when is it time to make a change?

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04-07-2006, 10:10 AM
basschick

when is it time to make a change?

a friend of mine has been making $4500 a month making and posting galleries, and he decided that this month it's time to change that. he's moving away from galleries to blogs, and so far he's doing well.

i've moved from everything we were doing for over three years, and to my surprise, we're doing well. of course, changes in laws were my reason for a big part of that change, but i think we were getting ready to make some large changes regardless. this just sped the process up.

i see some people who are okay with a 25% drop in income as long as they can keep doing what they are doing and i see some who want their businesses to grow whenever possible. i think most of us sort of fall between those two.

so when is it time to make a change? when do you change what you're doing and why?
04-07-2006, 12:05 PM
Chilihost

if you are making $4500 a month and want a change, I think it would be wise to hire someone and train them properly before changing, that way you can guaranty at least part of your income. Even if you were to hire an outsourcing company at $1000 per month, you are still $3500 ahead of the game.

just my opinion

cheers,
Luke
04-07-2006, 12:18 PM
Paco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilihost

I think it would be wise to hire someone and train them properly before changing, that way you can guaranty at least part of your income. Even if you were to hire an outsourcing company at $1000 per month, you are still $3500 ahead of the game.

:thumbsup:
Excellent advice, Master Chili
04-07-2006, 01:42 PM
chadknowslaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paco

:thumbsup:
Excellent advice, Master Chili

The Force is strong with him, is it not?
04-07-2006, 02:01 PM
Paco

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadknowslaw

The Force is strong with him, is it not?

Aye, that it is, oh bendy one, which is why he is The Chosen One!

Oh yah, Chad, I love the way you carry yourself, when dealing with reporters. Although the topic is sensitive and I do not wish to offend you, your replies put me on the floor!
04-07-2006, 02:09 PM
Jimsmowen

$4500 a month making galleries??? Damn he must have a shit load of partner accounts...

He is not moving over all at once I hope?? Slow change?
04-07-2006, 03:34 PM
chadknowslaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paco

Aye, that it is, oh bendy one, which is why he is The Chosen One!

Oh yah, Chad, I love the way you carry yourself, when dealing with reporters. Although the topic is sensitive and I do not wish to offend you, your replies put me on the floor!

No worries Paco. The only thing I think is offensive is ignorance.
That arrest was the most humilating event in my life--but it changed me for the better. I learned the value of honesty, admitting one's mistakes, and that nobody is invincible. I have no problem talking about it; I turned that horrible event around into a pivotal turning point in my life.
04-07-2006, 04:21 PM
basschick

although this works in theory, i made similar income with our galleries for years and this friend is the ONLY one who ever really learned enough from me to do the same. one company paid me to try to train 3 different guys to do gallery posting for them, but it just plain never worked.

most people just don't have the knack or the focus or the way with keywords, and they can get you blacklisted as well so you no longer have the best tgps open to you as an option.

so chad - how about you? you went from being a da to an adult industry attorney. how did you know it was time for that change?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chilihost

if you are making $4500 a month and want a change, I think it would be wise to hire someone and train them properly before changing, that way you can guaranty at least part of your income. Even if you were to hire an outsourcing company at $1000 per month, you are still $3500 ahead of the game.

just my opinion

cheers,
Luke
04-07-2006, 04:56 PM
maxpower

Quote:

Originally Posted by basschick

although this works in theory, i made similar income with our galleries for years and this friend is the ONLY one who ever really learned enough from me to do the same. one company paid me to try to train 3 different guys to do gallery posting for them, but it just plain never worked.

most people just don't have the knack or the focus or the way with keywords, and they can get you blacklisted as well so you no longer have the best tgps open to you as an option.

so chad - how about you? you went from being a da to an adult industry attorney. how did you know it was time for that change?

I would have to say that I do agree with her, this is not something you can just take a class and then make sale with any regularly, it is kind of a art form in many ways. 95% of your affiliates are not going to be able to provide much traffic or sales for you no matter how much you spend to teach them. They can talk to other webmaster “sometimes that is” and do administrative things, but that’s a whole other thing

.
04-07-2006, 05:03 PM
Bec

For me I think implementing change came about the same time I accepted I had other skills and/or knowledge to try other things. While not necessarily making a drastic change like totally stopping tgp submits or rebuilding my entire financial base upon other avenues ... I know now that there are better and easier ways to make money.

