Admit it, GFY, your love-hate relationship with the trollmaster is
eternal and will go into the afterlife.
Having said that, Paul, while it's amusing, my suggestion is to stop derailing business threads with hypotheticals, what ifs and napkin math. Traffic in 2020 does not follow nor operate by any of the former...especially napkin math.
Amelia, it has to be a balance. If you're offering a % that is lower than the competition, IMO it's important that you're able to explain why your % is lower. Cams is a perfect example for a vertical where more than the usual two parties (paysite owner and the affiliate) have to split the revenue (eg. the cam model), hence the lower %. The lower % is obviously offset by longer retention and higher LTV.
After that, it will all come down to how much money you can make for the one driving traffic your way, like many have already said.
In short, high enough to appear on the prospects' radar and to make it worthwhile to promote long term. For traditional paysites anything lower than 50% I'd need to understand why they're offering less than the industry standard before I'd consider promoting them.
If it's a new product, err on the side of generosity in the interest of making that growth curve as steep as you can, as fast as you can. You can always run it as a promo/introductory offer, which will give you the flexibility to later lower it to a level that is sustainable and profitable long term.