I just sent them an email, so I'll post what I fnd out :)

Fortunately for me back in 2002 I called ccbill and asked about the merging thing. I love that you can merge. Since I am a smaller player those $9 rebills and $5 trials all add up to a check every week since I started. Plus I can see the bulk of stats in one location. Thats why its hard for me to try out some nats programs. I just never know if I will ever make the minimum :( So I end up sticking to mostly to ccbill sites.

Hehehe - ain't that the truth. I've had so many instances where stuff that I think will do well has bombed and vice versa.

Learning what the surfers tell ya is hot and what's not has got to be one of the most interesting parts of this business.

Although, sometimes I can't help but feel I must be really wierd for liking something my surfers don't... and that they're all fucked up for liking something that I don't. |crazy|

Usually, first thing I do - research them (on the boards) to see if there's been any complaints about them, what kind of complaints , are they legitimate gripes, etc, then - if they seem clean, i'll signup and i'm usually looking for specific types of promos, so i will typically drop them a note asking, and if they never reply to me or take days to get back to me, i just don't use them. Sometimes, in dealing with niche, some programmes do not say what kind of promos they have if any, so i will email them before signing up and if they have good and quick support, then I will most definitely signup, even if they dont have what i need in the way of promos, if they have fast and good support system, they are ok in my book , because i can always make my own custom promos.
Affiliate support and having a good name are the most important to me, i mean even if they have the only or the best niche site and i cant get it anywhere else, if they are jackasses, i just will not promote them. It's a matter of principle!

Hey, we pay you for free trials.. 30 bucks per sale.. drop me a line at 486-768-112

Richard

Psssst, you might want to read the post you quoted with the response above. Unless the English I learned in school has changed in the last 30 years, Simon wasn't asking to be spammed with sponsor programs. (in fact, he works for one himself, IA Cash)

The kind of post you just made will do you far more harm than good with the users of this board. Just participate and be helpful and we'll all check out the links in your sig.

hint: add a link to your program |thumb

I try to find the sponsors which are not promoted by too many webmasters. I check if PPS is available, how much are they paying per sign-up and if they have epassporte as a payment processor. Then I take a look at their tours and if I like those I give them a try for about a month or so. If their sites do not convert well I just drop them and find another one.

I guess we all live in hope of finding that "magic" sponsor, but one of the problems facing new sponsors or really any who want to expand, is that webmasters who have been around a while - ie the generally better traffic sources - mostly realize that exceptional sponsors don't exist.

In other words, if you have had a few years to build up a solid sponsor list, there is only rarely much point in trying new ones. I would go further and say that applies even to new sites.

For years I have had a promo spot in which I let my ad script display new sites for a while. I add every new site which looks like it might have half a chance and then watch the stats for anything which performs above average. It's quite productive with brand new sites, but interest in the vast majority tails off very quickly and those which were "beta tested" for months on high-traffic sites (ie we gave the cream to our friends) often don't do much at all.

The only real exceptions I can recall are when someone has introduced a completely new concept (free ezines for example). When something like that gets the formula right, you can get a really good run for a year or two.

I was waiting for someone to say that. As much as it makes sense to go off recommendations or try out sponsors whose affiliates claim great ratios, the fact of the matter is you're taking a relatively small slice of an admittedly large and delicious pie. Personally, I'd prefer to eat half of the pie that no one even bothered to try. I guess it would be good to diversify a portfolio with various sponsors, with some blue chips and some new tries (pies?). Mmm, chips and pie.

why? what's wrong about it? a program could be good, even if nobody recommended it to you yet... not to mention that it's rude to just ignore somebody.

These are some nice sponsors out there that have no WM referral program. So the chances of me splitting up that pie with no gain for me are basically nill!
Sounds like that geico commercial.

Then they can use more appropriate channels. I consider my messengers to be for my use, not that of annoying salespeople- think of it as telemarketing and be happy to be simply ignored

On one hand, I hate icq so I would have to agree. ICQ is much like a phone call. You have to stop what you are doing and answer.

On the other, I have done quite a bit of business via icq in the past. When someone I was with opened a new site that seemed to fit perfectly with a freesite, I talked to the freesite owner on ICQ.

But to just blindly go after affiliates using ICQ is just wrong :)

As for picking sponsors, I do my very best when offering advertising here on GGandJ. If I find anything at all devious, I don't offer advertising. And, we have had a couple of sponsors that got a little funny after we allowed them in and we dropped them. I do reject more advertisers than I accept here.

It's just as easy to find a trustworthy sponsor for anyone to use. Do just a little research and you will either find out they are worthy of your traffic or not.

Would you consider it rude to ICQ someone that has no idea who you are? That's why there's laws in place against cold calling telemarketers - if that person didn't give you their ICQ number, odds are they don't want to talk to you.

I don't mind if they bug me a bit, but I do tend to get pissed when I tell them no & they continue to annoy me :D
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ighlight=metal

Ok, let's get real here; this is hardly the equivalent of cold-call telemarketing. Some jackass calls me up to tell me to buy a cell phone or magazine, that's one thing. But this a person in an industry hitting up another person in the same industry to inquire about business possibilities for mutual benefit. Not raw selling for profit.