I also recognize the benefits of not putting all of my eggs in one basket.
04-07-2006, 06:30 PM
Marc

Wow good for you and your friend Basschick.
Ive been trying to change and I cant change shit. I still do tgp galleries because its the only thing thats made me money.

I just tried freesites, avs's, ppc search engines and lost money each time. I lost a LOT of money on ppc.

I want to do new things but I dont know how or what to do
04-07-2006, 06:32 PM
chadknowslaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by basschick

so chad - how about you? you went from being a da to an adult industry attorney. how did you know it was time for that change?

I didn't make a direct jump from DA to porn lawyer. I loved being a DA, but the pay was poor and it was in Iowa where there is snow and humidity and bugs and homo-haters and not a single gay-oriented business of any kind for over 100 miles in any direction or a good restaurant and not even an upscale WalMart for fuck sakes! It was time to come out of the closet and be openly gay for the first time in my life--June 24, 2001 I admitted to another human being I was gay. I took the Bar Exam in Arizona, passed it, left my office and established life in Iowa for the unknown in Arizona. The first 3 months I didn't even look for work but I read everything I could about coming out of the closet. I went to Pride in San Francisco, San Diego, and Palm Springs. I ripped the doors off my closet and vowed never to go back in. I went to gay AA and made a new circle of friends. I got involved in gay politics. I quickly became part of the gay community and the phoenix community. I eventually looked for work and took a job as corporate counsel for a real estate title company and tolerated that for 2 years before going into private practice. I had established myself in the gay community and did have a good general practice, but after I took on one of the bathhouses for a client a friend told me I should delve into adult online if I was willing to take adult clients. I went to my first Internext and had three very good men lead me around and introduce me to _everybody_. One was our very own Patrick! Within 4 months the only new clients I was taking on were adult, and within 6 months my practice I was exclusively adult. I found that my clients in the adult world are the best people I have worked with, they are honest, open, they understand the need for legal services in their businesses, they are repeat customers and they pay well. The environment where I can be exactly who I am without having to put on airs or try fit into a mould of what an attorney should be is envigorating. My background and experience were ideal for adult work and I really enjoy what I am doing. I didn't know it was time for a change, but change happened and I love it!
04-07-2006, 06:39 PM
Marc

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadknowslaw

I took the Bar Exam in Arizona, passed it, left my office and established life in Iowa for the unknown in Arizona.

What made you pick Arizona? Did you throw a dart at a map? : )

I'm asking because I want to move to an unknown place so its interesting to me that you would just up and move to Arizona.
04-07-2006, 07:06 PM
chadknowslaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc

What made you pick Arizona? Did you throw a dart at a map? : )

I'm asking because I want to move to an unknown place so its interesting to me that you would just up and move to Arizona.

When I was 15 years old I went with my family on a road trip to California for a family reunion. Driving through the southwest, I knew then that this was where I wanted to live. I felt drawn to the desert. 18 years later, I did it.
04-08-2006, 01:51 AM
Huskyhunks

What a great question to ask Basschick and also I'm so impressed with you Chad. It took alot of balls to change your life the way you've done. I really admire the risk takers, they are the most successful people out there.

I think there's just an intuition that most webmasters follow to keep their business going in the right direction. To me, design changes make the most impact on sales. People love it when a site does a redesign. Retail stores always change their windows because they know that consumers react by buying more of their inventory. Some stores change every week, some every month. It's not so much that the back end of the store changes, but the front end always has to stay fresh.

The same thing applies to adult. I can usually get about 3 months out of a front end design before I do a redesign. I'm at the end of the current design and working on a new one. The feeder site template I have used for the last two and a half months is also at the end of it's usefulness. I can feel the momentum easing up and sales leveling off. I know that my content still has the ability to make good sales but I want to always try to stay at the crest of the wave.
04-08-2006, 03:13 AM
basschick

wow, chad - thanks for sharing your story. that was really inspiring and powerful!

Huskyhunks - it's funny. 5 of the best selling sponsors i work with have never changed their tours, and still sell like mad. the rest of the sponsors we use definitely do get stale and you see a gradual lessening of sales but most of the sponsors won't change their tours so we have to change to new sponsors.

Marc - just an aside here, but when working with ppc search engine traffic, you need

1. a site that pays enough per sale or retains well
2. to know the right trigger words and how to use them
3. to bid high enough to get hits but low enough to make a profit
4. to expect that your ad will need to be tweaked several times before it does its best

unless you're very good and have all the right stuff, you need to stay far far away from general keywords like "gay sex". they get tons of hits, don't convert well on most sites, and you can go broke in no time.