Recurring or Per-Signup?

The Eternal Question!

You just discovered the most promising new sponsor ever. You love everything about them. You are enamored by their marketing tools. Their portfolio of paysites is outstanding. This isn't just any old sponsor. They have content you believe in, catering to a market you know. You're going to sign up right now! Before all the other webmasters find out!

But wait. There's that awful question that you've read already in a kajillion other affiliate join forms.

WHICH PROGRAM WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROMOTE?

Don't you just hate that question?

This article is about a more ordinary dilemma for adult webmasters. Choosing which sponsor program to promote. Most want to bypass the whole pay-per-click thing. Most webmasters prefer to market a sponsor in a direct fashion. Most adult webmasters would rather sell memberships than collect clicks. When it comes to memberships, there are basically only two program options: Recurring or Per-Signup.

Before we discuss the merits and flaws of each, let's get definitions out of the way. A Per-Signup sponsor program is one where the affiliate webmaster is paid only once for each membership sold. A Recurring program is where the affiliate continues to make money off each membership they sell, as long as those members remain members of the sponsor's paysite or service. Shorter version: With Per-Signup, you get paid once. With Recurring, you keep getting paid.

The decision between the two programs is frustrating because the decision is often final. No take-backs. Some sponsors allow a high-performing affiliate to switch from Per-Signup to Recurring but certainly not all sponsors allow this. Quite often, once you choose, you're stuck.

Another dilemma with the choice is the blind-alley aspect of it all. Sponsors write promising ad copy just like any other company. They all promise tours that convert and members that recur. They all tell us: "Our Program is the Best!". The fact remains that until you take the time to promote a sponsor's program, you don't really know how well the tours convert or whether or not the membrs recur.

Some sponsors have great tours that convert like crazy but have crummy websites that result in members who cancel after the first month. Other sponsors have lukewarm tours that convert irregularly but the members retain forever. Then there are the sponsors with both converting tours and member areas worth renewing each month. But you don't know that and you won't know that until after you spend months making galleries and free sites. You won't know until the payouts tell you.

One could make a choice based on simple math. Which program pays more up front? The answer is Per-Signup. If a sponsor pays an affiliate $50.00 Per-Signup, then the webmaster that sells 100 memberships in a month makes $5000.00. The webmaster promoting a sponsor via a Recurring program is paid $20.00 per initial signup. If the Recurring webmaster sells 100 memberships in a month, he/she makes $2000.00. That's a one-thousand dollar difference in payouts. However, the Per-Signup webmaster must continue to generate at least 100 signups per month in order to maintain an even income. Sales fluctuate. One hundred signups in a month is a damned good sales ratio for any adult webmaster, especially a newbie.

From unofficial accounts, the average lifetime of a paysite membership is three months. If the Recurring sponsor pays $25.00 per initial signup and $15.00 for each recurring month, that means the webmaster that sells 100 memberships in a month can depend on a total of $5500, spread out over a three-month period. Ultimately, the Recurring webmaster will make two thousand more dollars from 100 signups than the Per-Signup webmaster makes.

Tough choice indeed. The Eternal Question for adult webmasters. We're asked to choose without any firm statistical data. There are less than a handful of sites that review adult sponsor programs at all. If we choose Per-Signup, we know we'll make more money up front but we risk losing money in the long run, by not getting paid for recurring billing. If we push a sponsor as a Recurring affiliate, we can make more money, over a longer period of time, with less effort. Then again, the Recurring webmaster has no guarantee that a sponsor's paysite members will continue to pay for access.

If you've come here looking for an answer to this eternal question of Recurring or Signup, we can only provide advice.

Study the paysites, promotional tools and various affiliate programs offered by your sponsors. Ask the opinions of other webmasters on particular sponsors. Ask if a certain paysite receives a lot of recurring memberships. Ask if other webmasters like the tours offered by a sponsor for a Per-Signup program. Visit at the actual paysite tours yourself, as if you were a surfer. Read the membership agreement and determine whether or not this sponsor runs a customer-friendly site. Some paysite tours convert really well. Some member areas and benefits are so cool, members keep paying for months. You can find out this information if you just take the time.

We have no answer to the Eternal Question: Recurring or Per-Signup? That's the nature of such things. Sometimes you have to take chances and this choice is one of those times.