My name is Andrew and I’ve been using this excellent forum for research for a while now.
I am currently preparing a brand new website which I’m hoping will go up at the end of April.
This is the first porn website I have ever made.
The material for the website will all be newly filmed, there will be one new video every week.
I will be filming it all myself in fact
I’m working out the finances at the moment and it is very difficult, in fact, impossible for me to estimate the number of subcribers the site will attract each month.
I know this is a difficult question to ask, there are so many variables, but it would be very helpful it suggestions could be made for a very rough figure as to the number of subscribers to expect.
I will try to give as much info as I can.
The subscription price I have in mind at the moment is in the $30/â¬20 region.
The quality of the films will be very high as I am a very experienced film maker. They will be HDV 1920 x 1080 with very high production values.
The models are imho very good looking but of course this is very subjective They are in the age range of 18 - 25.
So, I wonder what sort of membership I could expect?
That is an interesting question, am sure those who run paysites will be able to offer some insight, though I’d imagine a lot will depend on the variables involved.
Well its nearly impossible to say but expect somewhere between 0 - 100 new members per day. Where in that range you fall will depend on your content, marketing and quality of traffic.
I have seen numerous sites chocked full of very good looking guys with high production values disappear because they had very little traffic and/or no clue how to market & sell their product. You can have the absolute best content in the world, if nobody knows about it…
Good luck on your new site. You’ve come to a good place to find info and there are members here with many years of experience. Deciphering who’s info to take seriously and who’s to take with a grain of salt will come with time.
When I started Butch Dixon, it came in dribbs and drabbs. The site wasn’t long before we had our first sign-up, but it was a long slog until we were pulling in good numbers every day. We’re still not anywhere near what I thought would be happening. I guess I suffered from the “if we build it” syndrome.
It’s also really hard to tell not knowing what kind of site you’re going to be running. If you’re running a hairy man site like me, expect slow growth. Most webmasters aren’t interested in hairy men (unless you’re paying $30 PPS) and don’t really know how to market them. If you’re doing another jock site or another young British guy site, you’ll be entering a crowded market, but at least affiliates will be willing to push you.
Make sure you sign up with CCBill, this is crucial. Although my site converts better with Epoch, affiliates just won’t use Epoch en masse. If you’re with CCBill, they’ll sign up to promote you in droves. Stay away from DHD, they’re affiliate system is the biggest cock up I’ve seen since Paula Abdul tried to hold American Idol hostage for more money.
Getting surfers to find your site is the biggest problem you will face. Whatever you do, do NOT assume surfers will come to you automatically just because your site up and running, they won’t. Have you got a plan for how you will attract surfers? Majority of new site owner make the mistake of thinking that having content is all it takes. Content is the easy and fun part(?)… the real hard work is in building up the site, getting surfers, marketing etc.
Majority of new start-ups find it very difficult and can’t see any growth, most of them won’t see a profit the first year or two. They get stuck in doing work that they don’t want to do and work they didn’t think it would involve. Many regret starting a site in the first place. It’s never easy money, not even when you’re a old and established site. It will always be a continuous struggle to get new members.
The only way you will be able to get a lot of members early on would be by using affiliates + paid advertising. Simply opening your site won’t do anything, surfers won’t find your site on their own, how would they? Google won’t just magically send you lots of visitors, neither will any other search engines. Affiliates is probably going to be the most economical and practical way of getting your site seen. Paid advertising can be good but you must make sure to target or buy the ads carefully, and can easily cost more than you earn.
However pleasing affiliates isn’t easy either, there is a lot of sites already and they won’t advertise your site unless you offer a competitive rate (50% revshare inc on rebills or PPS) and provide them with the right tools.
I’m really not trying to put you off, it can eventually lead to a very profitable business.
I’m very limited in my experience as I don’t run a pay site. But from an affiliate, marketing, porn users point of view I would say do everything everyone else is suggesting.
I would also suggest (as I always do) run a blog, either on another domain or on a sub of your site. WP blogs are crawled regularly as long as you make sure you update daily and let Google know you exist.
Get a few galleries together and watermark the images with your paysite and give them out like candy.
Spread the word around the blogs leaving comments and be involved in a dialogue with others. Getting other bloggers to promote your site for nothing takes a little searching, but there are plenty of them who simply post images from Google, so why not cut out the middle man and go right to them?
As others have said, using CCBill is a must.
There’s also the “leaked” password tactic that others have used. But I’ll skip explaining that for fear of upsetting other members.
most new paysite owners who haven’t worked in porn can’t get traffic to their sites, and often see between 0 and 1 sales per day. i know guys who have been trying to tweak their sites for years, but due to bad tours - and knowing how to make a good tour and join page is a skill that only develops with time and lots of homework - only very rarely got above 2 sales per day.
[QUOTE=gaydemon;88976]To answer you question, none. No members at all.
