How do you pick your sponsors?

[hzoltan]

Originally Posted by emmanuelle

Generally when a sponsor's rep hits me up (especially on icq), they are immediately ignored.

why? what's wrong about it? a program could be good, even if nobody recommended it to you yet... not to mention that it's rude to just ignore somebody.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by Simon IA Cash

I was waiting for someone to say that. As much as it makes sense to go off recommendations or try out sponsors whose affiliates claim great ratios, the fact of the matter is you're taking a relatively small slice of an admittedly large and delicious pie. Personally, I'd prefer to eat half of the pie that no one even bothered to try. I guess it would be good to diversify a portfolio with various sponsors, with some blue chips and some new tries (pies?).

These are some nice sponsors out there that have no WM referral program. So the chances of me splitting up that pie with no gain for me are basically nill!

Originally Posted by Simon IA Cash

Mmm, chips and pie.

Sounds like that geico commercial.

[emmanuelle]

Originally Posted by hzoltan

why? what's wrong about it? a program could be good, even if nobody recommended it to you yet... not to mention that it's rude to just ignore somebody.

Then they can use more appropriate channels. I consider my messengers to be for my use, not that of annoying salespeople- think of it as telemarketing and be happy to be simply ignored

[Jim]

Originally Posted by emmanuelle

Then they can use more appropriate channels. I consider my messengers to be for my use, not that of annoying salespeople- think of it as telemarketing and be happy to be simply ignored

On one hand, I hate icq so I would have to agree. ICQ is much like a phone call. You have to stop what you are doing and answer.

On the other, I have done quite a bit of business via icq in the past. When someone I was with opened a new site that seemed to fit perfectly with a freesite, I talked to the freesite owner on ICQ.

But to just blindly go after affiliates using ICQ is just wrong

As for picking sponsors, I do my very best when offering advertising here on GGandJ. If I find anything at all devious, I don't offer advertising. And, we have had a couple of sponsors that got a little funny after we allowed them in and we dropped them. I do reject more advertisers than I accept here.

It's just as easy to find a trustworthy sponsor for anyone to use. Do just a little research and you will either find out they are worthy of your traffic or not.

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by hzoltan

why? what's wrong about it? a program could be good, even if nobody recommended it to you yet... not to mention that it's rude to just ignore somebody.

Would you consider it rude to ICQ someone that has no idea who you are? That's why there's laws in place against cold calling telemarketers - if that person didn't give you their ICQ number, odds are they don't want to talk to you.

I don't mind if they bug me a bit, but I do tend to get pissed when I tell them no & they continue to annoy me
http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ighlight=metal

[Simon IA Cash]

Ok, let's get real here; this is hardly the equivalent of cold-call telemarketing. Some jackass calls me up to tell me to buy a cell phone or magazine, that's one thing. But this a person in an industry hitting up another person in the same industry to inquire about business possibilities for mutual benefit. Not raw selling for profit.

Yeah, ICQ is kinda like a phone call. So imagine this in any other industry. What person in any industry would not take a call for a business partnership from someone else in that industry? At least to see, just in case? You can tell within just a couple of minutes whether there is business potential or not. Not replying IS rude. Forget a couple of minutes. If you don't want business at all and can't spare any time to hear the person's proposal(s) out, at least a "no thanks not interested" would be fine.

Yes, adult is different than most industries, and yes, there's lots of spam and a lot of people who waste other people's time, but sponsors don't make money unless affiliates do. Sometimes there's actually good potential for business, and the sponsor contacted with good reason.

[emmanuelle]

Originally Posted by Simon IA Cash

Ok, let's get real here; this is hardly the equivalent of cold-call telemarketing. Some jackass calls me up to tell me to buy a cell phone or magazine, that's one thing. But this a person in an industry hitting up another person in the same industry to inquire about business possibilities for mutual benefit. Not raw selling for profit.

Evidently this depends on one's perspective.

[Greenguy]

Originally Posted by Simon IA Cash

...Not replying IS rude....

That is such a load of SHIT! If I didn't know you & you got my ICQ number from here on the board & hit me up about your program, it'd be rude of me to not reply to the unsolicited message that you sent me?

[virgohippy]

A lot of programs offer all kinds of deals/promotions/services/etc. all the time. I can't imagine how any site owner would get any work done if they treated their private messaging system as an open forum for each and every rep who wanted to contact them about some spectacular new program.

