Which makes my point perfectly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
If someone can get off to some hardcore sample pics, why are we flooding the net with them?
Regards,
Lee
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Which makes my point perfectly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
If someone can get off to some hardcore sample pics, why are we flooding the net with them?
Regards,
Lee
Oh lord.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
So your personal crusade is to convince every affiliate program to stop giving out free content? Good luck with that!
I'm sure every affiliate program other than Condom Cash will gladly accept sales made by affiliates from blogs, TGPs, etc. that use sponsor content to make the sale.
On the other hand, I'll gladly accept sales made by affiliates using Maxpixels or Ounique content. But I guarantee that the sale will be harder to convert.
Why will the sale be harder to convert?Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Regards,
Lee
Why did the photo train leave the station though?Quote:
Originally Posted by JustBryce
Go back and look at the link in the original post and tell me why, in a couple of years time, maybe even months, JUB is going to have to start offering more and more images on your blog posts.
Remember, more and more blog owners are doing the same thing that the guy in the original post is doing... Can you say without exception that you guys will NEVER start offering more than you do now in a blog post and if not, why not? What would make you have to increase the number of images you give away as a 'tease'? What would make you change from giving away images as a tease and have to start offering movies as a tease?
Regards,
Lee
Because the content the affiliate is using isn't going to be found on the site they are promoting. A surfer sees pics of John X on a blog that is promoting a site where John X is nowhere to be found.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
And besides, Ounique and Maxpixels aren't exclusive content. ;)
You know...I was taking tours of sites for ideas and I noticed a site that gave a lot of content out but did it in BLACK AND WHITE!
I thought how fucking brilliant is that...it I really LOVE your content I am going to want to experience it as much as I can and that would be in color.
I almost signed up just to see that hot preview in color.
Lee
It doesnt matter, for the last 10+ years people have been using purchased content to sell memberships to sites that didnt have that exact same content set or model in the members area, it never hurt sales then and it doesnt hurt sales now unless you are promoting solo model sites then yeah, that just doesnt make sense $0.02Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Can you not see the vicious circle we [the entire industry] has become caught in? 4 sample pics became to little, so we offered 10, 10 became to little, so we offered 20, 20 became to little so we offered 4 exclusive content pics, 4 became to little to we offered 10 exclusive content pics, the pic train left the station so we offered 10 second movie clips, 10 second movie clips became to small so we'll offer 30 seconds, 30 second movie clips became to small so we'll offer 1 minute movie clips, 1 minute movie clips will become to small so we'll offer 2 minute movie clips, 2 minute movie clips will become to small so we'll offer 1 minute exclusive content movie clips, 1 minute exclusive content movie clips will become to small so we'll offer 2 minute exclusive content movie clips, 2 minute exclusive content movie clips will become to small so well offer 1 exclusive content scene....
See a pattern there at all? I do, its been happening slowly but surely over the past 8 years and its going to continue until surfers are being given everything they want for free, we dont need to be increasing the quality or quantity of content being offered, we need to reduce the amounts and quality (in some form) otherwise it wont be long until every paysite needs to start giving away free DVDs with every membership.
Surfers are getting more and more demanding, and we're giving in to them.
It happened on the straight side of the industry a couple of years ago, now all those straight companies are launching their own gay programs and guess what, they are going to kill the gay porn marketplace just like they did the straight one, and we're going to contribute to it, because if we dont, they'll get all the traffic and sales.
More, higher quality, exclusive content being used a 'teasers' isnt the way to plan for our long term profitability.
Go in to your local ice-cream parlor and ask for a sample of every flavor they have on offer and walk out without buying anything. The next day, do the same thing, then the day after that and the day after that, how many times do you think you could get away with it before the owner gives you bigger samples of their ice-cream?
Now imagine if EVERY 'customer' did the same thing and nobody bought until they were being given waffle cones with 2 scoops of ice-cream in them, what would happen to the store?
