Do sponsor reps actually help affiliates sell more?
 

I've been wondering more and more about this lately, because most of the sponsors I promote have reps for me to contact.

When I first started in this biz a couple of years ago, I wasn't too sure how everything fit together, so I didn't want to be bugging program reps with noob questions.

Now I know a little bit more, and really all I want to do is increase my conversions and sales figures, and who better to help me in this mission than a rep working for a sponsor?

Funny though, because when I ask the reps questions about what I can do to make more money, nobody has an answer for me. What's more, is that on more than one occasion I've had the question posed to me from a rep asking where my traffic is coming from etc. Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong (it's possible) but don't they have access to LOOK AT MY STATS?

So if there is a program out there with reps that actually want to work with their affilliates and make more money for everyone, then lemme know, cuz that's what I'm looking for. :thumbsup

Hit me up and we can talk.

hit me up .. will work with your traffic

the thing is

1. with so many affiliate programs most of them reps suck, are unprofessional, stupid, rude etc

2. if they were realy so good, they would be doing it by themselves
if you make say $10k per month and the rep makes $3500, then why would he be able to help you, heh

you > rep

all the programs say "contact us and we will tell you how to make more money with us" but in 95% of cases, it's just a lame sales pitch IMHO

personally I never ask the reps for anything, I contact a program only if I want to change the payment method or so

koalat, many times a rep will ask for traffic sources simply because of the routing process. (People routing traffic from a specific source through one of their pages where the only referral would show from their page alone for example)

Feel free to drop me an e-mail in regards to CE Cash or XRatedBucks and I'll be happy to help you personally or find the person that can so you can earn more from your traffic :)

Oh, and I guess I really should mention that posting 'hit me up' is not going to make me hit you up.

How about posting some details as to how you might help me and then we can go from there.

most reps are noobs.

Fair enough :)

For example, CE or XRB will be happy to make you specific promo materials like banners/FPAs that match your site and make the transition from one to the other smoother which can help ratios.

Need special content? We'll do our best to acomodate you in that regards as well.

We also have a staff that is very experienced within the industry and they will evaluate your traffic and sales style to see if they can recomend anything that might perform better.

There's a start for ya anyhow :winkwink:

Koalat,

By contacting us, we can help you create promo materials and promotions that are specific to your site(s) that should help with conversions.

One of the things that we have seen, as to why an affiliate is not converting, is because the program is not being promoted properly.

We look at our affiliates like business partners and want to help them convert as best as possible.

I'd be more than happy to work with you.

It's in a program's best interest to keep their reps in the know / have them be great resources for their webmasters. You have to offer webmasters more than just customer service / you have to make sure your program reps are up to speed in online marketing as a whole.

I know over the years I've worked for eroticy several of the affiliate program managers I've trained have struck out on their own and are now successful independant webmasters.

I try to help every single surfer that contact me. I have the experience of someone who was MGP owner, gallery submitter, archive builder, etc; so now I try to help with that knowledge and the resoucers that I have.

But listen, I can´t do magic! If someone is trying to sell sending shitty traffic, well... there is not much to do, except being honest.

koalat
I have read a couple of replies in this thread... one of which said reps are noobs. I have been in this business 1 month shy of a decade so I would not classify myself as a noob. Over that time I have come to realize that generally speaking you know your traffic better than I do. The biggest help I can usually be is to listen to what my affiliates say they want or need to help them make money and then do my best to meet those needs.

However I have, on occasion taken a fresh look at the methods affiliates are promoting us and see if I can think of different ways to maximize what they are earning with us

Warning.. Generally I am jealous of page location so the first thing I'll say is skin you site with Royal Cash Images ( j/k :D), but I also take the time to listen and learn about that affiliates style. I get back to everyone and I am available usually Mon-Sat

If you'd like you can sign up for Royal Cash today and after you have checked out the program you can indeed let me know if there is anything I can do for you.


spaz

Hey Rowdy,

That's awesome, exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks, I signed up to XRB and am looking forward to working with you.


