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You are spot on right when you say "It's just, they can't reliably deliver sales on that traffic any more." As traffic climbed over the last 8 years there has been a clear decline in conversions. But traffic increases hid these worsening ratios and we could find excuses for it and ignored it. Now traffic is falling along with ratios it's clear we need to change. This obviously leads to the question of why is this business still pushing the subscription model at the join prices we have today? I saw recently a thread from an affiliate, who I doubt is a whale as these guys don't have to post on GFY to get sponsors. Asking for $65 PPS per sign up. There were sponsors dropping in telling everyone they would pay $100 on joins of the level the affiliate was boasting. When I asked them to explain how they can afford the replies stopped. The question is still why do we hang onto a system the customer is clearly not buying in the numbers they were? Moving to Tubes does not fix the problem. Without paysites or VOD sites we can't all open Tube sites, Tubes don't pay for traffic. And if they did not the prices paysites do. Would we be getting more joins if we had 1,000s of sites with 500 videos on each charging $10 a month, $5 for 10 days and and $2 for 1 day (you can adjust those prices and days accordingly) and limiting BW on a daily basis, unless the customer paid for a Premium Membership. Would we sign up the same numbers or more? Would we earn more or less? Would affiliates still send traffic? Thanks for an excellent post. :thumbsup |
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Then there was an increase in affiliates, then an increase in sites and then the traffic started to go elsewhere and we saw the results. The train hit the buffers. And since then there has been thousands of threads with countless posts, blaming Tubes, blaming the changing market, blaming the economic crisis (even though the down turn started before), blaming the rip off merchants and blaming what ever else they could think of. Except for the one glaring omission. They never said the customers simply are not willing to buy what they have been buying for years, unless we can force them to buy. When you lose existing customers from the product, from yourself or others, you know something is very wrong. Now the problem is getting us to face up to it. |
Mr Frisky I'll be in touch as soon as I'll cross out my task list for today.
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scam was making some people money, then the new age scammers came with a solution to scam all the other scammers, so now it's more scamming than ever, and it's affecting every scammer out there |
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Sites 40 scenes with one model, shot by one guy, neither of whom are exceptional. Sites which spent more time on the tour than the members area. Sites who thought all you had to do was drive traffic and the sheep would buy. All had a lot to do with it. For 8 years it's been drive traffic, drive traffic and then drive more traffic. Spend a fortune on the free stuff, give affiliates everything they ask for and the top money and it will all come good. Who here would of joined 90% of the sites on the Net or even the sites they promoted? We hardly ever did because we did not think they were worth it. But we expected the surfers to join. And still the problem goes on. Serious question and you know the answer. What will get the most sign ups from affiliates today. Pay them $50 PPS or spend that money on more and better content? Yes some sites do both, few can afford to. Most we know spend more on traffic. Well the merry go round has gone full circle and the members are getting off the ride. No matter what you do to drive more you will end up with less in todays market. No matter how many times people post threads about changing few will. |
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Paul, let me add a couple comments and some moderate and healthy opposition: Quote:
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Give me that traffic and I'll see a VERY wealthy man in the mirror Quote:
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How much time and resources do you spend in average on recruiting an affiliate who can send real traffic? How much do you spend per 1000 uniques in general by paying out the commissions? How much do you allocate for media buying? What's the ROI? What are your fixed and variable costs? How much do you want to invest into content and updates and how will it affect the retention and average $ per sign up? It's all quantifiable maths and it's no brainer. I still don't see your point - traffic is the king - innovation without monetization is like an art without an audience, as used by Scott Rabinowitz. If it's bad that shit gets more audience than good stuff? SURE But who's mistake is it? let's hear the answer If you're better than others, why can't you sell, why can't you get to their place? We're talking in general, but traffic IS the king. Quote:
Why should you end up with less? I know that every 1000 uniques on my sites is money in the bank. Talking in political phraseology - ideology and awareness are extremely important. Only the one, who's aware what's going on, is the one who will be ready to deal, when shit hits the fan. Well ok, to be fair - needless to mention the level of retardation in the porn industry is higher than average. |
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Traffic never was King. Because it always costs money. It's not until someone signs up that we are able to pay the bill of traffic. Less people sign up the more expensive that traffic gets. And there is the problem and question. Do we spend more still on traffic and less on content of the store, so in the long run less sign up? Quote:
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You started a thread that was perhaps designed to get some answers. I offered some. You shot me down. Now where do we go from here? Your site is not one I include in the above about investing money. |
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To those who worry about the "Traffic Pool".
