sites in larger programs :(

i'm checking out all the gay sites in a large well-known program right now, and i am shocked. this is not the first larger program whose sites have dismayed me, but i thought things had improved somewhat.

the sites i am looking at are their standard sites, not reality sites. some of the sites don't offer any pics in the niche of the site, and one didn't offer any videos in the niche of the site - and only one video plugin at all. sure, you get access to the other sites, so you do get a lot of content, but if you wanted content in the niche you joined for, you're out of luck.

none of these sites have any content that is not plugins, which startled me. maybe part of the reason is 2257, but it's still rather amazing to me. not one pic set or one video is hosted within the actual sites themselves.

maybe i'm just a whiner, but if i was a surfer who had been around a while, and i joined a couple sites like this, i'd certainly be pretty skeptical of any sites and their claims in the future. i feel like this is really harming our ability to sell to customers as our good faith is erroded when we make claims about sites like these that the sites don't live up to.

what are your thoughts?

I really know what you mean. There is one major program that I used to promote for that had something like 100 straight sites and one gay mega site. I tried promoting the gay mega site, and wasnt getting very good results. So I went ahead and signed up to make sure I was getting credit and was aghast when I went to the members link.

It went to their straight mega site area, where each and every one of their other sites went to, and the surfer had to sift through the straight stuff to find the link to the gay area, which is all they signed up for in the first place.

I am constantly amazed that they continue to throw up these front ends and then the member area has nothing to do with what they just sold the surfer. I uess they amek a lot from it but it really pisses me off as a webmaster because I think this hurts the whole industry overall and makes the surfer just that much more wary to pull their credit card out the next time.

I guess I am old fashioned. I figure give the people what they want, a lot of it, and keep giving it to them and they stay. But then again I want my members to stay for a long time and they do. I just checked my stats this period and rebills are at 86.49%.

This is what I like to call "old style" porn sites, and yes it is very common especially with straight sites where you can buy a million plugins with all sorts of content. This is also a great reason to try to promote smaller sites, cuz the site owners actually give their members content they host and you will find they care more about their survers which means longer retention and better $ for all.

cheers,
Luke

this program has a large number of gay sites, and a lot of them don't even offer picture plugins - they simply offer no pics at all. and several sites don't offer movies in the niches of the site.

if i was a surfer, i'd be pissed!

yep
nothing surprising there.
seen it many time throughout with these "sites".
the ones i've seen had like 2 galleries in the niche that was hyped on the outside, the rest was plugins with mostly unrelated content

I am not sure if you are talking about TOPBUCKS, but their "gay sites" are just plain shitty and awfull and I would never ever ever promote them, since they falsely advertise their content and I am still surprised that GWW has them as top sponsor.

If you don't believe me, just try and purchase 3 day access to any of their gay sites, you'd be surprised how much straight content you get for your money, and how much zilch of pictures, movies etc.

All their gay sites, have same straight and a bit of gay content.

The most horrid program out there, at least from the point of a surfer.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by basschick

sure, you get access to the other sites, so you do get a lot of content, but if you wanted content in the niche you joined for, you're out of luck.

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This is a big problem I've always had with the conglomerates. They create a tour of women shoving Coke bottles up their hoo-haws and somewhere on the tour it screams, "1000s of pics," which implies there are thousands of pics of women shoving Coke bottles up their hoo-haws. And of course there aren't.

I think this kind of behaviour only breeds distrust amongst surfers and makes them less willing to pull out their credit cards, which of course is why I believe the conglomerates also have to bombard surfers with pop-ups and exit consoles.

My traffic's never done well with these kinds of sites and I imagine this is one the reasons why. Surfers become educated on the lay of the land.

Michael

Its often easier (and significantly cheaper) for those companies with hundreds of sites to just to fill the members area with plugins, i mean, would you rather pay upwards of $50 a set for 50-100 pics or, lease a plugin for one month with a couple of thousands pics in it for the same $50?

I know which one i would rather do, especially if im paying out $35 per signup.

The programs i really dislike, are those that have both PPS and Revshare and use the exact same members area for both business models :eek:

Regards,

Lee

lee, most of these sites were far from "filled up" with anything. i know many plugins that would have fit the niches of these sites, but they didn't even use aebn.

like i said, several of the sites had either NO video plugins in the niche at all or no picture plugins at all - i mean, at all.

so for example, an interracial site would have NO interracial video feeds - leased or otherwise. just none there.

Many of these large webmaster programs are the same..i have problem with sites that claim one thing in the tour to sell it, and then have nothing near what they claim in the pitch in their members area. platinum bucks is one...gay sites that share common members areas using niche specific "feeder" sites to channel signups to that members area... It takes away from my sales from a site we spend considerable money and time maintaining and shooting content for.... it takes away credibility from those in the industry that run honest members areas that match what their sales tour says they have.... and "they" are many times straight companies just trying to capitalize on the gay dollar who will not hesitate to slander our lifestyle on other boards and tell their jokes about us in their parties, but will surely be happy to take our membership money, and our affiliate traffic, all the while laughing at us all the way to the bank. And for those gay companies that own these type of deceptive sites...shame on you.

and I think that responsible sites should take a stand and not promote these sites by ad revenues, or by affiliate sales as it does nothing but perpertuate the problem, telling the errant company that what they are doing is okay, as long as I get paid for promoting your lie...we claim that there should be ethics in our business when it comes to other areas of the adult business, and I think it is time we hold this segment of the business to the truth in advertising ethic as well.

maybe i am stepping on toes here and some won't like this response but until we tell them we won't promote it, they will keep pushing it at us.

hey, they do the same thing with str8 sites - they teach the surfers that porn sites cannot be trusted. that CAN'T be a good thing for our industry...

My point exactly, TopBucks is one of the biggest sponsors on most of tgps and on many, many hundreds other gay sites... so you can imagine how many people pulled their cc's out to discover they've been ripped off.

And promoting a sponsor that pays you $35 and not caring what your surfers got for their money and if they are going to trust another gay site to pull their credit card out is just lame money making shite...

Especially when there are so many quality gay sponsors that do not deal also with a straight side of the porn, but instead invest their time and money in pleasing gay surfers

TopBucks is shit. Total piece of shit that delivers nothing close to what a gay membership site should be, so it's no wonder they offer all their 16 "gay" sites with your membership. Because they are all the same! Same content, same straight feeds, same pictures, and so much straight porn that a gay surfer has no clue what to do with it.