Another sponsor bites the dust: StrictlyBroadband

[pradaboy]

Dear Affiliate,

In the past 2 years, business for the adult content industry has become particularly tough, and Strictly Broadband hasn't been immune to these problems. We are in the process of becoming independent from our parent company, and as a result we are forced to cut operational costs. Effective July 1st, we will only support affiliates who generate more than a minimum level of sales. We've determined this threshold to be 5 new sales over the past 3 months. Unfortunately, your account hasn't generated this many sales, so it has been suspended.

We will still be sending out final June payments at the start of August, subject to your account reaching the minimum payment.

We apologise for having to take this action; during our six years of operation, we've paid out millions of pounds to our affiliates, and we will continue to do so, but we can only support higher volume affiliates into the future.

NOTE TO STUDIO PARTNERS: this does not affect royalty payments for content sales, which will continue to be paid as normal.

Regards,
The Strictly Team

Only ever joined them to push the Keeley Hazell tape.

To make this thread win a little bit:

[Amputate Your Head]

Win!

Originally Posted by pradaboy

Only ever joined them to push the Keeley Hazell tape.

To make this thread win a little bit:

[mmcfadden]

a way to chomp up the money from those with little sales. It takes absolutely no additional effort to keep open someones account with little sales

[Loch]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

a way to chomp up the money from those with little sales. It takes absolutely no additional effort to keep open someones account with little sales

Unless ofcourse you have 5k of them and they are a pain in the arse

[spunky99]

that doesnt make much sense to kill off accounts who arent generating alot of sales, what cost is it really to them?

[TheSenator]

Never heard of them before....

Maybe they are so big they don't need affiliates.

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by Loch

Unless ofcourse you have 5k of them and they are a pain in the arse

Exactly.

As most program owners know, those small piss ants are always demanding new this and that (banners, galleries, support, etc.). Those driving sales, and the whales will make their OWN promo tools from the content provided. They do not rely on the tools of the BROgram. It's always been that way.

10% of the affiliates drive 90% of the sales.

[baddog]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

a way to chomp up the money from those with little sales. It takes absolutely no additional effort to keep open someones account with little sales

I disagree.

[IllTestYourGirls]

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Exactly.

As most program owners know, those small piss ants are always demanding new this and that (banners, galleries, support, etc.). Those driving sales, and the whales will make their OWN promo tools from the content provided. They do not rely on the tools of the BROgram. It's always been that way.

10% of the affiliates drive 90% of the sales.

Well I dont mind making some promo tools but when I sign up for a program and they do not even have common banner sizes.... well fuck that. Im not going to waste my time hiring someone to create 20/30 banners that should already be in the BROgram

One big program, that owns a lot of sites, had ZERO 300x250 in ANY of their affiliate areas.

/rant

[nottslad]

This is a sponsor I have sent a small amount of traffic to for about 4 years, and I received the above email today shitcanning my account.

I may not be their most prolific affiliate (nor are they my most prolific sponsor) but I generate a small but consistent income for them which it now seems they are going to keep for themselves.

Recent stats:
July to date $77.29 = 18 sales
June: $44.23 = 11 sales
May: $55.49 = 13 sales

Total sales for 2.5 months = 42 sales. But because I have allegedly not had 5 "new" sales I'm shit canned.

[mmcfadden]

Originally Posted by baddog

I disagree.

why? support? If somebody sends 1 join a month and requests tons of promo material it is easy to kindly tell them to fuck off

[nottslad]

Effective July 1st, we will only support affiliates who generate more than a minimum level of sales.

Oh and way to go sending emails out on July 14th to advise people of something that apparently took effect two weeks ago.

[nottslad]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

It takes absolutely no additional effort to keep open someones account with little sales

Agreed.

My lifetime sales with them were $3700, given that it's 30% payout that means that the company made $8633 from my traffic.

And my impact on their admin costs? Well, I sent a couple of emails to get my payment details set up, and I think I once asked a question about the Keeley Hazell tape 4 years ago. And they paid me about twice a year. That's it.

