When You Sign Up For A New Affiliate Program... (Webmaster Referrals Question)
 

When you sign up for a new program, do you make sure to go thru an existing affiliate's webmaster referral link?

I know that I ALWAYS do this - even if a rep asks me to join or a program announces that they've open up another one, I make sure to find a code 1st.

It was nice for me when MML was around - I just used his code :)

But I've been thinking that if you need to signup for a program & don't have a webmaster referral code to go thru, you could post in the I'm Looking For... forum & then we can keep it in the family |shake|

Let me know your thoughts.....

I do most of the time unless it is some obscure sponsor and I'm in a hurry.

I always did at first, but have gotten a little lazy about it. I've never made any $ to speak of through referrals myself.

I'll sign up through a referral if it's someone I know, but that only happens about 20% of the time.

Most of the sponsors I sign up for are independent, owned/operated by the model, not some larger program. Any webmaster referral is going to come out of their income, so unless someone has earned it I'm not going to go out of my way to take that money out of their pocket.

Having started basically over, I am using mostly CCBill but if I add sponsors I will try to remember to use a referral.

If I do remember, I will check Link O Rama and follow that link if the Green fella has it, otherwise...no. Lately, its very rare for me to try a new sponsor. With the day gig there is no time.

What Toby said

Not that I make anything more then pocket change for anybody, but I always try to sign up through an existing affiliate, and I do try to keep it in house. Whoever makes the recommendation (which I only trust from members of this board) usually gets my signup, otherwise I pick a board member I like who I know uses that sponsor and I go looking for a link on their network.

It's been years since I've added a sponsor without someone recommending them to me. I really should go do more sponsor hunting, not many of them are profitable now.

Greenie, I like your idea of requesting a referral in the "I'm looking for..." section. I'll be sure to do that from now on. |thumb

I'm with JR, greenie LOR is my source of sponsors.

Tried that, got no replies. I was asking about a certain type of bondage sponsor, and I know that very few webmasters do bondage, but plenty of programs have do several types of sites including bondage, so plenty of webmasters are in a position to know if a program they use will do me, so could have made a few $$$$ posting. In the past I have had good results posting "anyone know a sponsor who...". But that was before you set up the "I'm Looking For" forum, and I guess the problem is that no one really looks at that board, whereas when we had to post such enquiries on the business forum, lots of people would have seen it, so plenty of people replied. But as a "stand alone" forum it is a bit of a chocolate teapot!

On a similar theme: The first thing I did when looking for new sponsors was to look for your page of "good sponsors", but it appears to have disappeared in the move. Why did you kill it? Surely it was a good source of income for you?

Generally I will take a look at Greenie's stats if I am looking for a niche sponsor!

I voted always... It's the right thing to do.

Every little bit helps.

I was gonna reply to that one, but I couldn't think of any that had hosted thumbs - that might be the reason there's no replies, as there are 30 views.
I stopped doing my stats because, to be honest, they stink :( Not so much that the conversions & money per click stink, but there's way too many sites where I got just one sale & that really makes a paysite look good when it may not actually be that good. Back in the day when I had all kinds of traffic & sales, it was more of a legit list.

I might do something with my year end stats, maybe just a list of programs with overall numbers.

I always get a ref code. Heck even if I only manage on a program to get the minimum I figure hopefully I can have bought a webmaster a beer or burrito or something with the little extra referral money.

I think looking over the list and also rating them. Have a threshold of a number of sales had to happen and showing those stats. Kinda like how hoes used to require so many hits and sales to be shown.

It was still a handy guide for sponsors by niche, and the stats helped give a feel of which ones might be better converters!!! |thumb

I sign up under people most of the time if I remember :)

I sign up under someone if I can find their referral code, but I admit, if I find some obscure sponsor, I never thought to put up a request asking for people's code. I'll do that next time.

Most of the sponsors I found were through other affiliates so most of the time I do go under referral codes. For ones I stumble on I've never asked, but may in the future do so. I can't imagine webmasters would earn much by referring me at this point.

Every little bit helps!

Any referrals help these days.

I can tell you though, if you are sending decent traffic and asking a sponsor for a payout bump, they always check to see if they are paying out a referral commission before they commit to an increase.

If a friendly webmaster already promotes a program, I will look for his ref code. If some spammer just comes on a board and blindly spams, I make sure to signup without his ref code. Other than that I really don't care too much as in most cases I will get my links from a search referral on Google. The ones that are ranking highest deserve the credit, be it an affiliate or a direct link.

Most of the times yes... because I think it's better to promote a recommended sponsor...

I do about 99% of the time so I check always because it's way more than sometimes but there are time when I'm in the middle of a project and don't have the time to research. I do try to avoid using a webmaster i don't know though.