I think businesses are built in a professional manner: they're properly planned, funded, and then executed. Skimping on any of those is a recipe for disaster.

Yes but redoing somethign that has already been done isn't gonna bring this business any further...

Actually some little guys bring a lot of improvement into the game...

i recently read cheap site being successful from Paul Markham :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

i think you should cunsult him :winkwink:


















:error

:1orglaugh

i just got sprite on my new laptop :(

ok sorry dom, this ^^ was even funnier :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

here ya go... :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

SUCCESSFUL CHEAP WEBSITE by Paul Markham

lmao... we're good Paul... just killing some time here :winkwink:

$10k per week, Yes. :)

No matter what you spend it will be a waste if you don't have the traffic to send to the site, or traffic deals in place ahead of time.

If you think you're going to make an announcement on GFY about your new program and people will flock to promote it, think again.

hell no.....

there's the answer.

Depends on the skills you have. Takes a lot more than money to start a business, any business.

It would be nice to have a bit more money but is it doable, YES.

you have to be able to know what will sell and how to sell it.

Lets say you want to start a decent program with 3 exclusive sites. First you need the content for the sites. Lets start with 10 'episodes' + 5 extra episodes for the first updates. Thats 15 episodes times 3 = 45 episodes. Depending on the producer, exclusive scenes can cost between $500 - $1000+ per scene. Lets go for something in between: $ 750 x 45 = $ 33,750

Ok now you have the content, you need hosting, processing, affiliate software, etc etc. So no, with $10K you can not start a decent affiliate program.

maybe it's enough to start a paysite, but definitely not enough for a program. figure the cost of processing, nats, employees and advertising, should be a lot more than 10k.

What if you start with nothing but brand new good non exclusive porn, 1 site, CCBILL affiliate program?

It would be tough but it is possible. just tough. Best to start out with one site and your own traffic and some review site traffic.

I dont think 10K is enough

10k is pushing it, even with crappy purchased content. Even with non-exclusive content, 20k would be a safer number.

With full exclusive, and a decent setup, and shooting it all yourself... you're looking closer to $75k.

$10k is plenty if you already have a stable source of traffic. Be it your own traffic, or loyal friends with traffic. As long as you can produce more profit per click then sending it to the other 10000 aff programs already out there.

Really it depends on what he would call sucessful..

I personally think it could be done, but you wouldn't do it using nats and hiring employees. You would have to open up a single paysite under your program using CCBill for the billing.

You wouldn't break any sales records the first year or so, but I bet you anything it could be done. You just couldn't expect to hire out all the work, and you had better be able to do damn near everything yourself at least in the start.

I think the easiest way to do it would be using a solo girl that you could have access to shoot later, but that's risky as well because she may flake out later. Personally I think as long as you could find a hot girl, I think a "cheap" looking site with amateurish photo shoots would do well and be much cheaper to produce if you were doing all the shooting your self.

frankly the budget is not all that matters
if you don't know what you're doing you'll fail even with 100k

You mean webmasters are too blinkered to think for themselves?????

No that can't be right. :1orglaugh

Problem is so many who rely on keeping them in the fold are the ones they follow and listen to.

If you can send 5 sign ups a day to other people why can't you send it to your own site and bounce it on exit to your present sponsors?

Why does everyone assume that affiliates are a lot of hard work? Truth is the ones who send sign ups are not.

This business is about sign ups and nothing else. If you know why a surfer BUYS porn you are at the starting line. If you don't keep throwing mud at a wall and traffic as your GOD.

Well, after reading this thread, I am even more confused. Everyone has such wildly differing opinions. So, it seems like you have to be:

• Lucky
• Able to weasel your way into criminally good deals
• Ridiculously hard working

To make it on a $10k investment. Is this right?

It is actually possible to produce something profitable, but not everyone could do it. Would that be a fair summary?

If it's a PPS program and you are going to cut all sorts of corners and pinch every penny out of the traffic, it's been done. However if you want to run a legit paysite that offers members something they actually like (and you get the rebills), $10,000 isn't even enough for one site.

Remember that probably 98% of the people who answered do not run their own paysite and really do not know if it's possible or not.... :)

but seriously, why the need to start a program? or do you just want to be "cool"? ;)

why not concentrate on blogs, galleries, SEO or whatever you're doing now?

as someone said, it's not that you gonna announce your program here and everyone will jump on it

most people will say "congrats dude, looking good", without even looking at it and that's it :helpme

I don't think I am going to start my own program, at least, not any time soon. I am merely giving people some food for thought and learning in the process. I've been involved in starting a program before, but back then I was working 9-5 for that particular company, and technicalities of it were very different to what I expect now.

Basically I see a plethora of sponsors doing nothing 'new' or 'interesting' really except turning over a small profit. But I am interested in profits. :)

how do you know if most of the small sponsors that start nowadays makes any profit which makes it worth running a program?

for me to start a program, it involves a certain new level of responsibility, dealing with affiliates, processors, customers, content producers and keeping an eye on all the technical things

clearly, it should bring in substantially higher profits than submitting galleries or playing with PPC SE's or running blogs, in order to make it worth the effort

Why substantially higher profits? Because it would involve a substantially higher workload?

