Are people trying to screw me or does my program just suck?

[pick247]

First, I'm new to the affiliate marketing world (and, obviously, WickedFire). I'm launching a sweepstakes site with a few friends and it seems to be a good fit for affiliate marketing.

I've tried to recruit OPMs to manage our program. When I first talk to them, they seem open to a rev share. When I pitch the program, they tell me that they want a big up-front retainer. This seems highly suspect. And by "highly suspect", it means I think they are trying to fuck me over.

So what am I doing wrong? Does my program suck, or am I just talking to scammy OPMs?

The details of my program are posted below WITHOUT LINKS OR A SITE NAME. The thing doesn't launch for months, so it's not like I'm here fishing for affiliates. I actually want the honest truth of whether any affiliates would jump on it, and if not, how I can fix it.

<Company> is a new type of online sweepstakes offering members the ability to enter hourly sweepstakes for free. Unlike other sweepstakes sites, the odds and prizes on <Company> are reasonable -- no "one in a trillion chance to win $10 million" or anything like that.

<Company> members also have the ability to upgrade to premium membership, which automatically enters them in to every drawing. Premium membership is $12/mo, and that can be paid in a number of ways, including normal payment mechanisms or by filling out surveys and offers from our partners. Ultimately, it is difficult for most non-premium members to enter a significant number of drawings due to their frequency and rules around entering, which generates premium membership buys.

Affiliates earn a recurring commission when when their referrals to <Company> upgrade to premium membership. We can budget 20% from the monthly fee (recurring, so $2.40 / month / premium member) to go toward affiliate marketing. Cookie length is 1 year and payouts to affiliates are monthly.

It will be managed via ClixGalore. We're not dealing with any parasites or crap like that.

Thanks.

 

[Drake]

How are you finding the OPMs? Are you emailing the best in the industry or are you just posting on Craigslist?

I would just talk to the best OPMs and see what they think of your program.

And sweepstakes just screams scam so most people wont touch it.

You have a serious legitimacy problem. You need to be working on fixing that in all your correspondence.

 

[pick247]

Thanks for the feedback, Drake. Our industry definitely gives us some hoops to jump through... scammy sweeps are a dime a dozen.

I've been trying to contact legit OPMs, but it's tough to know who is really the best.