50 interviews with Cybercat....

Is there any particular reason why CyberCat didn't expand it's TGP portfolio in the past few years to some of the other large TGPs that didn't have a advertising broker?

Do you want to buy ....... ThePornProfessor.com

lol

.........

no kidding :thumbsup

interesting read

:)

Off topic because it's not adult related but curious:

Do you suffer any chronic body pains as a result of your days as a stunt man. Have all the broken bones and shredded muscle tissue caused you discomfot in the years after? I remember somebody telling me Evil Kenievel (sp?) and people like him usually wind up in all sorts of pain in their latter years because of what their body has gone thru. If you do, do you have any regrets about being a stunt man?

*bump* for more questions harrasing CyberCat :D

Mark,

You are a marketing company with alot of potential clients on GFY and you have a total of 8 posts. That is definitely not representing your clients. You've got JJJ, Worldsex and Al4a that are not sold out and yet you have absolutely no board presence trying to sell them out. I've never heard of or seen Cybercat go out and recruit business for their clients. So tell me how do you justify to Pierre and J taking a 30% or 20% commission for selling spots to webmasters they send to you? If i were those guys I would want to know the answer to that question. I know you can sit back and drive around in your nice cars while the hun sells itself out. But what about your other clients? Do you care about your other clients or are you riding the Hun into your retirement? Personally I think it would benefit your NON Hun clients greatly is you had a better presence on the boards and tried to actively get them more business.


I know you claim you have no competition but you know that is absolutey FALSE. Everybody has competition. Competition is healthy. Claiming you have no competition is claiming you believe you are a monopoly. The only monopoly you have is selling for the hun. Is that how you define your business? As a company selling for the hun? I thought Cybercat was a middleman that sold gallery spots and advertising for tgps. How is that different from what GTS is doing? The only difference I see is that GTS actively tries to sell out their clients. I know GTS works hard to have fairly priced spots and to try to get as much business as possible for their clients. I don't ever see cybercat doing that and i personally find alot of the NON hun spots cybercat sells are overpriced. I'm not sure what the cybercat pricing formula is but it definitely isn't one based on supply and demand. I don't know the exact prices because your website doesn't even list the prices or the spots for sale. I'm not sure if you guys like to keep things a secret but webmasters don't like to waste time. We are impatient. We are gifted by making alot of money and want everything done as fast as possible. As a gallery buyer i want to know what spots are available and at what cost. At that point it's one email to submit the order and then BAM done. The way you do it now it takes 3 to 5 emails back and forth and waiting around before business gets rolling. As a gallery buyer that is too much time and I'm sure it's costing your clients and yourself money.

Those were just a few things off the top of my head. I'm not attacking you. I'm just asking you questions based on your answers and on how you do business. If it's an real ambush interview it can't hurt to ask you some real questions. Not only the ass kissing questions Sleazy fed you.

I agree so much on Shaps post

I agree with Shap.

Another thing is how it's bloody impossible to get a SCHEDULED spot on the Hun anymore. It's always the same people that keep rebilling and having the spots on a daily basis with the same sponsors that the surfers have seen a million of times.

I don't understand why you can't give a fair place to all your clients. I've invested over $70,000 with Cybercat in 2001-2002 and now I get listed once in a while when someone cancel his spot... because I stopped advertising with Cybercat for one year. I'm considered as a "reject" or something, even if I can provide 15-20 galleries upfront.

I think it would be fair if you rotate the advertising possibilities for ALL your clients. Not the 10% on the top that keep submitting the same Nastydollars galleries over and over since 3 years.

I also agree with Shap that GTS is way more concerned about the clients and the site owners. They care for both and upgrade the price by the demand. You should rise price on the Hun another 20-30% since it's sold out. This might eliminate nastydollars "middleman" submitters and give a real chance to unique and fresh advertisers. :winkwink:

sleazy i love this series of yours great work.

You're not making any sense.
The spots are sold on a first come first serve basis....with some people choosing to auto-renew their ad placements every month.
Get in line like everyone else and have your ads auto renew once you get in....it doesn't seem that difficult

I hear you Lenny. I actually have a complaint on this for both companies.

1. Cybercat doesn't even warn you that your spots are going to expire or that you have to renew. A few times I went to renew and i was told i had to wait 2 or 3 months to get listed again. I think once you buy the spot, the spot should be yours and a week before the renewal you should get an email saying you've got a week to pay for your renewal to keep your spots.

2. Gts auto renews which is great. The only problem is they wait too long before giving a heads up on renewal. I always seem to feel I get an email a day or 2 before the month is up that they need new galleries. I'd love a few extra days (note this is just how it seems to be. They may in fact be giving me more days notice and I'm not noticing.)

