| davidd |
01-26-2004 04:27 AM |
Quote:
Originally posted by Kimmykim
HOW FUCKING FUNNY SOME PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE... ANYONE ELSE GUESS WHO THIS GUY IS BESIDES ME?
***********************************************
So anyway, at the end of the day, what have we learned from all these pages of thread?
I'm speaking strictly business...
The traditional pay per join on a recurring surfer membership doesn't work.
Fraud is ridiculous, surfers AND affiliates, and I'll wager a few bucks that before the end of the year the model is dead all the way around.
Surfers cancel, many times before they even log in. The ones that don't cancel that fast don't stay long, EVEN WITH ORIGINAL AND EXCLUSIVE CONTENT, in numbers that make the revenue model viable as it stands. The sites that do retain that well don't have enough members to compare with the huge affiliate program model, so let's not have a debate on how someone with 100 members can retain them for a year, they still don't make the money that someone doing 100 joins a day does.
Visa and Mastercard have had about enough with the entire business, that's obvious from the tighter and tighter restrictions they keep putting into place. The federal government is most likely going for some new regulations, one way or another from some rumors I hear as well.
Who was the big program that dumped pretty much all their affiliates recently? I don't see them out of business, just spending alot less time on fraud control and fighting chargebacks due to 'overmarketing' by overzealous resellers desperate to make a sale.
Oh well, enough ranting from me for the moment.
|
Hmmm, I have similar e-mails in my archives from 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and now 2004.
The resounding point that so few programs choose to resolve (especially the ones running cookie cutter scripts from the various script shillers) is the issue of affiliate fraud.
If the various programs got their affiliate fraud under control, provided what they are selling on the main pages, and brought their payouts in line instead of being the no-net leaders, these issues would be less of a factor.
As I have stated numerous times in other threads, it is the quality of the content and the customer support that makes the sales and keeps the recurring. This has been proven year over year. People are throwing out the keywords of 'reality sites' etc etc. Regardless of what it is, as long as the content is not the same over sold bullshit - the sites will sell and keep members. The sites selling is clearly shown by the sales numbers the ARS sites do. The people were sold on the tours, they got into the member's areas and they bailed. Does that mean the business model sucks? No. The marketing was good, the internals of the site's suck, and to a lesser extent possible sticker shock for what was presented to them.
This post was not directed at ARS, it was in response to the e-mail Kimmy posted. I have known Mark for quite sometime and I will be interested to see what direction they go in... hopefully not some choke and puke $10 per site fantasy.
-dd
Lastly, as for the fear and uncertainty in that e-mail, will you people stop living your lives in fear and focus on living. I meet way too many people who think the boogie man is right behind them. Caution - Good. Paranoia - Bad. |
