OK you shot Aaron for not being specific so here goes.
Our turnover has climbed steadily from day one of launching
www.paulmarkham.com. We came from a sector of the porn industry that has to supply a quality product, so are able to supply that to the Internet.
Turnover has leveled off the last few months, but with all the Blowouts going on it's no wonder. It will come back.
As for dealing with idiots and cheap f*#~s, well there money is worth the same as the next guys, but they will not be around for long.
There are people who will buy purely on price and people who will supply it. But as a general rule a surfer signing up to a paysite for $30 a month wants quality, quantity and value for money. Treat him like an idiot, trick him or short change him and you run the risk of losing him or worse still getting him to charge back. Assume he has also been a member of 3-4 sites already and is educated to what is around.
Custom, I can afford to buy custom from shooters to resell on my site, problem is few know how to shoot it. Look at the prices of custom sets at the lower end, $150 or less for a solo girl set.
That is under 5 sales at $35, any set that does not sell 5 times is garbage. Anyone selling good custom for $150 and can sell direct is cheating himself. Try and get me to shoot for that price, our minimum is $300 a set.
Content Blowouts. How many of the companies that were having content blowouts becasue they were buying new equipment, studio, content, etc. have come back with new content? I said then it looked like a closing down sale for some and I'm waiting to be shown differently. As Aaron said the profit margins on content are awesome, cost $100 sales $500, anyone good who needs to sell off his inventory to raise money needs to rethink his approach. giving it to an outsider to take a cut is even more stupid, IMHO.
With the two sites,
www.bargainbasementcontent.com, we can see a clear picture of who buys what.
The regular buyers buy from
www.paulmarkham.com week inand week out. In fact before we have finished sending out the newsletter announcing new sets, we've taken orders sometimes for the all the new sets. They know the surfer is logging onto look at content, so supplying him with fresh and good stuff. Not stuff they can buy on price. The buyers at the other site tend to come in less reguarly and buy less. Maybe because they do not have as much money.
The surfer logs on to jerk off, he will always need good content to do this. Supply it and you will make money.