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Drake · 12-30-2004, 03:08 AM

This thread is like the energizer bunny.

It seems to sum up what has already been said in other threads regarding revshare and PPS.

Revshare solely relies on retention for it's revenue base. PPS relies on retention as well as a number of other methods including cross sales, upsells, and exits (often multipe pop-ups when the surfer doesn't join a site and closes the original browser).

Both methods are ok and I think the one that is more profitable is determined on a site by site basis. A fully 'optimized' PPS will definitely generate a lot for an affiliate if it converts well. We have to be careful when we say 'optimized'. As MarcDe pointed out, many sites 3 years ago were 'optimizing' traffic using multiple cross sales to be able to pay $50-$70 on PPS. Clearly good for affiliates and program owners, but not for surfers. Those days appear to be over.

I think the PPS sites of today are much better than in the past. The fact that chargebacks aren't a problem seems to indicate that one cross sell is perfectly reasonable to the surfer. I also find nothing wrong with exits as a way of optimizing traffic (only looking at it from a webmaster point of view, it's annoying because you don't intend to buy, but you get pop-ups, lol). Probably 1-3 is reasonable. The company I work for has and will continue to utilize both models.

I think that part of the reason there are supporters and detractors of each model is because of a different philosophy behind each. Revshare seems to be more geared to focus on quality for the sake of retention, no gimmicks that is 'believed' to annoy surfers, and a philosophy of not trying to juice each surfer for every dime. PPS seems more geared toward extracting as much as possible from the surfer at every corner. There is a good argument for both methods. An argument for revshare is that you build trust among your members and they stay long and are happy. An argument for PPS is that it's best to get as much as you can in as little time possible. Why? Because nobody can tell see into the future and who says you'll be able to make similar money a month or two from now. In other words, make haste (as much haste as possible) while the sun shines.

Obviously the other point of contention was that revshare has less reason to shave than PPS, because of the math required to make PPS work. The truth is, both types of programs can shave. We can say that revshare has less reason to, but that doesn't mean a revshare program won't. Wherever you find greed, you'll find things like shaving, and it makes no difference if it's revshare or PPS. In fact, we've seen examples of both right here on GFY. We saw some CCBill revshare programs not paying beyond a certain number of rebills (and thanks to the transparency of the CCBill system, affiliates were able to see which programs did this and which didn't) and we also saw a PPS program (PIBCash) shaving.

We've seen in this thread that the math for PPS can work if it's done properly. I don't think that there can be any doubt that it's a more difficult method than revshare. The more elements you add into your math, the trickier it will become and the more capital required to pull it off means it's that much more difficult. However, all things being equal, it can and does work for many honest companies.

So what do I as an affiliate conclude from this? My conclusion (and mine might be wrong, and you may not agree with mine), is that I would personally promote trusted sites that offer both options, revshare and PPS. That way I can compare the results of each method for any particular program and see the trend in which one is more profitable for me. I'm sure the results will be different for different sites and different programs depending on the price and quality of the sites.

A thread like this should have been started literally years ago. Actually threads like this were started before, but only on this occasion did somebody from the PPS spectrum of things step up with something tangible (thanks Marc) instead of the usual silence or refutations of having to shave. Now those judgements can be put to rest for the most part.

12-30-2004, 03:08 AM
Drake Hello world! Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 12,508	This thread is like the energizer bunny. It seems to sum up what has already been said in other threads regarding revshare and PPS. Revshare solely relies on retention for it's revenue base. PPS relies on retention as well as a number of other methods including cross sales, upsells, and exits (often multipe pop-ups when the surfer doesn't join a site and closes the original browser). Both methods are ok and I think the one that is more profitable is determined on a site by site basis. A fully 'optimized' PPS will definitely generate a lot for an affiliate if it converts well. We have to be careful when we say 'optimized'. As MarcDe pointed out, many sites 3 years ago were 'optimizing' traffic using multiple cross sales to be able to pay $50-$70 on PPS. Clearly good for affiliates and program owners, but not for surfers. Those days appear to be over. I think the PPS sites of today are much better than in the past. The fact that chargebacks aren't a problem seems to indicate that one cross sell is perfectly reasonable to the surfer. I also find nothing wrong with exits as a way of optimizing traffic (only looking at it from a webmaster point of view, it's annoying because you don't intend to buy, but you get pop-ups, lol). Probably 1-3 is reasonable. The company I work for has and will continue to utilize both models. I think that part of the reason there are supporters and detractors of each model is because of a different philosophy behind each. Revshare seems to be more geared to focus on quality for the sake of retention, no gimmicks that is 'believed' to annoy surfers, and a philosophy of not trying to juice each surfer for every dime. PPS seems more geared toward extracting as much as possible from the surfer at every corner. There is a good argument for both methods. An argument for revshare is that you build trust among your members and they stay long and are happy. An argument for PPS is that it's best to get as much as you can in as little time possible. Why? Because nobody can tell see into the future and who says you'll be able to make similar money a month or two from now. In other words, make haste (as much haste as possible) while the sun shines. Obviously the other point of contention was that revshare has less reason to shave than PPS, because of the math required to make PPS work. The truth is, both types of programs can shave. We can say that revshare has less reason to, but that doesn't mean a revshare program won't. Wherever you find greed, you'll find things like shaving, and it makes no difference if it's revshare or PPS. In fact, we've seen examples of both right here on GFY. We saw some CCBill revshare programs not paying beyond a certain number of rebills (and thanks to the transparency of the CCBill system, affiliates were able to see which programs did this and which didn't) and we also saw a PPS program (PIBCash) shaving. We've seen in this thread that the math for PPS can work if it's done properly. I don't think that there can be any doubt that it's a more difficult method than revshare. The more elements you add into your math, the trickier it will become and the more capital required to pull it off means it's that much more difficult. However, all things being equal, it can and does work for many honest companies. So what do I as an affiliate conclude from this? My conclusion (and mine might be wrong, and you may not agree with mine), is that I would personally promote trusted sites that offer both options, revshare and PPS. That way I can compare the results of each method for any particular program and see the trend in which one is more profitable for me. I'm sure the results will be different for different sites and different programs depending on the price and quality of the sites. A thread like this should have been started literally years ago. Actually threads like this were started before, but only on this occasion did somebody from the PPS spectrum of things step up with something tangible (thanks Marc) instead of the usual silence or refutations of having to shave. Now those judgements can be put to rest for the most part. Last edited by Drake; 12-30-2004 at 03:11 AM..