OK, be honest...how bad are your sales?

[PSSuperstars]

We're about 10-15% off where we should be... about 8% down in sales.. but our projected growth would've had us far higher than we are...


Second week in the month is RAPING us.. all other weeks in the month are banging.. and it's been like that since about October.. I think that's when cc statements go out...

[Agent 488]

What a coincidence.. that's when shit started going downhill for me too

and the same time the US went in a recession.

[sgadmin]

My site started at zero, so it could only improve. Sales have gone up each month, and it still has rebills from last March, when it launched.

As an affiliate, I mostly push webcams. Sales are down, but because of revshare, commissions are about the same.

[DaddyHalbucks]

There has been a huge drop, no doubt. Fortunately, I keep adding stuff to compensate, and it is working.

[doridori]

icicic....tough times.

[Snake Doctor]

Things were deteriorating all of last year, but then they got really bad in a hurry in the 4th quarter, and so far in the 1st.

Sales on the same traffic are down 50% or more. Alot of the places where I used to buy advertising dropped their prices substantially, as much as 50%, and I still can't make a profit on those ads.

[Dirty F]

I remember you used to just get some SE traffic and you could convert shit all day long...my affiliate stuff is SO BAD this month, if it were to stay this way, I'd just have to close up shop...and I know what I'm doing...I've done this for 10 years!

So, be honest, drop the egos...how far down are your sales from 1 year ago?

Funny how it was till quite recent where you fucked the surfers over with hidden xsells and all that crap. You did basically anything you could to make sure they would never ever sign up for a paysite again. And now you're wondering why your sales are so bad

Yeah, you sure know what you're doing

[Dirty F]

But ofcourse like always you will be pointing fingers at others and blame everyone but yourself for shitty sales.

[LadyMischief]

This thread is so amazing but unsurprising to me. In perfect honesty this has been a huge growth year for us, I suppose we're bucking the trend. It's harder for programs to adapt to the market though I think a lot of people are struggling because they've sort of lost touch with the consumer market. If it ain't broke don't fix it... but this being a time of hardship and change you have to be willing to take risks and really get a feel for the market again.

[LadyMischief]

Things were deteriorating all of last year, but then they got really bad in a hurry in the 4th quarter, and so far in the 1st.

Sales on the same traffic are down 50% or more. Alot of the places where I used to buy advertising dropped their prices substantially, as much as 50%, and I still can't make a profit on those ads.

It's because surfers aren't using those methods anymore... Social networks, tube sites, TRUE Web 2.0 (which is a reference to interactive user-generated media) is taking over and everyone who THOUGHT they knew what web 2.0 was are in for a big surprise. Adult has been in our rut so long that we aren't really going out and seeing how people are interacting and demanding their products, so we are using the same old same old and wondering why things have changed. The demographic of the users of the internet is NOTHING like what it was 5 or even 10 years ago, and the kids that are now legal to buy porn and grew up with a lot of net savvy just aren't doing things the way their predecessors did.

[candyflip]

Adult sales down 25% but haven't focused much time. Mostly running on autopilot, so not a bad drop.

Mainstream we are up 100% from this month last year.

[Snake Doctor]

It's because surfers aren't using those methods anymore... Social networks, tube sites, TRUE Web 2.0 (which is a reference to interactive user-generated media) is taking over and everyone who THOUGHT they knew what web 2.0 was are in for a big surprise. Adult has been in our rut so long that we aren't really going out and seeing how people are interacting and demanding their products, so we are using the same old same old and wondering why things have changed. The demographic of the users of the internet is NOTHING like what it was 5 or even 10 years ago, and the kids that are now legal to buy porn and grew up with a lot of net savvy just aren't doing things the way their predecessors did.

That's part of it, sure, but alot of these sites I'm talking about still have the same amount of visitors, but those same visitors are not buying as much as they used to. It's not as though all of these surfers have moved on to other mediums and I'm still trying to use the old medium to attract them.

So while all of the stuff you mentioned is important, and is the future, it doesn't change the fact that the economic downturn has put a big dent in people's discretionary income, and that more than anything is what's hurting our sales right now.

[Robbie]

That's part of it, sure, but alot of these sites I'm talking about still have the same amount of visitors, but those same visitors are not buying as much as they used to. It's not as though all of these surfers have moved on to other mediums and I'm still trying to use the old medium to attract them.

So while all of the stuff you mentioned is important, and is the future, it doesn't change the fact that the economic downturn has put a big dent in people's discretionary income, and that more than anything is what's hurting our sales right now.

I agree with that. When I send surfers to the tour of the site and it doesn't convert, I feel I did my part of the job. But the surfers just aren't buying at the moment.

It's sort of a perfect storm right now. Tubes that have all of a sites full length vids, torrents with the entire members areas ripped for free, and now the economy collapsing. It's probably a miracle I'm not in worse shape with my affiliate work.

For instance I read what Shap said about Twistys having an incredible January. Well, I didn't send a lot to Twistys in Jan. But what I did send was 1,043 hits and 653 of them were unique. Not a lot. And mostly just hits off of galleries in my archives as I just haven't seen much from Twistys saleswise over the last year so I'm a little slack with adding their stuff.

But still...Zero sales. And last year I was 1:2069 uniques with them.

I have real traffic. Not circle jerked or "skimmed" or any of that stuff. I don't do that. But that's what I see when I look at stats as an affiliate of programs. This combo of stolen content for free and the economy in shambles has driven sales down across the board.

It's not a matter of me getting surfers to the sites. I'm doing my job, irregardless of "web 2.0" or anything else. When I look at last year and see that with Naughty America I went 1:2,865 unique then it's obvious that I'm getting people to the tours, but for whatever reason it's just not converting. And it's not the fault of the sites content or design. Across the board those sites are looking better than ever with even hotter scenes and more content.

But it's just very difficult as an affiliate to fight the fact that you can find all their stuff for free and then add in 600,000 people a month losing their jobs

[Robbie]

Shap, what is selling the best for you right now? The original Twistys or some of the new hardcore stuff? Point me in the right direction to promote so we can make some money together. What I've been doing is grabbing the galleries for the girl of the month each month, though I skipped the last two months. Should I be concentrating on one of the other sites instead?

[jay23]

From looking at the list of shows this year I cant belive the market is bad...their is one show every month (heck Feb has 3 i think and its the shortest month of the year)