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Well that was a heart-starter I didn't need this morning. No one likes to have their bank ring them and tell them that a large check from a sponsor has just bounced. Not only does it tend to leave a large hole in your balance but it also tends to destroy your credibility with the bank if they've been prepared to do you some favors in the past.

Oh well ... that's now been sorted out and the sponsor has replaced the check with cash in my account but it tends to spoil the color of your day when things like that happen. The problem came about because of the date on the check and that might sound rather odd to people in the United States but overseas countries write their dates differently and the dates on American checks can always cause confusion.

The falling United States dollar continues to add further hassles for overseas webmasters as we take one pay cut after another every time the US dollar falls against other currencies. Even people in places like the Philippines are finding that the exchange rate is starting to make serious inroads into their profits.

One occasional customer of ours from the United States also felt the pain of the falling US dollar when he asked us to do some more work for him and reminded me of what I had last charged him ... way back in May. I politely reminded him that the exchange rate had changed a lot since then and my price for what he wanted was now double what he had paid in May.

If you're just an ordinary affiliate and you're suffering because of the changes in the US dollar then perhaps it's time to think of ways of increasing your sales to help make up for the slide in your income.

Of course increasing your sales is easier said than done. You can work to get more traffic to your sites in the hope that more traffic will mean more sales. You can try to work harder and produce more sites and galleries than you have in the past. But the chances are that you're already working to your limit and more traffic isn't really going to translate into more sales. So what can you do?

Well perhaps one way to achieve more sales is to look for something different to offer your surfers. Look for something that is really way out there and will attract signups simply because it is so very different.

I don't necessarily mean that you have to go looking for something that is in a completely different niche to what you have been working with ... although you can do that if you want to. What I mean is that you should go looking for something that is totally different but that fits into the niches that you're already promoting.

An example of what I'm thinking of can be found in the interracial niche. Let's face it, if you've seen one interracial site then you've pretty much seen them all and your surfers know that. But what if you could show them an interracial site that's very different? What if you could show them an interracial site that delivers some of the nastiest hardcore action you will see but does so with a totally different approach to any of the other interracial sites that are out there?

If you don't think that there's a site like that out there then wander over to Dark Cavern and check it out. The tour looks different. The way the hardcore action is presented looks different. The interaction between the site and its members looks different.

Whether it is or not is something that I really don't know but the tour sure does look a whole lot different.

If you don't work the interracial niche then don't despair ... there are literally thousands of paysites out there so go out and start searching for ones that are completely different in the niches that you normally promote. You may not find one in every niche but the chances are that there are very different sites out there just waiting for you to come along and find them.

Of course you're going to have to look beyond the major sponsors and start trawling through some of the smaller sponsors to find what you want but that's no reason not to go looking. I understand why some affiliates only want to deal with the major sponsors but when times get tough it's the affiliates who like to be a little adventurous who will make the money.

Those who want to stick with the major sponsors will be the ones that have to deal with slow sales, over-exposed sites and small checks.

So what would you rather do ... offer your surfers something different in the niches you're already promoting ... or stick with promoting the sites that everyone has seen over and over again?

I know which ones your bank manager would want you to promote.