Of course the traffic pool has changed. It now contains even more sceptical people who are less willing to hand over their money than it ever did. Proof of that is in your ratios, cue for the Bros to tell us how well their site is doing LOL, and now the proof can't be covered by increases in traffic. Today most people report less traffic and worse conversion ratios. There is very little new traffic to be had that is buying porn. The traffic an individual sponsor/site gets by spending more on their traffic machine is wasted money in the long term. Because the sponsor and sites who lose the traffic will just step up their game to get the traffic back. A takes from B and C until B and C up their game to get it back. The solution to getting more people to buy porn in todays market is not spend more money on traffic. It's spend more on the product and win back the customers. If you think the solution is spend more on traffic then please explain what went wrong. Because we traveled that route for years and look where it got us. |
People will pay if they feel they get a product they cannot get anywhere else.
Look at the success of a series like "The Wire" which people were prepared to buy on DVD to see, when TV was doing a race to the bottom in quality and production values. In porn the obsession with quantity, 100,000 videos millions pictures, ment lower and lower production values, until the product is now worthless and freely available. Paul is right with the one model doing 40 sets.... An alternative would be to add photographic skills to the most beautiful models to make unique and original content punters cannot get anywhere else. Make one set but amazing - that takes skill. better less but better. These are common problems to all the creative arts, but we have it easy, because sex sells. If you a have an erotic beautiful woman in a video people will pay to see it. |
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Traffic is what monetizes your content, traffic is what pays for your bills, and the relation between the quality of the product / giving it the right and intense exposure is NOT one sided, so you CAN'T say one is more important than the other. This applies in general - most popular products are many times shit. BUT that works in the world with control mechanisms, we're talking about scam here, scam is the problem, not that someone would need to make their sites better. In case someone would have a shit site and the other one would have a great site and no scam would be going on - then we would me in more or less balanced business environment, and it would be only a matter of customer preferences (and again also the EXPOSURE of the good product) what does the customer choose, without getting fucked 10 times over along the way. You can only say the balance needs to be somehow optimal for your case, your product, your budget etc., In general this of course doesn't work these days and many surfers are thrown at a shit product and get fucked in the ass hard - and as the result - the traffic pool has changed. Quote:
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I've seen many returning to our site say after 3 months of an inactive membership, that's why I was resistant to cross sells. Now I have there a cross sell with Guerilla, that's a 7 day free trial, so anyone who converts has 7 days to cancel the membership for free, and I don't see anything wrong with that. Quote:
An investment, in the ideal case with a return. An investment, an opportunity, an experience. So what is this for a statement? Quote:
How much does one paying member in average cost you on bandwith, do you offer him unlimited streaming of 1000 livecams every day so it costs more than the membership Quote:
I'm lost now Quote:
I used it as a UNIT, as a UNIT. Quote:
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:winkwink: |
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We have followed this route for years and look where we are today. Don't try to convince me we were doing it right for all those years. Without content you have a blank page, even a link to another site is content. Is text content. The value of that link totally depends on the conversions at the other end of the chain. Conversions brings money into the business that pays for the traffic. Those conversions rely on satisfied customers. Coming back to the site or coming back the Internet to BUY porn. A site not doing this is a site fucking all of us. Quote:
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Maybe it was in thinking we only had to drive traffic to a site and it would monetize itself. Over and over again, no matter how little they got in return. There are some great sites on the Adult Net. However too few when compared to the average and bad sites. And even those are feeling the pinch today. We are all judged by the buyers as a whole. Who here blames the customers for not buying from this industry as a whole? But don't worry we can keep on the same road and it will all come good!!!! |
