So One Of My Accounts Got Switched To Revshare...
 

I've just lost my cherry on getting an account switched from PPS to revshare, which was probably bound to happen eventually considering the number of programs I promote. Got the email today and they said there's no question about my traffic sources, just the performance of the joins I've sent. This happens to be a big program that I only started promoting recently, so I talked to my affiliate manager and he laid out the performance on the joins I've sent so far, which was honestly not too impressive.

The reason I'm posting is that I'm wondering if this is happening more often nowadays than it used to. Is it surfers signing up for trials and downloading all the content then cancelling? I promote a mix of PPS and revshare programs, and I do OK on the revshare so it's not like my traffic is worthless...just happens to be the joins I've sent this particular sponsor so far.

They were happy to give me members area access and the members areas looked good, so this is not a case of "nothing behind the tour" like I've heard so many times.

I should say that I've got nothing against the sponsor which is why I'm not naming them, just wanted to open up a discussion on the topic.

So what do you think? Is this just a "shit happens" situation that's bound to happen to everyone eventually, or just a run of bad joins?

Shit Happens

That's all it is I think. Unless you are sending a lot of joins to a sponsor you cannot blame the sponsor. If you send 3-4 sales a week and many are cancelling that's the way it is. Of course the traffic source and selling techniques matter but as you said you do both and promote them both basically the same way.

I think we may see this happen to a lot of people out there as things get tougher for paysite owners to retain.

I don't know if there are bad joins but I can tell that rev share programs conver better and people are converting well from trial to full membership(for me). I promote both rev and pps. I have noticed that sponsors just don't count everything(the blogging thing can be veeery useful). The problem can be that user who is paying for trial can get just 'fake' access to the paysite(access to the members area but without possibility to watch, download or whatever pics or movies), while he is expecting more. Sponsors paying per singup have huge problem if their sites are 'weak'.Where members(future users) are paying 2 - 5 bucks for trial when webmaster gets 25-35 bucks.
It is just mine opinion...

Name the sponsor. Until these affiliate programs start raising payouts for affiliates that have a high trial to rebill percentage this is just another way in which sponsors have found to rip off webmasters.

Shit Happens. I think we all get into bad runs and it isn't necessarily anything you did, your sponsor did, etc.

If you've seen the inside of the paysite and it looks good to you, stick with the revshare and just keep promoting. I haven't had that much luck with Revshare, but I've seen what's inside some of them and there's no way in hell they would get a rebill unless the person forgot to cancel the account.

You couldn't be more wrong with this statement.

Really? So I assume you would be OK if one day your insurance company said to you, "I'm sorry but this is the third time you've been in the hospital this year. I know we agreed to a contract where you would be covered if something happened to you but you're just no longer profitable to us. Have fun paying your bill." This is a numbers game - just because you don't have the proper equipment and skills to play does not justify cheating. I'm surprised you feel this way Jim because this is something that 2 or your former employers (CE and FlashCash) would never dare to do. The only programs doing this are ones that have a history of scamming affiliates in one way or another.

That's actually pretty much what insurances do! After each claim they can review your policy and refuse renewal!!

And as to sponsors: that has happened to me more than 4 years ago with Gamma Cash.

Drop them & promote someone else - if you're not making them money on the PPS they you're going to make even less on the revshare.

I think I know who your talking about and there way of biz is Bull Shit and they boast a high PPS program and when your traffic isnt steller and dont stay for 3 or 4 months of a certain percent they kick you off PPS - and they dont provide enough updated content to keep your traffic more than a month... and I been in there one site and they forgot to cancle my trial that is now months and months old and once in a while I check for new content and still find stuff that dont work and the only new stuff is the hustler plugins

Now If these people were business people instead of crooks and liers they should start new webmasters off on rev share and qualify for pps and if there sites were good instead of shit they wouldnt be asking people to move to rev share..

And then they think they are doing you a favor by offering you rev share instead of just closing of account - Now if you say my traffic signs and cancles before the next month why in the fuck would I want to be on rev share with a program that dont retain and its funny that only this one fake PPS sponsor says your traffic sucks and no other PPS sponsor I have is heating up my in box with "were moving you to rev share"

best advise is drop this program and move on and pull all there links and if they see one wrong thing in there eyes they will keep any money owed to you.. so its better to play safe than loose any money

I'm in a rather fortunate situation since I don't send anyone enough sales for them to properly evaluate my traffic and retention. :D But if it was me that they had switched to revshare, I would drop them. I like revshare, but I don't like the idea of a sponsor paying me less or differently for the same sales that everyone else is being paid top dollar PPS for. I translate that move as the sponsor saying, 'We don't need you'. Keep in mind, I'm a fairly negative person.

This sounds awfully familiar to me... I was switched from PPS to revshare with a big program last week also. Got about the same response as you MadMax. :(

Even if insurance companies did not drop people for too many claims, your analogy is still way off. The "contract" is just the start of it.

Do you really expect to make money when the program you are sending traffic to is losing money because of that traffic?

But, Greenie is right... You get switched to revshare because your traffic is not making enough to pay you for PPS. So, you will get paid less. I would move on.

But the biggest part that you are wrong about... "this is just another way in which sponsors have found to rip off webmasters." It's a way for the program to survive without ripping off webmasters.

Then explain to me why these programs don't increase payouts when the webmaster sends above average traffic. You may be right though as it might not be about ripping off their affiliates directly. Maybe they know they can only afford to pay $25/signup but they offer $35 knowing they can break even by dumping below average accounts. In other words it's sort of a revshare program in disguise. If your traffic isn't profitable, you get a "revshare" payout; however, if your traffic is profitable the amount you make is capped. Quite a brilliant idea - design a revshare program that caps payments so no one will be making more than $35/signup and call it a pps program. And you're telling me this isn't a form of cheap changing webmasters???

happend also to me - so what did I do: dropped them ;) there are many good sponsors that pay PPS these days ;)

So what you are saying is, you would rather see a program pay less to all webmasters to make up for what they lose on webmasters traffic that doesn't make money? If your traffic does recur well, you would make more with revshare. And it wouldn't be capped.

Don't get me wrong, I hate when a program does change a webmaster to revshare. And, I really hated telling webmasters and friends that their traffic was not really that good and we had to change their program structure.

Their message to webmasters could also be inverted. It says "if we do not switch you to revshare program, it means that your traffic is worth more, then we are actually paying to you".

Yes, that's the whole point of PPS. Anyone who has valuable traffic knows this and that is why they prefer revshare.

I prefer using revshare to pps, so this sort of thing does not affect me. But I would have thought that it is the site's responsibility to keep members. If they have to move people from PPS to revshare then this is a sign that their site is crap and they cannot get rebills. I can see no good reason to send traffic to a sponsor who cannot keep members.

I love PPS because I'm a greedy fuck & I still think programs pay us too much per signup anyway, but that's just my little crappy opinion :)

Monthly I make more money with revshare than PPS. This is probable because I don't have the large amounts of traffic that is needed to feed PPS each day. Many days my rebill sales exceed my new sales for the day.

Well, I think I'm seeing a pattern here from a few other members and I'll be dropping them. It's a damn shame because the program was converting, but GGs first post in this thread pretty much sums it up. :(

I don't think you should condemn a sponsor for switching you to revshare for future sales. The alternative seems to be more common, and that is to shave the major part of your sales.

I don't think this is a case of condemning them. No one is suggesting that this is dishonest or even underhand. It is just that if they cannot keep members their sites are obviously not that good, and you don't want to keep throwing traffic at poor sponsors. Not only does it affect your bottom line, it is also unfair on your surfers.

That pretty much sums up the conclusion I've come to.