The point is, that if the program developed nicely, your workload handling it all could slowly taper off after a few years, as you got other people involved to handle your tasks. At that point you could either put even more hard work and long hours in and try to grow something really huge, or, you could essentially just have token involvement - and let it run itself, somewhat. At that somewhat magical point you could be doing very little work and still earning yourself decent money.

Yes, I mean this whole industry we're in is just a giant clusterfuck, since very few actually started things as you just mentioned. :winkwink:

This would be incorrect.

People wouldnt do that here at GFY right? :upsidedow

Ha, I didn't even see that one, thanks for quoting it so I could.

No one said improvement and being little excluded you from proper planning and execution.

Sure, many companies in this industry lean more towards dropping the ball than running with it. But the point remains -- no one plans to fail, they just fail to plan. The established programs got that way, by and large, by coming into power during an era where it was a no-brainer. I'm not putting them down, they've done so big things, but to establish a program *now*, you can't just toss up the same shit as in 1996. :2 cents:

can someone give a breakdown of whats involved in starting an affiliate program cost wise then?

You can launch it with $10k and have it up and running for a couple of months as much.


1 ) Visa fees = $750 (accumulated = $750)
2 ) NATS = $1500 (accumulated = $2250)
3 ) Tours and galleries design = $1000 you start with a cheap design... a couple of tours for $300 each and several galleries templates (accumulated = $3250)
4 ) content = $2000... asuuming you get a good blowout deal. you don't need much more to launch the site, but you will have to spend more after that on decent content once sales start rolling. (accumulated = $5250)
5 ) Server = $500 two months. I assume you get a decent P4 box (accumulated = $5750)
6 ) Promo traffic = $1000 split $500 for google and $500 for gallery spots (accumulated = $6750)
7 ) Unexpected bills = $1000 (accumulated = $7750)
8 ) Other different bills, like buying a gallery submit software or paying someone to install a couple of scripts on your server = $1000 (accumulated = $8750)
9 ) $1250 for adjustments on the prices showed in the before points. (accumulated = $10.000).


Happy with this breakdown? You will not have the best site, but you will have something working and ready to make sales.
the total cost to get something decent will be near $20k, but you can launch it with $10k and then reinvest 100% of the profit it generates.

and yes... this breakdown requires lots of work from your part. If you are lazy, then you will lose the money. If you work, then you have a chance to make profits.

unless you plan on starting REAAAAAAAAALY REAAAAAAAALY slow, $10k wont last a month for PPS.

Whatever it is you are smoking, I WANT SOME!!!!

I would say 20-50k would be a nice start

I wish I had those magic joinlinks you were using :(

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

30 sales a day at $35 per sale. In a month you're down $31,500.

You sure about those numbers? At that rate you're down $100k in less then 3.5 months. Not too many pps's pull a profit that fast.

that's probably the best post of the thread :thumbsup

No money can make you smart, so use your brain and cross your fingers :winkwink:

Did he say PPS? If yes than you are right ofcourse, I was thinking revshare :thumbsup

No he didn't. Im 100% sure he meant PPS, but no he didn't make it specific.

Thus you're not really wrong, my apologies.

If you budget is $10K or under - just forget about building good affiliate program. Content, design, programming ( + customizing the existing solutions like nats) and bunch of other things - the real action starts from >$200K.
P.S. No need to mention - content is the king. :)

Traffic is king :smokin

A lot of variables in play here...

Right off the bat I'd say skip real 'program' thoughts immediately with that budget...small site with bare bones affiliate program -- maybe...

...however from a basic site perspective, consider the following:


CONTENT:
- The niche and your connections will determine cost of content
- Custom or off the shelf? Forget custom with this budget...
- Do you already have it?
...or at least a significant amount built up that is fully compliant?

MARKETING:
- Do you control a significant amount of traffic yourself
- Who do you know that is WILLING and ABLE to push your site in exchange for return traffic, cross promotion, % cut (don't go PPS until you can handle floating a load of cash) -- make a list, check it twice :pimp
- Do you plan on buying traffic? Where from, how much...


All that being said, there is nothing sweeter than recurring sales that YOU control...

which leads to the additional variables...

How often do you plan on updating your site to keep retention high? Do you know the average retention on the niche you're considering building a site for? Have you done much market research on it...

Do your homework, make a plan...then

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/2...ations7jb7.gif

:pimp

Some people could start a profitable program with $10k. Most couldn't. Same thing at $50k or even $100k. There have been plenty of businesses started with lots of money that failed. I mean, entire airlines have gone out of business. The cash on hand didn't save them. Then again, some people have made a lot out of nothing.

Interesting answers :)

Indeed.

:upsidedow