[Simon]

I've pretty much been following Greenie's strategy on some new TGP/MGP/LL/DIR sites we're developing. I have around 300 sponsors in the mix, with many of them having at least several paysites and some of them having a lot of paysites to promote.

Criteria for picking them was that we didn't find any really bad press about the sponsor posted somewhere and not resolved. Aside from that, the sponsors which are initially getting promoted the heaviest are the ones who give us the best tools and the most content that we need. Eventually, once we know which sponsors and sites are performing the best, we'd build custom promo tools to see if we can improve the ratios. But at first they have to have what we need.

Sponsors can get UN-picked way before they have a chance to not perform too...

I send requests for things I'd like to use to promote a program if they don't offer them. For instance, I've asked many programs if they intend to offer HFS, since many don't have them. Or if they'll be offering HFS with video content if they only have them with pics content. Or maybe I'll ask for assitance getting a list of content I can import into a database without having to do the full NATS dance. The sponsors who don't reply to emails, or even their own support forms on their site, or who won't send a list, or are just rude, get dropped once I'm sure it's not just an idiot rep making them look bad.

There have also been a few sponsors whose FHG and HFS wind up being 404'd too often, with the 404 page being a nice promo page that doesn't carry through the affiliate id code. On those I point it out to them and keep an eye on them. If they keep that up, they wind up UN-picked too.

I figure it's okay to start with a large pool of sponsors as long as you cull regularly.