View Full Version : What % of the marketing do sponsors handle?
realmenrealhot
05-21-2009, 12:56 PM
I was curious how much involvement do other sponsors have in bringing in traffic/sales?
Being a fairly new organization, we are low on affiliates. 2-3 hours of my day is going out posting new material, being involved with tubes, sending out promo stuff.. etc. Only about 10% of our sales go to affiliates at this time. Is this normal 6 months in from the start?
basschick
05-21-2009, 01:25 PM
it really varies from sponsor to sponsor - varies a lot. but although to you i sound like a broken record by now, this http://www.realmenrealhot.com/index2.html isn't the tour that's going to bring in affiliates. it's not just the tour itself - although that's a big part of it - it's the huge traffic leaks and the add to cart links on the join page.
dzinerbear
05-21-2009, 02:07 PM
I'm afraid basschick is right. I looked at your site a few months ago with the intention of reviewing it, but I just couldn't see much chance in selling any memberships.
I'd really recommend hiring someone to help you design a tour. Your core competency is in shooting content. And that's great. Find someone to showcase your product in a way it deserves.
When you have a domain like real men real hot, the end product really ought to live up to the name. And I'd make sure I had a big honking picture of the hottest man on the site right on the first tour page.
Navy blue on black is almost invisible and those vertical scroll bars in your frames just screams 1998 during the frames mania and that makes it look really amateur, and not in a good way. And your grey on grey text is too small and too difficult to read.
I'm convinced if you had a really hot design that your videos would fly off the shelf.
Michael
I'm convinced if you had a really hot design that your videos would fly off the shelf.
Michael
I agree, you aren't a designer, but your videos and pictures are wonderful. You NEED a tour that reflects the quality and passion and beauty of the guys you're bringing to the net.
realmenrealhot
05-21-2009, 02:13 PM
Although I always appreciate the critique of my website, this doesn't really address the question I was posting to the board. I was pretty sure marketing would vary greatly from sponsor to sponsor.
It's pretty easy to see I haven't been in this industry long enough to know all the ins and outs of it. I was hoping to get some feedback from other sponsor programs. For those of you with ideal tours and join pages, do you have a more hands-free approach to letting affiliates do all the work? Is spending time on promotional material all you need to do to let them take the reigns? I suppose these questions are geared more for evaluating my own time management issues in the end.
basschick
05-21-2009, 02:14 PM
dzinerbear - the program is paysite membership done through ccbill, not dvds. to check it out, click the webmaster link.
that's a big part of the problem, but the worst is the join issues - as you see, there's more focus on the join page on selling DVDs through paypal, and selling PPV through payloadz, and which affiliates do not get credit for. with a join page like this, even with a great tour, i doubt anyone but diehard review sites would promote this site. these are the all time worst leaks in history - each option has 3 join links per line and webmasters only get credit for the last one!
I'm afraid basschick is right. I looked at your site a few months ago with the intention of reviewing it, but I just couldn't see much chance in selling any memberships.
I'd really recommend hiring someone to help you design a tour. Your core competency is in shooting content. And that's great. Find someone to showcase your product in a way it deserves.
When you have a domain like real men real hot, the end product really ought to live up to the name. And I'd make sure I had a big honking picture of the hottest man on the site right on the first tour page.
Navy blue on black is almost invisible and those vertical scroll bars in your frames just screams 1998 during the frames mania and that makes it look really amateur, and not in a good way. And your grey on grey text is too small and too difficult to read.
I'm convinced if you had a really hot design that your videos would fly off the shelf.
Michael
Although I always appreciate the critique of my website, this doesn't really address the question I was posting to the board. I was pretty sure marketing would vary greatly from sponsor to sponsor.
It's pretty easy to see I haven't been in this industry long enough to know all the ins and outs of it. I was hoping to get some feedback from other sponsor programs. For those of you with ideal tours and join pages, do you have a more hands-free approach to letting affiliates do all the work? Is spending time on promotional material all you need to do to let them take the reigns? I suppose these questions are geared more for evaluating my own time management issues in the end.
Well, in a way we are answering you. Bad tour = no affiliates, and you do all your own promotions. Expect to work 26 hours a day for awhile, with or without affiliate help. Once you have a production schedule ironed out for all aspects of running your program, you'll be able to relax more.
realmenrealhot
05-21-2009, 02:28 PM
ok.. I am a slow typer. I didn't realize the post would turn into only a critique about my site so quickly!
These are all great concerns to be addressed. Truth is, I had to start somewhere. The budget didn't allow for hiring a designer in the beginning! The site is growing, we have more sales each week and higher retention rates each month. I'm very pleased with the progress despite all the negative reviews so far. Because of the old, amateur code in use, design changes are more difficult to bring about. It will be worked into upcoming advancements :)
basschick
05-21-2009, 06:13 PM
well, with a tour no one will promote, you'll never have more budget. and it is the bottom line - you won't have a higher percentage of affiliate sales without a tour affiliates will promote.
i did suggest you use wordpress for your tour, which is 100% free - i bet that would fit your budget ;) failing that, very simple would be better.
dzinerbear
05-21-2009, 06:20 PM
Wordpress would be hot and even with a canned theme (and there are hundreds of free ones) you'd end up with a snappy site.
If you need some help with it, hire Bec, she's been an awfully big help with my blogs.
Michael
MatthewVieques
05-21-2009, 07:05 PM
10% seems low, and as has been said, this varies sponsor to sponsor. But I think a different way to look at it is what share do you want affiliate marketing to be? Your answer to that question will guide how you design your site, what materials you provide, the incentives you offer and the time you spend on affiliate matters. Unless you are a sponsor in a dominant market position, its a difficult road without active courtship of affiliates, and the power they can bring to your marketing efforts.
realmenrealhot
05-21-2009, 07:30 PM
I wanted to thank everyone for their input. The intended topic of the thread got derailed early on, but the outcome is quite helpful. Fortunately, my numbers are looking good as they stand now, so I can afford some time to continue making progress on my tour and affiliate area of the site. I know there are many other people who read these forums who are in similar situations, still learning how things work to be successful.
I hope to release a new look in the future with much of the input in mind! Thanks again,
Marcus