Adult.com and Lensman ? An Example to Follow
 

Our hats are off to Lensman and the people at Adult.com.

These guys listened to the Visa rules changes we discussed 3 months ago, took advice, thought about the longevity of their business and made changes over a 3 month period to their pricing and their program.

Their results have been incredible. Higher sales, longer retention, fewer credits and chargebacks cut in half!

Lens, to you and all of the people at Adult.com, congratulations on continuing to set an example to our industry.

:thumbsup

hi lensman

i had that idea like 3 years ago but people thought i was nuts. Im ahead of my time.

:glugglug

is the search function fixed? lol

Good stuff Lensman.

Congratulations.




http://www.epochsystems.com/images/r...ner_120x60.gif

What about your other clients, the BIG guys, how they doing? Or going to allow them to hang themselves?

Someone is buying pre checked free cross sells out the wazoo for too much $. Going to end ugly.

Now that's a great endorsement. From the money people themselves.

Everything else is fluff hype until the merchant account holder speaks.

Chris,

Just wanted to say thanks for the digital camera from the top 25 thing in Arizona. Was much appreciated.

WG

What chu talkin' 'bout Willis?

::checks date, bites tongue::

D$, it is clear some people will have a very hard time getting under 1%. If you ran a large scale webmaster program and better understood the #'s, you would see what I am getting it. No doubt, a few big boys will have serious issues. Personally, we run a very tight ship, very clean, and have had quite a battle to get to 1%. I think as of today, we are right at 1%.

What changes did you do to reduce your chargebacks? Do you think the over priced sites with cross sells have anything to do with their problems?

Kind of looks obvious to someone who doesn't run a large scale program.

Just curious. Is there more to this formula I'm unware of?

Congrats Lensman...

There is no secret formula. We had to reduce our cbs less than .3%. My solution was not pumping up #'s, buying more cross sells, or sending more crosses to ourselves. We became less agressive overall in what we accept. Also, we cleaned out several webmaster accounts with high CB's. Also, added in some $1 joins, no more frees.

If you run a simple spreadsheet and plug in some #'s, it becomes amazing how many good transactions it takes to reduce .3%. Not to mention those who had to reduce .7% or more.

Nothing against Epoch or Lens but...

CMON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Changes that you DISCUSSED 3 MONTHS AGO have already resulted in LONGER RETENTION and CHARGEBACKS CUT IN HALF?????

First, if changes discussed 3 months ago have already resulted in longer retention than retention wasn't shit to begin with.

Second, and more obvious, you CANNOT possibly know the result in chargebacks for changes discussed 3 MONTHS AGO at this date in time.

But then again, MPA2 results in an additional $150,000 in sales per week.

Ugh.

So are you saying that with all those changes you're still at 1%?

Would you be at .05% if you changed your model early? Are you at 1% because the older joins you did are catching up in chargebacks, keeping you at 1% rather then .05%?

I'm curious what the solution is, or will be. Sounds like you did the best you could and you're still riding that fine line. Is there hope?

D$ .05% is impossible, that's 1/20th of 1%

.5% would be near impossible IMHO buying mass traffic.

We will hover around 1%, I see no way to get well below it (less than .7%) without making such drastic changes that would cause me to retire. (no recurring, etc.)

I am not going to layout exactly what ALL my solutions are. I do not need people cloning me, thus making some of my solutions less effective.

But I feel confident with the changes we have made working with epoch, we will be ok with the new regs. If not, I will retire and fish.

So, let me get this straight, trying to understand.

If the lower priced sites = longer retention. And possibly lower chargebacks. Then sooner or later the numbers wil get down to where they need to be, because the rebills are growing, so you're not flatlining anymore. But if these business model changes are too little too late, then feeding the $1 joins should get your rate down quicky.

While scrubbing your resellers and origin traffic.

So couldn't Brad be even less then 1% in no time if this is a model that works to lower chargebacks? Is anyone out there kicking ass and keeping their rates at .03%, the sites that were at 3% before the announcements about the 1% Visa rule? Is it possible?

I'm trying to figure out the beef with Brad, who is it with?

I know this one isn't KB, I figured that out after seeing the number 17 wasn't anywhere in this thread.

Very Nice :thumbsup
Good Show Lens

I see, you're just pissed with Visa.

If you could do it all over again, and Epassporte were around, would you add an extra month in their accounts to sign up using Epassporte? Avoiding the Visa thing, maybe encouraging a sign up with an extra free month.

I figured more people would be under 1% by the 1st. We have companies sitting from .2% to .5% at a high. It is not hard to push numbers like that even doing a high volume of sign-ups daily.

