Great topic, Dave.
We constantly get approached by affiliates who are looking for the “right” operator to promote to their traffic. Often times, when we make a suggestion, the affiliate immediately comes back with “why would I promote X when Y is giving me a much higher revshare?”. Now, as a master-affiliate, our job is to make the best possible recommendations to our sub-affiliates because if they get shaved, so do we. We’d rather make less % but make the real amount forever versus a higher % which either gets shaved or the brand just decides to renegotiate the deal later.
I personally would much rather work on a lower % with a program that I know is reputable and comes highly recommended versus taking more. You can’t build a business on hopes and dreams IMO, which are really what these unrealistically high rev shares end up being.