Yeah, ICQ is kinda like a phone call. So imagine this in any other industry. What person in any industry would not take a call for a business partnership from someone else in that industry? At least to see, just in case? You can tell within just a couple of minutes whether there is business potential or not. Not replying IS rude. Forget a couple of minutes. If you don't want business at all and can't spare any time to hear the person's proposal(s) out, at least a "no thanks not interested" would be fine.

Yes, adult is different than most industries, and yes, there's lots of spam and a lot of people who waste other people's time, but sponsors don't make money unless affiliates do. Sometimes there's actually good potential for business, and the sponsor contacted with good reason. :D

Evidently this depends on one's perspective.

That is such a load of SHIT! If I didn't know you & you got my ICQ number from here on the board & hit me up about your program, it'd be rude of me to not reply to the unsolicited message that you sent me?

A lot of programs offer all kinds of deals/promotions/services/etc. all the time. I can't imagine how any site owner would get any work done if they treated their private messaging system as an open forum for each and every rep who wanted to contact them about some spectacular new program.

I don't ignore anyone, generally, in my life, whether it's a homeless person, a random person on ICQ, or a telemarketer (although, admittedly, I fuck with telemarketers a bit on occasion). No matter who they are, people are people, and whether it's on ICQ or not, saying nothing tells them they are nothing to you, not even worthy of an acknowledgement/reply. Fact is, you never know who you the person you ignored might turn out to be, and you could be hurting a future relationship. Whether you care or not is another story, I guess.

I see your point about an unsolicited message being a bit intrusive, but again, this is potential mutual-gain business. I think it's worth it to hear a little of what a person has to say, if they feel they have something special to offer me. If you don't want to do that, fine. All I'm saying is that it's not so outlandish to tell someone "no thanks, no more messages please", and I think it would be quite possible for webmasters to get their work done all the same. Not all salespeople are so terrible, and given how often messages don't go through or get received over ICQ (for whatever reason), I think a decent and hardworking salesperson could be given the courtesy of a 5-second "no thanks not interested" so they don't have to wonder why there was no reply.

So it's rude to ignore them, but it's ok to fuck them them?

Given that they are cold selling to me, I'm more flexible in my dealing, but it's less rude and more mean, I'd say. You can be occasionally jerky with etiquette :) Plus, by "fuck with them", I usually just turn on the friendliness and get personal and distract them from their sales.

As a cold caller myself, I much prefer the person who ignores me and/or closes the connection with me then the person who wastes my time either trying to pick a fight or talking about irrelevent stuff. |sad|

If want to be nice to me just hang up and put me out of my misery. I'll only call you back if I'm trying to pick a fight. |crazy|

Vote for me and maybe the GG&J gods will make my avatar an official smilie!|virgohippy|

How hippytastic! |virgohippy|

You're next, Bubble Boy :D

My aura is glowing super bright like pastels now, man! |virgohippy|

Even though I just finished painting a naked lady, you just made my day Greenie. |greenguy|

And thanks again to you Emerald for sending me the smilie. |waves|

..

good post...this whole thread is very interesting to us....

one question? why do you need so many banners ?

#1 Not over exposed
#2 Got niche sites
#3 Don't offer shitloads of freebies
#4 Can pay by Epassporte
#5 I can talk to the owner by ICQ or MSN when i wish

When selling other sites other than our own (and our own as well) to surfers, I'm really quite indifferent about the quality of the tour.

The important part is the content that is provided or if they will allow their members area content to be advertised by affiliates. If they do this, I find it much more effective to provide good content to the surfer (potential buyer) and be as descriptive as possible about the site. Then the surfer knows what to expect and you can just link straight to the join form and don't have to worry about a sponsor screwing up a tour and causing your surfer to lose interest.

Basically, controlling your own destiny by making good ads using sponsor content and linking to the join form is much better so what's important is GOOD content available to sell the site(s).

I'm often dismayed by how much of what used to be considered basic knowledge, is rarely mentioned any more. Traffic management, which is far easier to accomplish than traffic generation, is one such "basic" and good traffic management would include exactly what you described, at least for several types of sites.

However it isn't practical for all. For example, someone who has a database of 100K+ hosted galleries from dozens of sponsors and hundreds of sites, feeding a network of TGP's doesn't have that option. It is a major task even for someone who builds and hosts many galleries himself to create FPA's for all of them, let alone (mini) tours.

And there is another aspect to all this...

From time to time, certainly when I sign up with a new sponsor, I email about something or other. If I don't get a response, it takes too long to come back, or I only get a half-assed response, I will not promote that sponsor. I generally have the same attitude towards weak tours or tours with leaks, etc., even if I don't plan to send surfers to them.

The reason is that people sometimes, but not often, run one part of their businesses professionally and the rest sloppily. There are so many sponsors to choose from these days, that there really is no need to go with someone who doesn't seem to have everything running as it should.