UGAS vs GMP

[Direct Holly]

Originally posted by Lee
Then shouldnt he be in this thread posting insted of you?

Regards,

Lee

OK Ok I will bring him... I just like to help out all the nice gay peeps in our business...LOL

[Lee]

Haha i know ya do hon

Go get himbring him kicking and screaming if you have too hell even naked too that would work

Regards,

Lee

[gmpassBRYAN]

airmy--> :grin: :whip: <--gmpassBRYAN

[Airmy]

Originally posted by gmpassBRYAN
airmy--> :grin: :whip: <--gmpassBRYAN

HARDER, DADDY!

[Xstr8guy]

If we are talking gay AVS's only...

1. UGAS - upselling to Platinum is easier than you imagine, although a lower price point would be great for rebills

2. Mancheck - Plus is pretty easy upsell, but expensive and rebills are virtually impossible

3. GMP - Bryan is a great guy, but I can't sell yearly memberships anywhere and with no Premium program I don't direct very much of my energies there. If I had more time in my working day, I would mirror my regular sites in a heartbeat!

4. Imen - still waiting for that to kick in! I signed up right away and I'm webmaster #10. I haven't submitted much to them, but I've sold absolutely nothing. I have approximately the same number of sites listed on their father site, ProAdult, and I get a constant trickle of sales from them.

We need a really good gay movie AVS. I've had excellent success with DeluxePass, but they are so geared to the straight surfer, it's actually kind of humiliating. The gay sites are actually in the same category as shemales. And they have about as many shemale sites as gay sites... yuck!

As for the straight oriented AVS's... Cyberage and ProAdult work the best for me. I don't mess with "free" avs's anymore... too dishonest.

[Scott]

LOL- you guys are tomuch! Hey, I have not met all of you, but I am anxious too. I am going to attend the lunch next Wednesday to meet ya all if I am allowed..:groovy:

I am currently not voting for either GMP or UGAS b/c I probably should support www.imen.com b/c I work here...

I am opening up this thread to any opinion or suggestions you might have about an AVS.....as a webmaster, what would you like from an AVS?

BTW! Thank you for all your supposrt Holly; I am out to make IMEN everyone's choice for their AVS, but I do look forward to meeting Bryan and other people at other AVS's. :worker:

Can't we all work together and make money?

PS....I will send PM's to those with questions, and I hope to see all your new sites on www.imen.com .

[Xstr8guy]

Scott, don't answer the questions by PM... I think we would all like to see the answers. Well since you asked, here are some questions and suggestions...

It's nice that you are offering bonus content for yearly members, but I think there needs to be greater distinction/bigger push for the monthly recurring program.

Are you sending any traffic to Imen? I know that traffic leaches are frowned upon, but I will not invest a lot of my energies to a program if I can't at least upsell the yearly members to a Premium program. As I noted in a previous post, I get a few incidental sales at ProAdult just from the site list. I'm completely impressed by IMen and I would like to make it one of my preferred AVS's, but I can't justify sending my own traffic to Imen at this point with no track record.

Does Imen have anything in the way of plug-ins for the non-twink surfer? UGAS is by far my best seller, but I have a hard time with retention because their Platinum members area is DISMAL! They feature really old and tired plug-ins with twink/jock appeal only. Much of the time the plug-ins never update or just plain don't work!

UGAS is definately the red-headed step child to Cyberage's prom queen and I hate the feeling of being looked down upon by a straight program. ProAdult has given me that vibe also. Try to find a particular gay niche site on their site list... impossible! What kind of commitment does ProAdult have to Imen?


I think of some more...

[Xstr8guy]

Is fisting/pissing/bondage restricted on Imen as it is on UGAS?

[BDBionic]

I've never not once ever never used an AVS for anything.
Not that I necessarily have any problem with them. Just that... well... never found the need or desire to. hehe.
I'm so in the dark about em.

All I know is that as a porn surfer, when cruising AVS sites, I find myself frustrated and just how little there is to see after I've logged in with my AVS password. And how much of what I'm seeing is the same stuff I've seen over and over and over and over again. And that frustration as a porn surfer has become hesitation as a porn webmaster.

[Xstr8guy]

You know BD, as a surfer, I had the opposite experience. I had Adult Check and UGAS passwords for years. I even had an AC Gold password for quite sometime. I did eventually become frustrated by template/crap sites that started to take over the site listings.

