How do you pick your sponsors?

[Simon IA Cash]

This is a question for all the affiliates out there, anyone who promotes sponsors... Where do you go to find the sponsors you'd like to promote? I imagine there are a lot of options, but I'm just curious as to what is done most often.

[Licker4U]

I check and make sure PPS and Revshare are available. PPS on a $4.95 trial needs to be $35.00. Revshare needs to be 60%. I see how many niches are available. Too few, not good. Too many, not good IMHO. (Might get spread too thin) Then I look at the tours and see if they do something for me. They have to "hit" me some way. If I don't like 'em I can't sell 'em. Then I check for content that may be available. Hosted free sites are a plus too. None are necessarily a sign-up buster but that's what I look for.

Recently I HAVE signed up with a few sponsors that only have 50% Revshare because the tours, content and sites looked good.

[KG Gary]

At first I would just promote anyone/anything relevant to the niches I like/build freesites in.
Like Licker4U mentioned, I'm starting to take a good look at the tours and see if they appeal to me as a lover of the niche. If they do, then I'll promote them.
I've also used recommendations from this forum on several occasions. Plus Greenguy's stats and the GG&J resources pages, and a few people's sigs.
But I really do have to think a tour for a particular site is appealing enough.

[virgohippy]

Recomendations from private conversations with other webmasters I trust is my first consideration.

If I like the content so much I feel the urge to stop what I'm doing so I can pleasure myself the moment I first come across it... I'll probably sign up on the spot, but I may not promote.

Everything else goes into my "sponsors to consider" favorites folder, broken down by billing processor. CCBill sponsors get priority.

If I need a niche, fresh content, or sponsor links to stuff somewhere, or I'm not happy with past performers, I hunt through my favorites and make direct comparisons on those factors I've gained the experiene enough to estimate as reasons why I may or may not make money.

Also, every so often I'll sign up with a program on a whim and test it out just to feed the chaos element.

[SuziQT]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

Recomendations from private conversations with other webmasters I trust is my first consideration.

This is my #1 way to find new sponsors. I don't take on many new ones nowadays and if I do it is usually based on a personal recommendation from someone I trust.

[JustRobert]

virgohippy said it for me.

I will try out new sponsors for niches I am not sure of or testing and see what sticks. Usually find them at GG&J.

[jayeff]

Selling porn is slightly strange for me because in my previous businesses I basically set out to provide products or services which I would buy myself, offering them in a way which would appeal to me.

But I have never spent a cent on porn and until I started in this business hadn't so much as looked at a Playb*y since I was a teen and my then barber left his out for his customers. So I have to try to imagine what would appeal to me if I did enjoy porn

Anyway, that is my criterium for selecting sponsors. If their sites don't appeal to my alter-ego, I won't promote them actively. Happily, after having trouble finding more than 15-20 sponsors for most of the last 10 years, in the past 18 months or so, that number has almost doubled. It seems the message is finally sinking in that if we don't sell over-priced crap, we might actually be better off.

[Tommy]

well if i see a site or gallery premoting the sponsor and the content or whatever looks intersting

i will click thru to the sponsor and look thru the tour

then I will go to the webmaster section and look at other sites they have, billing options

if they have like 100 cookie cutter sites I am long gone


then IF i sign up, I look thru the webmaster tools and see if anything motivates me

if they have good banners or gallerys maybe I will throw something up

but if I see 4, 468 by 80 banners and 20 gallerys mostly with the same content....the sponsor wont even be a memory

[tickler]

Sometimes TV can start me on a sponsor hunt.
eg. CSI had an episode about biting fetish.
- So Google takes me to a Mac Daddy Bucks site called Bite Sex. Also while searching I also run into some solo vamp chicks. Some have affiliate programs and some don't. I also check out their friends links. A whole lot more of little known vamp/goth/fetish/bdsm sites to check out.

Sometimes I also go looking for sponsors that are setup to handle foreign billing as a lot of niches are geo-centric.

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by tickler

Sometimes TV can start me on a sponsor hunt.
eg. CSI had an episode about biting fetish.

I saw that episode! Turned me on something fierce when the woman with the teeth leaned in and the guy just squirmed... where's the *blush* smilie?

[johnnybg]

There is two step process I use:
1. Pick a sponsor
2. See if it sells with my traffic

Only after step 2. I decide if I'll promote it for real.

I pick sponsors if I like content. And I mean if I like it as a surfer, not webmaster. I know I'm comfortable in selling something I like, so my copywriting is much better.

There is also a third step - See if it rebills, if I choose revshare program. Third step is something I consider about 3-4 months later.

Other things that I like:
1. Good promotional material,
2. Different tools available
3. Good inquiry response time

Hope I helped

[Simon IA Cash]

Very interesting replies all around. I wonder, for those who are dissatisfied with the available promo material, payment options, or other factors that would otherwise have you look away... do you contact the sponsor anyway and see what they can do to accomodate your needs? For example, we have an in-house designer that can help make custom promo material if it would help the affiliate promote. Couldn't hurt to get communication going, right? It would be a shame to get that close and not even begin a dialogue.

