The shave-o-meter is being set to overload! US Economy Versus program Promos
 

I am seeing a lot of compaines here that seem to be trying to out-do each other in the sales promo departments. Some are at $55/1.99 trials and others are as high as $100.00 on pps options.

My question is this:
Due to the current situation with the US economy (as we all know that is a large portion of the market share, as well as the home bas for may affiliate programs), do you think these inflated promotions are just trying to get you to send even more traffic than normal and the shave-o-meter will be set to very high?

People are pawning their personal belongings to pay for gasoline in some parts of the country, others have reverted back to as pathetic as making their own laundry detergent in an attempt to make ends meet.

The fact that the adult affiliate programs are boosting up payouts, well, means that they need more income. I personally am getting skeptical with the amount of promos that are almost beyond ridiculous going on here.

This industry will struggle in times to come, very soon. Tube sites are not helping either but the root is cold hard available cash to spend to jerk off. Many do not have it, or are afraid to spend it. Having little Johnny with a bowl of Wheaties on the table every morning is more important than Dropping a 4 minute nut to a Shyla Styles video (when you can get it for free on a tube site none the less).

Your thoughts? I

Yeah, tough times are coming I think. Porn is usually recession proof they say, but that remains to be seen with so much "free" porn out there...

I love how the whole shaving thing really has got a foothold in the affiliate lingo. Should not matter that few companies even have the know how to do it, and even fewer could do it without being caught that very second. Hell most of these same programs can not even set up many simple scripts yet they somehow have mastered the shave.

Seriously about the only time shaving rears its ugly head is in almost accidently ways that people label as shaving. Such as a traffic leak, or someone did not set up something correctly.

A very solid point.

Ok, explain to me $55.00 on $1.99 trials... or MORE! Come on, there are very few programs that can claim their retention rate is that high that they can claim to make money off of this.

I am not pointing the finger at anyone in particular. Take a look at the board, it's fucking everywhere. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY blows a promo out of their ass unless they are looking to increase traffic. Maybe it's for galleries and pages that will hang around until the end of time, maybe it's because they intend to shave sales.

Claiming that programs have no clue how to shave is moronic, and it makes you sig look even more moronic than the statement. Shaving is a part of this business, we all know it. It happens daily. Not all but many. Who fucking knows. maybe all.

And the ONLY fucking time shaving "rears it's ugly head" is when it's caught.

EDIT: 500 posts for moi :P

I'll explain it to you, it's actually very simple.

Bussiness people work in percents. 10% to this, 25% to that. It's how business is run.

When starting up a new site, for instance, money is spent, x% for content, y% for design, z% for promos.

If the paysite cost 10,000 to make, that leaves some decent dollars for promos, say a k or 2.

Now, to blow those dollars, you offer a limited time deal to affiliates.

There's two parameters you can set : premium (how much you pay over what traffic's worth, to entice affiliates) and duration (how long it lasts). There's a third you can not set : affiliate's traffic.

Now, if you're looking to spend 1k, and discover that the average affiliate sends 18 hits, you suddenly realise that heck, unless i pay these bums 55+ per signup, or else make the promo last till 2025, there is no way in fuck I'll spend the budget.

Not spending the budget is BAD in business, by the way. It means you failed.

That's the whole fucking mystery. Satisfied ?

Fluffy made some good points but there are others as well.

Some companies do promos in order to attract people to their program. If you try their program and it coverts well for you you might stick around after the promo is done so they get a new affiliate that makes them money.

Also companies make more than some would think off sales. There are cross sells, up sells, pop-ups, cancellation deals, selling of emails and things like that which help affiliate companies get close to profit paying that amount.

Also some companies wait it out and wait for that small number of members who will stick around for months and months and months. Those guys can really pad your bottom line.

As a program owner: I create promo days/specials to my current active affiliates as thanks for sending traffic to me. As the promo counts for everyone it's always a way for new potential affiliates to find how there traffic is converting with our paysites. Most of us are willing to cut a loss on a day or two to catch a new affiliate that converts with our sites and can get sales at regular payouts for a little longer than the promo lasted :)

real proggies dont need trials IMO.

shaving is alive and well. how the fuck do you think they pay 125 dollars a sale? come on, lets be real.

Without any shaving theory touched.

These promos are something that's called the "loss leader" if I remember well - to invest into a bigger market share with an initial outflow of funds.

It's also no new or anonymous programs who would run them...and if the programs won't suck ass, it will bring, most likely serious profit over the long term once the promo is over.

As a program owner, I've always wondered how so many programs can (presumably) shave any sales from their affiliates. I'm more inclined to GIVE affiliates sales than to remove them. Do you have any idea how fickle most affiliates are when it comes to revenue sharing programs these days? I'm not talking noobs either, even seasoned affiliates get antsy after a day or two of low sales activity.

Shaving sales may be a byproduct, but I think all the wacky promos are more a result of all the competition and a desire to get an influx of new affiliates and traffic into a program. Figuring out how to then make a profit off of the traffic is an afterthought. :2 cents:

No one is claiming to make money off this, it is a marketing expense. Promos get new eyes on the program, and if the program converts well the affiliate will probably stick around past the promo date.

There's also the important issue of residual links - since such a vast majority of webmasters are really utter noobs, in today and gone the next, getting them to link to you provides some long tail type of leverage :

Offer $50 to anyone sending a sale > 500 wanna be webmasters link > you've just gotten 500 incoming hardlinks > worth 10c each for google ranks > even.
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You say they can barely install a script let a lone shave.... well perhaps shitty programming unknowingly shaves visitors or sales?

Guess that would depend on who is giving 125.00 per sale. If its a standard paysite that one would be a bit tricky to pull off yet could be done and not purely as a loss leader. If its a penis, dating, webcam, or other type sponsor then alas it gets much easier to accomplish.

Many sites are not built around retention. You do have to factor in how many cross sales they are doing, how many upsales, how many email campaigns, how many exit consoles, and much much more. Shit even changes more if and when you can get a customer to stick around for 2 months or more. Then not of that considers a marketing budget using loss leaders for long term links.

Hey Fluffer, how much was your budget to draw this shit http://lolcunts.com/ Five? Ten dollars? How much did you get for hard links? $5 ?

Fucking moron. Lots of companies link to their site through main program's URL or custom links. Kill yourself n00b.

True, just today I was spying on one of the favourite programs of mine and two x sells were put in so perfect I would have a hard time to unclick them myself - so considering not everyone, but a notable part of surfers will sign them this itself can be already paying for a half of your promo payout..

Promote FreakBucks... you get less pps but better conversions and not screwing your surfers with multiple hidden xsells...

Yeah, I know that if I needed more cash because the economy was bad I would immediately double or triple payments to all of my vendors.

</sarcasm>

theoretically, if it's accidental it's just as likely to substract as to add.