Fiddy.
:pimp

While my comments were directed a BROgrams, and bigger established companies in general that have a lot of affiliates as the O.P. was talking about....

So paying your affiliates 50% or more per sign up is not a "cost" to you?

Um, ok.

Maybe paying your models is not a "cost" to your business either? I would love to see how your CPA classifies these things on your taxes.

:2 cents:

yeah , that is sad but very true , I am waiting for account approval for two weeks with one of the oldest sponsors ... two weeks , is that professional ?

what ever ...

You can always contact me 310-666-5449
icq 62835707

what sponsor?

A lot of companies have just gone idle and are not trying to expand. They are just trying to take profits by minimizing expenses and feeding off what is left of their carcass.

A general problem might be extensive amounts of SPAM so various mails is getting caught in spam filters.
Pickup the phone and give the sponsor a call to verify the program is live and communication is not getting lost. :2 cents:

What comes around, goes around, they are signups that I may or may not have gotten. Affiliates have costs as well. The solution is very simple. Don't have an affiliate program then. But with my 2 affiliates programs, I would much rather eat the bandwidth and keep the 13k in sales that my affiliates gave me last year as opposed to getting my name out there all by myself.

I do 1099's on every model. Up to them to claim it at the end of the year. Yes, as I said in a previous post, I am spending 10-15k on talent, travelling the south u.s. next year alone. Which is a ton for me. But it is just not a valid argument imho. If some webmasters think that it sucks so bad, just don't do it! I am also quite sure that the sponsors of Digitaldivasonline.com are also pretty happy that I sold them over 30k last year of they're wares. ...And I really have not even started promoting digitaldivasonline.com yet. ...But in the end, to each their own.

As far as
So paying your affiliates 50% or more per sign up is not a "cost" to you?

My answer is no, it's a trade off.

Why do companies pay advertising firms, I don't think they will be going off the cliff anytime soon, or marketing firms? Same principle here, just online. I thought it was an obvious point :/

Well not everyone is a dumbshit like that. Your choice though. For me, I wait 4 business days then blacklist them.

Semantics.

The O.P. was about an affiliate is a 0% cost or expense, to which I (among others) replied that is incorrect.

Paying someone 50% of the revenue from a sale(s), or high PPS, and supporting them is a COST to the bottom line, and is directly tied to your success or failure (hence upsells, and cross sales). I am sure any CPA can clear up that confusion on a spreadsheet in regards to running a business and the difference between costs/expenses and profit.

Last time I checked, I did not see 'trade offs' listed on my taxes.

:2 cents:

Well you are certainly entitled not to have one then BF. In my case, and perhaps why I am arguing this to death, is because I have seen fruition on both ends and the business model works for some and does not work with others. And run correctly and both parties do the job they need to do, it's a damn solid business model. I don't work with shady fucks. I would never do that to Digitaldivasonline. She's my baby. Means alot to me. With, say my affiliate program for BFO, my cost to profit ratio is superlow, I am perfectly fine with "splurging" 50 bucks on bandw and 10 hours a month in my time for hundreds in profit per month. There is also a thing called common sense in running a business. But you have your ideals and I have mine, my fellow footie BF.

You're more than welcome to argue it to death.

$50.00 BW, and 10 hours a month would put you into a small niche program, which I had already addressed I was not referring to. As costs for a small fry are going to be minimal compared to a BROgram that is running 50-100+ sites with hundreds, if not thousands of affiliates. Where there is a real cost to business, and that support.

I can drive traffic, and be successful as a one man show. Many other small program owners could do to the same as a small webmaster typically handles everything from SEO, driving traffic, shooting the content, building the sites, management, customer service and alike. Small webmasters are more skilled than most staff for a BROgram simply because they do, and know how to do, much more.

Now, getting back on point. As I said, there is a real cost to providing that support, and you made the choice to let affiliates do the work for you. That's fine. However, I am sure your support does not compare with a BROgram, and the demands of their hundreds/thousands of affiliates.

The fact remains in my initial point and reply to sharphead. Bandwidth, support staff, free hosted galleries, designs, and the rest are a COST to a program owner. Especially when 10% of them are generating 90% of your sales.

Semantics aside.
:2 cents:

good points in this thread.

killing off the affiliate side wouldn't be that wise. there are tons of benefits that affiliates provide even if they aren't whales. since there isn't really a way to determine value when it comes to branding and exposure. one can only speculate...but the benefit is there regardless. it's apples to oranges but consider this, cj and linkshare exist for a reason

that being said...a program without it's own traffic sources is pretty much at the mercy of the market.

...something tells me you are closely monitoring this thread, lol. D-null, I actually like women with longer toenails. I just think it looks more elegant. :2 cents: Off to bed, Yes, the small owners are VERY much more versed at the one man band path, with a good dose of "labor of love" thrown in.

i havnt noticed many programs close shop at all, can we have a list please?

Well I am here and always available via email. I am still cranking out marketing tools and content for affiliates that seem to have given up. Its kind of a shame, so many tools so few to work with anymore.

MetroMoney is here too. I can bet you that you send me an email, you'll get a response within 24 hours AT MOST. I try to take time to get to know each of our affiliates. I have met some really great people. My affiliates have told me that they wait weeks for responses from other programs.

I just signed up for a shit load of programs, and most responded...some can take a week. Also this is busy season for porn, in the summer I was getting a response in 5 minutes. Most want your business and are very professional. A tip I learned for the future is not to use a free email account, but use an email account that is linked with one of your website domains. Spammers use free email...

Some programs even decline you with a free email address, I had to contact them and give them some reference codes and contacts of sponsors that know me a little.