Need Advice About A Program (STATS)
 

No drama, no calling out. I just need a bit of advice.

There's a program that I've been promoting for about five years. Its a fantastic site, updated weekly. Exclusive content.

Up until a year or so ago, they processed exclusively through a 3rd party processor. I never sent a lot of traffic, but promoted them because conversion ratios were very good, and I just really like the site.

Now, on July 1st, 2010, this program switched to MPA3. I redirected all of my links to the MPA3 based program on that date.

When you click "JOIN" after following the MPA3 links, you'll find that the site still exclusively uses the old 3rd party processor. There does not appear to be a cascade in effect. Its the same single third part processor, but with an added layer of pointlessness.

So, I began to switch my links early this year, and here are my stats from the original third party system - Jan1, 2010 - June 30, 2010:

Raw Unique S/U Rebills Amount Ratio (Uniques)

38,592 30,338 48 95 $2,516.75 1:632

(My all time ratio is 1:900 - so this is actually better than the four previous years)

Not great, but as I said, I don't send a lot of traffic. So, its like a $100 a week. No big deal. Covered the server I promoted them on and gave me some extra $ to dick around with scripts, templates, and content.

Now's here the kicker.

Using the same 3rd party processor, but through their MPA3 links, my stats are - from Jan 1st, 2010 to August 25, 2010:

Uniques Trials Sales Ratio Rebills C/B Credits Payouts

13074 0 7 1/1,868 9 0.00 0.00 264.00

If you only take stats from when all of my links were switched over to MPA3 - July 1st, 2010 to August 25, 2010, here's the results:

Uni Trial Sales Ratio Rebills C/B Credits Payouts

5445 0 2 1/2,723 2 0.00 0.00 66.00

In Summation:

My ratio with this program using third party processing (from Jan 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010) is 1:632. From June 1, 2010 to June 30, 2010 (the last month they used the third party stats), my ratio was 1:716.

My ratio with this program using MPA3 through the same third party processor (from July 1, 2010 to August 25, 2010) is 1:2,723. My ratio from July 1st, 2010 to July 30, 2010 (the first month I switched all my links to their MPA3 sytem) is 1:3,600

sounds to me like either MPA3 messed up their affiliate tracking, or they misconjiggered their signup pages and it's converting 4x worse which can happen if you word things wrong..

basically sounds like alot of things changed and there are too many factors to say what happened other than if you make more per unique with another sponsor, re-allocate the traffic to them and email your current guys and ask whats up.

it is possible your traffic just got stale on em, it happens. Are they screwing you? I don't think so, they make more keeping your ratios good and keeping you as an affiliate than shaving sales.

Different software tracks visitors differently. Perhaps before the tracking software was giving you credit for surfers longer than the new mpa3 software.

What sponsor? Maybe others have had the same experience.

what about cookies. maybe they are shorter now?

I don't think my traffic went from 1:700 to 1:3,000 on July first because my traffic happened to get stale on that day. The sites hold the same serps, and inbound links haven't changed.

I only had to change one lines in three different .htaccess files to redirect all my traffic (such as it is), but I figure if it wasn't broke, why fix it?

I mean, they still have to pay the same fees whether I send through MPA3 (nothing against MPA3!) or straight to the third party processor.

I've already wasted too much time and thought. I'm just going to switch out the links.

Somecreep, SAC, and icymelon - all valid points.

Somecreep. Good point and you've probably nailed the problem. I have a lot (relatively speaking) of return visitors. I'm used to NATS, CCBill, DHDRevEX. Beyond that, I'm lost.

SAC, I am not calling these guys out. I have no proof of anything, and they run a good site. They pay, and they've been very straightforward with me for five years. Beyond that, I think they run one of the best adult websites available. I will quietly turn my back and walk away before I name them. I have nothing bad to say about the site, except that my income has dropped to (basically) zero since they switched from 3rd party to MPA3.

icymelon - that may be the crux of this biscuit. I'll check out their cookie and IP tracking. I think it'll just save me time if I redirect the traffic and move on, though.

I thank you for your responses - its always good to get an outside opinion.

ummmmmm this is was cool ;)

From my experience, this is always the issue.