This is what i have found over the last 5 or so years in this business. Conversions from sponsors who pay for free memberships or $45 ( example only ) per trial are always way lower than sponsors who pay via a partnership or affiliate program( for the life of the member). Sites we promote seem to have members who stay longer so our recurring income is substantial and keeps us going during the slow summer months. We did a comparison about a year ago and found that the actual income we got from affiliate ( payment for the life of the member ) compared to pay per sign up was about 30% more for the same amount and type of traffic. So for us its a no brainer we stick with affiliate sponsors only. This is obviously only our experience and others will most likely have a different story , but we have noticed that its much harder to make sales and ratios of hits to members seems to be going up, i feel this is in part due to the proliferation of vast amounts of free content and the explosive number of small websites coming onto the web.
Cindy xx
