“We’re not interested in remaining an affiliate network,” — an interview with Traforce CEO Anna

Traforce is an affiliate network in the dating vertical that helps webmasters and teams build a systematic approach to managing traffic. The team places great emphasis on traffic quality, analytics, and a long-term approach to business development.

In this interview, Traforce CEO Anna discusses how the company has changed in recent years and where Traforce plans to go from here.

TRAFORCE hasn’t been in the media spotlight for nearly four years. The last interview with the company’s co-owner, Oleg Shaporenko, was in 2022. Why did you decide to return right now?

Actually, we never really went away. All this time, we’ve been actively working as an affiliate network and have remained present in the dating community. In fact, we were the ones building it 😉

(Note: In 2024, the team launched a separate project, Dating Traffic Experts—a community for specialists and webmasters in dating affiliate marketing, featuring its own events and a subscription-based private club; Anna serves as the project manager.)

Now we’re stepping into the public eye not just with news, but with a clear understanding of what we can offer the market and how we envision TRAFORCE’s future.

You’ve been with the company for over four years, but today you’re serving as CEO. Tell us, how did this transition happen?

For almost a year before this, we operated under a board of directors structure. It was important for the company’s owners not just to delegate authority, but to build a strong management team, so they approached this systematically: a competency matrix, an assessment of strengths, and many honest conversations.

Today, all processes, decisions, and business development fall under the responsibility of the CEO and COO (my work bestie). TRAFORCE’s key executives are people who have grown alongside the company, share its values, and hold their positions not because of the number of years of experience, but because of the value they can bring to the business.

This has allowed us to build a more independent management model. And to make decisions faster, to be honest 🙂

You recently conducted a large-scale survey among partners and even in-depth research through one-on-one meetings with you as CEO. What insights from this feedback were most important to you?

What struck me most was that our internal vision of the company closely aligned with how our affiliates see us.

At our last company party, we asked the team to write down a few associations they had with TRAFORCE that stuck with them. Some of those words are the very same ones we’ve now heard from our partners: stability, reliability, growth, and opportunities. In such a dynamic industry, that’s one of the most valuable compliments you can receive.

However, I’m always open to criticism, feedback, or tough questions. DM me, even if we’re not currently working together 🙂

From the very beginning, you’ve talked about how dating and affiliate marketing need to become more mature businesses. Would you say that the market has finally caught up with the ideas you’ve been promoting?

The market is gradually evolving, but I wouldn’t call it fully mature just yet.

First, the products themselves are changing. Challenges with payment processing, stricter regulatory requirements, and a general focus on the quality of the user experience are forcing businesses to build more transparent and long-term business models. Operating dishonestly is becoming not only risky but also economically unprofitable (and out of fashion).

Second, the market has become significantly more competitive. The days when a lack of processes or knowledge could be offset by high margins are over.

The attitude of market participants themselves toward their businesses has also changed significantly. We’re seeing more and more teams building organizational structures, implementing financial planning, automation, and internal processes.

I don’t think this process is complete. The market is still maturing. We’re happy to influence this and be part of these changes, particularly in the dating vertical.

What role does Traforce want to play in the new ecosystem: a market participant or one of the rule-makers?

Traforce has always, to some extent, “imposed” its views on the market. For many, these topics weren’t a priority, but it’s important for us not just to follow trends, but to shape the discussion around them. Knowledge should contribute to the industry’s development, not remain confined within the company; that’s why we’ve demonstrated through our own example:

• how to effectively work with free traffic—after all, TRAFORCE was the first to start accepting webmasters with no experience and training them, and we’ve been working fruitfully with a large portion of these partners for 3–5 years now
• the importance of understanding unit economics and studying the products you work with
• how to generate passive income from revenue share over the years (we’ve been developing our product in this niche for over 10 years and have experience working with clients who spend over $20k+ per year)

We definitely won’t change direction and will only become bolder in our actions and goals.

Do you still see yourselves exclusively as a CPA network?

Today, we view ourselves in a broader context. Trafors has built a professional community around itself, featuring events, a subscription-based private community, the largest affiliate chat group focused on dating (over 6,000 organic members without any paid advertising), In-house mainstream and hybrid products.

We never wanted to be just an intermediary between the product and the traffic. Our value lies in understanding the entire system: from the quality of user acquisition to how that user impacts the product’s business metrics.

And now, we’re increasingly advising and helping companies not just to find affiliates, but to build a full-fledged, turnkey affiliate program. From product reviews and unit economics calculations to working with partners and managing traffic acquisition.

What’s the most important thing for the company’s growth right now?

Without infrastructure, further scaling is simply impossible. Right now, we’re focused on two areas:

1. Developing a CRM system. In fact, the most challenging part turned out to be not developing the technical solution, but standardizing processes. We deliberately avoided automating the chaos and instead established the approaches we want to build on for years to come. We spent a long time documenting, reviewing, and optimizing them, and only then did we begin to implement everything into the product.

As soon as I can, I’ll definitely share the case study and our experience. And no, we’re not selling it, as you might have thought 🙂

2. At the same time, we’re developing a support chatbot that will help make communication with partners even faster and more convenient, structure our knowledge base, and gradually reduce the number of manual processes. We’re still at the very beginning of this journey, as we’ve completed literally 10% of what’s planned.

As for my personal focus right now, it’s marketing. I’m sure there are specialists reading this… Marketer, we’re looking for you!