If you’ve been in the online marketing game just long enough, you’re going to start hearing about affiliate programs. Simply put, you provide a link on your own site that send people to another (affiliate) web site. If then they sign up/purchase something at the site, then you are paid a commission. In adult, the most common affiliate program is membership based. If someone clicks on a link on your site, and that takes the person to another girl’s site, and then they sign up – you get a commission based on the membership that the person signed up for. This is different from PPC (pay per click), which is a whole different income possibility. Affiliate programs are usually PPS (pay per sale), PPL (pay per lead), or PPA (pay per action).

Every affiliate program is different. It is important to read the fine print and make sure that you are maximizing your affiliate income – you don’t want to waste your valuable site space sending people to a website where either (1) they are going to sign up and not come back to you (in essence replacing your site membership with theirs), or (2) they aren’t going to sign up for the other site at all. Making sure that you know your niche, and your placement in that niche, are key.

Before you sign up for any affiliate programs, make sure that your site is enough of a niche that should someone go away to sign up for another site, they will return to you. Make sure that the affiliate membership is in ADDITION to your own membership. Make sure that your site has enough content on it that is unique enough so that people will supplement their membership to your site with something else, namely whatever the affiliate site is selling. I think this is where a lot of adult sites, especially solo girl sites, go wrong – they offer affiliate memberships to other girls’ sites, and literally open the door for their existing members to “cheat” on them by leaving their site for a month or two by going to another girl’s site.

So what can you do to make sure that your own members visit your friends’ sites, but don’t leave your own? Take a look at your own site, and see if there is something there that is proprietary to your site that a member can’t get elsewhere. And I’m not talking about “Well, I’m so-and-so, the adult actress”. Trust me, that is simply not good enough, in a market that is oversaturated not only with other solo girl sites in the niche that you are in, but also with free sites. You HAVE to offer something on your site that can’t be found anywhere else – whether that’s a journal, a blog, a webcam show, a chatroom, special advance notices and invitations to public events…you see where I’m going here. See if anything can be offered for free. See if you can do giveaways. See if you can give something away for free for members who have stayed with your site a certain number of weeks/months. But think bigger – THOSE suggestions have already been used! Be creative. Find that one (or two, or three) thing that makes sure that the members come back to you time and time again.

Another mistake that some solo sites seem to make is to flood their sites with too many affiliate options. Make sure that the site is still about YOU – don’t offer too many affiliate options. Members will end up spending all of their time at the many sites that you are offering to them. Select a few sites that you are really sure that your members will enjoy. The members will like the fact that you are thinking of them and are carefully selecting other sites that you think they might like, to entertain them between your updates.

Speaking of which…if you’re going to promote another girl’s site on your own, see if you can’t do a content trade scene with that girl. That way you are cross-promoting; that is, the other girl is promoting you on her site, with a link back to your site as well as a scene with you to show her members that she’s endorsing you, and vice versa. Don’t just willy-nilly start promoting a bunch of girls that you’ve met online. Having a link to her site on yours is an endorsement that you think that your members would enjoy seeing your friend. The best way to show that is by doing a scene with her. Then, see if she can have her weekly/biweekly scene updates work well with yours – that is, if your updates are on a Monday, then see if she can provide updates on a Thursday. That way there is a higher possibility that your members will ADD her site in their entertainment repertoire rather than REPLACE your site with hers.

You’re never going to make the bulk of your income from your site through affiliate marketing. And why would you? You’re working hard at creating your own brand, your own name, with your own content.  Why send people away? Instead, make sure that the affiliate programs that you endorse and promote is in addition to what you’re selling. Let them be the cherry on the sundae…but make sure that you’re still the sundae.

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