Sales down across the board due to the credit crunch?
 

Anyone here noticing this?

I think it has more to do with the expanding influence of the tubes

combination of factors - diversification is mandatory if one is strictly focused on paysites imho.

Is that double speak saying we need the Paris feed? :winkwink:

Nope...seeing a significant increase in business in a few different markets.

:thumbsup :pimp

The tubes aren't as bad as surfer forums and torrents and rapidshare links. With tube sites surfers only get some random videos that they may or may not like enough to masturbate to. With forums that link to files they can get *exactly* which models or niches or movies or sites they like that they would have paid for.

you are right and it sucks but i have found the forums tend to be very responsive to dmcas. If you find them.

i am not smart enough to have been going for that lol

I tend to agree with you especially when it comes to the more dedicated and savvy computer users.... but the tubes are like a training ground for the "everything is free" computer users, as you hear people everywhere talking about going to youporn or redtube ( a dude could buy his first computer and within a week someone will ask him if he's checked out redtube yet).... it takes a bit more of a seasoned internet user to discover the forums

but yes, it is a major sale-killer when most surfers might have their credit card out, but know enough to do one more search through google to see if they can find the content for free, and sadly too often they can with alot of sites

It's quite possible that the processors are running higher fraud scrubs as well.

much more people visit the tube sites than any surfer forums I'd say :2 cents:

millions of people losing their homes, losing their credit lines and credit cards tons of people on the move because of storms cant help.

Thank god that more countries are starting to get in on the net and it will help out in signups as well.

My income from hardcore used to be around 50% of my total 5 years ago, today it's around 10%.

Diversify or die.

i just wonder if processing (whether it is the actual processor or at a higher level like visa/mc/etc) is scrubbing high risk transactions at a higher rate

it seems like that would happen given the current crunch

my sales have been down like 30-40% since early april

i'm sure other factors such as tubes, etc play a large role in all of this... but has anyone here ever checked to see if denial % has shot way up over the last few months?

I've noticed it in the past 30-45 days.

Whether a change in credit card scrubbing, the US economy, or whatever. There are some major fucking rippling effects going across the industry.

Luckily, for me, where one segment's been down, another has been up. So by month's end, it remains where it needs to be. But I've seen, adult and mainstream, some major changes that are happening that have me wondering what's going on.

I do not think, in my case since I am more niche based, that it's tubes and so forth. My customers come from a highly qualified, filtered, and paying group vs a general porn category.

But even I have seen a trend in the past month or so. This is the time of year where sales normally are on the upswing with kids back in school, and colder weather. That said, I am just broadening to other markets, and working on some more promo toosl to bring in some more qualified buyers.

I agree with many of the posters before me. You have to make some changes, and be fluid in this crazy time. Doing the same ole same ole just isn't going to cut it. I spend at least 25% more of my time on promotional efforts then I did in the past to keep the monthly numbers consistent the past couple of months.

big time

yeah, it is easy to get comfortable with what works... this is the kick in the ass a lot of people needed (including myself) to get on the projects that i've let hit the back burner

So true. :thumbsup
:2 cents::2 cents:

for me it's worse:(

If it was indeed scrubs site owners like myself would see an increase in denial notices from our processors. I know I have not seen any marked increases above normal small up's and downs.

So for me I can say without a doubt it is not a higher scrub, unless the processors are also "shaving" the denial emails and fixing other stats to hide those denials which is beyond illogical.

I have seen that you need more traffic to get the same results than before. I also seem to see a lot more people playing trailers and then just leaving the tour without hitting a join page. This really makes me think they are browsing the tour and then wandering off to go and try to find the content elsewhere. Can not 100% verify this aside from talk I have heard from people outside of the industry and the occasional WTF email asking for odd ball requests/questions about the content. Example - is there more in this site than can be found at so and so .com which is either a forum, tube, etc. Also get a lot of "how much will this cost me in total? emails and such. Really concerns me as I figure that for every person that does ask a question via email about 100 others did not bother to or thought the same thing.

I used to receive those as well.

You have to love when they point you directly to whom you need to DMCA. :)

Agreed.

That's one of the reasons we try and shoot, or fit in, what people request. When we do, we'll get follow e-mails that such and such was great. If one person's writing you. More than them are thinking it.

here is a tip that helped me, I do not give the pornstars name in the tours I make up names, I dont need them seeing a girl they like in my tour then copy and paste it in google or their file sharing software and download free stuff.

The guys who already know the name of the star it dont matter to them they recognize the girl so really there is little benifit of using their real names, for SE you can create pages with the real names then redirect etc.

I do the opposite.

I DO use their names. I also try and give the models unique spellings, and names so it's easier for me to do my monthly DMCA track downs.

Works like a charm. A few keywords with some +'s and ta-da. DMCA city.

:)

I am very micro niche myself and the performer has less to do with it over the subject matter. For instance with one of your sites if so and so did a spanking scene. I would presume the majority are after the spanking itself and not the performer being spanked.