You just need to know what your doing.

D$, I like you, and not trying to be rude. But that statement of .3% (.03% is impossible) from 3% is nearly impossible and shows you do not have an understanding how the cb game works. For one, CB's take months to hit, changes we made 3 months ago, we are just now starting to see the reduction in # of CB's. CB's come in anywhere from 1-12 months+ in the past. So even if you made a change 3 months ago, you are still getting hit with the cbs from 3-12+ months ago.

I am still learning when it comes to the CC game. It takes years to understand IMHO.

I do not use Epassport.

Stop clouding the issue with common sense and logic - this IS gfy, afterall. :winkwink:

BTW, I am not pissed with VISA. Unfortunately, their crackdown is misguided. Maybe they should hire me, to lead them to the real trash in this business.

They are trying to eliminate several scammers, but are not going about it in the right manner. The scammers are too smart and will continue to scam and outwit them. There will be some innocent casualties though.

Thanks, Chris. It is truly an honor to be recognized by the most important people in our business.

To answer those who ask how could we have made such drastic changes so quicky? Well, the day after the 1% rule was annouced, I dropped the price of all 5 of the Amateur Pages' sites from 39.95 a month to 9.95! Sales went up, chargebacks on new sales are nil, and retention obvously increased.

Now with the 10 Dollar Cash program, we are extending this model, we have done thousands in signups to this program since the beta began and chargebacks are also nil.

What surprises me is that on the eve of October 1, I have seen any drastic actions from any of the other major PPS companies, except my buddy Platinum Dave. Where are the changes from everyone else?

Agreed!

Too late, we were selling $9.95 recurring memberships SIX YEARS AGO. But it turned out back then that customers would pay more for exlusive content.

Not everyone had to make changes.

I was throwing out a number for example sake. (.03%)

And in my post earlier, I said what you did, about the chargebacks catching up. I'm not retarded.

I kind of like you too, but you're still an asshole.

D$ no doubt you got the brains and good looks out of the family! KB on the other hand.................

My understanding is the 1% rule applies to all online merchants, if they lower it, they would lower it for everyone.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

There are still plenty of ways to get around VISA and run a scam. Some of our colleagues have done it, and a few continue to do so to the tune of millions of $ a month. You know who I am talking about. A few of the smarter ones have ridden off into the sunset with double :321GFY flying high.

Maybe you're not an asshole.

With a $10 price point, you just have to be assured of covering your bandwidth charges for the amount of content available at any given time, right?

But you also need to make sure visitors feel they are getting enough content for their $10, or they might still CB, right?

I know that I don't know shit, but how can somebody be making millions of $ off VISA?

Do you mean webmasters or what?

(Excuse my ignorance.)

I think Brad's referring to extreme billing practices, deceptive billing and misleading surfers into cross-sales and other ways to bill surfers erroneously. I have a feeling I know a company or two he's referring to as well, but I won't name names.

WG

I really dont think anyone else would get this kind of posting as it is probably the highest profile domain they are dealing with.

Wiredguy is correct.

Bandwidth is not really much of a consideration anymore within members areas. It is so cheap. Let them download all day long.

There is a great team of talented and creative individuals here backing Lens up! I have learned so much since I was hired, I feel lucky.

Nice eye-catching sig tofu

Correct-a-mundo.

And JMM is, as always, just lying in wait to hate. I could explain this all to you but I have been there and done that with you on this board too many times. You just don't want to get it. So, GFY!

First of all Chris, inner-city ghetto hiphop language looks silly when spoken by a man of your age and ethnicity.

Secondly, I was not "hating", simply stating my opinion as I see it. The "hype" within our industry would be actionable in other industries. I honestly do not know how it is so tolerated. Well, I do, but that is another thread.

Perhaps you can "clue me in" Chris. What percentage of total chargebacks appear within 90 days of the date of the transaction? What percentage appear within 60 days? What percentage appear within 30 days? I know the answer from my own statistics and it is a single digit. It is not possible to measure the true impact after only 90 days.

How can you honestly measure an increase in retention when a majority of subscribers are still in there first, or second billing period?? If a dramatic increase in retention is noted with such a short time frame, then retention sucked to begin with. Am I wrong Chris? I mean honestly, this is just simple math.

Your post would have been a bit more palatable with a longer time frame.

I guess you don't like me commenting on Epoch. Perhaps I will stop commenting positively about Epoch as well. And yes Chris, there have been many of those.

But hey, what the hell do I know? Cascading billing increases your revenue by $150,000 per week. I guess I am just a hater.

Jealousy is always funny to watch.

i concur :thumbsup

Chris, that was a sweet post!