With things like 2257 changing and the way that the FTC is holding affiliates liable for certain types of marketing, if I were a sponsor I would think seriously before I'd allow any of my affiliates to link to anything but my tour entry. Not because of anything personal with any specific affiliate, but because the liability of affiliates seems to be reaching a point where you never know what might come of an affiliates action.

y do i just feel a whole "negative nats" vibe @ gfy.... its really not cool & totally undeserved. nats is doing its best to make sure software that is fair & accurate is used by many of the available programs in the industry. rather than bitching about it all the time, stay neutral & be glad things are moving in the right direction as far as this industry's integrity due to companies developing software like NATs :2 cents:


...

Isnt it ironic that persignup.com does not pay persignup, dont you think? It's like 10,000 spoons, when all you need is a knife.