Pardon me while I have an old fogey moment.
The problem with this darned Internet is that you young people have lost the ability to appreciate the value of true contact. It's not that you're afraid of approaching people. It's that you don't realize such a thing is possible. You read some rules page or online FAQ and think, that's that. It doesn't occur to you that there's nothing wrong with making an effort to gain further information by speaking directly to the powers that be. When it comes to your personal business, you kids need to exercise ALL your options.
| "The point is, if a sponsor is in any way serious, the one thing you should be able to do is contact them with your questions and concerns." |
Okay. Now, forget I'm an old lady and enjoy the rest of this article.
I've been in this nutty business for twelve years and needless to say, I've dealt with a number of adult sponsors and affiliate reps. On the whole, the majority of them are pretty easy-going when it comes to their webmaster's marketing techniques. Naturally there are some fairly standard, across-the-board rules that apply to adult sponsor promotions:
- No Spamming
- No False Promises about the Product
- No Cheating on Clicks, Signups or Downloads
- No Abusing the Free Content
As with every agreement in our business, each sponsor has their own, specific set of affiliate rules. Some forbid you to use any marketing tools other than their own, approved banners, text links and whatnot. Other sponsors are rather vague and offer little in the way of marketing tools or information on what is and is not acceptable affiliate behavior. Still others provide literal gigabytes of marketing tools, tutorials and banner/theater/feed/gallery generators to their webmasters. A lot of the bigger sponsors feature tiered payout programs as well as bonus incentives for high-performing affiliates. Then there are sponsors who appear to pay only one, flat percentage.
The point is, if a sponsor is in any way serious, the one thing you should be able to do is contact them with your questions and concerns. No matter what your need, a good sponsor offers some sort of contact page - preferably with phone numbers, IM addresses as well as email addresses. If it's next to impossible to get a hold of your sponsor then in my opinion, you have a bad sponsor. To me, if a sponsor is unwilling to deal with webmasters, he/she is unwilling to deal with paying customers. It would be the same as a real-life store owner hiding from employees and patrons - not good.
Fortunately most adult sponsors understand the importance of open communication with their webmasters and gladly provide proper contact info and affiliate representatives to deal with your questions.
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Now that you know you can contact your sponsor some of you might be wondering why? What should you talk to your sponsor?
As I said, I've dealt with a lot of sponsors over the years and god love them but sometimes they can have some seriously shitty marketing materials. From uninformative banners and links to lame and confusing tours, sponsors often forsake the webmaster goodies in trade for maintaining excellent paid member areas.
If you've found those sales tool severely lacking, then absolutely contact your sponsor and ask if you can make your own, possibly asking to snag a few images and graphics from the site. Ask further about what they think will work best with the type of content/site you're using to promote their stuff.
Affiliate reps are employed to work with affiliates - it's their job. Who knows, thanks to your ambition, you mmight be allowed to beta test some new site or program before the other webmasters. Make suggestions. Take suggestions. Keep the lines of communications open.
Are YOU a high-selling Affiliate?
Trust me, your sponsor wants to hear from you. They want to listen to your suggestions, accommodate your needs and make sure you continue to rake in the signups. If you've been consistently pulling in healthy profits for say, six months, it might not hurt to ask if maybe you could be rewarded with one or two more commission percentage points or some kind of monthly bonus. Naturally, it would be bad form to demand special treatment but there should be no harm is asking for it nicely.
No matter what your situation, as an affiliate webmaster you have the right to talk to your sponsor. Whether you strike up a working relationship with the site owner or with a favorite rep, the connection is bound to be a positive one. Adult sponsors are for the most part, pretty cool people. Often times, if you want to do a bit of outside-the-box promotion, all you have to do is ask. Talk to your sponsor. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find.