Surfers do not know we call them "surfers"
 

I smile every time I see an affiliate program that has the two images on their splash page, "surfers click here for porn" and "webmasters click here to make money". I honestly think that the 400x400 image of dollar signs and the words "make money" get a surfers attention more than something addressed to people who hang out at the beach and ride on boards...

discuss?

True that man.. would love to see some stats of the clicks..

Excellent point. But i do think they get the picture about what a surfer is, and that certainly is less appealing then being a baller.

I think we all started as surfers....and some surfers learn fast and might come with good and inprooved ideas to make the biz a better place..

My point was if you make a link called "surfers click here", surfers won't click on it because they don't know what it means.

Let's change the title to "Porn lovers, click here!" :)

Mine says 'For fun beating off with porno, go here.' and 'For boring work, go here.'

Want PORN?

vs.

Want WORK?

I disagree.

I vote relabeling bandwith whores...

Elaborate! You think surfers see a page like that and go "oh, I'm a surfer, I better click here"?

People know what a surfer is. They have heard the term SURF the web.

I've always thought that surfers probably click through to the money side, unless it's labelled something boring like "Affiliates go here"

How about just "Welcome Masturbators"

They usually say "Surfer's Click here for FREE PORN" and it is the FREE PORN that gets the surfer's attention. When you see FREE PORN in big letters like that, it makes no difference if you know what a surfer is or not.

The main index page/splash page on affiliate programs should be the main page of the affiliate program - not a "click here for porn / webmasters click here $$$" page.

Also, the "webmasters" link on paysites should be well hidden/very small text, IMO.

This keeps surfers from lurking into webmaster pages, affiliate programs, and so forth.

No, I think that non-webmasters know what the term Surfer means.

i think they get the point

I agree....plus make the affiliate area "locked down" and password protected. Surfer's don't see NOTHING until they are verified to be a webmaster with a working site. Too many times I check out a new affiliate program only to find that entering 987654 as a ccbill # gets me all the wonderful content zips and FHGs I'll ever need.

In those cases, I write the webmaster to get member access to check out the site and then pick content that IS NOT in the affiliate area.

Oh and one more thing... please block all robots from indexing the affiliate area via robots.txt - webmasters are not on Google searching for new programs, they are on boards and networking - put your programs there instead of hoping for SE traffic, which is all freebie surfers most of the time.

its true i just asked someone yesterday about this topic he said "surfer" huh ?

Surfers do know what the word surfer means.. However, if you have any debate about the best words to use, simply put a click heat map up and the debate is over with.

Free porn click here
Make money click here.

I wonder which of these 2 gets more clicks.
WG

Web surfing = surfers or surfing.. I am sure many catch on. But I like the make money vs. free porn text better anyway.

for people i know its true... when i use the term among friends they are like 'surfers'? the pc people think i talk about servers. lol. but i guess in the US its a more common term.

:1orglaugh when was the last time someone used that term... 2001?

p.s. This thread was never just about the webmaster splash pages, but if your program insists on having the splash page, this is how it should be done: http://www.occash.com

Hell, if surfers knew if they signed up as an affiliate what they could.. I hasten to continue!

Really, so the enter here for a program site should send me to a porn site? :1orglaugh

I bet this guy is never confused.

http://media.movieweb.com/news/12.2006/silverSurfer.jpg

I agree with you 100% fuzebox. The stupidity started with programs offering webmaster referral fees. Of course the original idea back then was to get guys like me to get guys like Pierre to sign up and for him to get guys like Patrick...you know the real tgp and traffic guys at the time.
And of course, it went completely nuts from there. I can remember practically begging program owners to stop putting their cash program links on freakin' hosted galleries. That's just insane.
It didn't take long for surfers to start signing up for programs just to get lists of hosted galleries (which I also thought shouldn't be given out to every "affiliate", but only the ones that could actually work them) and content.
I personally think that all those big dollar signs and letting everybody and their brother become "affiliates" and think they are part of the "industry" was and is a huge mistake.
I always told people that all of the guys who work traffic look at each others sites. I am always curious as to what the good tgp's are promoting for instance. And when I surf through and see something I like....I don't need to have the affiliate program link on the hosted gallery page.
I'm in this business. If I want to promote a program, I'm more than intelligent enough to find the affiliate program and sign up for it. And if someone doesn't already know how to do that, and/or already know who owns the program anyway...then they probably don't have any business signing up in the first place.
This is definitely something that I have bitched about for the last several years. It's just bad business to pull back the curtain and reveal the entire business to the customers.
You don't see car dealerships, for instance, advertising in big letters that they run a floor plan and basically whack every person that buys a car.
Sure we all know that retail is always at least a 100% mark up, but Walmart doesn't point that out to us everytime we go in the store.
Sure makes it just another bit more difficult to succesfully promote and sell memberships...and that's without the added b.s. of the torrent and stolen content. It's almost a damn miracle that anybody can make money promoting anymore.
Of course some of us do. But not many.

100% correct. This is why TPV is, and always has been invite only.

PS - Man it was nice to meet you in Phx, Robbie.

most pros tend to use the term surfers like a bigot would use slang for another race. lol

Webmasters should be "Do you want to work the rest of your life to make someone else money? Click Here"

Surfers should be "Free Porn".

I do not think a surfer would choose the webmaster link.

i agree. many terms like "surfer" and "exclusive content" should never be used on tours. your average surfer probably has no idea what that means ...

Most people with a basic understanding of english understand what exclusive content means. That is a term used elsewhere often too.

As for rest of this debate and the initial question. Personally I feel that there should be no webmaster links on tours or anything else that is open to general public.

:thumbsup

Porn Surfer click here

:thumbsup

i dont think Want Work? is good either... they'd associate their porn with a job in porn, and by god what surfer doesnt wish he could work for a porn company instead of 7-11

i like WANT PORN? and Webmasters

smth like that

good point....

http://www.thewoop.com/public_html/p...ges/surfer.jpg
Bump for a business thread

All the programs are copying eachother, that's for sure

I agree with what you're saying.