Getting Partner Accounts
It wasn’t too long ago that just about every TGP and link list site out there let anyone submit a site or gallery to them. The site owners would then wade through all the submissions and decide which ones they wanted to list. Soon these site owners came under siege by cheaters who would submit dozens of duplicate galleries a day, galleries that they would take down and redirect once listed or would add pop-ups. It seemed that there was no end to the ways people would cheat and site owners would spend hours each day trying to find the good submissions from honest webmasters and listing them. Today, to help avoid that, many sites have gone to a partner system. There are two basic types of partnerships out there: paid and free. This article with describe the basic differences and give some ideas on how to get partnership accounts and maximize your traffic.
FREE PARTNERSHIPS
Many sites offer free partnerships with webmasters. Most have some type of an application you have to fill out with your information and some samples of your sites/galleries. This gives the site owner a chance to see your work and judge whether or not they would want to list a site/gallery like yours. These partner accounts help them keep track of who submits what to them so if someone cheats they can be easily caught and blacklisted.
Getting a free partner account can be easy or very hard. Some of them are simple. You fill out their form, send them some samples and they get back to you with an account. Others aren’t so easy. There are some out there that are by invite only. You have to submit sites to them and then over time you earn their trust and they offer you a partner account. I have even seen a few where you get points for every good gallery you send them and when you accumulate enough points they offer you a partner account. In the end getting a free partner account is basically a trust issue. You have to prove to the site owner that you are an honest, trustworthy webmaster and that you make good sites/galleries.
A few notes of advice. If you are turned down for a partnership with a site don’t send them an angry email complaining about it. Chances are this site owner knows other site owners and your name can float around. Getting a bad reputation will not help you. I would suggest simply email them and politely ask why they turned you down. It could be that they are not taking any more partners on right now, it could also be something simple that, once you fix, they accept you. Building a relationship with site owners is the key and if you get a good reputation and act like a pro people will treat you with respect.
PAID PARTNERSHIPS
These are pretty much what you would expect them to be. You pay a fee and for that you get a partner account and can submit to a site. There are some sites that will guarantee that you get listed when you buy a partner account. There are others that will not guarantee anything. Some will tell you that your partner account will basically just move you to the top of the list and you will get personal service. If they decline a gallery they will tell you why they did so. This can be good information because it will teach you what they are looking for and help you to build galleries/sites that are more suitable for them and you will get listed more often.
Most of the paid partnerships out there are with bigger sites. Some of them charge upwards of $75+ a month so buying these things can be a two edged sword. On one hand you will have a partner account with a high traffic site, on the other hand you can spend a lot of money buying these partnerships with no guarantees of getting listed and if you do get listed you may not make you money back. You can easily spend $2000-$3000 a month on partnerships if you buy a lot of them. If you don’t know what you are doing and don’t have good galleries/sites you can find yourself losing money rapidly.
My advice is to do a few things. First, if you are new to the game get free partner accounts and work hard to perfect your sites/galleries with that traffic. When you are ready to graduate up to paid accounts study the sites, read their rules and decide who would be the best fit for you. Then email the site owner and ask them some basic questions like how big their backlog is, if they reject a gallery will they tell you why and what percentage of galleries submitted usually get listed. This does two things for you. First, it gives you some information to use when making your decision on which accounts to buy. Second, it introduces you to the site owners. When they see your name on the submitted gallery list they will recognize it and, if you made a good impression and they like you, they will be more open to listing you.
When you are ready to buy I would suggest only buying a couple of partnership and giving them a try. You can then see for yourself how often you get listed, how good the listings are and if the traffic converts with your galleries/sites. Then try a couple more. Over the course of several months you can experiment and put together a nice list of sites you want to keep buying partnerships for while finding out who you don’t what to stay with.
USE THEM BOTH
In the end you can use both paid and free partner accounts to maximize your traffic and your income. It takes a little patience and some hard work. Like anything in life it won’t come easy, but if you are professional and stick to it you can find yourself making some nice money with your partner accounts.
Reader Comments: (1 posts)
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Kaylan says: Now I'm like, well duh! Truly tahnkufl for your help. |
December 10th, 2011 at 12:00am EST Rating:  |