I have been promoting one particular revshare sponsor for 2 years now and my sales figures were really going down the drain. It was way too disheartening seeing that after getting a surfer to the sign up page, in with the credit card, and I got a whopping $0.97 WTF?! I talked with the owner and it turned out that what was holding me back was turning off the trial price on my account and since then my cheques have gone up. Simple but effective.

spazlabz,

It's great if an affiliate knows what they are looking for. Myself, I don't, I would like to draw on the experience of program owners and/or representatives that really know how to sell their product and want to share that experience with me so that we can both make more $$$$. :)

koalot... i'm the owner i will personelly take care of you with specialized targetting of your traffic to ensure your not wasting your traffic on our sites.

Plus your from Toronto... hit me up!

Most don't. Some do.

Laura Lee at Traffic Cash Gold pulls new tricks out of her ass daily. Hit her up and ask her the latest.

Tom over at Pimproll actually is a webmaster and has helped me in the past.

Contacting your affiliate rep is a sure way to get your requests filled faster. You can imagine how slow everything would be if the owner for the affiliate program handled all incoming requests personally.

An affiliate rep is there to help you get the things you need to promote the program best. As others have mentioned, we're here to help you get the custom promo banners/content you require, or any special promotional tools at your request.

A good affiliate rep should be able to help you evaluate your sales techniques and make suggestions on how to better maximize your profits.

I'm going to take a different approach then just the "hit me up." Most of the time yes we can see where some of your traffic is coming from - but it's limited to traffic that hits our page for the most part - so how you are promoting it beforehand isn't readily available. I talk to many of my affiliates everyday and brainstorm new ways of marketing with them. Does this always help? Yes and No - that's the nature of the business is always evolving and affiliates and affiliate managers have to stay on top of trends. Many times as you know by the time we have mastered a trend - it has evolved and a new way of promoting is needed. Main thing is work with programs where the managers work with you - respond to you - get you what you need in a timely manner. That's what the main focus is of my day - get my affiliates the tools they need to promote as quickly as humanly possible - because every second on the internet is lost opportunity.

I met a rep a while back that pitched me on promoting his program. After a few questions I got the impression that he was kind of new to the industry so I asked, "What did you do before you were a rep?"

He responded, "Unemployed".

Hit me up.. w traffik

Personally, I dont like to deal with reps unless they got the authority to be decision makers and make things happen.

It really does help when you've run your own paysites and TGPs. Otherwise it's like being coached by someone who's never played the game...

:2 cents:

Exactly.

But like there are good and bad webmasters, there are good and bad reps.

They're not asking you which of your sites you're sending traffic to them from

They're asking you where you're getting the visitors to your sites

The source of YOUR traffic makes a huge difference

Good deal .. I look forward to working with you as well :)

:helpme:helpme

Send me and email or hit me up on icq and I'll do what I can to help you make money with Reality Cash and Playboy Webmasters :thumbsup

I certainly hope that I do. I guess it helps that I am a webmaster too so I know where they are coming from with most problems or questions. I am sure on some levels it is the newer webmasters where the advice helps more but even if with the more established there are times when I spot something wrong in a code on their page and let them know and that sort of thing.

I get your assumptions but there are people like me that just like having a sound job on top of the earnings we get with our own projects. I have always done that so maybe it is just a habit to have a 'proper' industry job and do my own projects.

I can only speak for myself, but part of my daily routine is looking over my accounts with not-so-stellar numbers, and investigate why that is.

I then try to contact the affiliate, and see if we can go over how they are marketing us, and come up with a new strategy/campaign.

That being said, I could not tell you how many countless emails and account overviews I send over, that fall on deaf ears... follow up with disconnected phone numbers... and IMs on ICQ that don't get returned.

The best I can do is try to help, but I can't FORCE anyone to want to make more money. It is very much a two-way street.

