Grab a cup of coffee, if you plan to read this. whistle
First off, let me start off by saying that I am not a whale, I may look like one in person, but no, I don’t send 100’s of signups to sponsors, don’t have tens of thousands of hits per day, but then too, I don’t go fudging stats.
Everywhere you turn today, someone is bitching about sales, how only 10% of your affiliates will be sellers, the others are basically a waste of time, a drag of resources, & just a bunch of lazy part timers.
Personally, I find that rather INSULTING.
First off, to denigrade those 90% as being useless in the grand scheme of making money, is wrong. Each one of those who do indeed make pitiful sales (count me as one of them) still provide a benefit to the sponsor. It is called BRAND RECOGNITION.
There are lots of reasons why some aren’t whales. Just as there are a lot of reasons why some are. Some will use any tactic to trick their surfer, to push them into buying a membership, through shady offerings like cloaking pages so they get better SE rankings. Like cookie stuffing so the real seller gets ripped off of the sale.
Another good one is that they talk the talk, and to shut them up, Sponsors give them greater help, greater access to promotional material, that is DENIED to the others. Hell, they even bend their own TOS to accommodate those arrogant braggarts, but when a smaller fish wants to do the same, they get shot down or terminated.
Yes, whales exist today, but you know, today’s smaller fish might just be tomorrow’s whale, but Sponsors aren’t concerned about tomorrow, just today.
Sponsors are also direct competition to every affiliate they have, by using their own traffic to push other sites. They are Affiliates as well, & generally are WHALES thanks to all that traffic sent them by all the small fish.
WHALES get to choose promotional content, so that they don’t wind up with 12 pics that are just different angles. Course the rest of us small fry have to try & make a post from those 12 pics, which are really only 2 or 3 pics. Like one sponsor sent a set, with 4 pics of the guy stroking his dick, the only difference between the 4 pics, was where his fucking hand was on the dick. Like gee, that helps me, but hey, the WHALE is grabbing what he wants from inside.
Sure maybe only 10% really do produce the majority of sales, but then, they are given a shorter playing field than the rest, so they should perform better. Want more producers, LEVEL THE FUCKING PLAYING FIELD!
Then too, with WHALES, they see what is inside, so they can better promote the site, while the rest have to rely on tours or anemic descriptions (if any are provided) to push the site.
Not everyone is a techno genius, or a SE professional, nor is everyone a Graphics guru, yet Sponsors seem to think we all are that. They spend money on fancy affiliate programs like NATS & the associated tools like embedded FLVs & all the other crap. BUT DO THEY OFFER ANY INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE THEM? NO!
You want people to promote your site, but you make it as time consuming as possible, or as confusing as you can, or in some cases both. Yet constantly we hear about how so many of us small fry waste their time. Uh, maybe if you properly documented your tools, you’d not get stupid ass questions from me, & the other small fry who aren’t techno geeks.
Hell one well known site has added campaigns to their program, but no instructions on how to add them to the linking codes. NOTHING, so yeah, they get a question, but I bet you dimes to dollars, the WHALES are using the feature, but I am still waiting for a reply on how to do it.
Sent one sponsor (a new site too) about where is the promo content? They told me that ccBill sent it to me, but I kept getting a ‘permisson not allowed’ message, sent the url to the sponsor, and WEEKS LATER NO WORD YET. But a few whales I see have the content, are using it, & making sales. So is it any wonder small fry stay small?
Loved one Sponsor. Had a login problem, and the answer was… use the support ticket system in the affiliate area. UH, DID YOU READ IT WAS A LOGIN ISSUE? Course if I’d been a whale, I’d have his icq, personal email addy, skype number and all that, & wouldn’t have had to wait 30 hours for the stupid password reminder program to send the login details… that their upgrade had changes… WITHOUT TELLING ME!
Changes are made to programs, but do the small fry get notified? Nah, that’s too time consuming so we have to login to find out a site has changed or added something, or like one well known site, simply turfed most of its affiliates with 3 or 4 day notice. Things like cancelling feeds without anyone being told, about changes in linking codes, should be common to be told to everyone… not just that elite 10%
YES, some sponsors operate professionally, & do care about all their affiliates, but you know what, they are a RARITY TODAY.
