The Next Step?
Something I've been wondering...
When would you recommend to take the next step?
I mean, from having free galleries or a porn blog with sponsors' content and go on and launch his/her own pay site (with purchased content)? Or, in the case of a "free access" porn blog, add (a) members' only section(s)? Would you recommend to wait until something especific happens? Like reaching maintaining a certain minimmun of visitors or something like that?
Thanks in advance.
i'd say someone who's had their own free site or blog is not even close to a paysite. and everyone has their own personal goals, so there is no one answer. owning a paysite is not the ultimate goal of everyone in adult - but a lot of newer webmasters seem to think it it. there are many ways to earn a full-time living, and most people find a part of the industry that interests them and slowly learn to make it their own.
i know people who have been in this business for over 5 years, and all they do is run tgps. by now the ones who are serious about this as a business run big tgps that make enough money to live on, but that is what they do and they're damned good at it.
if you are interested in having a paysite later, i'd say make a premium avs and see how it sells and learn to make changes that make it sell better and learn how often to update it. you might even make 3 or 4 so you can find out which niche sells the best.
when i was focusing on gallery posting i made thousands a month, and i know people who do nothing but create search engine landing pages who do great. so - imo - the important thing is to find what you're good at and expand on it.
When you have 70 to 100k to invest you might be close to the point of starting a good paysite.
i know people who have started successful paysites on FAR less than that. the thing they had that most people who start paysites don't have is lots of knowledge - or else truly knowlegeable people working with them. and finding truly knowledgeable people also takes knowledge.
i've known several people who spent over $80,000 and ended up completely failing. ya gotta know about paysites, about how to get traffic - whether from your own sources or affiliates, about your market, about updates and content... it's a tall order.
You dont need anywhere near that much to start a paysite these days.Originally Posted by joneze
Realistically, $5k could get you setup with one paysite and an affiliate program from scratch, meaning buying all the content, getting the processing and design work done.
As Patti said though, if you dont know what you are doing paysite wise, you'll just be wasting money.
I think the best advice annyone can offer is summed up in this line..
They really are words to live bythe important thing is to find what you're good at and expand on it.
Regards,
Lee
Perfect comment. Always easier to start with what you know, than trying to cram a whole lot of what you don't know into the brain. Paysites are tricky unless you have the seasoning & knowledge.the important thing is to find what you're good at and expand on it.
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Obliviously I’m not a paysite expert. So I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brains a little.
I’ve seen where it would cost 5k in site design alone. (Professional stuff} then you need to add lawyer fees for contracts, software costs for affiliate programs, surfer signups, rebilling, member area password protection, not to mention dedicated server fees, high quality frequently updated content, advertising (banner spots on boards like this, mags etc.). I could go on.
So, how do you do a good paysite without those costs? I’m not talking about a glorified AVS site, but a real paysite.
by "a real paysite", do you mean exclusive content or can this real paysite use non-exclusive content if it's good quality and not overexposed?
let's say you start with 10 exclusive jackoff videos - or 10 exclusive underwear videos - or something solo. you can get models for $100 each or $150 no prob. let's call it 20 videos total, and you'll also do pics for each video. so we're talking $2500. and while some people break the bank for a hot camcorder and camera, i've promoted sites that used average of both and had very happy members. if you already have a $750 camcorder and $500 camera, you're already covered. but let's say you don't.
$800 my camcorder cost this including shipping and extra battery.
$600 there are several nice digital cameras great for good amateur shoots
$110 light kit from bhphoto.
$100 for a bunch of minidv's.
-----------
$1610 for equipment
$2500 for models
$4110 and you have 20 exclusive videos
when you buy bulk, most content guys will lower the price, so call it $50 per and we'll start with 25 videos in the member area and 5 updates in hand
$1500 for 30 non exclusive videos
now you can either use vidcaps or you can go hi-rez pics. let's call it high rez so we'll get 30 good quality sets at $50 each so now we have spent
$3000 for 30 videos, 30 sets of vidcaps and 30 sets of hi-rez stills.
so we're way under $5000 for content.
now you can start small. i know of 3 video editing programs that will actually do a very acceptable job on your videos for under $50 each. so we'll buy one of those.
i have a good buddy who started several non exclusive sites like that and he's doing great. he now has 9 sites - 8 are non exlclusive and each was started for under $4000. what he DID have was tons of knowledge.
if you're using an experienced adult industry lawyer and you're not doing anything weird, you should be able to get set up for $1000. after all, this shouldn't require any research time for them, but you can call it $2000 if you like.
let's talk designers. i know some good designers who charge $300 to $500 for a rockin' site and actually know what they're doing. or you can go webinc and they'll do ya up for $1699. want a fairly high end affiliate site? well, honestly you don't need one, but let's blow $999. i know a bunch of designers who can do ya for this.
sign up for ccbill. you really really REALLY don't need to cascade yet, so this will cost you $750 for the visa registration and now you have processing AND an affilaiate program that will pay your affiliates. what's more - since you're new - people trust ccbill to pay them. a big plus.
want a cms? with one site you may not need one, but if you want one, you can get something nice for $1500. many sites do without, but what the heck. and we're still well under $12,000 AND you don't really need that cms or the higher priced design.
i pay $124 a month for a dedicated server on a nice network with 3mbps. unless you're putting out video galleries, that will hold ya to get started. and if you're already a webmaster, you're probably already paying $124 or more.
if you want, you can throw in some adult stories - $100 gets you a lot if you get collections. you can add plugins if it fits your niche - there are some nice ones that will give you a serious break on price to start up.
something else. i have a buddy who started a site in a niche he knew well. it's a str8 niche, and i found him a place that allows you to link to each movie they offer separately plus you can have your own header, background and links on the movie pages. he started his paysite with $2500 worth of nice pics, a $1299 design and movies from that site. as he made money, he started hosting his own videos. his retention is above industry standard and he didn't even have any videos to start. you can't beat success - 35% of his trials convert to monthly and he has average retention of 70% month to month.
