I believe the Decisions you make in the next 6 months will determine your fate in the industry
 

As I sit here, planning out a few of our projects, it has me thinking about how much things are changing and how fast. You can't sit back and catch up next month. The wheels are in motion and change is happening quicker than you can keep up. I honestly believe the decisions you make in the next 6 months will play a big part in your future and determine your fate or fortune in this industry.

A number of companies are going out of business. At the same time a number of companies are doing very well. There is still huge opportunity but the lines are being drawn in the sand and you don't want to end up on the wrong side when they are.

That is what I think. What do you think?

Agreed completely.

At this stage of the game, you really had better have a solid game plan. This industry is changing fast, and you need to carve up where you want to be long term. Content, traffic, pay sites, etc. and invest accordingly.

Sounds like common sense.

It was kinda like one of those "Dr. Phil" type comments. :1orglaugh

I think you and I had this conversation a few months back.

I hope you are well,

shit you mean I have to work again the next 6 months?

you are prolly right about that for some, but others will continue doing what they do and be ok while others will enter the business during/after the next 6 months and do well.

whats with the decision i made last week?

I'll be honest I haven't been as involved in business for a few years now (probably since my wife was pregnant with our boy). I'm always involved in what we do but much more removed and letting the team do their thing more and more. Thankfully we've done well throughout but I know when it's time to roll up the sleeves and to be honest I believe it was a few months ago. That said my team and I are gearing up to really bust our asses more than ever before. It's now or never.

You know what there are a lot of sites approaching the realm of no return. TGPS, MGPS, Review sites, Free Sites, Pay Sites, Content sellers, whatever.

There will always be fresh blood to come in and kick ass. I agree with that. In fact there will be old blood that changes their business to adapt and kick ass. I know someone who was making 40k a month lost it all because he stopped working for a few years. Came back and in the last 8 months got himself back to 40k a month. There is still plenty of money to be made. But you have to work your ass off for it.

Doing Great! We sure did!

Well, from the rumblings I have heard about the traffic side of the business. People who can't generate their own successfully should really be worried. With the death of the TGP model, the bar is being raised and traffic controlled by a handful. Gone are the days that just anyone could come in and be a major player out of the gate in the short term.

So if you can't get it on your own via SEO/SERPS among other creative methods, you are going to find yourself either frozen out of business, or having to pay a hefty ransom. So if you business is already teetering, this should put it over the edge.

Those without a sound traffic and business model should be worried. Very worried.
:2 cents:

I agree 100%

well TGPS/MGPs have turned to crap simply due to how they are handling the traffic grab- increasing the skim and blasting pop-unders are not the answer.

i've said many times over the years that some big paysites in this biz make big bucks in spite of themselves. they will prolly continue to do that through this rough time and make it out the other side.

Well said Shap! This is EXACTLY what I am considering for the next six months (which one of these, or all of these but in what priority/order?):

* In-House Traffic Generation (blogs, free sites, etc etc) so no more relying on 'other people' for my traffic/success.
* More paysites - but what KIND? Fetish? Solo girl? Mega-sites? All of these?
* New affiliates - but how many? How much attention to pay to the AP in terms of tools, affiliate manager, etc?
* Off-line investments (what to do with all this moolah I'm making...)
* Automation - HOW to automate my daily "bread 'n butter" tasks thereby giving me more free time to do other projects/have a fucking life.
* Hiring people - but how many? To do what? How cheap? This country or "out-source"?
* Overhead - move to an "office" or keep going it alone in my apartment? Overhead usually = more expenses. How does this affect my "bottom line"?
* Moving to a cheaper place to live/work - cheaper than fucking MANHATTAN NYC, that is.

and so on. :) Nice post Shap!

This is EXACTLY why "in-house traffic generation" has the #1 Spot on the above list. :)

i agree fully, sad to see a lot of designers fall by the layby!

Sorry Shap... I usually agree with your perspectives, but I can't on this one. I'm a firm believer in the, "you can do anything you want, any time you want" school of thought. Sure there are always golden opportunity moments, but those are normally discovered in hind sight.

anyway.... that's all I got.

I agree 100%.

It is moving fast and change is happening RIGHT NOW under or feet, almost faster than we can adapt to it.

Right NOW is GO time.

Two comments

#1 * Off-line investments (what to do with all this moolah I'm making...)
Don't worry about that. I like to take the approach of being very safe offline. I've made the money. I want to make sure I keep that money. So I make safe investments. When the time comes where I can devote my time on how to make more with that money then I'll do that. For now I want to not lose it. And with the world economy the way it is it I don't want to take any unnecessary risks.

#2 look to buying traffic and converting it. I'd forget about recruiting affiliates. Get the biggest affiliates on board and let the rest come to you. Instead go out and find the best traffic sources for your sites and buy buy buy buy. Right now I believe the companies that can buy the most traffic and make money on it will win.

Oh, great, like I don't have enough to worry about, LOL
Next six months are going to be interesting for me for sure

Yeah absolutely. I think back to the early 2000s. Many of the larger single site paysites have been able to make bank until now with little change. That's gone. Everything is changing.

You know I am as well which is why I mentioned the example of my friend who came back and is killing it again. My thinking is along the lines of companies with established sites. Now is not the time to be asleep at the wheel.

Bruce Springsteen, Atlantic City, 1982
"...Down here it's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line..."

