I got asked this question via PM, but I'd rather reply in public so everybody can benefit. The program link: https://pnp.bigfishgames.com/ Short answer: - I have just kind of given a push to the program, and it brings me $70ish per month (that's $1000) without me doing pretty much anything right now. - I think it's "okay program" compared to how little time I've spent to it, but I wouldn't be interested in putting more time into marketing it. I think there's better ways to bring revenue. To me it's like "additional income stream that brings some cash with little work". Longer story... I have used very little effort to promote the Big Fish Affiliate (PNP) program. I've written couple of blog entries, and that's pretty much it. A word of warning for those of think "that must be easy money!". You really gotta have the audience ready. My blog gets decent traffic (audience: game makers) so it was okay place to promote the program. If you don't have traffic: expect hard work to get it working for you. Right now I seem to be feeling quite the same that I did over a year ago: "Although if the system can give me additional $44 per month that’s still about $500 additional in a year." I reached the $1,000 mark couple of weeks ago... and think that compared to the time spent (very little, since I already had established audience) it's okay. The good thing about the program is that you get your money for every purchase: if anybody you referred buys again... you get money. There are some affiliates that have made tens of thousands of dollars using the program, but I believe those guys are doing really hard work (expect full-time and perhaps even some employees) to promote their sites. I think one of the top affiliates switched camp at some point: he stopped using the system. I don't know why, but I suppose the guy thought he could make more money with some other deal. So, if you have audience ready: then it's very little work to promote the program and get some cash. I wouldn't (and won't) put too much time into promoting it, but the program can be worth testing. I've promoted the system by writing some brief blog posts, and sometimes writing about a new casual game (example: Virtual Villagers article). My stats are (Mar 2007 - Jul 2008): Referred Contacts: 656 Extended Network: 1,135 (basically 2- or 3- tier referred contacts) Totals: $ 1,011.79
Hello! I was the one that sent the PM. I started working with the program but I see some things that still could be worked on and I wanted a non-biased opinion if it was worth to dedicate time to this affiliate program or not. Thank you very much for your detailed review. I would expect a larger revenue from what you achieved. But if you continue to receive a steady small amount in the next few months or years, well, it is good.
Well, to be honest: that's what I thought when I started using the program... and the funny thing is that is has stayed the same. I have put less amount of time to promote the program (I wrote couple of posts in the beginning... now I have done zero), yet it still keeps bringing me bit of a pocket money every month. That's why I have nothing especially bad to say about it... I got couple of more questions, and thought to answer here: Well, if you make them to subsribe to your newsletter then you can use that newsletter to advertise BFG program in the future. Would that work? Not sure what you mean... I have used banners to advertise the $6,99 offer they have. People won't click banners - but that's not a reason to blame banners. Instead you gotta use something that works (such as reviews, contests... and anything like that). BFG is pocket money to me... but I like getting all kinds of money in my pockets Good luck with it.
They should really have a signup system in the ready made sites. Those banners they include don't replace it, because visitors don't know if they are regular advertisements, even for a different company. Many won't understand that they should signup first for an account at bigfishgames.com so that they can play a game downloaded at xyz.com (the affiliate site you download). Yes, we can add text and explain that in each page, because if a person comes from a search engine they may not even see your homepage, but in my opinion there should be an easier way for people to signup. Always keep things simple is my opinion. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I have got 0 Referred Contacts after 1 1/2 months from integrating the bigfishgames system into http://gr8g.com which has got a decent amount of traffic for free online games (300+ a day) Do you guys suppose that all my visitors are just someone else's Referred Contacts ? or is it the wrong audience to advertise it to ? Any tips would be appreciated.
What do you mean game producer ? The downloadable games is an inner section click on the "download games" on top and it takes you to http://gr8g.com/download/ where you can click on the games and download them There is a signup on that page actually (is that signup that you were looking for ?)
Ah... I didn't even realize it was a click able link Maybe that's the problem... it doesn't look like a link. Not sure... but perhaps adding daily hit game's pic to the front page could help.
Maybe that is indeed the problem I never realized (I actually don't have many people visiting the download section) Anyway thanks for taking the time to look into it.
As Game producer said they got to buy something but, if they download something with your affiliate link they are automatically part of your network and any time they buy something you get a percentage of what they spend (at least that is what I think happens)
if someone download a bigfish game trial from my site, then a week or two later decide to buy it, will that count as a sale for me, or would bigfish games take all the money? and what would happend if the person downloading the game was already a member of the network, would I get 0 for that game sold?
You need to check out their program details to get answer to that question, but I think it would mean sale for you. Not sure I would bet 0... but not sure.
cool, thanks for the reply Game Producer. Now if you happend to know what a "ghosted" contact mean in their system that would just make my day!
I'll just have to keep looking, thanks I'm hoping to bring some of they dollars to my account as well one thing I have to mention about their program: Their customer support is damn slow, so don't expect to get any answers right away. I've sent them three mails using the contact support form: 1st one about 2 months ago 2nd 3 days ago 3rd today And I haven't recieved any answer yet. Jan
Try asking at indiegamer.com - there you could get some answers... (there's plenty of BFG people on those boards)