[VIXEN ESCORTS]

Originally Posted by pradaboy

Only ever joined them to push the Keeley Hazell tape.

To make this thread win a little bit:

Yes Keeley Hazell was great, got lucky in Google and made nearly $1000 in 24 hours, I guess we are where we are, I think it's slightly more complicated than just another program stunt. SB is part of a public company (quoted on the SE) in the UK that is having a rough time at the moment. I am more interested in the divestation news of SB from SPMG and what that might mean for SPMG, I don't know if it's good news or bad news ! But then I'm only a shareholder !

[bjlover]

Originally Posted by UKVixens

Yes Keeley Hazell was great, got lucky in Google and made nearly $1000 in 24 hours, I guess we are where we are, I think it's slightly more complicated than just another program stunt. SB is part of a public company (quoted on the SE) in the UK that is having a rough time at the moment. I am more interested in the divestation news of SB from SPMG and what that might mean for SPMG, I don't know if it's good news or bad news ! But then I'm only a shareholder !

spmg are about to be de listed

You could try and sell them to minimize your loss, but I doubt you could, not even one trade today on them, take a look at the shares forums?

they are gone?

[VIXEN ESCORTS]

Originally Posted by bjlover

spmg are about to be de listed

You could try and sell them to minimize your loss, but I doubt you could, not even one trade today on them, take a look at the shares forums?

they are gone?

I wish I had when they got ramped a couple of months ago, it's all or nothing now, you gotta be in it to win it blah blah Although my gut feeling is that SPMG is divesting itself of SB to raise cash and cut costs, latest statements have been encouraging, just needs a few months to get straight

[garce]

Originally Posted by pradaboy

Only ever joined them to push the Keeley Hazell tape.

To make this thread win a little bit:

Does break.com license their pics, or do they just allow user uploads? Serious question - I have no idea how they work - I've never visited the site.

Heard about them on Attack of the Show, but that's it.

[pradaboy]

Originally Posted by garce

Does break.com license their pics, or do they just allow user uploads? Serious question - I have no idea how they work - I've never visited the site.

Heard about them on Attack of the Show, but that's it.

I think user submitted.

[Loch]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

why? support? If somebody sends 1 join a month and requests tons of promo material it is easy to kindly tell them to fuck off

Until you have driven a network of that size you wouldent know "no offense meant"
And you will get a worse rep be kicking people once in a while...why? becourse they will go cry on GFY about it for days.

Besides even 1 sale pr month today is less then 10% of your affiliates.
If you have to talk to that affiliate even once in 12 months you are breaking even at best.

[Loch]

Originally Posted by nottslad

This is a sponsor I have sent a small amount of traffic to for about 4 years, and I received the above email today shitcanning my account.

I may not be their most prolific affiliate (nor are they my most prolific sponsor) but I generate a small but consistent income for them which it now seems they are going to keep for themselves.

Recent stats:
July to date $77.29 = 18 sales
June: $44.23 = 11 sales
May: $55.49 = 13 sales

Total sales for 2.5 months = 42 sales. But because I have allegedly not had 5 "new" sales I'm shit canned.

See this i dont understand, you would not be considered a small webmaster today in my book....no whale, but consistant with good sales.

[mmcfadden]

Originally Posted by Loch

Until you have driven a network of that size you wouldent know "no offense meant"
And you will get a worse rep be kicking people once in a while...why? becourse they will go cry on GFY about it for days.

Besides even 1 sale pr month today is less then 10% of your affiliates.
If you have to talk to that affiliate even once in 12 months you are breaking even at best.

Loch,

I just watched that vid of mischa that I shot for you with the peeping tom theme. It was pretty good and I actually chuckled.

I will say this now, please stop riding my cock. If you think that sending emails just once to an affiliate is causing distress I think you need to revisit your biz plan and that of what you represent.

[Loch]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

Loch,

I just watched that vid of mischa that I shot for you with the peeping tom theme. It was pretty good and I actually chuckled.