Both companies give 5-10 days advanced notice in my experience. That's good considering the fluid nature of buying/selling ad placements.

Mike33 5 days notice with Cybercat loses a hun spot for at least 2 months. You need to renew hun spots more than 3 weeks before the end if you don't want to lose it.

Hiya Shap.

If you have to renew 3 weeks before a 1 month campaign expires you should probably just get on auto-renew.
I can see how it would suck for a first time buyer who doesn't know if he's going to profit from the listings, but for the rest of us, you need to get in or get out IMO.

I agree it would be nice if Cybercat sent out renewal notices, but when it comes to the hun your spot was sold to someone else a month before your links ran in the first place.
So I can see how its easier for them to not have to rush out and try to sell a spot within a week because you declined to renew it.

As for GTS, yeah, I get the renewal notices and go "oh shit I've got 3 days to make 30 links" so a little more notice would be nice.

How did this post turn into a Cybercat V.S. GTS thread? LOL!

Where is the Rodney King "Why Can't We All Just Get Along" Picture when you need it? ;)

DH

BTW Shap, in reference to your post earlier about Cybercat not being aggressive enough trying to sell out the sites.

If the owners of these sites felt they were under represented wouldn't they just bring the advertising back in house or find someone else to represent them? That's the way the market works after all.

Good point and feedback Lenny, I will talk to my guys on Monday about extending that to say 5-7 days.

The only problem I forsee when you warn people so far ahead of time is that they will put off making more galleries because they figure they have a week left to get all the galleries done. Hence losing their spot because they forget to send us their stuff ;)

I'm open to any and all criticism, even if it's as minor as asking Magnus to change his cologne LOL!

DH

i have no complaints with cybercat.

So be really annoying like the domain registrars and send out a notice at 90, 60, 30, 15, 7, 3 and 1 days.
Then send a really annoying one out every 3 days afterwards to let them know their spot expired.....LOL

Sleazy I don't doubt that. I know Mark treats you like a king and so he should. You've done more for his business than anyone else without asking for a thing in return. :thumbsup

Lenny I don't want to drive my customers away! LOL! ;)

DH

Do McDonalds and Burger King use the same Ad Agency?

Now which one of us is Mcdonald's and which one is Burger King? I would prefer to be a taco bell ;)

DH

Hey DH i'd like to be the Weber's of paysites. Pick my niche and DOMINATE! :winkwink:

Ahhh Webers!! I love that place, I always look forward to heading up hwy 11 to Muskokas and stopping off there for a burger :)

DH

I know. Beth's told me all the stories. I've never had the pleasure of that Weber's but did enjoy the Weber's at the airport while they had it (it closed down), best airport food ever!

Is that some sort of veiled reference to how many big macs Sleazy eats?

:1orglaugh

I've got to take you to Superburger. God bless that place, it's up here in Orangeville.

Also another awesome burger joint I love is Apache Burger. It's in Etobicoke and well worth the drive!

DH

Are they open late? Ie after Hockey? Nothing like working out and then stuffing your face with burgers right before bed. :pimp

So how did we go from an ambush interview with Cybercat to debating advertising companies to Mcdonald's VS Burger King to discussing local canadian burger joints? This thread makes no sense LOL!! ;)

DH

Sleazy sure has slimmed down alot, you have to give him credit. My fat ass is going back to the gym this week, I have t minus 5 months till my wedding. I wish Sleazy would share with me his secrets to losing weight. Maybe Big Macs are the answer? LOL!

DH

I cheated and dragged my mouse over the text. White on blue is much easier to read. :winkwink:

DID SOMEBODY SAY WEBERS?

Hey DH and faithful Webers fans, did you know that the owner purchased that orange walkway overpass from the CNE years ago specifically for the people heading south on highway 11, to use? A few people were killed by Northbound traffic while trying to run accross #11 on Sunday nights just to grab a hammy and fries. Yes it's a fact. Sadly, people have DIED trying to acquire one of these AMAZING hamburgers.

If you EVER have the chance to stop in, I guarantee it will make your top 3 'best' hamburger list of all time. They are absolutely incredible. :thumbsup

Hey Sleazy, these ambush interviews are awesome. Great idea. You never know what you are going to learn or where they are going to end up.

So the walkway from the CNE? Damn I wonder how much that cost him?

I'm a local so I know all the stories too :)

I like the fact that they take your order in the lineup going in the door. It makes you think you're going to get the food faster. Trying to find a table in the old traincar can be a pain in the ass though. I'm usually standing in there looking for a table and usually say fuck it and eat in the car LOL!

Good times and burgers for sure, we will have to rent a cottage this summer and have you guys come up with us and stock up on Webers on the way up!!! :)

DH

This is GFY man, whadda ya expect?

What's that spicy salt they put on their french fries?

