If your traffic is SO good why sell it?
 

Why not 1) build a paysite and convert your traffic and keep 100% or 2) find a high converting sponsor?

There's been a lot of talk lately re giving sponsors only 10% etc. Don't get me wrong there's a lot of interesting concepts and trade monetizing ideas that come up during these discussions. But really..... if your traffic is WORTH A LOT, why not KEEP IT?

The REALITY is that BARTER is the only sustainable advantage I see to wanting to trade traffic--trade some traffic to increase your traffic base and brand equity. As for SELLING and BUYING traffic, there's a SMALL but significant amount of fraudsters in this industry that would make quick work of any traffic auction platform.

hmmm i've been wondering the same thing

Why don't you open a McDonalds? I've never seen one fail...well maybe the startup costs is a bit much for some?

Like somebody said in my thread -- not everyone wants to, or is even capable of producing traffic AND a site that makes the most possible $ per click. Everyone has different skills/interests.



Who doesn't need a high converting sponsor? I think the better question is who wants to find the *most profitable* sponsor for the traffic you have to work with. Lots of people are caught up in the gallery posting craze so I guess there still will be plenty of diversity for a while now anway.

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As for SELLING and BUYING traffic, there's a SMALL but significant amount of fraudsters in this industry that would make quick work of any traffic auction platform.

There will be more fraud with an non-personal 50/50 program... If you are buying traffic in bulk you have a 1-on-1 relationship and reputation and experience come into play... as well as the desire to do future biz. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a 50/50 program going gangbusters and then I just drop out because the crap stops converting -- if you aren't selling in bulk you have no leverage either to get to a straigt determination of what the real issue is -- instead you end up with a lot of little guys screaming "shaving" or complaining about saturation or Kazaa or bandwidth problems or members area issues... yadda yadda... Fuck all that.

That's wrong. At least 5 McDonald's fail a year. They fail not in the traditional sense...they make profit but they do not reach corporate standards so they are cut.

For example I am selling to this guy now -- we hook up on ICQ... He tells me his in-house web designer is ready to provide me with any banners or graphics that I need! Holy shit. I tell his designer I nead a headshot of this babe -- 2 minutes later by ICQ I have 4 headshots via HTTP LOL... I tell him how I think I could best sell his site -- he says "great idea! how about these landing pages" -- I say to myself -- holy shit this is synergy! Another example -- I was working with Oliver Klozov -- I made some suggestions and he implemented them 10x... All those gateway girl pages that he has on his site -- that was my idea and he had his programmer code it... Now all his affliates use that shit -- it works! It's nice to work with a real fucking human instead of a CCBill form.

Basically, what this boils down to is 1) you know how to generate traffic 2) you just want to find the perfect [ ha, like that exists.... let's just settle for "optimal"] fit for your traffic 3) but you're sick and tired of experimenting with the differing programs and just want the right sponsor to step up and buy your traffic wholesale?

Again, taking everything that's been said before, this is quite unrealistic. There are risks for both parties involved and locking yourself into a 1 to 1 buy / sell relationship does not really cure the problems inherent in this biz. Conversions fluctuate. Fraud occurs...a lot. Basically, it really boils down to not having the initiative to just go through a list of sponsors, send test traffic, weed out the crap, test again, and keep experimenting until you get the mix.

You were onto something re automating this via a script but the reality remains.... nobody can do the traffic experimentation for you. I'm sure your traffic is good....but not for every niche, not even for every sub niche or delivery method. The key is to meet the sponsor half-way by doing your experimentation. They already did their part by having their progs listed in the major awm resource sites, now its your turn to sign up and find the best fit.

We would all love to sell traffic on a one to one level, but as Mark T pointed out earlier, there are just too many transaction and information costs to be worth the hassle. Really, if your traffic is that good....figure out what niche its good for and take the initiative to hunt down the particular progs that would work best for it instead of issuing a blanket conclusion that partnership programs suck.

Maybe this reasoning would work best for per sign up [These are a gold mine...but not to the affiliate]. But partnership, as Gothweb pointed out earlier, is what's left.

Very good thread on Partnership model though. It was a good refresher on the advantages and unresolved issues behind the business model.

Running a paysite is a massive pain in the ass at times too...Some of the companies that i send traffic to give me 70% and i dont have to screw with members... adding content.. and the tons of other responsibilities that you have to take care of with a paysite

Good examples. However, one key element needs to be pointed out. You have a good reputation and are rather well known on this board and have a proven ability to generate traffic. Taking all this information together, the sponsor's risk is minimized and its worth his/her while to work with you on a 1 to 1 basis to help build an affiliate campaign that will yield mutually satisfying results.

Compare that scenario where all of the elements above are missing, would it be worth the sponsors' time? I would say that a good sponsor would comb their database stats daily and then PERSONALLY contact the top traffic generators but low converters and see if they can tighten the fit.

In this business, like in all other aspects of life, every move has a cost-benefit / risk-reward dimension.

Yep, a lot of it is convenience. A lot of people will take 10-50% cuts just to change a link to your site, instead of running an entire paysite, or finding a way to convert the traffic themselves.