[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by KevinG@Dec 28 2004, 11:31 AM
After spending some time recently working with over 50 different affiliate programs, I thought I would post what I need, (which was lacking), from sponsors to make it easier to promote your sites.

1. A greater variety of banner sizes, especially more vertical banners – 120x240 especially.

It is surprising to me how many affiliate programs ONLY have 468x60 and/or 120x60 ads. We need FPA, HPA, 120x60, 120x240, 120x600, 728x90, 125x125, 250x250, 234x60.

2. Quality banners.

I was surprised to find a handful of sponsors that have beautifully designed sites, but banners that are awful, obviously not designed by the same person that did the graphics on the web site. Sometimes I just make my own banners, but I shouldn’t really have to do this.

3. Both animated and static banners.

Banners with motion and flashing colors are good, but sometimes we can’t use that. Sometimes we need a static ad. How about some Black & White ads? I bet that will get some attention in the sea of screaming, flashing colors that are so often ignored.

4. Softcore banners for goodness sake!

You’re really missing the boat if you only have hardcore, cum-splattered, hole ramming, in-your-face ads. There are many sites out there that can point to hardcore porn, but cannot show it on their sites.

You’ve probably read articles throughout the past year about the “mainstreaming of porn”. It’s happening now. How sexy is Victoria’s Secret? Pretty damn sexy imo, and it is not “hardcore, cum-splattered, hole ramming, in-your-face”. Think of the images of Victoria’s Secret for inspiration when making your softcore banners. We need them now, or you’re slots will be filled with those that have them.

5. Suggested text and a text tool for text link ads.

Please suggest text that appeals to the market your site targets. When working with lots of sites, we sometimes run out of ideas and can use your help. However, when we know what text we want to use, there’s a great feature I noticed on a few sponsor sites. You enter your text and it spits out the HTML with your affiliate ref code using your desired text. Nice and convenient.

6. A phone number...

...where I can talk to a real person with a rep assigned to my account that has an incentive for me to succeed with the program.

7. Responses to emails within 24 hours or less , even on weekends and holidays.

8. Make it easy to check my stats.

9. Send me a check every month.

10. Temporary passwords to member’s areas so we can see what we’re really selling, or even do a review of the site, or at least give a brief endorsement of what goes beyond what we see in the tour.

11. A quarterly survey of your affiliates to see what they need to do a better job promoting your site(s).

Excellent post!