I do know that there are star chasers that seek out all the material a given performer does but well in that case they already know who she is.

Shhh :2 cents:
I know people are lazy but no sense it giving out some of the easier tricks to finding shit.

And I spend more of my time trading links etc and let experts like removeyourcontent.com deal with these people

lol

But I can find my stuff by searching for movie file names since those are unique and most do not change those names

but I hear ya

Well depends on the girl some girls are known spanking models some regular girls, fact is I come across people on boards always posting pics of my tour asking what a models name is and they do it so they can find the shit for free

:winkwink:

So anyone else not seeing an increase in denials from the processors?

Honestly, I can't say I have seen a lot of them.

Give us your ASM opinion why sales are fluctuating like crazy lately chief..

sales were awesome a while back when credit was flowing... now that the crunch is on i can definitely feel it

a couple of my theories

extra credit cards have been closed on people resulting in them having to consolidate their credit / max out their existing cards... i'm sure it was a lot easier for people to justify splurging when they had a variety of cards to choose from... but when you have 1 or 2 cards that are almost maxed out i can't imagine someone would just as easily reach for it

people are more hesitant to spend because of this AND / OR people can't spend because 'high-risk' transactions aren't being allowed at some higher level


anyone here know if online transactions considered "high-risk" are considered similar to the high risk loans, etc that got the market into this mess in the first place? would scrubbing be harder on those with less than great credit due to this?

Interesting point here.

I know that on almost ALL of my credit cards, especially my MC, I am being asked to set up that Secure Code. So 'some' of my online transactions require a PIN be entered.

I know on my PayPal, they now require calling me to verify transactions on the phone, and I enter a PIN to validate.

On my VISA, depending on which, some overseas transactions are being denied outright. claiming the 'high risk' or some other effect. Even when it's for software, or elance/escript types of sites.

:Oh crap

Tube = Tube = Bullshit
Tube done right = The better MGP = converting like a motherfucker on steroids !

Sales are down for a couple of people because the economy is down and they do nothing but complain and still stick to their old marketing techniques!
People that actually work and adopted to the year 2008 make more cash then ever!

I made a cash deposit to my bank the other day, and was asked to sign a receipt for the transaction. They never ever ask you to sign anything when making a deposit, they give you a receipt. So now they want you to sign for a cash deposit, ok. I always check my receipt regardless. I guess people are nervous.

Agreed.

Since we added in a tube for our material. It has helped convert more sales.

Agreed again.

Our monthly, overall, sales remain solid. However, how we get to those numbers... membership, clips, dvd, has changed. But it's taking more effort on the marketing end. Also tweaking some things back, and front end. As well as in production based on feedback.

I think those who are down ungodly percentages are simply not adding in new tricks, and just trying the same ole same ole. Getting the same ole results or worse. The surfers and people of the net are getting better educated on how things work. More information out there on how and where to do things.

They are not stupid sheep dazzled by your naked lady. They require more in 2008.
:2 cents:

Not even close to being right. Tube sites get MORE SE traffic, they are updated daily with more longer videos than most members areas. They are easy to use and check out everyday. Surfer boards dont even come close. Only a tube owner would stick to this belief.

Agree here.

Not so much here.

But I suppose it all depends on the site/company/webmaster. I personally can't say I have seen that, but, it doesn't mean it is not happening. Still, tubes on the whole, are good for variety of material, and fresh updates.

Too bad most are illegal.

I should have said ratios, rather than sales in the topic....

ratios have definitely gotten worse, it takes more of the same traffic to reach the old numbers... sure this is the way the game goes but my traffic has steadily converted roughly the same for 3-4 years... this year things have started to dwindle A LOT as far as ratios are concerned

of course i will adapt & move to different things... im just looking for that connection between the current economic crisis and ratios - there has to be one

i suppose its pointless but if we were to find out that high risk transactions were being scrubbed very hard at a higher level because of the credit crunch then at least i could have some peace of mind knowing that my traffic hasn't really went to shit & people do WANT to buy but just can't

i wonder if any processing companies would be able to step in and confirm/deny that denials are significantly higher these days vs this time last year

Actually my sales are up around 10% in the past month. I attribute this to schools being back in session. The credit crunch has had no ill effect as of yet for me.

I've got one tube domain, zero active tube. Poor me. :(

i cant speak for other processors but i can tell you that we have been testing out different ways to improve throughput, not move backwards. In fact, during the past 5 years, our acceptance rate has steadily improved and had never gone the other way. Right now specifically, we have been working on figuring out how to get more transactions out of EU countries and countries that historically had less volume, the dynamics of traffic outside the US has changed dramatically over the past 2-3 years and were trying to make sure that we are squeezing all we can out of it. As well as some other neat things that I can?t talk about. I normally don?t comment on these sort of things, but this thread compelled me to do so.

Thanks tootsie.