Quote:
Originally Posted by salesman
stupid question
it depends ....
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No stupid reaction and blinkered.
What it very clearly shows is the position of the industry, where we are thinking and what we actually do.
Think more about it.
To all
The clear picture coming through is, starting a site is not expensive or hard. In fact it can be done for very little. Two very experienced guys have just pitched in with $5,000 to $10,000 and $8,500 approx.
Looking at the opening of a business or business extension as a 12 month investment this breaks down to a figure of $420 to $820 a month. Yes to open a site and be a site owner you need to be able to sign up 16 to 32 $30 members a month.
I understand the argument that this will direct converting traffic away from an existing sponsor. However this can be countered by the upsells and cross sells on the paysite. Remember I asked "How much does a "Paysite" cost?" not how much does a sponsor program cost. Because the moment you do that you will lose 60% on all affiliate sign ups and as someone pointed out for many it's more trouble than it's worth.
Plus you might find it tough with $5,000 worth of content to impress potential affiliates.
The benefits of running the site with affiliates traffic are well stated and for big programs it's excellent. But you will need slightly more than $5,000 worth of content.Plus support, hosting, banners, FHGs, affiliate programs even CCBILL costs in their high processing costs and lack of flexibility in cascading. And lets not forget the cost of finding affiliates who will send traffic.
But for the smaller guy well I think it depends on who the smaller guy is and his skills. Not an area for newbies.
The business is evolving and from the threads I see under threat from Torrent and free sites giving away everything. Running your own site gives you the flexibility to run it as you see fit and not as affiliates want. The flexibility to drop the price if the market dictates, to break it up into small mini sites, to go PPV and many others that will become clear in the future.
Of course those without $5,000 to invest or could not get half a sign up a day to the site are stuffed. But that's the real business world. no doubt they will all jump in to flame me. Plus the sponsors who are scared their good affiliates might think of becoming a site owner.
Thanks for the guys who contributed. Anymore thoughts?