Getting surfers to find your site is the biggest problem you will face. Whatever you do, do NOT assume surfers will come to you automatically just because your site up and running, they won’t. Have you got a plan for how you will attract surfers?[/QUOTE]
Well thank you for your comments. This is a very important issue
I think that affiliates will be the best route for me.
I need to check this out and see what deals are available and appropriate.
My costs are low-ish because there is just me doing the whole thing. I am the webmaster, I do the filming etc.
The preview/tour is something I have thought about.
I’m going to build the site using Drupal. In fact I have a basic version on my computer now. The plan is for graphic simplicity. The non-members see each new update in a preview form with still images from the video and probably a short tantalising preview.
The members have the same thing, but with the videos in each update of course.
This I think is quite a classic basic arrangement I think.
I think the most obvious exponent of this is Boy Fun Collection. There you see what the updates are.
Personally I don’t like sites where there is a tour of a series of pages with very many heavily photoshopped images but little sense of what really is in the site.
Yes, I think this is a very good idea. It is such a simple way and cheap way to create an additional intro point for the the site and I know the blogs often get good SEO.
[QUOTE=Seth;88972]Well its nearly impossible to say but expect somewhere between 0 - 100 new members per day. Where in that range you fall will depend on your content, marketing and quality of traffic.
I have seen numerous sites chocked full of very good looking guys with high production values disappear because they had very little traffic and/or no clue how to market & sell their product. You can have the absolute best content in the world, if nobody knows about it…
Good luck on your new site. You’ve come to a good place to find info and there are members here with many years of experience. Deciphering who’s info to take seriously and who’s to take with a grain of salt will come with time.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your comments Seth.
Wouldn’t it be cool to have 100 new members a day
I am planning on breaking even with 2 new or renewed subscriptions a day, which would be around 60 a month.
I think that once I go over 60 a month I would be into profit.
I have looked at your own websites linked in your signature and I very much like that design.
It is simple and clear as to the content.
This is just the kind of website design I am planning on. A simple layout run by a CMS (in my case Drupal) which shows exactly what is in the site and, I think, creates a sense of confidence in the customer that they will get what is promised in the preview pages.
[QUOTE=dzinerbear;88974]
Make sure you sign up with CCBill, this is crucial.[/QUOTE]
Will do
and thank you for your other comments.
I do like your website “Butch Dixon” it is a clear design and is the kind of design I’m creating.
My site will be a “twink” site but although I am in the UK the models will mostly be from another country that I spend a lot of time in. However I might start looking at the UK for models as well.
I am over 2 years in to my pay site and I have a very niche market. At this point it pays most of my bills so I am pleased. Gotta keep working at it every day though!!
[QUOTE=gaydemon;88976]To answer you question, none. No members at all.
Getting surfers to find your site is the biggest problem you will face. Whatever you do, do NOT assume surfers will come to you automatically just because your site up and running, they won’t. Have you got a plan for how you will attract surfers? Majority of new site owner make the mistake of thinking that having content is all it takes. Content is the easy and fun part(?)… the real hard work is in building up the site, getting surfers, marketing etc.
Majority of new start-ups find it very difficult and can’t see any growth, most of them won’t see a profit the first year or two. They get stuck in doing work that they don’t want to do and work they didn’t think it would involve. Many regret starting a site in the first place. It’s never easy money, not even when you’re a old and established site. It will always be a continuous struggle to get new members.
The only way you will be able to get a lot of members early on would be by using affiliates + paid advertising. Simply opening your site won’t do anything, surfers won’t find your site on their own, how would they? Google won’t just magically send you lots of visitors, neither will any other search engines. Affiliates is probably going to be the most economical and practical way of getting your site seen. Paid advertising can be good but you must make sure to target or buy the ads carefully, and can easily cost more than you earn.
However pleasing affiliates isn’t easy either, there is a lot of sites already and they won’t advertise your site unless you offer a competitive rate (50% revshare inc on rebills or PPS) and provide them with the right tools.
I’m really not trying to put you off, it can eventually lead to a very profitable business.[/QUOTE]
There is so much truth in this. You have come to right place for help and guidance. The webmasters on this forum are experienced and know what they are talking about. Be prepared… to spend more money that you thought possible, to spend more time than you have available, to make more mistakes than you are comfortable making, meet some of the smartest people you have ever encountered and most importantly have more fun than your wild imagination. As far as making money…slow and steady has been our experience with Southern Strokes. One last thought… TAKE CARE OF YOUR AFFILIATES. Pay them on time and without hassle every month. (This is why CCBILL is a must)
I don’t know Drupal, but I did use Joomla on a site (not a paysite) and it was one of the biggest regrets of my porn career. It was a resource pig and cumbersome to update. I consider Drupal in the same family of products as Joomla, so I’d probably stay away from it as well.
