Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Revisiting The Adult Affiliate Marketing Niche With Ricky Ahuja

Posted: 30 Jul 2015 02:22 PM PDT

Ricky Ahuja, AKA the Turbanator, from clicksyndicate.com has been a mainstay at all affiliate marketing conferences I have ever been to. If you have ever been to an Affiliate Summit I am sure you recognize him. He is a great dude.

Riki is the head dude for Click Syndicate one of the largest adult affiliate networks on the planet. I recently was talking with him on Skype and asked if he would mind doing an interview about the affiliate marketing space as it pertains to the adult niche in today’s world.

Since the inception of Affiliate Marketing (No Zappos you did not invent it) – the adult industry has always been innovating new ways of promotion. Unlike a lot of mainstream verticals the adult niche has always been very restricted on advertising plus its even harder now that the internet is saturated with free porn “tube” websites (so I have heard anyway)…

Here is my full interview with Ricky:

How did you get started in affiliate marketing?

Hey Jeremy – let me start off by saying Thank you for having me on here. You are a legend in the industry and I am honored to be a part of this.

Now, I have been in the space dating back to early 2000 when I launched an extremely successful program on CJ for ethnic foods and phone cards catering to the Indian, Chinese and Mexican market. I have never looked back since.

When did you start your affiliate network?
So the company has actually been around for a few years under a different brand, Click Syndicate the network formally launched and opened its doors in 2013. Our flagship offer and claim to fame was Pandora’s Box and our focus on VSLs (Video Sales Letters). They are downright hilarious and extremely effective.

How long have you been in the affiliate network part of the adult industry?

My entry into the “adult” industry dates back to 2013 when I joined Click Syndicate. I put quotes around “adult” in that though we are positioned as an adult network, there is a lot of psychology that goes into the building of our offers as we take more of a coaching approach rather than a free for all dating pool. We literally teach how to pick up women and from our testimonials, they seem quite pleased with the results.

What is it like to work in the adult space compared to the.. I guess you would call it the non-adult space.

I am astonished at how many affiliates are active in the space and more importantly how much money they are minting in the space. Being a in-house sale based product, the amount of fraud is significantly lower than your typical lead gen network and because of this, we are able to pay our pubs a lot quicker. We are in such a niche industry and at the forefront of the types of products we promote, our AMs absolutely love dealing with their affiliates and make a ton of money doing it.

Its funny almost all the affiliates I know started with adult affiliate marketing. Including myself with adult friend finder, although I was not very successful back then (it’s been over a decade), do you find that is pretty common?

Surprisingly enough a lot of the affiliates and networks I have dealt with over the years do extremely well in the space. Most keep the offers on private or run their own traffic to it and once they get enough data – they are able to optimize and scale their traffic to easily earn $xx,xxx.xx a day.

With all the free content out there on the tube sites is there still money to be made on the pay sites?

Absolutely. Members area traffic converts extremely well for our affiliates as well as purchasing media on these premium sites. Our Pandora’s Box offer works extremely well on this kind of media, not to mention Dominant Sexual Power as well as Relationship Rewind (this one especially if you have a female traffic).

As an adult affiliate network how competitive is it?

Though the space itself is competitive – our creative staff who comes up with the content, copy and material for the VSLs absolutely rocks. Many others have tried to copy what we have but at the end of the day – they can not compete with our resources, ability to move quickly and just downright execute.

What is the payment structure like percentage wise for affiliates from the networks? CPA? CPM? CPC? Life time percentage?

Our offers are all CPA based – straight sale to be precise with optional rebill and continuity. This enables us to pay the affiliates higher amounts and quicker. What else can they ask for?

Where do adult affiliates advertise in general? Its not like you can do it through Facebook or Google.

Each of our offers work best with different types of traffic and media but advertising can be had on tube sites, content sites, ad networks, mailing lists and it goes on an on. If anyone reading this post is interested in getting into this vertical, please do not hesitate to reach out, ricky@clicksyndicate.com or follow me on Facebook: facebook.com/rickyahuja or on Twitter: twitter.com/rickyahuja.

What would you estimate the “super affiliates” make per month in the adult industry? What does an average affiliate make per month in the adult industry?

It is all relative – but I have pubs easily making 6 figures a month while the average affiliate may make a few grand, it all depends on what they want and how much they are able to scale.

What is the most creative way you have seen an affiliate drive traffic to an adult affiliate offer?

Each and every affiliate looks for an “angle” and without being able to go into the specifics, some take the coaching approach, some take the “how nerds can get laid” approach, while others just flood the market with media and then figure out what works and what doesn’t and then scale and adjust accordingly.

What is surprising to me, and not to sound sexiest, and maybe I am wrong, but in general the ratio of women affiliate marketers to men is maybe 1 in 100? In the adult affiliate industry do you see the same as far as affiliates? Also keeping on that same subject and a bit away from affiliate marketing in general – Most of the women involved in the adult space (business wise not like actresses), not necessarily affiliates but work in the space, are not only beautiful but extremely intelligent and not just a pretty face to promote the network. What is your take on that?

Surprisingly enough – there are quite a few women in the space and they are really good at it. They have a distinct advantage in that they can play on the psychology of their followers/members and can speak from a woman’s perspective on how best to impress women and get them in the sack. To their followers, these words are golden and when these women or “coaches” pitch a product – their subscribers are sure to take action.
Do you like being associated with the adult industry in general?

Like American Express – “It has its privileges ” – I will leave it at that.