Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I have to be honest...I have spoke to a lot of program owners, face to face and man to man. I've even looked at a few peoples NATS with them. I have not found one big mega paysite program owner who is "seeing more profits, sales, etc. than ever" Not one.
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Well the GFY has a lot of people telling stories, a few that posted stats too. And I know Duke Dollars is rockin it.. the man posted it himself, record year several months so far and I will proudly confirm it.
I know people kicking ass today, often don't admit it because our industry is the copy freaks of the Internet. If you come up with a half ass decent niche and someone gets wind of it... it's copied 10 times over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I've seen a lot of people doing marketing and hoping that there is a big whale out here that might read them claiming that and become their affiliate and save the day.
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I would say to these people.... Stop looking for affiliates and start looking for people with credit cards. Things change... this has changed too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
But TheDoc, I have to tell you...those big guys are in trouble. I have watched with my own eyes what has happened. As an affiliate, it started for me in the second half of 2006. Coincidentally right about the time that tubes and torrents first started to grow.
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You had a hell of a run... the problem was you quit building. One or a handful of properties won't last forever, at least not with out more being built to support it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
Alexa doesn't show back far enough to tell the real tale. But I watched my traffic fall from a little over one million uniques a day down to the 600,000 uniques a day range within a couple of months in the last part of 2006.
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How many new sites have you created to support this major site?
Have you opened yourself up to social networks in a large way, and used them to feed your other social network/bookmark sites, and reached out to your Visitors to build a relationship with them?
You stated on a trend.. did you follow the along or stop?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
It didn't bother me because I was still making over a million dollars a year just on affiliate sales.
By the end of 2007 it was in complete free fall and the tubes and torrents were taking over.
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Torrents were going far before 2007 along with piracy... which was just as big if not bigger, it was for sure in the media more before 2006.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
And then near the end of 2008, the rebills stopped as people just quit spending money (economy + everything free)
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Everything free isn't what's doing it.. eco is a bitch, but people still have money. The question is, are you reaching new people or the same old people?
And credit card fraud, hundreds of millions of card cancels, super hurricanes and massive floods, fires, and natural disasters, fires in eu.. talking what, a few 100 million people at least, displaced?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
If I were still an affiliate only I would be in the poor house.
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Agreed 1000 times over... same here. Having your own product, at least one tiny thing, is key.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I'm sure that there are one or two exceptions to the rule for paysites...hell, I'm one of them, though I'm not "seeing more profits, sales, etc. than ever" but not losing ground either.
But I was KILLING it in Jan. of 2008 with the paysite. Making more money than I ever had with Claudia-Marie.com And good thing because my affiliate sales to other sites were dropping like those alexa graphs.
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Affiliates.. what is your ratio of affiliate sales vs. internal sales?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I have busted ass and monetized things to the point where I am still kicking it. But this bullshit has set me back hard. I'm nowhere near the revenue that I should have been at by now.
And many of the big programs that keep this business alive have watched their profits drop to the point that they can no longer sustain the large number of people working for them. Content producers are going down, many companies that were shooting 3 to 4 scenes a day/ 5 days a week are no longer shooting.
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Way back in the day we had CE, Xpics, Intergal and even Maxcash.. to TCG, Python and so on.. The leaders of our Industry have continually fallen. Some get up, others don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
I'm really at a loss to see how or why you think that everything is just peachy.
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Because if one program can do 500 sales a day and you are bitching that you can't get your sales up.. well it means, you are doing something wrong.. not that someone is taking something away from you.
I also know for a fact people still spend money, in America and all over the world.. Just because the trends changed and the money moved, doesn't mean it's dead, bad or dieing...
Everything is more than peachy.. it's super green.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
This is kinda reminding me of that "Baghdad Bob" guy. "Everything is fine"
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Not sure who that is.. I don't get on the TV much, too busy following trends
