-Mike

Yes, having affiliates, or “super affiliates” already signed up able to join might make winning a lot harder for noobs but there is no reason there can’t be tiered levels like many before. So even is some guy does 500k and wins the main prize, there could still be smaller prizes for those that break 1k and such.

As for the benefit of networks, they are giving away gifts to the big money makers anyway. But the real draw for networks, as far as your site and them wanting to sponsor, is that they may be able to draw some of those heavy/super affiliates over to run offers on their network instead of a competitor and while there have a chance to try to retain that affiliate for other stuff. In that case sponsoring a challenge and giving prizes to people who are already making money from affiliate marketing could be a great investment.

Look at it this way, they know sponsoring your contest that they have a chance at getting a new super affiliate but odds are a majority of them are going to be noobs who may never push traffic. If anyone is allowed to join, they have a chance to “wine and dine” some proven affiliates who may be looking for a new “home network” and use the competition and prizes as an excuse to try out said network. Just bringing one super affiliate over to their network would be worth sponsoring the whole challenge for months!

It may not seem like you would make as much that way since you can’t guarantee every affiliate is your referrals but the more open it is the more exposure it would get and the more free advertising it would get. And in turn, the more people that might join getting you referrals anyway. Then just make sure there are lower level prize tiers that the noobs can still compete for so everyone has a reason to take part.

It would be win-win-win

The only part that would be a bit trickier is tracking the earnings for affiliates not under you but I am pretty sure the networks that want to take part could figure something out for you.

Talk to your own reps and ask them what they think .

It makes absolutely no sense for me to make the competitions open to anyone. I’d effectively be making other referrers money, not myself. It also wouldn’t benefit the networks much as the winners would most likely be affiliates who are already existing affiliates generating numbers with them.

For those who have already registerd to networks not under my account but still want to participate, that is why PublisherChallenge will run multiple compitions on multiple networks at once.

It’s understandable why you would want it to be only your referrals but networks may be even more interested if they knew they could get more exposure than just your own referrals.