These are just my opinions so let me hit your questions one at a time...
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Do you think holidays and the winter months bring more surfers?
It used to be that the months following Christmas were best for getting new signups because EVERYONE seemed to get a PC from Santa however, as technology has found its way into virtually everyones homes the amount of 'new' surfers hitting the web during the seasonal times has started to decline, mainly because they are already surfing ;)
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Do you think more people sign up for trials when the price is lower?
You know i honestly dont beleive the 'cost' of a trial has any significant weight on whether a surfer will or wont join a site instead, i think it is more about what you offer your surfers that is different to the thousands of other paysites out there or at least, how you 'present' what you offer differently ;)
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If not the winter, what time of year do you think is best?
Same as my answer above.. it depends on what YOU do to ensure a surfer joins your site :)
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Since I have a mega site, I have no idea how well the smaller pay sites do.
Smaller, more focused and unique niches convert on average [in my experience] up to 35% better than the more 'general' megasite business model of course, with making micro niche sites you need to adjust your marketing to reflect the tastes of the micro-niche surfers.
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Do you think small nitche sites do ok?
Hell yes.. see above though :)
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Has anyone here ever joined a small nitche site to see what they offer and if so, what kind of content did they have and how much?
I have and to be honest, it varies from site operator to site operator. Some micro niches for example can get away with having as few as 500 images in their members area with monthly or weekly updates of around 50-100 images but i would have to stress, that is for the extremely unique micro niche sites.
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Do the independent small sites offer much more than an avs site?
In terms of the content offered to surfers, yes. You really have no set limits on what you MUST offer your members on a micro niche site whilst with an AEN system, you are told you need a minimum amount of images.
So far as the profit potential, whilst AEN sites do offer you a good way to generate income, owning your own micro niche sites offers you a much better way to generate your own income however, with that added profitability also comes some added troubles which with AEN sites you dont have to be concerned about, such as whether your processors closes down etc etc.
Whatever you decide to do, i would strongly suggest that first and foremost, unless you KNOW 100% that there is a market for the micro niches you have the sites pre-built for, i would suggest testing them out on an AEN system, preferably a 'premium' AEN system like MANcheck.
That way you will have at least some figures to base your business decisions on when it comes to ultimately launching your paysites.
Regards,
Lee