I will say this now, please stop riding my cock. If you think that sending emails just once to an affiliate is causing distress I think you need to revisit your biz plan and that of what you represent.

Yes it was good, they all were

And please take a chill pill, im not riding your anything....why so sensative?
Now i cant comment on your view points, please

Way to loose a client...maybe you should revisit your businessplan

[garce]

Originally Posted by pradaboy

I think user submitted.

Thank you. That's what I thought.

[mmcfadden]

Originally Posted by Loch

Yes it was good, they all were

And please take a chill pill, im not riding your anything....why so sensative?
Now i cant comment on your view points, please

Way to loose a client...maybe you should revisit your businessplan

It's lose... and I do not film for people. Yours was an exception.

I read this thread and think exactly what I posted... You are standing up for a company that decided to collect on all small payouts that add up if they had enough of them.

[fatfoo]

Keeley Hazell is beautiful.

[Loch]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

It's lose... and I do not film for people. Yours was an exception.

I read this thread and think exactly what I posted... You are standing up for a company that decided to collect on all small payouts that add up if they had enough of them.

Im not sure why you would think that im standing up for that company, i have never even heard about them before.
Regardless there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a business model that only allows for profitable affiliates to promote them.

[mmcfadden]

Originally Posted by Loch

Im not sure why you would think that im standing up for that company, i have never even heard about them before.
Regardless there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a business model that only allows for profitable affiliates to promote them.

Maybe you are right. I just don't see it.

It takes next to nothing to keep affiliate accounts open. All it does to close affiliate accounts, imo and from my experience, is to rape those that have made sales in the past and now will never collect.

It's a means to collect money when times are tough and dick the little man.

This is just a discussion but that is my opinion.

[VIXEN ESCORTS]

I have always argued that if you don't make (or can't make) a full time living from this business then "fuck the hell off" I'm all for minimum payouts at CCbill and Epoch of $500..........WTF $25 !!!

[BV]

Here is my take,

They are going to close down soon, so instead of being humble and just saying so, they come up with the "you don't send enough sales" story.

When in fact, no one is sending enough sales.

Just a smokescreen story so they can go out without looking like they lost.

It's no big deal to handle the the small affiliates along with the big ones. You are still going to have to make shit (banners) for the big ones. Small ones can use the same ones.

THIS IS JUST MY OPINION!!!!!

[Chosen]

Originally Posted by pradaboy

Wow

[directfiesta]

Originally Posted by mmcfadden

a way to chomp up the money from those with little sales. It takes absolutely no additional effort to keep open someones account with little sales

way to change numbers away from " liability "

[amateurcanada]

As we know the minimum payment is $50.00 to get funds - if that email above is truely from SB then i'm concerned they are taking the small pots made by little affiliates on a loophole.

[Grisey]

They are thiefs anyway i got banned from the programme for posting they were converting 1:5000 and since then have kept all the money from previous members which was about £30 a month and its been about 16 months since i was banned for posting stats

Anyone promoting them i would switch to AEBN ASAP

[Ninja Scripts]

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Exactly.

As most program owners know, those small piss ants are always demanding new this and that (banners, galleries, support, etc.). Those driving sales, and the whales will make their OWN promo tools from the content provided. They do not rely on the tools of the BROgram. It's always been that way.

10% of the affiliates drive 90% of the sales.

They don't rely on tools of the program because program owners are too fucking stupid to make effective tools. It's amazing how out of touch someone living on porn can be with porn.

[Ninja Scripts]

Originally Posted by baddog

I disagree.

All of those 5,000 should have used 'SEO hosting' and they'd have their 5 sales. Cause that's totally legit and all.

[Ninja Scripts]

Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls

Well I dont mind making some promo tools but when I sign up for a program and they do not even have common banner sizes.... well fuck that. Im not going to waste my time hiring someone to create 20/30 banners that should already be in the BROgram

One big program, that owns a lot of sites, had ZERO 300x250 in ANY of their affiliate areas.

