if the value of porn is down, would conversions increase if you lower the prices?
 

i know lensman(and others) tried this 5 years ago with the $10 dollar sites, then i think the result was that they determined that surfers who want porn would pay whatever for it, and lowering the price was shooting them in the foot

but i think with tube sites and the economy, consumers are more price-sensitive and its now a different time, would it be economically worth it to start testing lower prices?

that would be a tough sell to affiliates

I started at 12.95 a couple years ago... changed to 19.95 and sales increased.

Now at 29.95 and sales higher then ever but alot has changed over the years as well.

We have offered webmasters lower monthly payment options for years but the payouts aren't as high so a lot of webmasters stick with what pays best--who could blame them really?

Short answer is, "No".

That comes from experience. I'll leave it to some of the others to explain their results, as well as surfer's perceptions on price point, as well as the difference in paying a premium, especially when it comes to niche markets.

:2 cents:

lets be safe and say it depends.

those who don't sign up all have a rapidshare account and so they even wouldn't sign up for a single buck

Exactly right.

If you have what they want, they will pay whatever it costs regardless of price.

:2 cents:

:thumbsup

problem is that that i think 30% or less of the sites have something exclusive that cant easily be found on a tube

Only if you can do better than free.

NO :2 cents:

We have tested multiple price points during the good times and the slower times.

When we went to $1.95 trial we noticed a drop compared to our $3.95 trial. Our theory is that people thought it was too cheap, thus not good.

We have also played with the monthly/recurring price points. $29.95 works well but you can still get away with $39.95 and it not hinder rebills.

I asked for programs offering network signups earlier on GFY, and now I started to promote some more of these network/multiple sites offers. It seems to work ok. "More for the money".

Archived websites are not working well these days. It amaze me especially that some solo websites are still charging 30-40 bucks when it is not updated.

From the consumer standpoint, I don't think so. As a consumer and as a site reviewer, sites with that kind of pricing usually make me a bit skeptical by default about the quality/quantity of the content... and I don't think it takes much for someone to hand over $30 instead of $10 when they want the product and know its going to be good.

I always wondered if meeting the tubes half way would be a good idea - - like a good name network offering a streaming-only version of membership for less (no photos, no extras), with maybe a few downloads as a perk that get changed every week or month. If you knock off $10 and have a tube-like version of the members area as a browser I'd like that, as I rarely download anymore now that streaming video in members area is often HD or damn near it. Beats the hell out of tubes in terms of quality.

I'd think something like that would be good for bringing in the fence-riding crowd that dont want to commit to a membership but willing to pay something for the quality of a membership in a familiar format (tube)... eventually they may upgrade. Or offer cheap downloads, charge $1 per scene or some crap, so they can save the scenes they like best. That'd probably be the best way. Cheap streaming only + $1 scene downloads or $1 gallery downloads. Better for the consumer that pays for their porn, harder to have your content ripped off en masse?

Someone is probably doing it already. And of course i have no idea what I'm talking about :thumbsup

That's a good point, they will pay for it and if the price is low then it is because quality is bad or oversaturated content, right ?


So, it make me feel that they will think the same shit of $1 three day trials? right ?


I've been always using text like "signup now just for $1 trial and get access to 15 sites"

Now I'm affraid that it is wrong advertising, I think.

No, for the reasons others mentioned. Reducing the price, ironically, could reduce sales; perceived value.

With that said, tweeking the pricing a bit may help ... ie. instead of $19.95 or $29.95, etc try a whole dollar amount, such as $25. Back when I had a non-adult non-recurring membership website (cannabis related), whole dollar amounts, in particular $25, worked well.

Ron

Surfers are different, and some surfers might look at price too. Also, discriminate price between countries is not a bad idea.

NO ditto

Test, try, think like a surfer, take a step back and try to forget all you know and feedback on yourself and your own site as if you see it for the first time (not easy but worth it...).

Price is just a part of the total, not the only variable in the decision making process of a client.

We've tested lower price points many times.

Bottom line is..we saw no difference in convertions.

Its all about the product.

people do i know of several "tubes" like this

heres a little secret that may not be so secret to some: value of porn is not down with tubes its up, there is just more available for free. Tubes dont have to be free. they chose to but they dont have too. Most of these tubes would make more money if they never had a free option to view everything its not the free porn itself. There will always be free porn seekers. Its the huge amount of choice in every niche that converts people into tubes.

But choice can be a turnoff... show a hentai fan a dickgirl picture and he might shrivel :P

:winkwink:

its much more cuthroat now than it was years ago

one of the reasons is the tube concept is here, whether the content is illegal or user-submitted, or all licensed, its a new technology that cut down drastically on the value that the paysite business model gives the consumer

its easy to point fingers at tubes with illegal content on them, but the model is not going away and when you say companies "that took a stand against these practices now engaging in it" i think its disingenuous

a large part of the value that paysites once gave was they were paying for large downloads of content, but now that bandwidth prices are $3/meg users get the same for the cost of impressions and when there is a ton of legal dvd catalog licensed content a tubesite can put online for pennies a video, and a consumer can get for free, how many people are going to pay $40 for what many sites offer?

With Business/Life, you do have to make compromises with your principles