RevShare or PPS?
 

How do you decide on whether to use PPS or RevShare if a sponsor offers both?

Also is PPS more prone to shaving? I mean, some programs offer $50 to $100 per signup, how do they make the money without shaving?

I now realize how new I still am at this and how much more I have to learn.

I have no clue on shaving but often wondered the same.

The only thing that was told to me that I am now doing is that rev gives you staying power and a more steady income. Which I'm sure is of no new news to you.

But I'm interested in hearing about this.

All those high payout PPS programs are upselling and cross-selling the surfer. Retention alone isn't high enough to cover those payouts.

I do mostly revshare. The few PPS programs I push, for the most part, don't offer revshare. In a few rare cases, when inital conversion ratios have been decent, but rebills are poor, I've switched from revshare to PPS.

I'm about 98% PPS. Once I get an initial sale I lose control of the surfer, it's out of my hands. I don't want to rely on a tour to keep a surfer renewing. I can push a 1.95 or 4.95 three day trial in many different ways. But think of this....Sponsors pretty much know what their ratios are so whether you go PPS or revshare, you're probably going to come out the same in the long run.

I did PPS at first then switched to rev share. I do seem to be doing better with rev share, for what it's worth.

I think as many have stated, it depends on the program. I use PPS when I push a trial only because I think or its my opinion that someone that will sign on for $1 or $2.95 but wont sign up at $24 - $30 p/m probably will not renew at the inflated price many of the progs offer to trial renewals. And on the other hand I feel that VOD and Cam SItes probably are best served using RevShare for the long haul. Also, depending on the traffic source I change the PPS/RevShare - for instance 404 traffic I keep at PPS..I think its important to mix it up. Many of the company's that offer both will allow you to promote both..do a test see the difference..if any.

I think for me to sum it up there a few deciding factors.
The Program and what they offer as a means of memberside "goodies"
Is the program just full of upsells for which I dont see any $
The size of the "network" as many offer a sign for one get all policy.
The traffic source
And Past Experience with a certain program

For the larger programs I see how their consoles are. If right from the beginning they are upselling other peoples sites, even though they have 80+ of their own, then I choose PPS with no consoles. I prefer the option in trying to cross-sell my own surfers. JMO

Most of the time you'll notice that the mega sites offer PPS because retention isn't always so good. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's likely not as good as a niche paysite with exclusive content. Those are the ones that are normally better to take revshare with.

That makes no sense. If I was a program owner & I knew that a paysite was not retaining, why would I offer $20-35 PPS when all I get is $3-5 from the trial?

Maybe you should have quoted my entire post instead. And Toby's post answers your question too.

Maybe you need to re-read your posts before you press the button.

The 1st part is from a program owner's POV, the 2nd is from an affiliate's. We all know you're both, so I'm sorry if it's hard for me to understand statements where you change hats in the middle.

Again, you said the programs offers PPS because the retention isn't good and affiliates use revshare for niche sites because retention is good.

Now, if you said that an affiliate should use PPS because retention is not good on mega sites, then I'd have no questions.

No, what I originally posted makes sense.

I did say that, although I didn't go as far to say that that all mega sites had bad retention. I have no idea how true that could precisely be. Just likely not as good as niche sites with exclusive content.

I actually agree with that when it comes to certain sponsors. I think that there are programs built with zero intention of attempting to retain or even appease the member. They're entire focus is the upsell/cross sale. It's really annoying when that type of program offers revshare, even though they are going to do everything within their marketing guru's power to move that member to another site/product.

NO YOU DIDN'T! Re-read it for a 3rd time:

You said "offer" That means that it's the program & not the affiliate. The affiliate can not "offer" anyone PPS.

Now why would an affiliate program pay PPS on a trial if that had bad retention?

No one cares what you think you said, we just care about what you actually posted.

Greenie do you need a Tylenol or something?
Stop splitting hairs.

Splitting hairs? Just be a big boy & admit that you fucked up.

I never mentioned "trial" even once, so would you mind answering your own question for us?

With a sponsor that offers both choices, you could do your own split-tests by using both until you see which one brings you more $$ over time. Depending on how you manage your promotions this can be easy or hard. Easy if you have a way to automatically rotate the links so that about half your traffic gets the PPS link and the others get the RevShare code.

--visually changing hats so no one gets confused-- ;)

And as a program owner I just want to say that I wish everyone would chose our pay-per-sale option 'cause it costs us too much the other way. :D

Be a big boy & admit you fucked up.

|popcorn|

TekAngel - since I know that Evil Chris can't admit that he fucked up, I'll get this back on topic :)

Assuming the program offers all 4, use them in this order:
1 - PPS with cheap trial
2 - Revshare with no trial
3 - PPS with no trial
4 - Revshare with cheap trial

That's not to say there are not exceptions - say a sponsor offers 2 & 3 (this is very common) After an amount of hits or a time frames has passed, you look at your stats & see that the the average Revshare signup is making you less than a PPS, then switch the codes.