Lawry's? Seasoned Salt

Mike33 Is there any particular reason why CyberCat didn't expand it's TGP portfolio in the past few years to some of the other large TGPs that didn't have a advertising broker?

Hi Mike33. No reason. We handled other sites at times and had to back off at the time. We have to think of the advertiser when selecting who to handle. We are constantly asked to handle sites however a lot of our advertisers will want to advertise across the board and We can't handle somewone who at the time wouldn't work for us. Then we made a conscious decision to remain as we are in order to be able to give the personal attention rather then a selling farm which is what we would have become. We are always interested in handling sites which benefit our advertisers and would take on additional ones if the opportunity occured.

Mike33 Off topic because it's not adult related but curious:

Do you suffer any chronic body pains as a result of your days as a stunt man. Have all the broken bones and shredded muscle tissue caused you discomfot in the years after? I remember somebody telling me Evil Kenievel (sp?) and people like him usually wind up in all sorts of pain in their latter years because of what their body has gone thru. If you do, do you have any regrets about being a stunt man?


Yes, Yes and No. I now live in florida because I got sick and tired of rolling out of bed and crawling to the shower in Canada. I will live in pain the rest of my live but you get used to it.Once again the adage "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself."

No Regrets about anything in my life. Stunts at that time was fun, exciting and innovative. Technology was advancing and we were able to do a lot of things previously unheard of. Just as today they can do things we never could. I am in awe of the people in the industry both movie and Xtreme Biking. Have you ever seen those guys. God. Great.

Obviously you have know Idea how we do and what we do for our clients and
the TGP owners as is normal.
Not being one of the sites we handle you wouldn't know how much work we can take off your hands.
Fortunately our clients and TGP owners do.

We are not just an order taker. We spend thousands of dollars every month promoting not just CyberCat but the Websites we represent. If we can drive more traffic to them then we get better. I get a lot of email's saying I saw your ad in AVN or on Google and that brings in new clients all the time. Are you under the impression that GFY is the only place to get advertisers??? We have had board presence for over 8 months. And the only clients are the ones we already have and love.

Frankly Shap I don't have to justify anything to you. I wouldn't dream of going to others in your industry and criticizing how you do business. I would imagine you run your business to suit you and the majority of your users. So do I. We do a lot of handholding in this industry with newbies. Blanket statements for pricing and rules just don't apply as they can change with the wind. Most of our people like how we do business and most have become friends. That's what were about. Not just the money. We've been doing it a long time and find this works best for both our clients and ourselves.

If your trying to get commercial time for the other adbrokers out there fine but I won't comment on them. They run their business and I run mine. There are bricks and bouquets on all sides. The quickest way to go broke is to try and please everyone.

We are all in competition for the advertisers dollars. The best, cleanest traffic sites will continue to attract clients.

We have waiting lists for a lot of positions on the sites. Our aim is always to sell out the site. Not always possible but they do well.

As for notifying people about their advertising. First the 15th of the month all banner advertisers are advised of their renewal options. If a reply isn't received in the allotted time then the space goes to the next in line. Or we have auto renewals but at no time will I auto renew without prior authorization. I have fought the banks before and don't feel like taking that much time out. Textlink customers are advised when their links are coming to an end. Send me more links and we'll book you but no links can be booked without the galleries in place. That leads to empty spots. Webmaster's know when they are due or should. They are also running a business and we respect them as busniess people. Previous purchase of any spot does not guarantee you that spot if you do not reply to the renewal notice. That would be unfair to the other webmasters in the waiting list and a lot of times non response is the way some webmasters respond. They may think oh I'm cancelling so I'll ignore it.

Anyone who has been with us once knows that they get renewals. If the response is late there is a pecking order with only so many spots availiable.

As a gallery buyer and a new tgp owner you are very very aware know that the gallery positions can change minute by minutex
so placing it on the site would be a waste of time and money never mind the repurcussions from buyers when a spot they wanted went out while they were thinking of buying. Ever had a plane seat taken out from you when you were trying to get it online. Not pleasant.


"The way you do it now it takes 3 to 5 emails back and forth and waiting around before business gets rolling." That's BS and you know it. I can get an email, a response and money in my bank in 10 minutes. Sometimes there are questions. If so there are emails back and forth. This would obviously be questions which weren't able to be answered originally and wouldn't have been if the pricing was on the page. No one sends 3 - 5 emails about pricing or placement. It is usually about something else.

For asking a few questions it sounds more like a democrat going after a republican frankly. If your pissed at me let me know.

What our percentages are, are between the TGP owners and myself. Any business we do with anyone is private.

But we do have a renewal rating across the board of between 95 and 97 %. Seems like someone's making money.

