I bought some memberships to paysites

[MissEve]

So I went surfing and bought some trials to some paysites Ive been wanting to check out. I used to do this pretty regularly but I havent for a long time. I CAN NOT believe how much these sites suck. The niche sites were a joke with 5-10 galleries of niche photos with tons of generic crap. There were LOADS of prechecked cross sells and other sketchy shit. Then, most of them had NO customer service link or cancel link anywhere. Im sure you all know this already but I really can't believe how bad it is! If I had a foot fetish or whatever and joined some of these sites I would never join another.


No wonder the Golden Goose is dead!!

[gonzo]

This is very good news.

[SykkBoy]

This doesn't surprise me at all...and these will be the same sponsors complaining about poor profit margins and blaming their chargebacks on pissed off wives and the usual crap...

here's a hint to balloon sponsors: having 3 pictures of a girl playing with a balloon is not enough content to start a balloon site

[Dravyk]

Don't get me started! It will mess up my wa. I'll get back to this (if it's still here) when I'm in an annoyed mood.

[Hell Puppy]

Oh shit, you mean you're actually supposed to give a customer something in return for his money?!??

[The Other Steve]

It's interesting that you should have found that in the sites that you've joined.

In the past 2 years Marie and I have provided honest written reviews on probably 200+ paysites in al most every niche in straight and gay. I suppose there might have been 50 of those that were total crap or did not live up to their promises.

Probably another 50 that delivered on their promises but had problems like slow servers or really poor navigation/layout that made the surfing experience a real pita

And the rest ranged from good value for money through to excellent value for money.

Having done all that review work it's often interesting to read other review sites - it soon becomes obvious who is making money from which sponsors.

[Titan]

id be surprised to see honest reviews for sites when ur site is about paysite reviewing and then using your codes to promote it whether it be good or bad ..

and i know maries point of view is different as she was trying them out to try them out

one of the sites i worked with was pretty sparse behind the join up - all changed now though because i was pretty much very unimpressed with it and retentions are now up abou 70%

[The Other Steve]

Originally posted by Titan@Mar 20 2005, 03:29 AM
id be surprised to see honest reviews for sites when ur site is about paysite reviewing and then using your codes to promote it whether it be good or bad ..

and i know maries point of view is different as she was trying them out to try them out

one of the sites i worked with was pretty sparse behind the join up - all changed now though because i was pretty much very unimpressed with it and retentions are now up abou 70%

You're right to some extent - review sites make money from making sales BUT (and this is something that a lot of review sites haven't woken up to yet) the only way for a review site to go on making money is to give honest reviews because that keeps the surfer coming back and signing up for new sites.

If he reads a great review and finds the site is crap then he won't come back to that review site again because he knows that the reviews can't be trusted.

Interestingly more and more peoploe we review for stress that they want honest reviews unlike some who often get recommended over on the zoo.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by Titan@Mar 20 2005, 03:29 AM
id be surprised to see honest reviews for sites when ur site is about paysite reviewing and then using your codes to promote it whether it be good or bad ..

and i know maries point of view is different as she was trying them out to try them out

one of the sites i worked with was pretty sparse behind the join up - all changed now though because i was pretty much very unimpressed with it and retentions are now up abou 70%

Bull -fucking -shit!!!!!

The majority of recurs result from people forgetting to cancel , whether it has great content or none.

There is NO way you can add content and have retention up 70%

I know this to be fact!

How?

Try sending 10,000 joins to one site with crap content and 10,000 joins to a site with great content.

Honestly there is so much fucking ass talked about this by people who have never ever seen 500 joins in a day.

Seriously , it pisses me off.

"Oh my converions are amazing to ""so and so""

Yeah!!! you sent 67 clicks and got a join!!! Whoopdefuckingdo ,conversions to sites should be calculated at 10,000 clicks or more.

I mean fuck....

Oh and good morning

[Vick]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Mar 20 2005, 11:07 AM
conversions to sites should be calculated at 10,000 clicks or more.

Bingo, I've always found 10k to be a good test number


As for quality, it does help retention with educated or experienced surfers

Still, check your logs and see how many long term members log in how often and therein lies the answer

Review sites generally convert very well but don't retain well as other traffic

[Vick]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Mar 20 2005, 11:07 AM
Honestly there is so much fucking ass talked about this by people who have never ever seen 500 joins in a day.

The overwhelming majority of people in this business have never seen 500 joins per day

unless they worked for a large company or one of the principals or were one hell of a mailer and SE worker

And those who mailed got the most joins sending the traffic to their own sites (my gift for the obvious shines through)

[Nickatilynx]

Check yr icq once in a while will ya... ;-)

[Vick]

Originally posted by Nickatilynx@Mar 20 2005, 11:46 AM
Check yr icq once in a while will ya... ;-)

What's ICQ?
ah ha ha ha

[Far-L]

Nick: At the risk of sounding like I am serving a heaping hot plate of spam, forgive me, because i really just want to point out that i know there are exceptions to the rule though I agree with your point almost entirely.

I don't mind if you call bullshit on what i am about to say; I would be happy to show you our stats if we ever cross paths. We convert over 40% of trials. About 17% stay with us over a year. Quality, branding, service all do have a serious impact but you are right, that is not the be-all end-all.

We are not a cheap membership either. Best of all we have a seriously low chargeback rate anyone would be proud of, even in mainstream terms.

I don't think the amount or quality of the content is as critical a way to retain as good service and respect for the customers. I once had a conversation with 'Buttman" Stagliano about video cameras because we both had the same new sony. I asked what he thought of the quality and he said "It is ok, but who cares... I made my first million with the Canon. It is more important to deliver what your fans come to expect from you."

I took the lesson to heart.

I think sites like ATK, Homegrown Video, Lightspeed, and a small handful of others do deliver on the promise of content, but the success has much more to do with the level of customer service and consistency that can come to be trusted.

My opinion, albeit a humble one.

[Far-L]

One more point...

There are plenty of programs that did over 500 sign ups back in the day that are not doing close to that now.

There are some sites that are doing 5 sign ups a day that could do 500 a day if they had the traffic.

A good converting and retaining site is going to do well on any type of traffic and in any quanity of uniques.

I thank the Lord every day for all the generic crap sites that make it easy for good sites to really stand out.

[gonzo]

Originally posted by Far-L@Mar 20 2005, 03:36 PM
One more point...

There are plenty of programs that did over 500 sign ups back in the day that are not doing close to that now.

There are some sites that are doing 5 sign ups a day that could do 500 a day if they had the traffic.

A good converting and retaining site is going to do well on any type of traffic and in any quanity of uniques.

I thank the Lord every day for all the generic crap sites that make it easy for good sites to really stand out.

Far L--

I agree with everything you said... but my devious partner has taught me that those generic crap sites will convert with traffic.

And let me add that every thing Ive observed has been nothing but honest priciplas applied properly to the proper programs. I dont know about the there and then but I can tell you the here and now and its amazing.

Whats even more astounding is how many of you dont rely on server stats and use a bullshit counter instead.

[Nickatilynx]

Originally posted by gonzo+Mar 20 2005, 12:53 PM-->