There's other scenario's, but that list is a good guide :)

Fine! OK I could have worded the first part a little better.

Let me re-phrase it by saying that "mega sites" should be promoted on a PPS basis since, in my experience, they do not normally retain as well as a niche site with exclusive content.

You know, I've actually wondered if some programs know that their product is so good, that they prefer to buy off affiliates with a quick PPS rather than share the ever-lasting rewards. I wouldn't blame them. Of course, I'd bet that there are very few programs with that kind of product.

I also find this with the cross selling sponsors, your surfer buys the trial and it doesn't retain so you earn peanuts. Those are the great sponsors to promote PPS where ever possible.

I personally like revshare as an affiliate unless I have doubts in the company sticking around long enough to get my rebills out of them

I usually stick to revshare but if I'm promoting some cookie cutter site on a site, I'd go with PPS. You can spot quality anyday.

Also, some program owners would rather have you push PPS since they know their sites rebill - not many people think of this.

I prefer PPS, mostly because I did not find (yet maybe) a sponsor who rebills good enough to b even close to lets say 30$ per signup

I take PPS on non-niche paysites with cheap trials & revshare on niche paysites as I know I will make more compared to PPS.

I also preview a members area before any promotion, to save myself the wasted time of pushing a shite paysite.

-N

Take nastydollars for example, if a surfer signs up and cancels within the trial period (can be hard if you don't read the fine print) they will be offered a lower price membership like $10 or so per month.
A few months down the line they will get emails offering bangbrosnetwork, maybe they will sign up to that. Few months later maybe some reality kings offers.

Plus one thing I wonder about is SITENAME.COM plastered on banners/content. I'm sure with the 1000's of pages out there they get some type ins from all the free name branding affiliates do.

When I started 6 months ago, I used think RevShare all the way. Now, looking at my starts I think it depends on the program. There is one sponsor which has a reasonably good MILF site and then some other non-MILF sites which are a little quirky. I've had 4 sign ups on RevShare but no one seems to stay longer than a month. I am still going to promote them but I think I will go PPS from now on. My 2 cents.

Definitely depends on the sponsor/program. When a sponsor offers both you can try both and then decide which sites retain and which don't. PPS are great since they add up quick but revshare is better because then the cheques come month after month.

So yeah, definitely try both and see what works best with your traffic.

I vote for both and strongly agree on last comments. I hope some day I will have a solid number of active members and can retire :D

Peace

my vote is to diversify my portfolio but it does suck when you create and submit a freesite and you get two revshare signups right off the bat and then you're waiting for the fourth day to see if they're converted and then they don't...and you're like shit, I could've had $70 instead of $2.98. That starts to wear on me after a while, but I do like to diversify my portfolio so to speak, and use both.....it's a peaks and valleys kind of business...

OK, so I think I got it. I think I will take Greenie's advice; it seems it is the best answer and system.

Looks like it is a matter of trying both and picking the best.

Thanks to all for the advice.

I sometimes wonder if some revshare signups get shaved by the sponsor after the first month. To the affiliate it would seem that the surfer just chose not to renew, but the sponsor would end up getting all the rebills. Of course, I'm not meaning to imply that anyone would ever do this. |devil|

But if it was happening, how would the affiliate ever know?

I wonder about that kind of stuff, too. I would think it would be difficult to be in the business long term and do this, but you never know.

TrafficCashGold is PPS only...and rather strange that they pay out less if you send to the join page rather than the tour.

Nice ordered list Greenie...wish I would have seen this thread before I learned that the hard work way.

I've heard people say that if a site has a great members area then go revshare, but if it looks crappy then go PPS.

My question is, if a site has a crappy members area, why would you promote it in the first place? If you don't think they can make back the $35 or whatever they're paying you from retention, then where do you think they're getting the money to pay you with? (either something to do with a razor or something to do with hidden charges to the surfer)

I make over $50 per signup with a revshare program that I've been promoting for years. This is WITH TRIALS, very cheap ones actually.

My advice is to find a program that seems to really take care of it's members. No shady tactics, no double and triple billing on the join pages, no pop up hell on the tour....but clean, easy to surf sites with great members areas and good customer service. Don't promote a site that you wouldn't recommend to a friend in person.

If a program is willing to rip the surfer off, they're willing to rip you off too. If they take care of their members then it's likely that they take care of their webmasters.

That's my 2 cents.