How do I promote my affiliate program?
 

I have been working on making a bigger deal of my affiliate program, and am continuing to work to make the program better as I go. One major concern is that it doesn't matter how many people see the program, unless the page for it sells the program well.

The current page really doesn't.
http://www.gothicamateur.com/referral.html

My thought is that my first priority should be to make it clear what this program is about, and what all of the great features of it are. From there, I can work to get some exposure for it. No point, unless what people will see will interest them.

My basic thoughts are...

I need to make the page simpler. There should be quick outlines of the major features, and a link to sign up. On top of that, any other info should be out of the way or brief and unobtrusive. I also think the page could reflect the character of my sites and content better.

Any advice? I'd really appreciate some help on this.

Oh, and while I'm here, I just made this banner... Will this help sell the program to webmasters?

http://www.gothicamateur.com/banners/blood-money.gif

"Our program pays a percentage of all revenue (after biller fees) including rebilling sales. Most people can make 50% of all sales."

This isn't very assuring. "Most people can make 50%"? I want to be guaranteed I'll make 50%.

And no, your banner probably won't pull real well. Hard to read the text. Hit me up, I already said I would give your program a try...

147479144

I have been wondering about that.

Basically, how it is now, what you make just depends on talking to me, and letting me know how you're promoting. Almost any kind of promotion gets you the 50%. It is the standard, it just isn't the automatic rate.

Here's why.. There are a lot of people who would link to me anyhow. Review sites, directory sites, and people with similar sites. If I pay them 50%, aren't I throwing money away? Though I suppose that it may be worth it, to make the system that much more clear, and draw more people in.

I think you may be right. I have been considering for a while making it a straight 50%. The only people who really ought to be below 50%, are people who I am hosting, who I think I should pay 40%. Better to drop them down than to make everyone work to get up to 50%, though.

I will hit you up in ICQ when I am going to be around long enough to chat. I'd love to have you aboard. :)

No. Maybe I'm just a total dumb ass (shut up Pipecrew), but I barely ever try out a partnership program unless it's sitting at 50% standard. Almost everyone is at least 50%, then they up the ante (or is it anti?) for their friends, partners, and people who really push/contribute the program.

Special treatment is good. If someone is busting their ass for you by promoting your site, show some respect and good faith back by doing special things for them. Extra free content that nobody else has, better rates, traffic, anything...

Keep in touch with your affiliates. I'm always getting email from K-Man about new galleries or content at Oliver... good stuff, I like it. You should join Want Boobs for a quick glimpse of what NOT to do when running an affiliate program. J.R. says it's working great, but people actually bitch to ME about his newsletter and mailers. Why? I still haven't figured that one out! But, Want Boobs DOES have a nice selection of free content videos, pictures, and banners. I've been offered custom graphics and banners... which is a good gesture and I'm sure several other programs offer something similar.

You really should try learning about marketing using any of the available venues. You don't have to be a pro, but at least learn the basics so you can point your affiliates in the right direction instead of leaving them hang. A quick resource section would be a nice touch... link some good tools, message boards, niche content providers, and some resource sites.

Try to stay in contact with your affiliates. If you see that someone is sending traffic but crap conversions, send them an email asking if there's anything you can do to help.

got icq?

or hit me up

prove that your program works and then affiliates will come

"Aye, there's the rub!" - Hamlet

Told ya you would get more advice this way. Hope some of this is helping.

Get yourself some ad space on gfy.. :thumbsup

Yeah, it is helping. I got dragged into ICQ, so I am getting advice there, too.

Isn't it strange how people get dragged into ICQ over here? You would think e-mail would do it.

Some new thoughts...

First, Going to a straight 50% cut on everything. I can offer hosted people 40% unless it looks really great. I can offer special partners something like 65%.

Next, I think I should split the referral page into four pages...

1. The page that sells the program

2. Examples of ways to promote us (sortof a side-bar if people are interested)

3. The signup page - linked prominently, of course

4. Resources for affiliates - downloadable images, banners, etc.

I am working on an all new affiliate site (or at least affiliate area)... (I tend to do these things as a process, moving gradually to a new setup, rather than starting from scratch.) Anyhow, here is what I have put together tonight... Is it better?

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/

Bigger font please.

Now there are no pics? Just buttons?

Wow, this is fun. I actually feel like a part of the creative process!

