Ah sweet sponsors. If it weren’t for them many of us wouldn’t have a career in Internet porn.

"As an Internet affiliate salesperson you've got things a whole bunch easier than did our noble progenitors. All you have to supply is the work, and compared to that ancient door-to-door guy, you've got it fucking made."

The affiliate/sponsor model is for the web but it has a real world counterpart. The commission salesperson. On the physical plane a person markets the product of another and if the marketing results in a sale, that person receives a percentage of the buy price as payment. This model works in department stores, car dealerships and beauty shops. It works for audio and electronics stores. It works for appliance sellers. Even talent agents are nothing more than commissioned salespeople. The affiliate/sponsor relationship is relatively the same, just in a different medium.

Really, affiliates are a whole lot like the door-to-door salesmen from days of old. They were given marketing materials like free samples, special portable display cases and pre-written sales scripts. They would have to enter the homes of their customers in order to demonstrate their merchandise. If they got a sale they took the cash or check and had the customer sign an agreement to receive their new doodad as soon the boss got the money. If the merchandise were small in size or value, a door-to-door could carry their tangible goods with them, but often this kind of selling was time intensive. It was also damned hard on the feet.

As an Internet affiliate salesperson you’ve got things a whole bunch easier than did our noble progenitors. You can sell stuff to millions of customers without leaving your computer. You can work for an unlimited amount of sponsors. You can choose your hours and you can choose your product line. You can makes sales for someone else and get paid a percentage of the buy price without any seed money, kit fees or start up costs. Sponsors give you samples and ad banners and all the special codes you need to make that sale. Some also give you content and hosting as long as you sell their merchandise. All you have to supply is the work, and compared to that ancient door-to-door guy, you’ve got it fucking made.

How does it all operate? How do you make money with sponsors? Here’s what goes on:

1. The first thing you do is figure out what kind of adult material jives with your tastes and your perverted sensibilities. Do you like hardcore? Are you into reality content? Maybe you like bondage or have a fetish. Perhaps you dig vintage porn or softcore swimsuit material. Whatever you are into, there’s a sponsor out there with an affiliate program for your particular kink. The best salespeople are the ones who believe in their product. Don’t sell something because someone told you it made them rich. Do it because you like the things you sell.

2. When you’ve figured out what kind of adult content you’re in harmony with, it’s time to go sponsor shopping. The best places to go to look are adult webmaster resource sites. A good one -like CozyFrog- will carry a large list of adult and non-adult sponsor programs, complete with descriptions and links. Each adult resource site categorized their sponsor differently. For example, the Frog categorizes Sponsors like this: Partnership Programs, Pay Per Signup Programs, Pay Per Click Programs, Dialer Programs, E-Mail / Pass Programs, Adult Shopping, Dating / Personals, Drug / Penis Programs, Online Casinos and Other.

3. All these different types of sponsors are a little confusing so in this step, we’ll help you to understand what it all means.

A Partnership Program is one where the sponsor not only pays you a commission on initial sales. They also pay you for any residual sales that emanate from your customer. If you’re selling paysite memberships you get a cut from the original membership fee plus a cut each time your surfer repays for monthly membership to your sponsor’s paysite. These residual payments are called rebills or recurring.

A Pay Per Signup Program is when you get a commission for the initial sale of a membership fee. Many times PPS programs offer the highest payouts but you’re only paid once for each surfer you bring to the table.

A Pay Per Click Program pays you for banner/link impressions. A lot of times these programs don’t pay when a surfer clicks that sponsor banner but rather if they click on the resulting advertising page that comes from your sponsor's site. This is known as a second page click. PPC programs tend to payout a few pennies per click but that adds up with a good gallery listings and great traffic days.

A Dialer Program is where you sell dialup access to surfers and are paid a commission for each minute your surfer uses on the site of your dialer sponsor. Dialers bill through the phone company and are very useful for traffic emanating from areas where the populace don’t commonly use credit cards. Dialers pay out anywhere between $0.50 to $1.00 per minute.

An Email/Pass program pays for surfer email addresses. You collect them by posting your sponsor’s sign-up box on your web site or gallery. When a surfer signs up, you get paid. Sometimes as high as 2.00 per unique email address.

If you’d like to sell tangible goods on the Internet there are plenty of sponsors who offer you the chance to make commission sales by doing so. Some even let you personalize their Online Shop to make it look as if it’s your store. These programs pay you a commission on each product, usually in the range of 15% to 25% of the buy price. The more dildos and edible underwear you sell, the more money you’ll be paid.

Are you a natural born matchmaker? Do you dig the idea of running personal ads on your site? Then you might want to see the Dating/Personals category. These sponsors reward you when your surfer pays to post an ad or dating profile with their program. All you have to do is find those surfers who are looking for love and bring them in.

Drug/Penis Programs. These sites sell herbal enhancers that claim to improve sexual performance. Some sell enlarger devices. Still others sell advice books and all the various sundries you’d find at the health food store. It really depends on the sponsor. You make a commission on every product you sell through these sponsors.

Online Casinos. Gambling is an age-old pastime and now it’s come to the web. These sites have users either pay for membership access or they let surfers set up an online account where they then can add money. Just like Vegas, the house usually wins and you get a percentage share of it through the surfers you send there.

Other is everything that an adult webmaster can use to make a profit. From site counters that pay you to privacy software providers who want your marketing skills, there’s a sponsor for anything.

Take into account that a lot of sponsors offer several different types of payout programs. Some will even let you benefit from multiple programs simultaneously. In addition, many sponsors pay you for sales generated through your exit traffic. Even more pay on webmaster referrals. You send them webmasters through your referrer code and you get paid.

4. Now that you understand the different types of payout programs you want to see what other features a sponsor might offer to their affiliates. Quite a few sponsors provide free content as well as free hosting for program-specific galleries and pages. If you care about how often you’re paid you need to look for those answers. If you wish to be paid by direct deposit, you’ll want a sponsor who pays out this way.

Sponsors offer incentives to productive affiliates. Some give away trips or cars while others let you rack up points that you can use to trade for stuff like game consoles and computer hardware. Some sponsors give you live online support. Others have toll-free phone lines. These extra features can help you make your decision when picking a sponsor.

5. After you’ve picked a sponsor, it’s imperative you read their Terms of Service/Rules before you sign up for their program. You need to know the rules because if you break them, you’re account is cancelled. After you’re sure you know the score then sign up baby!

For a complete and comprehensive list of categorized sponsor programs, make sure to visit our Frog Listings!