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I’ve noticed that some people’s conversions with us look low overall because they are promoting “Dead” adult sites (sites that basically no longer update). In the past, I left these sites in our affiliate program because a lot of affiliates still get rebills from them, and I figured it might not hurt to let someone promote it if they are just wanting to throw a link to a “specific” niche site or studio and advertise the library of older content.
The problem with this is people are mistaking these “dead” sites for “active” sites and then think all our sites convert badly because they are promoting a dead site.
Do you guys think we should just pull the sites from our program so new affiliates can’t promote them and ask current affiliates to pull their links? I’d love to just feature our active sites so everyone sees a great conversion ratio when they log-in, and not get dragged down by these old sites…but at the same time don’t want to piss off affiliates who hate having to take down links etc.
Any advice??
I think you should pull the dead sites for a number of reasons. First, I wouldn’t be happy as a surfer joining a site to find it’s all old content. But second, and probably more important, I think you do your program a disservice and give it a reputation as being a program full of non-updating sites. I’ve had a lot of conversations that went like this: “Do you promote any of the Zbuckz sites?” I ask. Then the person says, “Nah, they don’t update, there’s no point.”
It took Doug a lot of talking and convincing to get me to try a few of your sites. He had to overcome many objections, some I’ve talked to you about before by email, but others were simply the dead-site notion. When I eventually gave some of your newer sites a shot, I discovered they actually converted.
Can you not leave the links active but simply remove the non-updating sites from the webmaster link area so that we can’t grab their links anymore? That eliminates the problem of new links getting into circulation but doesn’t piss anyone off who hates removing links.
As well, if someone saw the site and wanted to promote it, they’d have to email you to inquire about a link. That means you now have an opportunity to contact them and say, “XYZ site doesn’t update anymore, but why not try your Asian traffic on Peter Fever, it converts very well and updates every week.”
Thanks your feedback helps a lot!!
I totally understand people’s objections. Unfortunately and for a variety of reasons (as we have been around for 15 years), some studios have stopped producing content and then we are left with these huge libraries of content and websites that just sit there. We end up just letting them stand as “bonus sites” to give members of our network access to more content so I think it’s good for helping conversions but not so much for new sales.
We can leave links active while pulling from the program (so webmasters can no longer use links), but then that will still leave the issue of certain affiliates that don’t know they are promoting a dead site sending traffic and complaining about a bad conversion. I think I’d rather actually do as you say, remove all the dead sites and only feature the active one, but take the added step of emailing all the affiliates telling them that “these sites have been removed” and “we encourage you to change your links and promote our active sites.” Granted, 90% of affiliates don’t bother to read the emails we send out, but at least it might correct some of the damage that’s been done to our reputation because of it.
Personally I think they should be pulled, or at least marked as dormant/non updating.
Webmasters have to take some responsibility for keeping an eye on adult sites, but that’s often easier said than done. If you offer the info that they are dormant this will give people the info they need to make a decision on whether to promote or not, and for me would demonstrate a level of openness that would be refreshing!
Why pull them? Less for us to promote. Sure they dont update but some sites still sell despite that. There is much less choice now days and so many sites have stopped updating. Why kill off something that makes money (if it does)?
Some of the sites that are not updating also offer content that isn’t found everywhere. Asian feet, for one example. Sure, the site may not be updating but the content is hard to find and good filler for the TGPs and link lists. I would not build a gallery for one of these and submit it to sites like the Hun, but I would certainly and happily use the quality content to show the diversity of the network. Typically, I will add a line to the gallery, “A bonus site of xyz”. I don’t think there is anything wrong in showing what other benefits the visitors can find. And, it may be old to us but what about the ones that are just discovering these porn sites? As long as the webmasters know then I am fine with it.
Thanks, great feedback everyone. I guess the main thing is to figure out a way that adult affiliates know which sites are the updating and which are the “bonus” sites. I’m not opposed to keeping the “bonus” sites in the program, but do want to make sure affiliates know that conversions are not going to look the same on those sites as they are on our “updating” sites. Do you guys know of any other programs that have this issue and handle it in a way you guys like? It seems like the other sponsors either just pull the non-updating sites or leave them and don’t say anything, from what I have seen.
Most of the ones I am in just leave them and never ever say a single word. Every sponsor has sites that are no longer updating even though the advertising on the paysite states they update daily or weekly. Zbuckz is one of the first I have seen to come out and post a list of the ones that are. To me, the honesty with the webmaster is a direct reflection of the honesty the paying customers will receive.
Yes, its perhaps a good idea to make it easy to see which update or not. Then we affiliates can just make up our own mind if we want to promote something or not. Maybe a label on the links in NATS or something.
As you say, most just leave it up and you have no idea. Others try and hide the fact though, re-posting old content.. that’s perhaps the most common way to handle old site which I think is pointless. Users are not stupid and in most cases will know that it’s just old content.
I agree with various members on this, and it is a good discussion to have, one that I do not recall seeing before.
It does seem like a waste to not do anything with that content, so is there perhaps a way to add it all into one larger site? Is that feasible?
Not only would that help the conversion rates and perhaps encourage affiliates to come back to it, but it might actually increase the value of that content. If you have three dead sites with 200 videos on each and they are not selling, perhaps combining them under one new site and offering 600 for the same price will kick it up the ass a bit, give affiliates something “new” to promote, and lower the ratios affiliates are seeing in their stats?
At the very least I think you should perhaps update the site information in the affiliate area so everyone knows what is and isn’t updating, and perhaps offer a little more information about why ratios might be bad.
To be honest, it never occurred to me that this was why our conversion ratio was so terrible. I do not know why we missed that obvious fact but it just never occurred to us.