/rant

In almost all cases they should have 0 banners since they are damn near worthless. Do you just like filling in the blanks on your pages or something?

[DamianJ]

Originally Posted by Ninja Scripts

In almost all cases they should have 0 banners since they are damn near worthless. Do you just like filling in the blanks on your pages or something?

Bad banners are worthless, good banners are brilliant.

[Ninja Scripts]

Originally Posted by DamianJ

Bad banners are worthless, good banners are brilliant.

Brilliant meaning they get a 2% CTR instead of 1%?

I know there are some good banners out there but I've never seen ONE provided by the actual sponsor. Anyone on GFY worrying about what banners a sponsor has is too stupid to know a good one.

[mOBSCENE]

Originally Posted by nottslad

This is a sponsor I have sent a small amount of traffic to for about 4 years, and I received the above email today shitcanning my account.

I may not be their most prolific affiliate (nor are they my most prolific sponsor) but I generate a small but consistent income for them which it now seems they are going to keep for themselves.

Recent stats:
July to date $77.29 = 18 sales
June: $44.23 = 11 sales
May: $55.49 = 13 sales

Total sales for 2.5 months = 42 sales. But because I have allegedly not had 5 "new" sales I'm shit canned.

Similar story here, times that by hundreds of similar stories... maybe saving a bit of pocket change on each one on cutting the small checks... That's a lot of money redirected

[TheDA]

I put links and promo stuff up for them maybe 6-7 years ago and actively promoted them for a little while.

I haven't done much new promo with them for while because I didn't like the 25% percent or whatever it is they offer, but I still get regular sales from my links so I can't complain.

[DVTimes]

Now I have not loged into my sb stats for a long time, as I know they have gone from good to bad.

This month: £0
Last month: £5

note this has gone from an average of £70 per month to this.

I think I did over £300 in one month when that sex tape of that comediens graddoughter came out.

I have not got this email nor do I care as sales have died.

I have been disapointed with sales for a while now simply as you would expect each month it states new registered members so you would presume due to repeate sales this would be growing each month, rather than down.

So I have concluded its due to one of the following:
1. customers no longer purchase films even though they get emails all the time.
2. The emails sent overide your affiliate code and so you do not get the % of sales anymore, but the customers still purchase.
3. After 'X' period of time the affiliate no longer gets a % of sales.

Regardless of this sales have droped to death.

Now remember I am a big suporter of Jerry and I think i was promoting them from the start. so i find this post not easy as i do like jerry.

but i have a few times posted and not had a responce to my question, do affiliates get a % of sales from the dating section and other parts of sb that are advertised in the emails sent out.

now this has made me suspiciose for a while.

now at this stage am wondering if the thought at sb is that over the last few years they have had millions of people register with them, enough for them now not to need affiliates simply as they just send millions of emails out. not just to promote sb but other stuff too, such as dating.

the other thing i have noticed is that for a long time jerry would be promoting the latest thing on sb. but for months now he has not. its almost as if they are no longer interested in the site.

what new killer films have they had recently? none that i can remember.

so if sb does close its dopors to affiliates, to be honest sales are so poor that i do not care or notice. its a shame as i think sb had a futer but it seems old and to be honest i do not think it delivers what customers want.

the bottom line is people want to pay and save the films for life, none of this rubish lasting 6 days nonsence or however long it is.

i also find it interesting that jerry posted once in this thread then left rather than stay and defend sb. that to me says everything.

anyway i still like jerry, but i think sb has had its day. far too many sites doing the same sort of stuff but better. even damian has a new pay tube site that contains a few films.

[Paul Markham]

Supporting affiliates = Paying those who have not reached the minimum yet and those only getting rebills.

What support does a small affiliates require that's not there for all the others? Hosted content? The cost of that is minimal.

Maybe SB think the brand new sales they're getting are limited, they can keep the rebills and their name will be enough to replace the sales lost.

Some sponsors have been cutting budgets on content for years, to cover falling sales, now it's the turn of affiliates.