Regards,
Lee
Actually that is something i have been thinking about over the past few weeks, and i think THAT even in large numbers of images, would be more motivation to signup to a site than to give out the same amount of color images :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by MiamiB
The site owner wouldnt be substituting quality or the number of images, theyd just be giving out samples like you'd find at your local grocery store when they have a special event going on when they want to sell more deli meats, they give you one small slice :)
Regards,
Lee
Sorry but a recent experiment I've done seems to be disproving the "giving away the cow with the milk" theory. I promote a sponsor who regularly hands out 50 pics per guy. I have put up free galleries using most of this content (40 pics per guy, one guy per freesite). I've sold more memberships for this sponsor in a month than I have in two years of trying to promote them.
Michael
Yeah, that works really great for a blog entry. :crazy:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
Example blog entry using Ounique photos...
"Uknakedmen has a really hot guy this week on their site. His name is Ben and he's an Irish lad with a hard trim body and a big cock. He kind looks like this guy here, except this guy is not Irish. In fact I have no idea where he's from. Oh, and you've probably seen this picture years ago a thousand times."
Oh yeah, that is really going to make sales go through the roof! :thumbsup:
You quoted me before i had a chance to finish my edits LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Also for the record, blogs arent the be-all and end-all of traffic, there are plenty of other places out there to get 'hits' hehe ;)
Regards,
Lee
Yes, but I maintain that sponsor provided content will almost always sell a site better than generic licensed content.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
Im not denying that fact, when it comes to sites that feature single models and thats all they talk about, but why should sponsors have to give out THOUSANDS of high quality uncensored images and movie clips anyway, whether its exclusive or licensed?Quote:
Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
Why isnt 10-20 low quality teaser pics enough for webmasters to sell their sponsors sites any more? Its because of 1 of 2 reasons...
1) There is already to much free content out there.
2) Webmasters dont know how to sell their sponsors product.
I can sell site memberships using purely text ads, so can hundreds of thousands of other people, if they couldnt, places like Yahoo and Google wouldnt be making millions each year from their PPC services.... Services that dont have any 'preview' pics involved at all, the traffic goes directly to the sponsors sites.
If i want to use images or movies to sell a sponsors site, ill use my own content, that i purchased specifically for that purpose, not the same sponsor content that thousands of other webmasters have already diluted on their galleries and blog entries.
Regards,
Lee
Even if you don't provide affiliates with member-area access to snag the content they want, they can still post buttloads of content in one place just by providing an exhaustive linklist of every single hosted gallery you provide all from one easy-access page. Or set up a fansite style blog in which they only feature one model's galleries. It's frustrating, but I don't know if it does any good to argue that holding back content is going to solve the problem.
With small sites like ours trying to compete for exposure with big huge corporate sites with tons of affiliates and scads of free content, we have to do SOMETHING just to be seen by surfers. I have noticed that even some of our affiliates who (sometimes unintentionally because it's so common among tgp and blog promoters) abuse the free content by posting links to hundreds of our pics from one page wind up making sales that we wouldn't otherwise have. Maybe we assume too often that surfers seeing loads of a model's free content everywhere is a bad thing when in fact it is giving surfers' the perception that s/he is "famous" and he's missing out on something to have never joined his site (I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who runs solo girl/guy/tranny sites).
Yes, I think we would make a lot more money if there wasn't more than a handful of free porn out there and it were the good old days but it's not and those days aren't coming back so for now it makes sense to focus on the positive and recognize that if our content is unique and our personalities shine through AND we have more to offer members (live shows, video, spycams, frequent updates, etc.) than they'll ever get from free galleries then we can get those freeloaders and supposed two-pump chumps to convert.