[Simon IA Cash]

I don't ignore anyone, generally, in my life, whether it's a homeless person, a random person on ICQ, or a telemarketer (although, admittedly, I fuck with telemarketers a bit on occasion). No matter who they are, people are people, and whether it's on ICQ or not, saying nothing tells them they are nothing to you, not even worthy of an acknowledgement/reply. Fact is, you never know who you the person you ignored might turn out to be, and you could be hurting a future relationship. Whether you care or not is another story, I guess.

I see your point about an unsolicited message being a bit intrusive, but again, this is potential mutual-gain business. I think it's worth it to hear a little of what a person has to say, if they feel they have something special to offer me. If you don't want to do that, fine. All I'm saying is that it's not so outlandish to tell someone "no thanks, no more messages please", and I think it would be quite possible for webmasters to get their work done all the same. Not all salespeople are so terrible, and given how often messages don't go through or get received over ICQ (for whatever reason), I think a decent and hardworking salesperson could be given the courtesy of a 5-second "no thanks not interested" so they don't have to wonder why there was no reply.

[Greenguy]

So it's rude to ignore them, but it's ok to fuck them them?

[Simon IA Cash]

Given that they are cold selling to me, I'm more flexible in my dealing, but it's less rude and more mean, I'd say. You can be occasionally jerky with etiquette Plus, by "fuck with them", I usually just turn on the friendliness and get personal and distract them from their sales.

[virgohippy]

As a cold caller myself, I much prefer the person who ignores me and/or closes the connection with me then the person who wastes my time either trying to pick a fight or talking about irrelevent stuff.

If want to be nice to me just hang up and put me out of my misery. I'll only call you back if I'm trying to pick a fight.

[Greenguy]

Vote for me and maybe the GG&J gods will make my avatar an official smilie!

[Preacher]

How hippytastic!

[Greenguy]

You're next, Bubble Boy

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by Greenie

Vote for me and maybe the GG&J gods will make my avatar an official smilie!

My aura is glowing super bright like pastels now, man!

Even though I just finished painting a naked lady, you just made my day Greenie.

And thanks again to you Emerald for sending me the smilie.

[xcitecash]

Originally Posted by 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

..

good post...this whole thread is very interesting to us....

one question? why do you need so many banners ?

[Papa]

#1 Not over exposed
#2 Got niche sites
#3 Don't offer shitloads of freebies
#4 Can pay by Epassporte
#5 I can talk to the owner by ICQ or MSN when i wish

[JohnWebcams.com]

When selling other sites other than our own (and our own as well) to surfers, I'm really quite indifferent about the quality of the tour.

The important part is the content that is provided or if they will allow their members area content to be advertised by affiliates. If they do this, I find it much more effective to provide good content to the surfer (potential buyer) and be as descriptive as possible about the site. Then the surfer knows what to expect and you can just link straight to the join form and don't have to worry about a sponsor screwing up a tour and causing your surfer to lose interest.

Basically, controlling your own destiny by making good ads using sponsor content and linking to the join form is much better so what's important is GOOD content available to sell the site(s).

[jayeff]

Originally Posted by JohnWebcams.com

Basically, controlling your own destiny by making good ads using sponsor content and linking to the join form is much better

I'm often dismayed by how much of what used to be considered basic knowledge, is rarely mentioned any more. Traffic management, which is far easier to accomplish than traffic generation, is one such "basic" and good traffic management would include exactly what you described, at least for several types of sites.

However it isn't practical for all. For example, someone who has a database of 100K+ hosted galleries from dozens of sponsors and hundreds of sites, feeding a network of TGP's doesn't have that option. It is a major task even for someone who builds and hosts many galleries himself to create FPA's for all of them, let alone (mini) tours.

And there is another aspect to all this...

From time to time, certainly when I sign up with a new sponsor, I email about something or other. If I don't get a response, it takes too long to come back, or I only get a half-assed response, I will not promote that sponsor. I generally have the same attitude towards weak tours or tours with leaks, etc., even if I don't plan to send surfers to them.

The reason is that people sometimes, but not often, run one part of their businesses professionally and the rest sloppily. There are so many sponsors to choose from these days, that there really is no need to go with someone who doesn't seem to have everything running as it should.