heres how my thought process works.
step one:
do i like how the programs main page looks?
does it look like they spent time and money on it?
step two:
do they have sites that fit my niche(s) ?
step three:
does it look like they spent time and money on those sites?
step four:
join the program
step five:
how are the ad tools?
free hosted galleries?
can i bulk export hosted galleries in any format i choose?
does the sponsor provide long text descriptions?
does the sponsor provide thumbnails for the FHG?
does that size thumbnail work for my site(s) ?
if all of these questions are answered yes, skip to step nine.
if any are answered no, continue to step six.
step six
do i really want to promote this program?
have i talked to the affiliate rep or program owner?
do i consider them (the idividual, or the program) likeable or trustworthy? or are they just contacts?
if two or more of these questions are answered yes, continue to step seven.
if two or more of these questions are answered no, close window.
step seven
can i put together a decent looking gallery from a set?
does the set have watermarks?
can i build a watermark easily enough out of the site logo?
if two or more of these questions are answered yes, continue to step eight.
if two or more of these questions are answered no, close window.
step eight
generate link code.
build gallery.
at the moment, galleries that i build get fed choker gallery traffic (usually 3-5k hits) with the hopes of getting some good branding for my sites, and some click through to both myself and the sponsor.
example
here.
additionally, these galleries sit on my sites in the 185x245 corners when i have advertising space available.
skip to step ten.
step nine
dump the handy free hosted content into my system.
FHG in my network end up as 90x120 thumbnails in the daily gallery tables.
i really like the idea of getting tons of content into the system quickly.
it makes it easy to get tons of exposure to these sites fast, and allows me to have ever changing fresh content in place.
step ten.
pay me.
im okay with $100 minimum payouts.
i like being paid by epass, but im okay with checks too.
other thoughts:
i think it is critical for a program to make things as easy as possible for the webmasters who choose to promote them.
now, im not a program owner. . .
but if i was running an affiliate program, my goal would be saturating the market.
i would want as many affiliates as possible spreading as much of my content as possible in as many places as possible.
i would want to be so oversaturated that i would be forced to close my doors to new webmasters except by invitation. . .
i can be really lazy when it comes to content, ive got a lot of other things to worry about.
it seems to me that a lot of programs take the attitude 'another lazy webmaster wanting the world from us'
but i wonder how many times those programs have been asked for the same 'world' by another affiliate.
in my opinion, if you get asked for it twice, you should make it available without having to ask.
it just seems unfair to make 100 webmasters do something for themselves when one person at the program could do it and be done with it.
in my opinion domains are like real estate.
i own land.
if you want to put a sign on my property, you need to make your sign.
if your sign sucks, nobody is gonna look at it.
if you want to put your sign on my property, you need to pay me to put it there.
thank you for letting me share
flames go here: john @ heres-some-porn.com
money goes here: advertise @ heres-some-porn.com
get my unsolicited opinion here: 314157890
-John