O nevermind I see on the other page. But maybe one pic cause those buttons are too many and don't show the girls.

More images? Good point. Let me see what I can do...

There. Try it now...
http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/

(I like having someone to bounce things off of. This is cool.)

thx for the good words Sly! =)

Okay, I fixed the font thing, too. Hopefully the layout won't need much more tweaking.

So, here's what I know I need to do next: Make a page for all those crazy examples.

However, that's a pretty minor thing. My main question is, is there any information on the page as I have it now that isn't necessary? And is there anything in particular I should add? What sort of stuff do you wonder about this program, when you see this page?

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/

Looking good! This is an additional thing, but it helps illiterate fucks like me. Bring Out Key Points like this. Helps a lil bit. Not entirely necessary.

*giggle*

<br><br> it's basic dude. you're terms are much too complicated. make it easy to understand & work. show that you're interested in signing affliates with content, hosted galleries, free content & paying for referrals. try it, it may work.

Good point. I've tried something like that, check it out.

50% payout should be standard.
fix this ASAP.

Submit your program to every adult webmaster resource site you can find.

Pay webmasters 10% of referrals income.
Not sure if you do this already or not.

Pay money to advertise your program.

Join every webmaster board which allows a signature & post 20 times a day to each of them..Maybe you are doing this arleady you seem to post alot here.

Don't forget to take a little time to breathe. Also, browse some other programs join pages. You may get good ideas from them. Who would you use? Why?

Get a good nights rest, go back and look at what you created. You should see what you like and dislike about it.

As the latter part of this thread makes clear, I am switching to 50% standard.

Again, here is the new program site in progress:

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/

As for paying webmasters 10% referral income... I will have to look into that. I will have to ask someone at CCBill how/if I can do that. Makes sense, though.

Thanks for all the input, especially on promoting the program on boards and resource sites.

Yeah try things like this:
http://www.theadultwebmaster.com/spo...er/index.phtml

Looking better, looking better...

Thanks. It's a work in progress, but I think it is moving along quickly thanks to all the help. And, may I say, your sig startled the crap out of me!

Hmm... how did that get there?

I really appreciate that. I am looking into a 10% webmaster referral doodad, so that it will be worth your while to do that sort of thing. :)

As a little kick-off, I'm thinking of free licensed content for randomly drawn people who put the program in their GFY sig. We shall see... Expect something over the weekend-ish about that.

GW,
Maybe you should mention CCBill a bit earlier . I was beginning to think that you tracked the sales yourself .:winkwink:

We have an elite staff of trained weasels working around the clock to make sure that all clicks and sales are tracked within 99.999% accuracy. CCBill cannot compare to WeaselTracker, brought to you by Blood Money.

Er, that is to say... "Good idea. I'll get right on that!"

One of the other items that nobody has noticed is your payment options. You offer a 19.95 one time, 19.95 recurring, 34.95 one time and a 89.95 one time.

My first thought on that is that like any detail about a site, people will come across it as they peruse the sites to see if they want to promote them. I am not sure how to include that info on the program page... What do you think?

Still working on this. I have added a header to the page, so it more clearly has a logo and a title. That was one thing I knew was lacking in earlier drafts. More info to come, still trying to make it all fit without having too much text...

Oh, and I finally get to use my new domain...

http://www.blood-money.com

My two cents from an affiliate point of view...

I would make a separate tour just for your affiliates (not sure if you do this or not).. on that tour, make the join page with only recurring options. When I started my site years ago, I took whatever advice came my way and the worst advice I got was 'guys don't like recurring, you'll get more sign ups if you offer a no recurring option'. Worst advice I ever got for my site. With one time sales, you're constantly selling them. I have members complain if they can't get rebilled....they know how to cancel, so that shouldn't stop them from signing up...and they do like the convenience of not having to sign up over and over again.

Oh yeah, and make sure there are no traffic leaks on your affiliate tour.. I hate hate that when I'm looking at sites to promote.

Also, I wouldn't discourage the hosted people by only paying them 40% ... think of it this way.. they're doing the work for you. You would really love for them to make feeder sites for you right? So make it attractive to them.

Just my two cents..and I'm not always right ; )

Catalina

Catalinas,

I used to have a separate entry page for affiliates, because my site had so many traffic leaks otherwise. Now, I have really cut down on that. Something like 80% of people make it to the samples page on GothicAmateur.com.