You mean in general or niche related? However, that put me to think "What am I really good at?" And I concluded that I'm good at planning, I mean, I've been schemming a "business plan" (so to speak), let me expose it here and tell me what you all think:
As any newbie (I guess) I signed up with different sponsors, I don't have the money to afford a .com or something similar (even those $8 are expensive in my country), so, I got 4 of those new .be domains, since I didn't want to have those banner ads that appear on most free hosts (those ads are BIG), I went back to the hosting of some 'net friends that have a board and offer the "host for posting - no ads" system, you post a minimmun of 10 post a week and you keep your hosting, and the account includes a huge lot of thingies I have no idea what are they for but have heard of (like fantastico, php-nuke, and stuff like that...); you can have a main domain, 3 add-on ones, and park 3 more, so, I hosted (let's call them this way) domain1 as the principal, and as add-on domains 2, 3, and 4; so, what to do...
Since I signed up with different sponsors, I have a wide variety of content for diffente niches, and diffente qualities; I'll divide this content on 3 categories, "OK", "Good", and "Excellent", they are classified that way depending on how big of a hard-on they gave me-- Er... I mean, on the quality of them.
On domain1 I'll have a bunch of free-sites with the "OK" quality, static (no content change), all linking to: the sponsor, 1 AVS site of the same sponsor on domain2, 1 AVS site of the same sponsor on domain3, the fake TGP on the index of domain1, and the porn-blog on domain4.
On domain2 I'll have AVS sites with the "Good" content, but just enough to qualify as "Regular" by the AVS system, with dynamic content (regular updates), all linking to: the sponsor, 1 AVS site of the same sponsor on domain3, the fake TGP on the index of domain1, and the porn-blog on domain4.
On domain3 I'll have AVS sites with the "Good" content, but this time with enough material to be "Premium" by the AVS standards, with dynamic content (regular updates), all linking to: the sponsor, the fake TGP on the index of domain1, and the porn-blog on domain4.
On domain4 I'll have the porn-blog with reviews of the content of the sponsors, reviews of other things (like movies or books), industry news, rotaning "OK" content, and an AVS section with "Good" and "Excellent" content, and, obviously, links to the sponsors and the TGP.
As you can see, all the linking to the TGP and the Blog are to help them up in the SE statistics. Also, the fake TGP will be divided in sections, one for the free-sites divided by niche, and one for the AVS sited divided by niche and AVS system.
Now, I've been looking for time-saving scripts to help with all this, like PHP or SSI, but free versions as I am completelly broke and can't buy one, and much less afford for a custom-made one, so I'm looking for free scripts and some tutorials so as to adapt them to what I want; not much luck as of today...
Later on, once I have some money from that (and a client base, as well as more experience), I can buy some content and launch a pay-site.
A friend of mine told me that, since I'm english-spanish bilingual, to offer my services to translate sites because the quantity (and quality) of porn sites in spanish is REALLY limited, but I don't know if there's a market for that, I mean, I don't know how many webmasters would be interested in having a spanish version of their sites, or even how much to charge for doing it.
Anyway, this is what I've thought... What do you think?
mgh379 –
Have you looked at these sites for scripts?
http://php.resourceindex.com/
http://www.hotscripts.com/
http://www.scriptsearch.com/
They have a lot of free scripts.
Also, sorry for butting in on your thread.
basschick -
Thank you for your information it was very enlightening. I now have some new options in the future I can realistically consider.
MGH397:
I think your business plan is way too complicated. Craft a plan that lets you build one single website, which you can subsequently measure for results. This four website plan you outlined creates too many balls in the air to juggle.
Your posts impied that you have limited money for a business. I can personally tell you that as a webmster, you need very little money to begin an enterprise that can return sizeable profits.
Just build one single website using the contact that gives you the biggest hard-on. Your enthusiasm will spill over, and your readers should feel that.
And hey if you are running just one site, you don't have to begin with "time saving scripts" which are an additional expense and learning curve. Start the site, earn some money, and then with that money you can purchase what you things like that later.
You have a valuable gift in your ability to speak Spanish. I have wished countless times that I knew other languages for special pages on my sites.
You have tons of opportunity to make a great living from this.
Steve
why not make one site - just one. make it in the best way you know how to, then learn through it? i can guarantee taking the time to learn to do one thing right will be more valuable than doing 4 things half-assed.
btw, i know a couple guys who don't own any paysites yet make 50 or more sales per day on their sponsors. they focused on learning traffic, and they kick my ass and also the asses of a large number of small and medium paysite programs' asses. most paysites never make that much - there are lots of ways to make money in this business that don't involve having to own and cut up content and deal with updates and members.
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