Using Your Sales Stats Effectively - Part One.

So you have a few sites, you get a regular flow of traffic and, you are making sales, as you have heard me say time and time again, duplicate those sites and you'll make more money, that goes without saying but, how can you make even MORE money from your existing sites?

Many adult webmasters and even sponsor programs are losing money hand over fist everyday, why? For the simple reason that they aren't properly using their stats. The sales stats our sponsors provide us, in addition to telling us how much we have (or haven't) made in this period are actually a pretty good tool that we can use to gauge a much wider picture of what is happening on our sites, we can see where the strong parts of the sites we own are and, more importantly, where the weak parts are in addition to letting us know a whole slew of information about Paysite members areas if that is an area you focus on.

Being able to see where traffic is being 'lost' or, in other words, where you are losing your surfers interest is one of the best things we have in our marketing arsenal. By knowing where we are lacking on 'interest' to the surfer, we know where we need to improve things, by knowing where we need to improve things, we can start making more money.

Traffic is a funny thing, some sponsors count unique hits, others count 2nd page unique hits, others count raw hits, knowing how your sponsors track your traffic and, being able to count on your sponsors stats is probably the most important thing a webmaster can know after how to properly market a site after all, what point is there in getting 1000 hits to your sites only to find out your sponsor is only counting 600 of them? By knowing the methods your sponsors use to track hits to their sites, you know how accurate your sponsors stats reports are. You need to know what traffic is being counted and, where the 'count' starts on your sponsors tours.

So, now that you know how your sponsors are counting your hits, that's all you need to know right? Wrong. What the vast majority of sponsors don't want you to know or, are unable to show you (due to the large amounts of data involved), is how many of your surfers hitting the pay sites tour page, then go on to hit the sites join page. By knowing these numbers, you get to have a couple more pieces of the conversion pie, you get to see where the potential traffic leaks on a Paysite tour are and, you get to know where a tour may need improving.

It is worth noting at this juncture that, the more 'tour pages' a Paysite has, the more chance you have of the surfer not even making it to the join page! In an ideal world, pay sites would have between 1 and 3 tour pages with the join page as the last link on the tour. Obviously, the less tour pages your sponsor has on their sites the better for you, you need to get your surfers to the join pages as quickly as possible, without them taking time to 'look' at the tour pages.

So then you have the surfer on your sponsors join page, all is good, well, actually, maybe not. Another 'statistic' sponsors don't show very often is how many surfers actually hit 'submit' on the join page. Again, this may be that there is simply to much traffic for the sponsor to report accurately but, it could also be that the pay sites join page simply doesn't work as a good selling point to the surfer. it could also be entirely possible the surfer had no intention of joining the site and they just wanted to 'see' what happens if they follow the tour through to the end.

So lets assume your surfer actually joins the site, all is well and good. Or is it?

This is where I'm going to end this article for now and we'll pick up where we left off in the next installment and take a look at what statistical data we can collect once a surfer actually joins a site and, more importantly, how we can keep these surfers rebilling by deciphering what these stats tell us.

Article written by Lee.

http://www.webmasterconsultants.com

In part one we took a look at how using the statistics our sponsors provide (or don't provide) us can be used to gather various types of information about the Paysite tours that we are promoting and, following on from that article, we're going to look at the types of information we can gain and, how we can utilize that information from inside a pay sites members area. On with the articles..

So our surfer has gone through our sponsors tour and have hit the join page, been accepted and now has access to your sponsors Paysite. First of all though, do you know what TYPE of purchase your surfer made to join the site? Did they buy a trial membership? A monthly membership or a multiple month membership? This information is important for YOU to know however, yet again, many sponsors don't break down your sales by this, especially PPS sponsors that are paying you a flat fee regardless of how much the member paid. If you don't know this information, how do you know that you have been paid $35 for a $3 trial over $35 for a $90 3 month membership?

Now, before the surfer even enters the members area there is one very important aspect that we must take a look at - cancels and, more importantly, trial membership cancellations. Many surfers today are smart freeloaders, they realize they can join a site for $2 get access to all the porn they need and cancel, all within an hour and, an awful lot of surfers will do this, on a regular basis before the trial can even rebill!

So what can these types of statistics show us? Well the first thing that is going to spring to mind for pretty much any adult webmaster is that the sponsors members area is crap and, in some instances, this is true but, for the VAST majority of sites out there, this isn't true, its simply that the surfer knows he (or she) can access a members area for $2 cancel and, still get access to that site for another 24-48 hours. These types of freeloading surfers have no intention of rebilling and, unfortunately for us, there is no way of knowing if a surfer is a freeloader or, if a sites members area sucks without US joining the site ourselves or having access to the members area.

Okay so lets assume that the surfer isn't a freeloader and genuinely does want to pay for their membership, they go past the initial billing period and renewal time comes along, great, this where you or, the sponsor is going to start making money.

But hang on, your surfer hasn't rebilled, why not? There are several reasons this can happen, perhaps your surfer hasn't got enough funds on their card to make the rebill payment, perhaps your sponsors processor declines the card, perhaps the surfers card is past its expiry date, again, these are all types of stats that a sponsor can see, but, don't report and again, these are stats that are going to help us know whether to keep promoting the site (if it rebills) or whether we need to choose another site or sponsor to promote.

Anyway, sticking to the positive aspect of the surfer rebilling, lets say their membership does rebill past the first transaction, this is where you are in a really good money making position and, if you are using a PPS sponsor, this is where THEY start making money which they can use to improve the sites members area.

Rebills, for the most part, are the life blood of a Paysite, irrespective of whether you are being paid on a revshare or per signup basis, without rebills, the site closes and everyone loses, you and your sponsor.

A few sites, as of late have tackled the rebill problem head on by offering lower priced memberships for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th etc billing cycle, this way, the surfer isn't having to pay as much to be a member of the Paysite and, you have a much better chance of making recurring income from the join as long as the members area promises what the surfer was told on the tour. Remember though, rebills past the 3rd billing cycle are becoming more and more rare as each month goes on and as our surfers become more 'porn' savvy.

In closing, knowing what your sponsors sales stats 'actually' show you, in addition to how much money you have made with them in a period can help you make more money in the long run, just because you are making $500 a period with one sponsors site, you might be able to find another destination for that traffic and start making $1000+ a month from it if the site rebills on the revshare business model. By checking and using our sales stats, either for our sponsors or our own pay sites, we get to learn a lot more about our traffic and, about our sites, by becoming more educated about what the data tells us, we can start becoming more profitable.

Article written by Lee.

http://www.webmasterconsultants.com