[TheMaster]

Originally Posted by UKVixens

I have always argued that if you don't make (or can't make) a full time living from this business then "fuck the hell off" I'm all for minimum payouts at CCbill and Epoch of $500..........WTF $25 !!!

personally I set my minimum payouts to $100-$250 ($400 for ccbill), with my big sponsors, CCbill & Epoch it wouldn't be a problem to have it at $500, but I have so many smaller ones with their own payout and all those $100 after 2-3 months add up, but under SB systems, even with good rebills, they would cancel a lot of those accounts

[TheMaster]

Originally Posted by amateurcanada

As we know the minimum payment is $50.00 to get funds - if that email above is truely from SB then i'm concerned they are taking the small pots made by little affiliates on a loophole.

"£50 for sterling payments, £100 for US dollar, Euro and other non-sterling payments"

so they could have a bunch of $75 dollar payments that they owe people, but now will just put in their pocket

[Michael O]

I don't get it.
One person on part time should be able to handle all the small affiliates and their requests for an affiliate program.

I deal and have dealt with A LOT of webmasters the last few years and 99% are reasonable good people but if someone send 1 sale every 3 months is asking for promo material you say sorry not possible, if its someone sending 5 sales a day you say what do you need?

Honestly how long does it take to answer a email/IM message?

[Michael O]

Want to add one more thing, I treat everyone the same and in most cases I do not know if people have $50 or $50,000 in their account and everyone deserve the same treatment.

If 90% of your customers make you 10% of you profits but only cost you 9% of profits they are still worth it, you never know who the next whale is! Maybe its someone sending a tickle of his traffic to check you out.

[signupdamnit]

Originally Posted by BV

Here is my take,

They are going to close down soon, so instead of being humble and just saying so, they come up with the "you don't send enough sales" story.

When in fact, no one is sending enough sales.

Just a smokescreen story so they can go out without looking like they lost.

It's no big deal to handle the the small affiliates along with the big ones. You are still going to have to make shit (banners) for the big ones. Small ones can use the same ones.

THIS IS JUST MY OPINION!!!!!

I think you're right. I also think that these guys look like a bunch of crooks to me based on their actions. Not paying out final payments unless the webmaster makes a minimum is despicable and possibly fraud. Typical to try to place the blame on affiliates so that you can screw them and save your ego by making it look like it's not a fault of yours.

[Sly]

Originally Posted by Loch

Until you have driven a network of that size you wouldent know "no offense meant"
And you will get a worse rep be kicking people once in a while...why? becourse they will go cry on GFY about it for days.

Besides even 1 sale pr month today is less then 10% of your affiliates.
If you have to talk to that affiliate even once in 12 months you are breaking even at best.

I'm sorry, you are wrong. He is right. You should take the advice that you gave him... speak what you know of.

Anybody canning "small affiliates" is going for a cash grab or was never doing that well to begin with. "Small affiliates" take very little time unless you allow them to take a lot of time, and they can provide more overall stability by spreading out the risk. I have small and big affiliates, each and every one of them is a very important piece of the puzzle.

Somebody above mentioned that you should only be allowed in the industry if you are full-time. Nonsense. Nobody started out full time unless you started working for a company. And guess where the owners of that company started? The small guys are what build industries... any industry. Never kill the small businessman or hobbyist, that's where it all starts.

[TheMaster]

Originally Posted by Sly

I'm sorry, you are wrong. He is right. You should take the advice that you gave him... speak what you know of.

Anybody canning "small affiliates" is going for a cash grab or was never doing that well to begin with. "Small affiliates" take very little time unless you allow them to take a lot of time, and they can provide more overall stability by spreading out the risk. I have small and big affiliates, each and every one of them is a very important piece of the puzzle.

Somebody above mentioned that you should only be allowed in the industry if you are full-time. Nonsense. Nobody started out full time unless you started working for a company. And guess where the owners of that company started? The small guys are what build industries... any industry. Never kill the small businessman or hobbyist, that's where it all starts.

amen to that