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Who is we? A business, a bunch of retards trying to make a buck, a mix of both? Yes, they did it right at the start, they got rich on a get rich quick scheme, fucked everyone, and got out before the doors shut. Cause there's no real business environment in online adult, and I'm sure those guys knew, that it's gonna only get worse and more hassle. You can be an entrepreneur in the top class, but if you don't have the pimp hand strong, and don't smack a couple morons, who try to steal from you, you will get hurt. And then, say it's 2009 and especially if you have: a) capital b) average intelligence and skils c) you're not a pervert that would be in it for the moving part Why would you even invest time and money into adult? You're more likely to change the direction, and who can blame you? Quote:
but in principle, hypothetically, these days - I don't have to care, because 1) no matter if I steal the content (cause it's "legal") 2) no matter if I don't have any content, and just jerk or broker the traffic somewhere else cause TRAFFIC is all that matters Yes, there will always be a space for sites that can build their loyal audience, Yes this route works, I can confirm that, BUT you can't rely on anyone getting anything, anyone understanding anything, anyone changing their principles, You gotta kick ass on you own! Know your enemy! Quote:
Why would someone even die hard invest into porn anymore? Ok, it's my turn now, in the post apocalyptic, masturbating global village, to show that there are new innovative ways, that can make money in porn for a couple years to come, but the question applies in general. Quote:
a) no control mechanisms b) massive widespread of ignorance / dumbness and idiocy in general Who can blame them? This is a specific business, let's make fun out of it. |
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the more traffic you own the more traffic you keep residual, the more traffic you can market in diverse ways - the more traffic you upsell to your other assets, the more exit traffic you monetize, the more upsell traffic you monetize, the more viral traffic you get, the more traffic forgets to cancel, the more maniacs you get to get addicted with your product Do you think programs like Nasty or Pussycash should just stop marketing their sites as it's "loss" in the long term? Or do you think they should rather spend money on inventing a new age masturbation tool such as AEBN did? Please explain. Quote:
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Do you want to promise them in the tour you won't fuck them? And take the flip side of the coin - there are review sites, And I would even dare to say the majority of review site surfers are just just trying to rape as much porn as possible for their hard drive, and I doubt you would get even a below average $ per sign up from those sites in the long term. Ignorance on the side of surfer is a bliss, ignorance on the side of marketer is fucking everyone in the ass! Educate surfers, you'll see less money, add idiots stealing your traffic, you'll see less money, that's where we are, and that's what could as well be the diagnose for 2009. THAT'S the real paraphrase to your never ending content vs. traffic dispute How about this: a) The product (much better word than "content") b) the traffic c) the competition d) the legal regulation etc. are ALL PARTS of the environment where you do your MARKETING, where you try to sell your stuff, where you try to make money From the very first idea you have till the moment, when you count dollars and stats and think of ways, how to improve things and how to gain more edge.. All These things are instantly and intensely affecting YOUR returns! Quote:
Let's take one after another: The product: Mainly shitty over saturated content / in many cases questionable billing practices etc. (in simple words - FAIL) The traffic More educated traffic with less potential than ever (in simple words - FAIL) The competition Many will do anything to fuck you over, and they do it, and it affects everyone's ratios (in simple words - FAIL) The regulation Practically non existing legal environment, apart from a couple old school pervs getting locked down for being too perv on camera (in simple words - FAIL) That you'll make the a) or how you call that "content" excellent doesn't change much in the grand scheme of things! Why? Because you STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH the b) c) and d)! Any more questions? And no more personal feelings, arguments are listed above. |
Because the history of porn is of semi illegality, just a bit up from drug dealer, the content has been very poor.