As for the non-recuring thing. I have discovered that what people hate is not having a choice. When we first added a non-rebilling option to our sites, sales really jumped. So now, we offer both. Not a lot of people take the rebilling option, which I think says something. Also, I have always found that honesty is the best policy, and frankly, a lot of why rebills make good money is that they depend on some people to forget to cancel. I never liked the feel of that.

Which brings us back to separate pricing on an affiliate tour... In my opinion, the best thing to do is to have the best pricing everywhere on the site. I have ben working for a couple of years to fine-tune the options, and I will keep doing that. I am not sure about offering more appealing pricing to affiliates-- the idea should be that my pricing is designed to maximize sales, and they should like that. Right? If people want to work with me to come up with better options, I'd love to hear ideas.

As for the 40% for hosted people... This has to do with the fact that I don't have a lot of (any) capital. I can't throw a ton of money into hosting. Thus, while I want to have it as an option, I want people to consider using their own hosting, so I don't get everyone on my servers. I am happy to host people who want it, but I think there is a price to pay... After all, people who don't host with me work just as hard, right? Also, the hosting thing is new. If it goes well, I may simplify things and even-out the percentages.

With any of this, these are just my reasons for doing things the way I do. I am grateful for the feedback, and am open to discussion about this stuff. They are all good ideas, these are just my takes on them. I hope I don't sound like I'm pushing off your suggestions, because I really appreciate them. :)

Well, the main difference when you are hosting someone, they are promoting only you.. so you benefit more from their efforts. I may be in a unique position, but I can change out sponsors 5 times an hour if I wanted to, but not if I was being freehosted by one of those sponsors. This is just an extreme example...but you get the picture...

It would be perfect if you could make your non recurring option something that you also don't need a credit card for, therefore killing two birds with one stone. I used to use web900 and got quite a few of those, but alot of them would get mad when their password stopped working and they had to sign up again.... I don't take offense at your response at all.. I only disagree that rebilling is dishonest.

The one thing that comes to mind .. would you offer a non rebilling 3 day trial for say $4.95? Most likely not.. because it would kill your long term income.. just because it's a month, doesn't make it any different in my eyes.. but like I said, I'm soo not always right lol.

Catalina (no s dammit lol)

Catalina (sorry!),

I see your point about the exclusivity of freehosting affiliates. I will definitely think about that. I always look for ways to simplify-- since my natural inclination seems to be to make things too complicated. ;)

I'm still not sure on messing with the options on the rebilling. I have just tweaked them, though, so maybe its just my instinct to leave them alone for a bit and see how it goes at the new level. Until recently, I was charging less, but I felt I should go higher to make sure both my affiliates, and I, make more money.

As for non-rebilling... I found that I gained signups when I added it. In this case, most importantly, I gained more than I lost in potential rebills. It has worked out well. Getting more initial signups, and only losing the recurring on people who only would have recurred because they forgot, works for me.

Seems like there are three basic things for me to work on...

1. Making the setup of the site itself more what affiliates want.
2. Setting up the affiliate program to be what partners want.
3. Communicating everything to the affiliates and potential affiliates.

At this point, my plan is to work on the last one, to get the affiliate site to the point where it makes the best sell possible of the current program for the current site. Then I can re-visit 1 and 2, and revise 3 to match any changes.

So, what I am wondering now. Looking at this site... What have I not said that I should? What could I say better? Is anything badly organized? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Gothweb,

Thanks for starting (and continuing) this thread. I've been getting ready to revamp our own affilliate program site and all of this advice is great.

We have quite a few affiliates and the ones that send decent traffic do great on sales, but I'm fully aware that our web site for the program is pretty lame at this point. We offer 40% as a main and go up from there for the people really pushing our stuff. Plus we have a 5% webmaster referral in place.

What I've been thinking of doing lately is tightening up the reigns a bit and not just letting anyone into the program. In order to join there would have to be a certain level of traffic supplied, and in return we'd set up those who get in with nice percentages reflecting the effort they're putting in. That would also cut down on the number of people promoting the site, so it doesn't get so watered down after a while to mean horrible ratios. We wouldn't have as many people spreading the word, but those that would be would reap the benefits.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on, but I'm enjoying this thread and I wish you the best of luck with your program. Hell I signed up for it a while ago but haven't yet found the right place to promote (we only have a few sites), but I do really like your stuff. :)

Jak

It has been a real learning experience for me, and hopefully most of the info is useful to a general audience. I think that is why threads like these work... I mean, who wants to spend their time on her just helping "Gothweb"... but helping out a few people who are reading, that's cool.

