There are a lot of adult Webmaster affiliate programs, but not all of these sponsors are created equal. While experimentation with sponsors and their various pay sites is important, there are certain things an adult Webmaster should look for in an affiliate program before they part with their valuable traffic. Here are some ideas that Webmasters should be thinking about when deciding whether or not to use a certain sponsor.There are a lot of adult Webmaster affiliate programs, but not all of these sponsors are created equal. While experimentation with sponsors and their various pay sites is important, there are certain things an adult Webmaster should look for in an affiliate program before they part with their valuable traffic. Here are some ideas that Webmasters should be thinking about when deciding whether or not to use a certain sponsor.

For many adult Webmasters, selling memberships to other people’s Web sites is a primary source of income. Webmasters who lack the resources or skills to build a giant super-site can still collect traffic and pump it off to the adult Internet’s larger and more popular Web sites while taking a significant chunk of the action for any sales that they are responsible for generating. There are countless affiliate programs that have been set up by large pay sites, and Webmasters with traffic need only to sign up for an account, start sending traffic and wait for the checks; okay, maybe it’s not quite that easy, but it’s a lot easier and cheaper than operating a huge pay site. By not having to worry about building, maintaining and updating a large pay site themselves, Webmasters are allowed to instead focus entirely on traffic generation – and believe me, that’s a full time job in and of itself. The burden of paying for content, bandwidth and employees to operate the site falls with the sponsor; the right affiliate program can be a sweet deal for a Webmaster. Even large pay sites trade exit traffic with other large pay sites through their affiliate programs. But what should a Webmaster look for in a sponsor?

RELIABILITY AND STABILITY

One of the foremost qualities that makes a sponsor attractive is its stability and reliability. There are quite a few affiliate programs out there, but how many have been around long enough to be considered stable? Getting a little history on a prospective sponsor before you start promoting their sites probably isn’t a bad idea. Find out how long the sponsor has been in business, and ask around on adult Webmaster resource boards to see if anyone has had any problems getting paid by a particular sponsor. If more that a couple people say they have had problems with a sponsor then you might want to be careful about sending too much of your valuable traffic in their direction. Another good indication of a sponsor’s reliability is how responsive that sponsor is to your emails. If you find that you are repeatedly sending requests for help and it takes too long to get a reply then bolt and take your traffic with you. There are also legal implications – if a sponsor is caught doing something illegal it’s possible that you could be charged with criminal charges through your association with that sponsor. In other words, you need a sponsor that you are comfortable with – one that won’t cause you to lose sleep at night.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Next up is the rate of payout for your traffic. How much money can you earn per sale – or if you sign up for a partnership program, what percentage of the profits will you earn? If you are signing up for a program that pays a percentage of sales, make sure that percentage includes all recurring charges that may be generated from your traffic later on down the line. You’ll want at least 50% of all initial sales plus at least 50% of all recurring sales, and some programs will even pay you more than half of all revenues generated as a result of your traffic. If you are going for a per-signup ratio then check to see if you will be paid for each “trial” membership that you generate of if you will only be paid for each “active” membership you generate. An “active” member is a member who has been charged for at least one full month of membership – meaning if your traffic generates a trial membership sale which does not convert into a monthly subscription (the user cancelled before the trial period was over) then you don’t get paid anything. Programs that pay on a “per trial” basis tend to be the most popular, and while you’ll earn a smaller amount for “trial” sales, you’ll at least be paid for all sales your traffic generates while leaving the burden of retaining members to the sponsor. A good bottom-line rate for a “per trial” program is at least $30 per trial membership, and a good bottom-line rate for a “per active” program is at least $50 per active membership.

CAN YOU CONVERT?

Conversion ratios are very important, but will vary wildly depending on the quality of traffic that you’re sending. Surfers that click on a banner or other advertisement on your site will probably convert pretty well, especially if they originate from a mainstream search engine or portal like Yahoo. Traffic coming from pop-up consoles will usually convert at a decent but not spectacular rate. Any traffic originating from TGP sites or Picture Posts likely won’t convert exceptionally well, so be aware of that before you start accusing your sponsor of cheating you, or worrying that your link codes aren’t set up properly. There really is no standard conversion ratio that I can give you, your best bet is to throw some traffic at various sponsors and see which ones convert best. The more traffic you can send, the more reliable your test. Don’t forget that sponsors almost always have a bunch of different sites that you can promote, so just because the traffic you send to their “Asian” site doesn’t convert at a great rate doesn’t mean that traffic you send to their “teen” site won’t convert well for you. Each site will vary in its effectiveness to turn sales, and the source of your traffic will also play into the equation in a significant manner. Trail and error here is essential.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME LATELY?

Don’t forget about the perks! What will your sponsor do to help you sell memberships to its sites? Most of the better sponsorship programs will supply their affiliate Webmasters with free content that they can use to promote the sponsor’s Web sites. This free content is especially useful for building TGP galleries, submitting to Picture Posts and building small free sites for inclusion on the major Link List sites. You can also use this free content to build AVS sites and other small sites that you can submit to search engines. A good sponsor will also supply you with plenty of banner ads, buttons and full-page ads that you can use to promote the sponsor’s pay sites. An affiliate program which doesn’t supply you with the tools you need to turn sales probably isn’t your best choice. With so many different affiliate programs available to choose from, you can afford to be choosy.

BREAK OUT THAT MAGNIFYING GLASS!

A final word of advice – read the fine print! If a sponsor is offering something that seems too good to be true, it almost always will prove to be just that. The other possibility is that the sponsor is behaving irrationally and will be out of business in a short period of time. Why waste your time putting up all kinds of banners that you’ll simply have to switch out next month? That’s time you could be spending on marketing and traffic building. Many sponsors will offer a rage of payout rates – don’t assume you will be making the top rate if you can’t send a large amount of traffic. Other sponsors have certain days where they pay a very high rate for a twenty-four hour period. These promotions are designed to bring that sponsor new affiliates through the attractively high payout rate, but they are occasional things and the payout rate will drop back to normal once that day is over. Make sure you are absolutely familiar with the rules of your sponsor. Most sponsors will withhold checks and cancel accounts for Webmasters caught using spam to generate sales. Some will have specific rules as to the type of traffic that you may send; for example, sponsors that pay “per-click” as opposed to “per-signup” will often disallow exit traffic because exit traffic converts at a lower rate that many other forms of traffic.

So you can sum it up with honesty, stability, reliability, conversion rates, payouts, perks, tools and rules. If you can find an honest, stable sponsor that pays well and on time, converts sales, offers you the tools you need to succeed and has a set of rules that you can live with, then stick with that sponsor because you’ve found a good one.

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Connor Young is Editor-in-Chief of The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine.