Whatever Happened To New Affiliates?
 

Have any paysite owners noticed a real decline in new affiliates signing up for their webmaster programmes? We haven't had a one since October, and we used to get 5-6 a week. I tested the sign up process and everything is working fine, so it just looks like there are no new affiliates around.

We all chat here about the decline in business, and the number of good sites to promote, but certainly for us, it looks like our life blood of the affiliate network is in serious decline.

Every week(ish), when I send out our affiliate newsletter, I find another couple of sites/blogs have closed so our active affiliate numbers are reducing every week.

WTF?

affiliates are very slow these days ((

Yes, the party is over for affiliates due to Google Panda dropping lots of spam blogs to the neither regions of search.

The model a lot of affiliates were using, producing lots of 10 to 15 post spam blogs just wont work anymore, so many have given up I believe, and new affiliates are less than before because porn is no longer the cash cow it once was. They are just not getting the sales they once did.

Plus Google is rewarding higher positions to tubes, illegal or otherwise. Then there is all the free porn content available, affiliates just can't compete anymore with all the free stuff, it's not worth it. Only those who have an established traffic base and/or have adapted to the changes have survived, so far.

This is what I've seen happening, and/or discussed elsewhere both on adult WM forums, SEO articles or affiliate marketing WM forums.

I think you have a point Smooch. Like you I have found it tougher going on Glamour Images this year. Having said that conversion rates are better than ever recently - but I struggle to find sponsors that work consistently, and new sponsors that have the impact they used to have.

Nearly every site has an "off" period where sign ups dry up, then out of the blue they kick back in again. All very strange but it's now a fact of life.

Are you seeing good sales from other sites you are affiliated with at the moment, Geoff? My sales suck, especially on CCBill, this month, so far.

Traffic seems to be OK, but they are not spending. Maybe they are spending it on Xmas presents rather than porn.

Usually I see an improvement in the 2nd half of December. Lets hope so this time.

I think I said in another thread Smooch that it's the massive ups and downs that are driving me nuts. We are doing "average" numbers right now (but that is 40% down on 2008). Conversion is great but click throughs down.

A couple of examples (I won't name them here but these are hard facts)

Site 1 - in November the conversion rate was 1:238. So far in December 1758 clicks - no sign ups.

Site 2 - throughout 2011 average conversion 1:416 (from 13,000 clicks). Then not a sign up for 3 months from 5,000 clicks.

Site 3 - In 2010 I sent 48,000 clicks to one site (yes 84,000) and had a conversion rate of 1:275. Recently I have sent 9,234 clicks - no sales.

Bare in mind when I say "clicks" I mean actual site visits, not FHG page views.

And here by lies the issue. I would love to stop promoting them but -

a) they could start selling again any day now (and do)
b) I can't find good new sponsors to replace them.

All Catch 22 as they say

General motivation from affiliates is dying, me included, for example waking up some random day to having 1:22,000 ratio with 4 rebills and $95 total, those days I just want to go lay at the pool, gym, go to movie, go get super drunk, etc, get my mind off work for a while :(