how to get a good start with a new program

[hollywood376]

Originally Posted by ecchi

OK, this is my 2c, but be aware it is how I look at new sponsors, other people may disagree. Also please don't take offence at anything I say. I am talking about how I view a site when I come across it as a possible new sponsor, so please don't assume I am accusing you of anything here.

1. You promote 2 solo girl sites. Why are these any better that all the others? If you want me to promote your site you will have to convince me that your sign up ratio or member retention is better than others. And don't just quote figures, give reasons (eg. our members stay longer because after 6 months they get sent a genuine signed photo).

2. Up to 65% payout, plus 5% for referral of webmaster. Considering you are new I guess you are paying about 15% CC processing, that leaves you 15% of the sale price to cover bandwidth, new content, etc. No offence intended to you, but when I come across sites like that I automatically assume they will either be out of business within a few months or will have to start shaving.

3. Free hosted galleries are good, but I need to have a page on your site where I can collect the link codes and decide what I want to use. Having them submitted is no good because: (A) Most of the sites I use FHGs on are 'fake' TGPs with sponsors galleries and link exchanges, no submit form. (B) Sites I have with submit forms automatically check for recips. As your galleries will obviously not meet this requirement, my script will automatically trash them. (C) It looks really amateurish doing it this way. If you got time to submit to all your affiliates sites then you don't got many customers, and if you don't got many customers I would assume you won't convert well for me.

4. Really need to know more about your content. How much do you have, how often is it updated, etc. I believe this is even more important to people who specialise in solo girl sites than it is to me. I was talking to someone (I think on this board, but it might have been elsewhere) who said that he needed plenty of fresh new content all the time to push the girls on TGP posts.

I certainly don't take offense at anything someone says. This is business, not personal. Now, let me see if I can answer some of your questions/comments:

1.) Why are my solo girls sites better than other solo girls sites? Well, to be quite frank with you, they probably aren't. There are, I'm sure, sites that are better and sites that are not. Making a claim to be the best would just be foolish. As the sites are just as new as the program, I can only tell you what is offered and why membership retention should be good. The sites are updated at least once per week with at least one picture set or video. That does not include live web shows, which should also make a difference in the retention. Plus, a member to the site gets free membership to both sites, or any sites that are added later.

2.) The payout percentage is tiered. It has a base percentage of 50, which climbs to 65 as the number of sales increases. Everything in business is a matter of cost. If I only have to pay one person for 25 sales, then I only have to pay the labor for my accounting to write one check. That's much less work than writing 25 checks for 25 people who made 1 sale. I'm well aware of my margins and how much I need to make from a sale to be profitable. While I would much rather pay you 4% for each sale, I doubt you will send a single click my way for that. As to shaving, I always leave this offer open to anyone: Come to my office, log in to my stats and see for yourself. There is no need for it. If a reasonable and fair profit cant be made from a transaction, then there is no need to stay in business. I think there is a general feeling that every one in the adult business is shady and that it is just expected that "everyone shaves" who has a program. I know it's not true, because there is at least one that will never do it. Additionally, I have more sites in the works, and for each one that is added my costs decrease. For each new product, I don't have new office costs, supply costs, computer and equipment costs, etc.

3.) Inside the program you can generate the links for every gallery etc and choose what you want. The service for submitting galleries for those who ask is supplied as just that, a service. When the demands of my staff out weigh their ability, the service won't be offered to anyone new. As to not having a lot of customers affecting your conversions, I would think that the opposite of what you are saying is true: The more customers I have, the more likely you are to be competing with them for conversions?? Maybe I missed something there.

4.) I have quite a bit more content for one site than the other. I know that I have enough photo content to update one site for at least a year, updating once per week. And I am supplied with at least two photo sets/videos every week, so for every week I am online my capacity increases by two weeks.

I understand anyones reluctance to try a new program, and that is why I am asking these questions. One thing is certain, without good affiliates the websites will be doomed to fail, and I don't want to see that happen. With some affiliates that are willing to give me a try and offer their views on how to improve, I think we could have a successful program. I can tell you that we are dedicated to making it the best that we can, which means improving at all phases, now and in the future.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by hollywood376

1.) Why are my solo girls sites better than other solo girls sites? Well, to be quite frank with you, they probably aren't. There are, I'm sure, sites that are better and sites that are not. Making a claim to be the best would just be foolish.

Very well said. Any sponsor with a solo girl site could say that his girl is the hottest and we'd all sit here thinking "yeah, right". It's a matter taste.

I like honesty. Save the marketing text for the surfers. They're the ones who have to fall in love with her.

[ecchi]

You missed the point of my post. I was not posting to ask you to justify your site, I was pointing out what changes you need to make to get webmasters to sign up to your affiliate program.

1. If a webmaster is interested in promoting solo girl sites he will already have a full portfolio. He will have no interest whatsoever in signing up another one unless you give him a reason yours is better. Regardless of what UW says, saying your sites are as good but no better than others is saying "don't bother signing up with me, you already have plenty of sponsors like this, go elsewhere and find a better sponsor". (That said DON'T lie, just find a reason you are better, or different, to others.)