All I can say is criticism is easy. People get to sit back and reflect with a very very very small amount of information. However Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

How about we talk about this on the YNOT Radio program on Tuesday. Love to have you as a guest. Let me know if your availiable. 3 pm EST Tuesday's.

lol bump for more praising

One other thing Shap. Cybercat Inc. gets between 14 amd 18k uniques daily
to CyberCat Inc. This is from external advertising. These people then go the the sites we represent. from the advertising or webmaster pages.
This helps the website owners as a lot of it is fresh traffic.

Also CyberCat Inc. does not have any affiliations with any other site to avoid a conflict of interest in any way shape or form.

Hi Mark. First and foremost I?d like to clear one thing up, I made my posts on my own behalf. I didn?t do so for GTS or for anybody else. The reality is there are a lot of people that agree with what I posted. They are just too afraid to come out and say it. I received 11 icqs and 2 emails from webmasters saying they agree 100% with my post (and that doesn?t include GTS owners/employees). These are buyers, clients and other webmasters. My post isn?t coming from left field and it isn?t coming from DH. This is the feeling your company has given people in this industry.

Another thing I?d like to clear up is your claim that I am a NEW tgp owner. You may want to brush up on your TGP history. I?ve been a part of the TGP biz from the very beginning. The only two people I know that were in this business longer than I was are the legendary PK and Karl Bernard (and they are both non TGP). I?ve been a part of the freesite and tgp biz for many years now. Long before you sunk your shiny white teeth into this biz.

Now I don?t know how you run your business. You say you do all this advertising and that sounds great for you and your clients. The fact remains that the hun sells out whether you advertise or not. TheHun sells out thehun, regardless of whether cybercat, gts, gov, irs, irv, cot, or any other company represents it. The hun sells itself out. You can?t take credit for that. Your other clients however are not sold out. So it seems you may not be doing enough advertising. However like you said that?s up to you and your clients. You run your business how you want to run it. I?ll run mine how I want to run mine. I also feel that the fact that my business impacts many other webmasters I?m always open to answering any questions they may have, be it in public or in private. I feel I owe it to the people that do business with us. I?m not one to hide from any question or subject.

You Wrote:
?We are all in competition for the advertisers dollars. The best, cleanest traffic sites will continue to attract clients.?
Great that is exactly what I was talking about. In your earlier reply you claimed you had no competition.

You also said my claim was BS about it taking time for you guys to reply. Mark, PLEASE? everybody knows you don?t reply within 10 minutes of the email being sent. You have to sleep, right? Let?s say a European contacts you at 3am while you are sleeping and asks for a price list. You reply to him the next day when you wake up (and he is then sleeping). Then he replies when he wakes up and you are sleeping. In this case a price list on the website would definitely save time and increase the turnaround on gallery purchases. Wouldn?t you say? And a large majority of tgp business is in the European market, right? Just seems to make sense. Maybe I?m wrong.

The bottom-line is the gallery purchasing business is changing. Those that don?t adapt will fall to the side. I will give you credit, you created the market. You started it out a few years ago and did great. You took on sites with huge traffic and made it easier to buy spots. You helped people make more money. Then along came DH and he took it to the next level. He took a door to door salesman?s aggressive mentality and applied it to the gallery selling biz. I believe he took your business model improved on it and added his hunger for new business to it. As a result he was able to get new clients to join him and even get some of your existing clients to jump ship. He did so by doing one thing, making his clients more money than they ever made before. The exact same formula that got you started with the hun hahaha61514;

Obviously this isn?t the end. The gallery purchasing market is a very young market. It has had only 2 companies that have made an impact on it. We all know that both are doing very well. That being said I believe the gallery purchasing market is in for an evolution over the next year. To this day everything is still run by email and manually. I think there is an opening for someone to come out and make the buying and selling of gallery spots easier than ever. Who will be the company to launch the most efficient way of selling gallery spots. Gts? Cybercat? Younity? Someone else? Who knows. The one certainty is that you will continue to be very successful as long as you have the hun hahaha61514;


So after all this is said, I just have to say I have nothing against you. If you ask around you?ll see my posts aren?t personal. I?m not a lapdog like a lot of other webmasters. When something doesn?t sound right I question it. You claimed you had no competition in your initial reply and that wasn?t right. I think if somebody makes themselves available to questioning (as you did in this thread) it should be about real questions pertaining to their business, not bs pussy questions like what?s the secret to your coffee.

Note the hahaha61514 is supposed to be a smiley face. I typed this up in outlook and copied it over. I guess that's the translation for the outlook smiley face.

By the way Mark I will say this, Thank you for answering. I respect the fact that you stand behind the business decisions that you make and that you are willing field the real questions here in this thread. To that i give you a :thumbsup

sweet sleeeeeez