Should I start an affiliate program?
 

I have several micro-niche sites that have been doing fairly well, and I have run them for about six or seven years (on and off before that, but only seriously since about 2005).

I'm building out more sites and expanding my business, and I have been considering starting an affiliate program. I just switched to the aMember membership management script, and it handles all of the affiliate functionality, so I think I have the right software in place.

Should I start an affiliate program? Will it help get new members? How do I get affiliates to sign up? I have a ton of questions before I jump in, so any advice you can offer would be great.

which micro niches?

They're mainly in the vore, eating, mouth and belly fetishes. Some of my sites are ArianaGirls.com, GoldfishSwallowing.com and HotTeenBellies.com.

I just bought a more traditional adult site (Nicole-Starr.com), and I'm building out a mouth/eating fetish website and a young BBW site right now.

I started an affiliate program just so I can submit my site to review sites. If you start small, it's not so much effort and every extra sale you can get from it is good, I guess...

Payment system: PayPal Subscribe via your Paypal account

Seriously dude? Your paypal account didn't get banned yet? I thought anything adult related is not allowed...

Well, I read that they had a ToS update a couple of years back that allowed certain adult material. Since none of my sites are really explicit, and Paypal boosted my sales by a good bit, I figured I would give it a shot. I can always disable that option if things go south.

If I start an affiliate program, what's the best way to get affiliates to sign up and promote my sites? I plan to send payments monthly with very low (or no) minimum payouts, but how do I get people to trust that I'll actually do that?

Update about Paypal:

I checked their ToS, and it looks like my sites (which are far too soft core to be considered obscene) are in the clear. This is the section of the ToS that relates to adult material under "Forbidden Products/Services:"


2. relate to transactions involving (a) narcotics, steroids, certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk to consumer safety, (b) drug paraphernalia, (c) items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity, (d) stolen goods including digital and virtual goods (e) items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance, or the financial exploitation of a crime, (f) items that are considered obscene, (g) items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction, (h) certain sexually oriented materials or services, (i) ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (j) ,certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.

Whew. :)