Like drugs 10% drug 90% baking soda. The fact is that the internet has ended censorship for practical purposes. But adult material is still being shot on Amateur cameras, bad or no lighting, no creativity, no originality...etc BUT at a price people pay for a months cable TV. There is a lack of value being added to the product. Also low quality product can be found everywhere for nothing. I am also surprised at have many ugly performers get filmed when attractive performers are available for the same price. It is the contempt a lot of sellers have for their customers. With production moving from studio to small scale producers, skills will be the key to winning and keeping an adult audience. This industry seems to have cutting edge skills of traffic, marketing and internet, but very conservative in culture. As internet speed increase the demand for higher quality will increase and this is an opportunity for good quality erotic material to succeed. |
Now take this from a standpoint of me, we're working with real people only, and the sex is therefore real and extremely spontaneous, so I don't necessarily fancy regular porn
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Favorite model, favorite practices, favorite fetish, favorite style of shooting (pov) maybe they can use the jerk off machine from AEBN but I don't think you can get much further than that It's all about targeting, then again there's something beyond porn - real sex, I strongly believe this will get more and more popular to watch as people can now see 1000's of scenes with same fake actors same fake sex and same fake scenario Quote:
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But, at the end of the day, if I need a fast jerk off (hypothetically :)) then I will just want to immediately push play and see something / anything that turns me on and do it, not to think if I should play this movie or that movie, or if that one has better lightning, if it makes sense.. so I wouldn't count on quality being much of a competitive advantage to general audience. Make it rare and you'll sell again. |
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The cost of driving more traffic is so high today and the return so low the money for it has to come from somewhere else. The most likely place is from the content, quality and quantity. Plus you have to build and run your sites to the demands of those driving traffic and not the demands of customers. Once we started down that road we were always at risk of people adapting a system that does not rely on driving thousands of people to get a few sign ups. To continue down that road without fixing what we have is not going to work. Because the money you invest in "traffic" has to profit long term. To just keep saying "more traffic" is pointless unless you know the profit and loss on "more traffic" and that so many people ignore today. |
Man, you know what gets me? I have a site that ranks #1 on Google for "hot tits", page 1 for "hot babes", pages 2-3 for "tits" and "big tits", traffic trades set up with a number of established big tits/pornstar oriented sites, and I get less than 1 out of every 2000 people I refer to brazzersnetwork to sign up for a membership. Aint that some shit?
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When I look at the racios and the sites that send us traffic, the ones that have the best conversions have info on our site on theirs. |
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Do a search on those keywords and look for sites on page 2 or 3 and beyond. Check them out and see if they work and look good from a surfers perspective. Also see if they are giving everything away on a Tube site. Then check the affiliates sector. Sign up and check again to see how much content they have. As this is an indication to the size of the sites, not 100% but good. Then kick out Brazzers and test with the new ones. Do not look for a "Bro" or a good deal for you. You need a site that converts and looks good from the surfers perspective. And in todays market conversions are important. |
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Why would it be high, with an average conversion and paying 50 pct. commission I can get affiliate traffic for 4 c per 1000 uniques, which broker can offer this to me? Which broker can offer me 1k for 4c that will convert below 1:500 ? What are you reffering to? And what is that "somewhere else"? expand please Quote:
On a revshare I'm a PARTNER with the one that sends traffic to me, therefore two basic requirements: a) make it convert b) make them stay as long as possible to get as much $ in average per sign up as possible Cause that way we BOTH will make more money What should be wrong with that? Answer me for Christ's sake Listen to me Paul Quote:
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And there's no "business" and there's no "industry" and there's no "easy answer" Once again - marketing 101: Quote:
Ok everythiing is connected with everything, a wouldn't exist without c, b wouldn't exist without c, c wouldn't be allowed without d etc. But please stop to preach the "great content for customers" evangelium as the magical cure to the adult industry, pussies so sharp that cocks get harder and harder and everyone starts to pay again - that won't work! This is a systemic problem, and the solution therefore has to be systemic. If you shoot 10 HD scenes with uberpussy and make 3 pct. more on retention doesn't mean that the oberdude from Austria running Redtube will not sign up and steal it from you and fuck up your rates to twice worse then they were. See my point? |
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Surfers also know google, and they are one click away from gettin the same stuff you're pushing for free. I would seriously reconsider the niche / sponsors you targeting. If you want to offer something totally different yet attractive, sign up with me, SE traffic does wonders. Real people sell, and they can fuck just as well as pornstars, it's just more fun and it's real. |
been a good thread, but I wonder how many people are reading the whole Paul vs Carlos discussion :upsidedow
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:winkwink: |
I have skimmed some of the posts in this thread and one thing that stands out to me is if you provide a high end, exclusive product then customers will buy.
