Originally Posted by jayeff

How am I selling my site and monetizing it?

I think you tend to forget that most sites present their content as part of the overall graphic design, using text and impulse triggers to close their sales. And although affiliates may talk about filtering traffic, paysite operators are usually happy to get whatever they can: they have consoles etc to take advantage of surfers who do not like what they see. The sales made, most sponsors anticipate that members are unlikely to stay more than a month or two, so they work hard to cross-sell and up-sell.

Specific aspects of the content are almost irrelevant in that context and were it not for the site operators who believe they can improve on this business model by adding elements from what you might call - for want of a better word - the "quality" model, general content prices would likely be depressed even further.

Your message is relevant to sites which rely primarily on large volumes and regular updates of good, but basically run-of-the mill content to attract and retain members. But it ignores the sites which have built their success on having distinctive styles to set them apart from the herd. Were I to run a paysite again, that is where I would aim and the main reason I never did so is because it is so hard to find an uncommitted photographer in our field whose material really makes you sit up and take notice.