I appreciate this sentiment, because it is honest and in most cases, completely justified. While in other cases, people that eat/sleep/bleed their company every day, work long days at the office, and are back on ICQ when they get home, can be at least *somewhat* helpful.

I know plenty of men and women out there that do a damn fine job, but seem to still get lumped into the category you mentioned. This is obviously not always true, but there is definitely a sub-category that deserves at least the benefit of the doubt.

:2 cents:

95% of the Reps & even owners can only answer your question with the same bs answer. Better banners/promos, better text, more dedication, and use our better converting tools. More or less making you filter the traffic down for better conversion ratios. This mixed with a few twists gets you the industry standard answers that "help" Webmasters.

Ask yourself, where is your own traffic coming from and where are you sending it to? How much and what niches do they like? % of bookmark returns vs fresh traffic? Do you have fresh golden traffic or return tgp visitors? And a tough one, on average how fast do your adverts & sponsors dilute?

Answering these questions will quickly show you why asking the sponsor is pointless. Now, that isn't to say don't ask sponsors for some help, they can quickly spot errors or often know better converting banners/galleries, but overall don't expect a night and day change, that comes from your own hard work.

The reps can be used in many ways. Some can and will help you make more sales. Sometimes having another person look at what you are doing , they may find something that is hurting you.

Just depends.

If you need help with any thing from EpicCash.com hit me up. I will do what I can.

I would be happy to help you with any special needs you may have.
we have someone that will make you custom promo items if needed,
If you are in any need of SEO help for your sites I am willing to help you with that as well.

Plus We offer Free EXCLUSIVE Content so you always have Fresh Hosted Galleries, Pay out through Epassporte, Offer
Free Hosting, Free Advanced Submitter, No Console Tours & MUCH MORE!

Please feel free to hit me up at any time :-)

Quite a lot are terrible, but hey if they are new they have to learn somehow right ;)))

Some promise you the world but never come through wich makes it easier to put them on low exposure and only import some galleries and make the occasional sales. Makes it easier to focus on the dedicated ones who know what they are doing ;)))

koalat, if you joined any of our programs you can e-mail and or ICQ me with any questions. Let's see what we can do together.

At HPIC.com you've got everything you may need. We've got all kinds of promo tools, 10 different sites with all niches (teen, fetish, farmy, celebs, mature, etc...). Plus, we are also paying our webmasters $50 per $1 Trial sen on next coming Friday the 21st of September, so it's a great opportunity for checking how our sites convert!
Plus I am the account manager and I can take care of any issues and do my best for trying to make your advertising more profitable.
Hit me up if you have any questions and we'll discuss everything.
Thanks,
Peter
ICQ: 439566987

http://www.hpic.com/advert/farm/sp/hpic_new_468x60.gif

Jeff, I feel your pain. I write so many personalized emails where I actually am talking about their specific accounts and stats only to have them bounce or never get a response.

Why don't you post a link to your website and have all the reps give you thier suggestions?


You may know your traffic, but I know my sites. The best I can say is, try my suggestions for 2 weeks, if it doesn't work....Try someone elses.

My own hard work is what has got me this far. Now that I have some traffic and can actually generate sales, it's about maximizing the profit. I already spend all my time working and I just need to make it worth more.

I spend probably too much time analyzing my stats but I only know so much and really I'm more concerned that the places I'm submitting to are sending traffic.

I rely on my sponsor stats to show me how many people are clicking on their specific links because you see exactly where the clicks came from.

So far this thread has been great thanks to all for the replies so far!

I'm still open to new sponsors so keep 'em coming! :thumbsup

I agree, it's not always so black and white. However, as an affiliate and program owner myself, I've seen both sides of the coin and it's really shocking to see some companies who hire their friends, an attractive 'eye-candy' rep, or someone from mainstream who are completely clueless and with zero experience who think this is still 1997.

To those that 'get it', I applaud you!

most of them should be fired...

If you're not content with both the money you're making and your affiliate support, maybe it's time to move on?

