New Paysite - Questions

[PozScott]

Hi - I'm in the process of having a gay paysite developed and so far have spent about $2500 for development and intitial content. I figure I'll spend an other $500 for members area and billing integration. After that I'll have about $10k left to get the site up and running. I figure $2k a month for content, I'm doing a Video On Demand site with 100 channels of premium content. My question is what is the best spend of my marketing money. I figure I can try to make a go of it over a three month period. I was planning on buying traffic if that is a viable option. Now I'm wondering if I should shelve the paysite for a few months and develope a few feeder sites and tgps to get traffic to feed the site. I really appreciate your help. Thanks! Scott

:groovy:

[baddog]

Personally, I would build a nice AVS site or two. Promote the AVS site, which will most likely be a better value for the surfer's dollar, and probably a higher payout to you; then in the AVS site, upsell your paysite.

Essentially, you will be using the AVS as a more explicit tour for your paysite. $.02

[gaystoryman]

Well, in my opinion you need the paysite up in order to make the rest work. I mean if you dont have it up and running what will the feeder sites or avs sites feed or the tgp's?

I'd get the paysite up, then add feeder sites, submit to tgp's, set up a couple of avs sites as well with the upsell option exclusively to your paysite.

Buying traffic is something I'd send to the feeder sites. The average quality of bought traffic is not terriffic so at least if you send them to the feeders, where you can list the avs sites and paysites you have better chances of getting some conversion.

Also use the feeder sites to link to the paysite in 'straight links' and don't link back from the paysite, that will build your ranking with the SE if you choose to go that route as well, assuming the free section of the paysite is SEO and not merely images & flash.

I'd also take the time to make the feeder sites SE friendly as well. after all that is targetted free traffic.

Both the feeder & avs sites can have link pages for traffic trades or webmaster referrals if you are having an affiliate program with the paysite.

Anyhow just my 2 cents worth

Ian

[PozScott]

Thanks for the info. Do you have a recommendation on which AVS to use? Thanks again, Scott

[Lee]

First of all welcome to the community Scott :groovy:

Okay as has already been mentioned before you can get any solid advice you should really have your paysite live.

On another note, the fact you are wanting to spend almost 10k on a single paysite is a little worrying. IMHO you dont need to spend as much as that on a site, especially if it is going to be your first and you are not sure about what you are wanting to do (other than make money).

Here is a link with a little more info within it:

http://forums.gaywidewebmasters.com/...hlight=paysite

You might like to read through that in addition to using the board search feature as there are a couple of other threads about starting your first paysite on the community too

Again good to have you here with us and i look forward to getting to you know

Regards,

Lee

[PozScott]

Believe me I don't want to spend any more than I have to but I'm willing to do what it takes to make the site successful. I was planning on buying large amounts (300k impressions) of traffic for a few months and see what the conversions would be but I hear that most traffic is pretty poor.

[basschick]

the site can only be successful if the niche and the design work. if they do, why not just start an affiliate program and let your affiliates send the traffic?

[Chilihost]

If you are willing to pay that much to get your site started, then go for it! I see no reason why you cannot build up your other traffic channels during your first 3 months when you are buying traffic.

Post a link to the site when it is up, I am sure we are all keen on seeing it!

cheers,
Luke

[Brad Mitchell]

PozScott,

I'm a bit nervous about your budget and what you're planning on spending. If I've learned one thing after being in this business for 5 years, it's that the money is easy to spend and hard to make back. I agree that you need content, and obviously a good site design. However, I would strongly recommend against spending $2000/month on plug-ins if you're just getting started. It would be easy to get burned out and be out of business in 3-6 months. Let's look at some paysite math:

If you had good traffic, not 404 or the type you can buy 50k-100k at a time, you'd be looking at maybe 1:300 in conversions. Let's assume you sold every membership for $30 and didn't offer a trial. $30 - 25% (15% for 3rd party fees, 10% for reserve) = $22.50. That means you're going to need to make 100 sales per month to come close to breaking even with your recurring content cost, let alone hosting, incidentals and traffic acquisition costs. 100 sales means at least 30,000 visitors. I can almost guarantee you that you're not going to make 100 sales with that traffic volume.

I always see everywhere around the boards peoples touting 1:100, 1:200, etc but that's not a reality for most. Many of the people that report those types of figures are being shaved, if not on their sales, then on the actual amount of traffic that the sponsor is counting. For example, You might send 1000 visitors to a sponsor to make a sale but perhaps they only report 200. If you made a sale, you would think you had a good conversion ratio. My point? It's really easy to undertake this endeavor and have unrealistic expectations.

Making a paysite is easy, all one needs to do is buy some content and pay a designer. Filling it up with content is easy as long as you keep your pocket open. I'm just advising that you be cautious, on every front.

The reality is that there is no magic bullet for buying traffic, you will most likely lose or break even with any traffic purchase.

Here is my advice:

1) Finish your site design, get some banners, have a few gallery designs made for it.
2) Shop for some content specials for videos and pictures, we can help you do that here. In my honest opinion, you'll be able to survive the learning curve longer if you are able to get some content at an exceptional price. Perhaps you could put together 20-30-40-50k photos and a couple dozen hours of video in an outright buy for a few grand.
3) Add free content to your members areas! This includes free live webcams with an upsell and whatever else you can get your hands on. Use your own judgement and don't use anything that you find too "irritating" with upsells or deceptive links. Otherwise, there is a ton of free content out there that you can get and make the best of it.
4) Build your TGPs, start submitting to other peoples TGPs just as soon as you can process signups. Long term your success is going to be a derivative of your own personal ability to generate traffic. Traffic is king.

Remember this: the value in our business is in traffic generation, everything else is a commodity that can be purchased, easily.

I'm sure others will have some opinions on what I've wrote, perhaps they have enhancements or disagree... both are OK. My only goal is to not see someone else spend 10-20k and blow out of the business. Be patient, persistent... keep your day job until you nail down the formula that works for this and achieve income replacement. The money is always easy to spend, very hard to make back.

I have to go out to get some grub.. I'll post most later. Don't hesitate to give me a call if you want to chat, on my dime, I'm happy to help even if you never become a client.

Cheers,

Brad

[Jason]

I strongly second what Brad said above but would like to add that, if you're looking to do VOD content, check into AEBN's many programs. They are in a position to provide you with a LOT of great video content at no cost to you; perfect for your starting position. If you need a contact at AEBN you can look Darren up here...or if you call Cynthia and tell her I sent you I'm sure she'll be happy to help you out. There are lots of places to get great content for not too much money. I'd also reccommend you contact Holly over at NakedSword. They are a fantastic group and they offer outstanding content...I can't speak highly enough of them.

If you do decide to buy traffic, consider several options there as well. Personally and professionally, I'd reccomend that you talk to Scott over at www.trafficdude.com.

If you need any contacts or have any other questions, everyone on this board is very willing to help. I have found this a great place to call home. You're also welcome to contact either Brad or me at any time.

Welcome!

[PozScott]

Thanks for the great replies and thoughts. Because of them I'm rethinking my entire rollout strategy. My initial thought was create a site, throw a lot of money at it and pray it was successful. I need to do a bit better planning and plan for the long term and not burn through the cash at such a high rate. Thanks again!

[Brad Mitchell]

Feel free to call me sometime if you want to pick my brain.



Brad