GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - How to structure pricing and referral %s?

gothweb · 06-30-2002, 02:24 PM

I have been here for just a few days, but I recenty saw a post on a topic that got me thinking. The issue is pricing levels and how much of a payout to offer. My basic question is what we should charge for membership, and how much we should offer referrers. I guess I should start with some background.

My two sites are both based wholly on original content, made by me, with only occasional guests for cross-promotion. We are positioned mostly in the "personal artistic erotica" area, something starting to do well, but we're still finding our feet. These aren't sites with tons of traffic, licensed content, and so forth. We don't offer outside video feeds and pics, as most of our customers associate those features with annoying "corporate porn" sites.

We currently offer only 25% as a base rate for our referral program. I gather that most people on GFY are in markets where much higher rates are expected. However, referral traffic is a bit different in our area, I think. Most partners are people with related sites who would link us anyhow, so a high rate could be tough on us. Rather than feature a high rate, we offer to up the rate if people are interested in sending good traffic to make money off of our referral program.

So, my first question is: What should our referral rate be? Will raising it make a difference, if it isn't the sort of site where the referral program catches a lot of outside webmaster attention?

That leads into pricing. The more we offer partners, the more we need to charge. Right now, our standard monthly price for both sites is $16.95, with sales and multi-month memberships costing less, etc. We do not offer a trial, and don't intend to. My worry is that if we charge more, we price ourselves out of the market, as we compete with individual amateur sites, and other personal erotica sites, that charge $15-20 most of the time.

Then again, I see so many sites charging $39.95 or whatever per month. So I am curious what this sort of rate would do to our sales... The sites make just enough to live on, so I'm wary of risking a month's food-money to try out anything drastic.

Any thoughts on pricing and referral payout for sites like ours?

The urls for the sites, if anyone wants to look for more detail, are...
http://www.blood-dolls.com/
and
http://www.gothicamateur.com

--Ian X.

06-30-2002, 02:24 PM
gothweb Confirmed User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Back in the USSA Posts: 8,849	How to structure pricing and referral %s? I have been here for just a few days, but I recenty saw a post on a topic that got me thinking. The issue is pricing levels and how much of a payout to offer. My basic question is what we should charge for membership, and how much we should offer referrers. I guess I should start with some background. My two sites are both based wholly on original content, made by me, with only occasional guests for cross-promotion. We are positioned mostly in the "personal artistic erotica" area, something starting to do well, but we're still finding our feet. These aren't sites with tons of traffic, licensed content, and so forth. We don't offer outside video feeds and pics, as most of our customers associate those features with annoying "corporate porn" sites. We currently offer only 25% as a base rate for our referral program. I gather that most people on GFY are in markets where much higher rates are expected. However, referral traffic is a bit different in our area, I think. Most partners are people with related sites who would link us anyhow, so a high rate could be tough on us. Rather than feature a high rate, we offer to up the rate if people are interested in sending good traffic to make money off of our referral program. So, my first question is: What should our referral rate be? Will raising it make a difference, if it isn't the sort of site where the referral program catches a lot of outside webmaster attention? That leads into pricing. The more we offer partners, the more we need to charge. Right now, our standard monthly price for both sites is $16.95, with sales and multi-month memberships costing less, etc. We do not offer a trial, and don't intend to. My worry is that if we charge more, we price ourselves out of the market, as we compete with individual amateur sites, and other personal erotica sites, that charge $15-20 most of the time. Then again, I see so many sites charging $39.95 or whatever per month. So I am curious what this sort of rate would do to our sales... The sites make just enough to live on, so I'm wary of risking a month's food-money to try out anything drastic. Any thoughts on pricing and referral payout for sites like ours? The urls for the sites, if anyone wants to look for more detail, are... http://www.blood-dolls.com/ and http://www.gothicamateur.com --Ian X.