We design custom tools, custom creatives, and custom content for our affiliates all the time. We listen to every comment offered by any affiliate and work it in to the evolution of our program. I greet every new affiliate into HushMoney personally, make sure they always know how to reach me, have spent countless hours going over affiliates' traffic queues to offer advice on what improvements I feel that they could make, and from the amount of "thanks" I get on a daily basis, I'd say that yes - there are some of us that actually help turn a bigger buck.

I work with webmasters over at WEGCash all the time. Evaluating stats to determine which sites are performing best, suggesting alternatives if some aren't doing so well on your traffic, looking through your sites/pages to determine better placement for our sites/ads so that you get more click-thrus, that's just part of the process, but if you come to me as a WEGCash webmaster seeking help then I'll always do my best to work with you and figure out how things can be improved so that your revenue can increase. (A cool bonus with WEG is that when your revenue increases every month you can also earn up to an extra 8% of your earnings! That's our Loyalty bonus and I'd be happy to discuss that and more of the benefits of WEGCash with you personally if you have some time)

We have over 100 Free Trial paysites and over 75 Join4Free sites and we also have a ton of different promotional tools for webmasters to use. Since I know our program very well I can draw your attention to the best sites for your traffic and the tools that will help you the most, and of course I can have custom tools/ads developed when needed.

Some webmasters may look down on affiliate reps, but if you think about it, we're the people who know our programs, you know your traffic and so when that knowledge is combined with ours and we work together, it can offer stellar results!

I'll always do what I can to help and advise you and provide you with the tools you need to make good money with WEGCash.

Yep it's cliche, but if I don't ask you to hit me up, how else can we get you promoting our sites and making money with us? So please hit me up and let's chat

ICQ #233-854-608
Email [email protected]

:thumbsup

There are quite a few affiliate programs out there-many of which have reps. I work for Naughty America. We have one of the most reputable and professional programs in the business. I am not a sales rep, I am a affiliate manager (I don't work off of commission). If I don't have all the answers I will do all that I can to get your questions answered- even if I have to ask for the owner's help. If you are looking to revive your sales I have to specifically look at your site and see what tools your are utilizing. As a start, I might suggest adding in custom content and promo materials. Have you bought traffic? Do you utilize trades? I don't have your info in front of me but I am confident that I can help you increase your earnings. Have a look at our affiliates page- www.naughtyamericaaffiliates.com I'd love to help you. I like a challenge ; )

Yes, good ones do.

Naughty Sarah is absolutely right, here at Naughty America our Affiliate Managers are not paid off of commission, we are here to boost Affiliate relations with our company. Trust me, we want you to get more traffic, get better conversions and make more money, it's ultimately in our best interest if you do. We understand the importance of our Affiliates and treat their requests accordingly. If you work with Naughty America and ask us this question, we will do what we can to help you get there.

If you are interested, visit NaughtyAmericaAffiliates.com for more information, or contact me directly.

In my experince reps offer nothing in the way of useful advice. Typically they busy themselves stating the painfully obvious. I have never recieved a single peice of useful advice from a program rep.

Bingo!

The rare exceptions to the rules are if the rep has their own sites and make a living off them (my rep does)

I always told people to talk to the program owner if you really want help making more, finding more traffic, getting more clicks... use the reps only to be your gopher on getting more or custom promo stuff.

Reps or "board whores" are generally useless tools who are too busy hustling their next hunk of shit job to bother helping with their current one.

I haven't ever been commissioned so I don't screw with people, offer shit advice or fill them with false hope. If you ICQ me I can help you. My affiliates ask for banners and advice all the time cause I've been in the same job for 3 years and KNOW this market.

There aren't a lot of reps who are magically going to tell you how to make money. For the most part, they are helpful in getting creatives made for you, giving extra stats, and working out specific deals for you and your traffic. There are good and bad reps however. There are guys who are honestly looking to help, and others who just want to party at shows.

Contact us anytime or me personally:thumbsup i will do my best to help you out