Maybe I'm too new, too small or too nearsighted. I don't see or feel the same urgency. I do ok and would even say that lately a number of things has started to pick up. But glad to listen to your predictions. Maybe should make sure to run, just a littl ebit faster, work just a little bit harder and make just a little more money.

Good topic! :thumbsup

There are companies who had 15,000+ members 2 years ago and are now approaching 5,000 members. Anybody who's never had a 5,000 members wants it. Anybody who's ever been 10,000+ cringes at the thought of 5,000 members. Depends where you are sitting I guess.

This is what recessions do. The big ones fall and gives room for the small ones (and better bigger ones) to grow. Now is go time.

I hope you have a solid game plan Shap rather than trying to take over tube domains that you'll never be able to obtain.

Thanks for the advice mate, REALLY appreciate it! Now perhaps you'd want to answer/address this more intimately via ICQ but here's my "issue" with buying traffic:

It's never worked for me. Where do I send it to? Directly to a Paysite? My 'network site' Mister Peabody World? Of course, all I've ever tried before is buying from Choker and a few other pro traffic sellers, not buying ads or banners, so perhaps I'm going about it all wrong?

Help a fella out & ICQ me and give me some direction. 'Cause I got the $ to spend. Just don't want to throw it away. LOL

i reached this conclusion too.

The decisions I made in the past, today, and the ones I'm making right now and tomorrow are determining my fate. And since I've always stayed hands on without letting anybody run my stuff...I keep a good feel for what's really happening in my little kingdom.

The moves I made with CM's paysite turned out to be all the right ones in that regard. And now I've turned my attention to my freesites, and I'm starting to see signs of life in sales again on my tpg's.

Just formulated a five year plan to pay off my McMansion here in Vegas that I bought at the end of 2008...also just paid off every vehicle I own...sent the payoff in on CM's corvette last week.

I'm now prepared to hunker down and come out the other side. Good luck to everybody trying to implement the things you need to do for your specific situations in the next 6 months. I'll be constantly busy forever tweaking the things that I have done and will do. :)

god damn these vague ass veiled advice posts :mad:

i'd be more angry if Shap's sig wasn't so hypnotizing....

Go time was about 1.5 years ago.

If your just now getting down to biz and working hard it means your now in the hole and gotta dig your way out before being buried in six months.

Better get digging! Thing is guys like me never stopped so there is alot of catchup to do besides just staying in biz. Biggest advice ever would be "don't become satisfied" or you'll quit working. Keep your checking account low on funds at all times if you have to to keep that feeling of needing to perform.

I say just work your ass off as what you do today, will pay off tomorrow.

I also would like to hear more about all these changing fast ideas or thoughts. Things have definetly changed in ways but really not THAT much. I guess depends what sector your in.

Only thing I know of that has changed over night is the cross sale game. Everything else has been somewhat gradual unless I'm missing something besidess what? Mobile and tubes?

I very much agree with this statement. I try to keep my company account balance low so when I come in to check for incoming wires, it seems like I have fuck all money and it makes me wnat to work harder

Agreed. It's scary when you start to notice that even this board has come to a major halt.

i used to come to gfy everyday in the morning just to see all the new threads. I used to have to scroll a page or 2 to find a thread from the day prior since the forum was moving so fast. Now when I visit that same thread is only halfway down the first page.

Quoted for truth! :thumbsup

so what do you invest in offline?

I just wish there was a board where paysite owners/programs that are actually interested in doing biz and do real networking discussed these topics in privacy and helped eachother out. Used to be that way, but now it's just chaos and people posting drama.

I am always willingto mentor someone making less than me that is setting up in a similar biz model to mine, hard to find someone to do the same on boards like this for me though with the exception of a few ICQ contacts. Paysites are no longer in direct competition I don't think unless you are both bidding for the same adbuys, even then there's plenty to go around.

I will win and make millions on tube v2 project!

http://static.bored.com/user/18/medi...f952norris.gif

Zango2 is looking for investors.

they should've been saving up those rebills huh

I make a thread, and have to wait and wait for someone to fucking reply!!! Geeez so much for sharing good info. :Oh crap

here come all the idiots who will pretend to know what you are talking about shap. no one wants to be left out, so the best thing to do is to pretend that you know what the OP is referring to. 99% of the people who post agreements with you haven't a clue. fyi.

the OP probably isn't referring to anything himself, it's just an empty statement, it sounds profound, but could have been said at any time in history in any industry... :2 cents:

there will always be place for everybody in the industry so stop making it look that dramatic.

A lot of companies will go to the wall over the next year, a few will pick up their traffic.

A lot of affiliates will go to the wall, a few will pick up their traffic.

Those with only big numbers of traffic will decide sending it to someone else to profit on is foolish. They will develop their own sites.

Their will still be people posting how well they're doing. Even as the bailiffs are unplugging their computers. :) The BS never ends.

I'm fucked LOL...

Next few months will be crucial.

So were the last few. And the ones before that. And the ones before that.

Also the months after the next few months will be crucial. And the months that come up in 5 years will be crucial. As will the ones 20 years from now.

Anybody that did what Shap did by putting the biz on auto-pilot for years...is going to need to do what Shap is doing now. Get your hands back on the wheel of your business, re-learn it, get back up to speed, and then apply the traits and talents you had in the beginning of your success to the current conditions.

LOL I didn't put the biz on auto pilot. I just took a break from my regular 16 hour work days and stopped micro managing as much. I'm still making just as much. A few projects have dropped in size and a few have taken off. I just feel the next few are a real breaking point for everyone.