So, when you going to make a StripKitten based on one of our girls so we can do a little cross promotion? ;)

By the way, I am currently too stupid to find the right option on the site, but I should have the webmaster referral working some time tomorrow. Should I do 10% or 5%? And should I multi-tier it or not? What do people like?

As a webmaster promoting affiliate programs, I won't touch a sponsor that has a "one month non recurring option". I get screwed in the end? Why. Cookies, simple as that. The person signs up, I get credit at 50% less billing fees. so that is like $8. No, much, but over 8 months, that will add up. If the person joins, and only does a 1 month to try it out. Boom, I get $8. They come back next month and join again or join with recurring, the cookie that lets me get credit is now gone. Boom, I get $8, the paysite gets all the rest of the money. I spent hard work to get that surfer to join, now I am getting the shaft. Don't have an affiliate program with a 1 month or less no rebill. I don't mind places that have a 3 month non-rebill. I still prefer if their 3 month is a rebilling option though.
My $0.02 canadian, worth less then $0.01 American.
ZoiNk

I agree. This is a damn good thread! :D

I just opened stormyfriday.com

And do all the work myself. No expert (obviously) and most of the ppl here are light years ahead of me. But... I make a buck. :)

Thing is I am testing the site for what kind of traffic works best for me. Softcore is choice of course, works well with what the site is about, but its hard to find decent links. But I also have only been tweaking for the last 15 days and have not spent hardly any time getting more traffic. I just want to find some good amateur teen sites to trade with and am having a damn hard time finding them.

After reading this thread, I realize my affiliate program looks pathetic. :(

here

Fuck. lol.

At any rate, just wanted to say to Goth that I love your site and will sign up to promote it mate! :) Also, that this thread has helped alot of us out I am sure...

Not to take away from the main idea of the thread but if anyone wants to help my ass, PLEASE SIGN UP or tell me what to do different to make my site bad ass! PUH-LEASE! :)

ICQ: 144735794
email: [email protected]

I am beat, see ya'll tomorrow!

Smiley

I have talked with CCBill about this, and you need not worry. I am assured that the cookie lasts even after the initial sale. As such, *all* sales within six months are credited, even repeat non-recurring sales, of which we get a lot. That is why we have such a long-term cookie, as is explained on the page.

See what you started Gothweb? LOL

Smiley,

We work with softcore traffic a lot, and there is actually a lot of it out there, you just have to know where to look. If I were you, I would go to Jane's Gide, get listed ASAP, and also take a look around for well-reviewed sites similar to yours. The hunt starts there, and should end with some good traffic.

A few places to look...
http://www.indienudes.com
http://www.eroticandy.com
http://www.amateurempire.com
http://erotic.ranks.com

Also, check out exit the popup on GothicAmateur.com
http://www.gothicamateur.com/links.html
you should find some good sites on there, with URLs I can't remember off the top of my head.

As for your affiliate program page, that is what I had for almost two years, and it got me a few really good affiliates. (Well, probably talking to people did, but I got by with a page like that.) Recently, I beefed the page up a little, and it was horrible. All of this new site is brand new as of yesterday. I decided to give the affiliate program as much attention as a small actual site, since it is at least as important.

I am glad you like the site, and look forward to having you aboard as a partner. Let me know if you need anything, and if you find anything useful to be missing from Blood Money.

Thanks,
Ian

Okay. I am ready to add a webmaster referral bonus to the program. However, I still haven't decided what percentage to go with. I am sure most people would prefer to get 10%, but is 5% also reasonable? Here's your chance to convince me how to go...

I think anyone here is going to tell you 10%. Is there a button for my sig I can use?

here's the animated button, my bandwidth of course...

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-m...lood-money.gif
http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-m...lood-money.gif

(Looks best with a border of 1 around it, in my opinion.)

If you want to hone-in on just one of the features, check out this directory for some useful non-animated images...

http://www.gothicamateur.com/blood-money/jpegs/

As for the webmaster referral thing.. I am leaning towards 10% anyhow. It looks like, though I am not sure, that the cookie you get from regular referral links work as webmaster referrals. If that is the case, then just use your referral code to link directly to http://www.blood-money.com