As a webmaster, I like to think I add more value to my sites by using attractive designs and the freshest content I can find. My Platinum sites often feature long video clips and I work in under exposed niches. I feel that I offer a reason for members to stick around by directing them to my hubsite(s) so they can be informed of my new sites and updates. I honestly feel that many of my members stick around for my sites alone... and maybe Dzinerbear's, too

[basschick]

Imen Scott - i really do hope you come! i have questions to ask you about imen, and it would be easier and faster in person. i think ross is telling everyone 1pm - i'll find out for sure.

gmpassBRYAN - i wish you guys had a higher monthly. the sites i'm building are premium, and i'd like to make $8 or more per month on rebills. i'll definitely try gmp for a standard site and see how it does.

[Dzinerbear]

I heard Xstr8guy take my name in vain, so I thought I'd pop in with some thoughts. (Thanks for the compliment Xstr8guy.)

(GMP please read down to the bottom.)

I have two sites with MANcheck exclusively. Since April, I've seen my sales increase consistently, and since October, it's been growing by leaps and bounds. I have no problems with rebillings.

Initially when I launched my sites, I was so protective of my pics that I made all of my galleries Plus sites. I didn't want the thousands of MANcheck members chomping up my bandwidth. That was a mistake, and funnily enough, as soon as I changed all of my Plus sites to Regular sites, I was amazed at how many Plus memberships I was selling. When you needed a Plus membership to get in, nobody was buying, when you had a choice, people bought like crazy. (My only explanation is that perhaps when people are cruising the directory, if they see "Plus" they think it's going to cost me more and bypass it.) Who knows.

Anyway, back to the discussion at hand. I've thought about mirroring my sites with GMP or UGAS, but from my point of view, it's too much work. I spend a lot of time writing content for each of my galleries, sometimes as much as 500-1000 words worth of description, stories, turn ons, what I'd do to the guy if I could have him, and to have to rewrite all of that content for another AVS would just be time prohibitive. I can't just mirror the site as is because then I'd get into hot water with search engines for having duplicate content. And I rely on search engines for a lot of traffic.

If I were going to go with another it would probably be GMP because I've just heard too much bad crap about UGAS. But I hesitated considering GMP too seriously because of their site's design. I'm sorry, but I find it kind of flat. (And their logo graphic is jaggy.)

The other thing that threw me for a while was this 100% commission thing. I know one would think this sounded amazing, but my mother's voice kicks in: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And so I just avoided them and didn't do much digging until recently when I saw them voted as AVS of the year.

Now, I get it: I get all of the money intially, but only a little bit when it rebills. But having worked in the business for a while, the GMP come-on sounded a bit too much like the sites offering a "free" membership.

I'm not suggesting that GMP is trying to or is ripping people off because clearly they aren't, it's just that their initial come-on triggered my bullshit meter.

Still, this leaves me with the problem of time. I don't have enough of it. And there's one last element: I know the MANcheck system in and out, I'm considering a good webmaster there, and I'm doing well. There's a bit of hesitation on my part of having to go through that getting-to-know phase and proving myself all over again.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[basschick]

Dzinerbear - do you know how much a mancheck upgrade is for their existing members?

when you say you have no problems with rebillings, i'm puzzled because you also say you have regular sites, and on the mancheck site, i can't see that regular sites GET rebills. what's the story?

for what it's worth, i've never had any problems with ugas in all these years, but i've heard stories, too.

thanks!

[Dzinerbear]

basschick,

MANcheckPlusVideo is $39.95 a month. And now I'm going to look stupid because I don't think there's a different price for members to upgrade. However, through their foreign language pages, there is a $49.95 membership, which includes a year's access, plus one month of MANcheckPlus, and then, it rebills at $39.95 a month. They keep their regular membership if they cancel the rebilling.

Now for your comments about rebilling. It's the weirdest thing, but as I said in my last post, when my sites were all MANcheckPlus, I was doing alright and things were growing at a nice pace. But I definitely noticed a difference when I changed them over to Regular sites.

I was selling more memberships to people willing spend the $20 a year. But I was amazed at the number of people who signed up voluntarily for a MANcheckPlusVideo membership at $39.95, and still am, it's an ongoing phenomena.

One would think that the Plus logo beside one's listing in MANcheck's search engine would help you, but I'm wondering if people cruising through equated PLUS with more money and just kept going.

I think it has something to do with the way their join page is laid out and how they stack up the two memberships against one another.

Still, I'm baffled why anyone who is looking for bears would be enticed by MANcheckPlusVideo. When I started my site (a year ago) I just never really thought I get a lot of those kinds of sales because of my traffic, but I was wrong.

I hope that helps. If there's anything else, basschick, let me know.

Cheers,
Dzinerbear

[basschick]

thanks. i'm not sure if i have signed up at mancheck previously. could you put up your ref code, just in case? and is there contact info for them in the webmaster member area? i'd like to call them to ask about the upgrade but i can't find any contact info.