2. Don't tell me this, make it clear on your site (although be more concise than you were in your post). You need to convince anyone who comes to your site that you really can run a website on 15% of membership fees. Otherwise a lot of them will assume you are a shaver and not sign up.

3. and 4. Again make this clear on your site (although again make it more concise). If I had come across your affiliate program as it is while looking for solo sites to promote, I would not have signed up. But if it had all the info you have in your post I probably would have done.

Although N.B. my comment "make it more concise". I read all your post here, but if there had been that much wordage on an affiliate site I would have skipped it and gone elsewhere. Try to make each point in 3 short sentences or less.

[hollywood376]

Originally Posted by ecchi

You missed the point of my post. I was not posting to ask you to justify your site, I was pointing out what changes you need to make to get webmasters to sign up to your affiliate program.

1. If a webmaster is interested in promoting solo girl sites he will already have a full portfolio. He will have no interest whatsoever in signing up another one unless you give him a reason yours is better. Regardless of what UW says, saying your sites are as good but no better than others is saying "don't bother signing up with me, you already have plenty of sponsors like this, go elsewhere and find a better sponsor". (That said DON'T lie, just find a reason you are better, or different, to others.)

2. Don't tell me this, make it clear on your site (although be more concise than you were in your post). You need to convince anyone who comes to your site that you really can run a website on 15% of membership fees. Otherwise a lot of them will assume you are a shaver and not sign up.

3. and 4. Again make this clear on your site (although again make it more concise). If I had come across your affiliate program as it is while looking for solo sites to promote, I would not have signed up. But if it had all the info you have in your post I probably would have done.

Although N.B. my comment "make it more concise". I read all your post here, but if there had been that much wordage on an affiliate site I would have skipped it and gone elsewhere. Try to make each point in 3 short sentences or less.

good points. Of course I will not be so wordy on the site, as I know people don't want to read more than they have to.
One problem I have is that I don't want to mislead anyone. Should I get on my site and claim to have ratios of 1:72? Becasue I can say that and not be lying, I just wouldn't be telling the whole story. One guys traffic differs from another, so past ratios realy don't mean a lot, except to the person that earned that ratio. Plus, what's the number based on? 1st page? 2nd? Join? Those differences can drastically change the ratios. 1:1200 1st page might be 1:150 join.

Today I am running some gallery traffic through my FHG's to see how they convert? A few hundred thousand hits should tell me something, I would think. I'll share the results when I have them.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by hollywood376

One problem I have is that I don't want to mislead anyone.

Yes. Misleading people may get you a lot of webmasters to start with, but they will soon bugger off again when they realise you are stretching the truth.

The thing to do it try and find something that is uniquish to your site. If you do not have something, add something. If you cannot add something, do not expect to make a lot of money in this business.

That said, it does not have to be amazing. An example is the "autographed photo" thing I mentioned a while back. It will cost you, what, a dollar. But if it gives you 6 months membership fees it is worth the dollar. And things like that will also attract webmasters to sell the site.

One big important fact you appear to have got wrong is that you think you are in the porn business. You are not. You are in the advertising business. Whatever is on your site, however unique it is, however good it is I guarantee several thousand people will be doing the same thing. And a lot of them will be better than you. Tell me now why someone should sign up to your site instead of one of the other several thousand similar sites? Think, if you were the buyer not the seller, why the hell would you join your site instead of someone else's? The only thing that gets people to sign up is your tour. Even if you have the best webmasters in the world pushing your site, with the best adverts in the world, when the surfer hits your site, if it does not tell them "this site is exactly what you are looking for", the surfer will bugger off without buying. And worse than that, the webmasters who know what they are doing, know this. If they look at your site and do not think it sells itself, they will not pick you up as a sponsor, they have more profitable things to send their traffic to.

And the same goes for the webmaster's page. You have to sell it to them. You have to convince them that they will make more money selling your site than someone else's. Fail to do that and you get exactly zero webmasters.

And you have to do all this without lying.

That is why I said you are in the advertising business, not the porn business. If you are no good at 'selling' the surfers will never even see your porn.

There are two things you should have done before setting up a paysite. So, if you have not already done them, do them now. They are:

1.Read lots of books on advertising (and I mean lots of books, put in several hundred hours of reading just for the basics). And if possible consider taking a course on advertising.

2. Create lots of free sites and galleries selling other sponsors. Only by practising this will you work out how to sell to surfers. And you will also find out what webmasters want, by being one. Don't consider this lesson over until you are making a good living out of free sites and galleries. Don't even imagine that you have the slightest hope of getting webmaster's to use your affiliate program until then.

Maybe I am scaring you, but don't read this and think "Oh shit, I can't do all that". Instead think "I AM going to do all that. Because you have the site now, so you have to do that.