Things happen, sickness, accidents, whatever, but not every small fry is a lazy bum, and I am sick and tired of being lumped into that category, simply because YOU HAVE CREATED AN UNFAIR PLAYING FIELD.
I work over 12 hours a day at this blasted job, but in those hours I still have other responsibilities to deal with. We don’t all live & breathe porn, we have other committments such as having to care for elderly parents, having to deal with a sick partner, or just having to deal with a slumping economy. There are a gazillion things that impact the ability to work non stop at this job. Yeah I am in front of this computer for 12 plus hours, but I also have to listen for choking sounds from a 93 year old, have to deal with doctors, nurses, and then there is the laundry. So yeah, 12 hours, with a gazillion interruptions, but that is life. IT DOESN’T MAKE ME LAZY, JUST ORDINARY LIKE MANY OF US 90% OF SMALL FRY.
Us small fry rely on email updates, unlike WHALES that have all that free access. So when you make those updates erractic as all hell, you won’t get a lot of consistent promotions, nor many sales. YET WE GET TAGGED WITH BEING LAZY.
TGPs & such are virtually a closed shop, and you know the WHALES are in there like flint, while the rest us wait for months for being listed with now pretty stale shit. AGAIN WE TAKE THE HIT, NOT THE WHALES.
Lets talk about how we get no real support. Many small fry resort to asking questions, to sending emails, simply because there are NO CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS.
No conveniences like zipped banners (though every affiliate rep keeps asking which are the standard sizes they should offer), or even in naming the blasted content for download. Like naming the FLV one thing, the photo shoot something totally different. Like right, we are supposed to devine which matches which?
When I go into a grocery store, or a department store I can easily find what I want. WHY? BECAUSE THEY PUT SIMILAR THINGS TOGETHER, LIKE MEN’S SLEEPWEAR ISN’T LOCATED ACROSS THE STORE NEXT TO HARDWARE.
I have yet to find a sponsor that lists the retention rate of their site, so how in fuck am I supposed to make a rational business decision on whether to go PPS or REVSHARE? And no, asking doesn’t get me anywhere, cuz I am NOT A WHALE.
I completely understand that time is at a premium. I know it, from how my own time is limited, and granted too, my organizational skills are not the best, and yet I find time for important things, like reading the emails, not just the subject line. I don’t expect sponsors to drop everything to answer my dumb questions, but then, they wouldn’t have to if they made things clear in the affiliate area.
Not everyone is a Marketing Guru, but you know, providing simple linking codes, to a selling tour, that actually has join buttons, to codes to the sign up page, helps, but is often ignored by sponsors. YOU expect everyone to know how to use ccBill linking codes, Epoch linking codes, and the ever confusing NATS coding Oh, and how about Verotel codes? GUESS WHAT, WE DON’T!
If you have made it this far, congradulations. Thing is, those of us who are in the nameless 90% are your foot soldiers. We don’t get all the glory (money) but we do the job, we deserve the same respect, the same opportunity as the big boys. I am not asking for free access to your member’s area, which I think is wrong for anyone to have. After all, if your tour was transparent, if your promotional material was clear, and complete, no one should need member access (other than real review sites).
Yet you guys bitch like hell about the free shit out there, and who is giving it away? Sure as fuck isn’t me, but it is YOU. You give added content to your whales, who post it & then has someone come by and steal it, and suddenly it is all over the place. Yet it is us FREE LOADING SMALL FRY who get blamed.
Sponsors won’t work with each other, or with their affiliates, to work out any STANDARDS. [ and every sponsor who replies, with say well they do, but you know what, it is mostly bullshit. ] So instead of agreeing on limiting free promotional content, you keep ONE UPPING EACH OTHER. Then it is the 90% who get blamed for putting too much out there. WAKE UP GUYS IT IS YOUR WHALES DOING IT! AND WITH YOUR CO-OPERATION.
Bottom line is that NO I don’t want any special priveleges, I JUST WANT A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD & THE RESPECT DUE ME, FOR TRYING MY BEST.