[jayeff]

Originally Posted by Simon IA Cash

do you contact the sponsor anyway and see what they can do to accomodate your needs?

No. Sponsors don't appear to realize how many of them there are. It simply isn't practical to talk to 990 who may or may not be interested in catering for specific needs, when you can go right to work for 10 based on what they are offering to everyone. And frankly, it's such a hellish frustrating experience too, since most won't even bother replying.

Talking to sponsors with whom you already work is something else. But if sponsors choose not to put the best of what they have to offer in their "shop windows", why deal with them?

[jayeff]

The curious thing about threads like this, on any board, is that the answers are almost all very sensible, a guide as to how sponsors should be chosen.

Which leaves one wondering why here on planet Earth, most of the biggest sponsors are those promising big payouts, prizes and the rest. On the whole, there is a reverse correlation between what people say makes them choose sponsors and what the sponsors they choose actually offer.

It is the same phenomenon which convinced Ford to produce the Edsel, the biggest marketing disaster in automotive history. People know what their priorities should be when common sense prevails, but remembering them when actually making choices is another story.

[Worldnet]

First I look for per sale program, then who is running the program, then thier reputation on the boards. I also will not use sponsors who use CC Bill. Transactions are washed to much.

[neticule]

"do you contact the sponsor anyway and see what they can do to accomodate your needs?"

If I really like the site, I definitly contact them. 50% of the time, im shot down with them telling me that everything i can use is in the webmaster area. The other 50% of the time I am usually pleasently suprised, sometimes even getting access to the members area to use whatever pics I want for promotion. IMO I sell memberships a LOT better when I have had a look-see at the members area. I can make a free site with such and such girl, and then have specific information on whats in the members area of her, etc.

I do try to contact sponsors though if they dont have what I need, sometimes they never email me back, and thus I never even promote them.

to FIND sponsors, I will often just goto one of the big tgp's, and look around from a surfers POV, if a cute girl catches my eye, I will click through and find the sponsor for her, that is usually how I find most of them. I still have some surfer attitude left in me, and some paysites actually make ME want to sign up, if that happens, I instantly start promoting them.

[BOSS]

I turn on my surfer mode or ask my friends what they wank to nowdays

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by jayeff

On the whole, there is a reverse correlation between what people say makes them choose sponsors and what the sponsors they choose actually offer.

Interesting point. I've not spent any amount of "extra" time/energy/money promoting a site based on prizes or contests. (Probably why I've never won any, and never will) Most of my sales come from sponsors which don't offer gimicks - they just have good content, honest tours that reflect the members area, and working with their promo materials regularly makes me horny.

Originally Posted by neticule

...sometimes even getting access to the members area to use whatever pics I want for promotion. IMO I sell memberships a LOT better when I have had a look-see at the members area. I can make a free site with such and such girl, and then have specific information on whats in the members area of her, etc.

I've had the same experience, though I can understand why sponsors would be hesitent to give such access to affiliates indiscriminately. I make it a point to ask only when I've proved my worth as a seller of their product. I don't expect special treatment until I can show that my efforts are a good investement on their part.

As jayeff pointed out, if I can't sell the site with the standard tools/materials I'm not going to spend additional effort in an attempt to get more.

[Jim]

Originally Posted by BOSS

I turn on my surfer mode or ask my friends what they wank to nowdays

You really go to your friends and ask them what type of material they use to play with themselves? That seems like an awkward conversation

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by Jim

You really go to your friends and ask them what type of material they use to play with themselves? That seems like an awkward conversation

I ask friends that as well, but I don't word it that way
I ask them what they've been surfing, what sites they've joined (a couple of them do join sites)

I also take recommendations for programs from friends (and here on the board)

Then I promote them for a month or so & see how things go.

[emmanuelle]

It's not often that we have the opportunity to promote other sites, but when we do, we normally use the following checklist:

- the precise niche that we're looking to target
- in most cases we require good quality, large sized downloadable content- preferably exclusive non licensed material
- does the company behind the site subscribe to our version of good business practices?

We rarely promote anything to do with teen, and never support a company that glorifies (questionably consensual) violence towards women (or men), or degradation.
You really wont find us supporting companies that attach braces to a model's teeth to emphasize her youthful good looks either.

Most of the time our preference leans towards genuine amateurs, preferably those who are clearly involved in running their own site. All that heart & soul makes me tingly.

[C-RedHotBucks]

i always look for a sponsor that has sites that intrest me.. if i like a site i am more likely to take the time to promote on my sites, next is payout amount.. how much ya payin me

[SheepGuy]

nise paysit! i was goona sine, butt...

[SheepGuy]

Originally Posted by SheepGuy

nise paysit! i was goona sine, butt...

Sorry, that was rude.
Long day.

[Simon IA Cash]

That's odd. No one, to my question "how do you pick sponsors?", replied "They pick and approach me."