I would put forward Kink.com family of sites. From what I remember they have no trials only monthly memberships however they have thousands of members and produce the best bondage material covering most of the sub-niches (although I know nothing about bondage niche this is from a casual observer). If you have unique content and know you niche you don't really need the trials (unless there are other companies doing the same and they under cut you by offering trials). However you won't get nearly as many affiliates pushing your sites.... |
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That's why there will be no trials on our brand new niche sites, why would you give something really targeted away for a couple $? If they are really into this niche, if they really want it, they should be ready to pay for it. I can give them exclusive stuff that's updated 2 times a week plus 8 hours of live hardcore over the weekend (will be launching with two sites so that's 4 updates a week and 16 hours of live hardcore over the weekend). No trials. I'll keep the 7 day trial for the main all inclusive site bigsisterlive.com, because the results so far are not this bad. The value for the member, with over 10 exclusive updates a week, prepaid live cam girls, a minimum of 32 hours of live amateur hardcore a week and over 9000 excl. scenes included in one fixed fee membership at 39.95 USD is not this bad either. Adding leased niche feeds and leased additional live feeds next week, let's see if it's gonna boost the retention a couple pct. up. Tube sites are updating every hour, I want to offer more, and all unique, different, real. |
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The problem with your post is it's unrealistic. 95% of the paysites on the Net feature models doing it for money. The trick is to make them do it looking like they're doing it for the fun. This is something I have said for years and probably said again in a post here. So are we all to only send traffic to sites that feature 100% amateurs doing it for fun? Like I said unrealistic post. Quote:
We have had 8 years of the "gurus" telling us how it should be done and many followed. Well if they were so good why did we end up with customers walking away? And free is not the answer because they buy elsewhere. |
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OK sites who do have great content, shot by great shooters who knew their niche and could direct models and on a budget that allows for great porn to be produced are still feeling the pinch. As a market we have lost most of the guys who signed up to jerk off to one scene, no matter how good it is. And until we shut down the Tubes they will stay lost. However the problem for most sites is they were not and still are not prepared to pay what it costs to produce the level of porn Kinks, Twistys, Sapphic and more produce. Their attitude was and still is "What's your best price." It's easy to say "provide a high end, exclusive product then customers will buy" and even though most know it, few will pay for it. You should be sitting next to me when I get asked to produce content like, for instance, Party Hardcore and the buyer falls off his chair. Do you think content providers are responsible for the low prices of content or the people who buy it? polish_aristocrat did that make a point? |
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In all fairness, if traffic were the king. You would not have all these programs in the shitter. They have traffic, can buy more traffic, work their BRO connections and deals, and their stuff is not selling. :2 cents: |
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The money your content makes contols how much you can spend on traffic. Unless you have some multi millionaire backers. |
I have a problem in these discussions because the words I use just seem to mean other things to other people.
So I feel I have to take another tack to explain. Do you understand modern abstract painting? Do you understand modern classical music? No. Not many people do. They just don't get it. That is how I feel about porn. It has a following of users who have learnt to wank to increasingly wierd portrayals of some things related to sex. I remember being shown an award winning piece of porn with four guy jerking off with a big tited porn star in the middle. And I looked at this like I would an obscure abstract work of art. It was as exciting as cold porridge on a rainy day. I would say that there is a massive audience who desire erotic material but find porn a turn off. Porn photography is at the level of Police photography, or X ray photography. "High quality" means the guy put a light on. "HiDef" means lower quality than DVD. Teen means under 30 etc... The porn sex act itself is not erotic if it is 1)she blows him 2) He fucks her for 20 minutes in boring mech fashion with the regulation 3 positions 3) humilate girl with spunk in face. Why would this be a turn on for 90% of the people? And the people who do like it 1) don't have CC cards and have it for free on the tubes. The internet is turning quickly into a delivery system for High quality video..... If we move from quantity to quality ....There is a future |
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a) it costs money b) they think the same way as you |
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They exactly use the environment where a,b,c,d is fucked, as it is in adult online |
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Answer me. |
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What I am saying is that, a lot of crying on panels, the industry boards and trade mags about some of the BRO companies losing 40-75% of their sales in the past two years. The BRO companies have traffic. They can BUY more traffic on mass. Yet still crying on sales being down even though they are trying everything in the arsenal of traffic generation. So if traffic can't save them, then traffic is not king. :2 cents: |
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