Originally Posted by jayeff

A rep's job should be to increase sales. In this context, the protection of existing sales needs to be the job of the program owner/exec.

Give major affiliates a small edge because it is expected, but don't lose sight of the reality that a dollar from you is worth exactly the same as a dollar from any other sponsor. Many sponsors have already dug themselves a pit, responding to "whales" by paying them too much. They may have got away with it because a lot of webmasters who should know better, are blinded by payout rates just as much as newbies. A smart affiliate knows that his/her bottom line is affected much more by a site's saleability and his/her own efforts, than whether the payout rate is plus or minus a few points.

It is far more effective and cheaper to let solid sales take care of the strictly financial aspect of your relationship on their own and introduce intangibles which are not so easily duplicated. The most effective target is the affiliate's ego (which BTW is what giving them that financial edge is really about, more than it is about the dollars involved).

To this end, keep major affiliates away from reps as much as possible. There are exceptions, but most reps are low-level employees with limited experience and not usually allowed to exercise much initiative. It should be obvious that the average rep has little if anything to offer the most experienced and successful affiliates.

Instead the program owner (or in a corporate organisation, a senior exec) should be the one to deal with major affiliates and that contact should be proactive, not merely responsive. When a sponsor contacts an affiliate, notes about that affiliate and his/her stats should be to hand, sometimes along with a suggestion or idea that is presented as if it were thought up just for that affiliate. Remember personal occasions such as birthdays and use some imagination when sending gifts. Try to meet face-to-face (one-on-one when possible) once in a while. And always have your ears open for any undertone of discontent. Etc. The point is to establish a special relationship that the affiliate will think very hard about before abandoning.

This industry wastes far too much on parties and the like where everyone is thrown in together. Just like a dollar is a dollar, Jack Daniels tastes the same no matter whose bar it comes from, so very little of what I was writing about above is achieved by such events (truth be told, their purpose is probably often one-upmanship vis-a-vis other sponsors). At the same time, many sponsors don't invest nearly enough in reps and employ people who cannot do much more than trawl ICQ. They should be using reps who achieved at least modest success as webmasters.

A good rep's first job should be to make live contact - phone, ICQ or whatever - with every new affiliate, or at the very least every new affiliate who begins to send traffic. This contact is to decide whether that affiliate - it doesn't matter whether a newbie or an experienced webmaster - shows a spark which could be developed. If not, move on. Otherwise the rep's whole job should be to actively help "live" affiliates, not simply by pointing them to his hosted galleries and the banner page URL, but with broad as well as program specific advice and assistance.

Done properly, this would not only generate more income, but it also creates in affiliates' minds the idea that here is a program that is different from the rest.

Originally Posted by Nakedsword Holly

Very well said:thumbsup best post in the thread!

Great thread Rochard:thumbsup

Originally Posted by AtlantisCash

ok; here is a good idea :)
program owners can promote enough alcohol to get drunk for theyer Clients :)

Originally Posted by Ellisa

Amen Holly! I was going to say the same thing

Originally Posted by dvd316

1. If you are having complaints/issues with tracking or ratios, please dont insult my intelligence by telling me its being worked on or developed for 2 or 3 months. (Many webmasters have backgrounds in programming/hardware/network, etc and see thru lies)
---------Fleshlight----ahem---see above---------------

2. I really enjoy getting emails with latest galleries with my ref id. Saves me time.

3. be generous with affiliates... have contests, send out a few hundred DVDs, have a get together besides the conventions (especially if based in large cities)

I have others I'm sure but these came to mind first

Originally Posted by mfps

heres how my thought process works.

step one:
do i like how the programs main page looks?
does it look like they spent time and money on it?

step two:
do they have sites that fit my niche(s) ?

step three:
does it look like they spent time and money on those sites?

step four:
join the program

step five:
how are the ad tools?
free hosted galleries?
can i bulk export hosted galleries in any format i choose?
does the sponsor provide long text descriptions?
does the sponsor provide thumbnails for the FHG?
does that size thumbnail work for my site(s) ?

if all of these questions are answered yes, skip to step nine.
if any are answered no, continue to step six.

step six
do i really want to promote this program?
have i talked to the affiliate rep or program owner?
do i consider them (the idividual, or the program) likeable or trustworthy? or are they just contacts?

if two or more of these questions are answered yes, continue to step seven.
if two or more of these questions are answered no, close window.

step seven
can i put together a decent looking gallery from a set?
does the set have watermarks?
can i build a watermark easily enough out of the site logo?

if two or more of these questions are answered yes, continue to step eight.
if two or more of these questions are answered no, close window.

step eight
generate link code.
build gallery.

at the moment, galleries that i build get fed choker gallery traffic (usually 3-5k hits) with the hopes of getting some good branding for my sites, and some click through to both myself and the sponsor.

example here.

additionally, these galleries sit on my sites in the 185x245 corners when i have advertising space available.

skip to step ten.

step nine
dump the handy free hosted content into my system.

FHG in my network end up as 90x120 thumbnails in the daily gallery tables.
i really like the idea of getting tons of content into the system quickly.
it makes it easy to get tons of exposure to these sites fast, and allows me to have ever changing fresh content in place.

step ten.
pay me.
im okay with $100 minimum payouts.
i like being paid by epass, but im okay with checks too.

other thoughts:
i think it is critical for a program to make things as easy as possible for the webmasters who choose to promote them.

now, im not a program owner. . .
but if i was running an affiliate program, my goal would be saturating the market.
i would want as many affiliates as possible spreading as much of my content as possible in as many places as possible.
i would want to be so oversaturated that i would be forced to close my doors to new webmasters except by invitation. . .

i can be really lazy when it comes to content, ive got a lot of other things to worry about.

it seems to me that a lot of programs take the attitude 'another lazy webmaster wanting the world from us'

but i wonder how many times those programs have been asked for the same 'world' by another affiliate.

in my opinion, if you get asked for it twice, you should make it available without having to ask.

it just seems unfair to make 100 webmasters do something for themselves when one person at the program could do it and be done with it.

in my opinion domains are like real estate.

i own land.

if you want to put a sign on my property, you need to make your sign.
if your sign sucks, nobody is gonna look at it.

if you want to put your sign on my property, you need to pay me to put it there.




thank you for letting me share :)

flames go here: john @ heres-some-porn.com

money goes here: advertise @ heres-some-porn.com

get my unsolicited opinion here: 314157890

-John

Originally Posted by Rochard

Every affiliate starts small.