Running your own paysite

[Rimmates.com]

Are affiliate programs pretty much needed if you want to run a successful site, or can a site do well with a low membership fee and just excellent word of mouth?

I'd like to start a paysite with something like $8.95 membership fees, and see how the word of mouth goes. Getting into the $25-$40 monthly membership fees requires huge content volume and I just don't have that yet.

Is it worth trying?

[ArmpitLover]

We'll talk about this on the phone next time....

Hugs
D

[TropixxxStudios]

To put in my two cents...

We started a pay site last February. We are doing very well, and we only have about two affiliates.

For some reason, we can't seem to attract any affiliates, even though we pay the standard 50%, etc. Maybe it is just we are a specialty niche...and there aren't that many people that want to drive traffic to us.

The two affiliates we do have basically run review sites...and they seem to be doing well. Converting about 1:200, give or take. That being said, we never seem to make more than a few hundred dollars a month from our affiliates...the bulk of our sales come from our own advertising.

So, although I am glad we have affilates, and are still actively looking for them...you can be very sucessfull without them. At least in my opinion.

- Michael