BTW, I would rather have members (and yes, they do become members, these relics of the past who still get off on pictures) who are aroused by striptease style photographs and even non-nude content than these desensitized guys who need to see people fucked through their ears and every accessible hole possible by foot-long monster-dicks in high definition in order to shoot a load. There are still a lot of people in the world who not only LIKE softcore and still images, but actually prefer it, particularly when it comes to certain niches and fetishes. Anyway, if a guy is looking to jerk off to a solo guy masturbating, if he has 40 photos from dressed to cumshot that he can download and watch in a slideshow, it's not all that much different from seeing a video. More than 20 pics really is way too much, I think, but again, what can you do except focus on the positive and make sure as a site owner you have a hook for getting them to want more.
I suppose it's possible that the more free content you give away, the more likely a freebie-surfer will download more of your content with your domain name stamped on them, will jerk off to it more often than other people's and develop a really positive association with it, and eventually be such a fan and so curious that he finally joins. In the mainstream world a surfer usually visits 9-11 times before purchasing something; I have always tried to apply that to our sites and not assume all porn purchases must be compulsive first-timers; if you work on branding and getting return visitors who become loyal and see that your sites are always fresh (and more dynamic than other sites) then eventually they will buy.
Also, for personality sites like ours it doesn't make ANY sense for people to use bought content to promote us. I've never seen it be effective for any of our affiliates.
FYI: I wouldn't even have bothered posting except for needing to keep my account active. It's always fun to come to this board, though, and see these issues discussed in a rational and coherent way where on the straight webmaster boards the first person who even suggests too much free content is being given away is flamed to hell for being a heretic.
Hi Don,
First off, I want to say that Randyblue has been my best converting site and Blueloot by far the strongest sponsor ever since I signed up, somewhere in 2004. No other sponsor has ever come even near the amount of money I make with RB. Also the staff has always been professional and helpful, and I have only the fondest experiences regarding my job as an affiliate for RB. :playboy:
However, I think Blueloot is now really starting to give away too much free content to ALL webmasters. In the past, each webmaster got the 12 pics for every picture set, and if he proved to be reliable he was given the access to the site itself. I usually used this additional content to add about 2-3 pics to each set for the purpose of making free sites. I know full well that if anyone gives away the entire set, surfers are just going to jerk off to it and not join...
Only a few days ago I noticed that now every webmaster can get the entire picture set straight from the blueloot webmaster lounge. Just go to "Hosted galleries - Free pictures", select e.g. PPS, and "Gallery images - Download".Quote:
Lee, you assume that we give entire photo sets to our affiliates to promote our site. You know what happens when you assume, don't you? ;)
I actually agree with you that free content is supposed to be a teaser. That's why we give 12 photos to our affiliates in hosted galleries or separate for them to make their own designs. And personally, I'm all about creativity and if people want to get a membership and choose a few alternate photos that will fit their angle better, I couldn't see why anyone would think that would be an issue. However, we do not encourage people to post entire galleries of our content.
This will download ALL the pictures for the selected picture set, as if the webmaster logged into the RB members area and manually downloaded the entire set, pic by pic.
I am not sure if this was done on purpose or is some kind of a mistake?
I really think you should reconsider this, because there are many new affiliates that DO NOT understand that giving away complete picture sets will nullify their sales - and the sales of other affiliates.
I think it's much better to at least see if an affiliate understands the "teaser concept", and then give him the pass for the members area so that he can select a few more pics, or to make a different selection of the same set... but always making sure that it is a TEASER not giving away of the entire members area!
My RB sales went to down down since the 2nd week of July. It could be cause of this... I don't know.
Please reconsider the decision to give away entire picture sets to every new webmaster. I think it won't end up well for any of us.
I think I already expressed my opinion in the previous text. Your 12 pic selection was actually VERY good, and in most cases it didn't need to be "improved". The webmasters that can demonstrate they understand the "teaser concept" can be given the access to the members area of the site and then they can choose something extra.Quote:
So let me pose a question to you guys. How would you best handle a situation like this? Some of you have talked about "clamping down" and refusing content, but really, there has to be a happy medium so that your affiliates have the freedom to promote in a way that works well for them without harming potential sales?