Improving Tube Profitability

Webmaster Discussion
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#1

Been thinking about a change I might try out on QueerPixels but wonder what others think. Do you think it’s possible to increase sales or clicks from Tube videos to sponsors if there was a set limit of videos available from each sponsor? I.E limiting the overall maximum / total videos available on the site.

Say I would restrict each sponsor to have 30-50 videos, so that surfers have not got an unlimited amount of videos to view? Older videos gets taken out of rotation and re-used at a later date, much like many TGP sites work.

Or would people move on to another tube because there are not enough videos available? I guess the question could be, “Is more better or worse?”

#2

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Well, on a similar subject, I have been thinking about removing some of the less popular films / models from my site too. 450+ is plenty of content - what does everyone think?

Bjorn - I don’t know how your traffic works, but I guess what you want is to keep things fresh so maybe removing old vids might work better. Ideally you want surfers to leave your site and go to the sponsor’s site - “more free video clips here…” might help them to click and jump!

#3

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

there are plenty of restriction-free tube sites out there. i can’t see how restricting the number of videos will cause you to have return visits - does your overall goal with queerpixels focus on return traffic?

#4

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

hmm limiting videos could mean sufers think the site is smaller and maybe offers them less, but equally by having quotas for sponsors it may encourage them to focus on quality videos with the best models and conversions, rather than flooding a tube with as many videos as they can to ensure they get as much traffic as possible.

So the advantage could be higher quality videos for the surfer, without them needing to spend hours sifting through lots of poorer videos, and would also mean the sponsors are likely to only push their best videos… ie… quality rather than quantity.

Interesting idea.

Adam, with sponsors, I know a lot like to quote high numbers etc, but I personally find it annoying trying to find the best sets when sites become too big. Badpuppy I wouldn’t even consider going back to after I looked at it years ago (as an individual) because it just seemed too big for one to possibly know where to begin. So I would be all in favour of maybe archiving the less popular content - possibly a seperate section, so the content is still available for those that really want it.

#5

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Personally, I tend to doubt the wisdom of removing what sold a site. There are huge differences between an affiliate marketing site, like Queerpixels, versus Blake Mason (or any sponsor).

One, I think a surfer looking to join, or be influenced to join, might accept a limit, knowing that only the freshest stuff is being displayed, and that the concept of their being more at the sponsor, would be an enticement, along with the current releases.

For a sponsor, to remove content, saying its less popular, might endanger the retention of existing members, and of new members. Sure not everyone likes all of the stuff, but those who may like the ‘less popular’ might also be remaining as members, in the hope of seeing others like that, or because of the ability to go back to enjoy them. I’d say a risky move for any sponsor.

I’d also add that many affiliates use different models, and suddenly their past work is now not available, wouldn’t help the credability of that affiliate to his/her surfers who click, to find that model gone. So that too would become a nightmare

but, heck just my 2 cents on it.

#6

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

[QUOTE=gaydemon;57673]Been thinking about a change I might try out on QueerPixels but wonder what others think. Do you think it’s possible to increase sales or clicks from Tube videos to sponsors if there was a set limit of videos available from each sponsor? I.E limiting the overall maximum / total videos available on the site.

Say I would restrict each sponsor to have 30-50 videos, so that surfers have not got an unlimited amount of videos to view? Older videos gets taken out of rotation and re-used at a later date, much like many TGP sites work.

Or would people move on to another tube because there are not enough videos available? I guess the question could be, “Is more better or worse?”[/QUOTE]

It would probably have the opposite effect and decrease sales. When I first started posting videos on a tube site. I did a video every other day. It wasn’t until I actually had a decent library on there that sales started to come in. Right now, I am getting sales from videos that I submitted over a year ago.

But, a lot really depends on how you flow the traffic. If it goes to a profile page and then the profile page does a good job at linking to the other videos, then that is a very powerful sales tool. So is showing other videos by this sponsor on the same page (or in an overlay) as a current video they are watching.

It’s almost like a blog how the traffic flows. When I look at referring urls from blogs, more times than not it is from a category or tag with either broke straight boys or the models names. And many of these posts that make the sale are older posts. So, the new posts bring in the surfer and the “collection” of posts help make the sale until they find a post they like that closes the deal.

It’s really about how easy the traffic flows.

Another example is a free site hub. One free site may not make the sale, but if you are good at sending them to a hub, then a sale may be made. I know when I was doing free sites, I had some sites that I had over 100 sites marketing that site. I was constantly making sales on sites that I had done over a year ago as I was pretty good at taking surfers from a new free site and sending them to the hub.

Tube sites work the same was as all other traffic really. There is just an art and science on mastering the traffic flow.

#7

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

What if you offered limited tube access to non paying members of your tube site and gave paying members unlimited access for $4.95 a month?

With your connections you could also be the first tube site to offer paying members special trial memberships to paysites.

#8

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Why not put in a rating system and remove the underachieving videos?

#9

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Why not put a 30 second limit on viewing all tube videos for non paying members?

Paying members get unlimited access to all tube videos and they can view them full screen.

#10

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Why not put in a rating system and remove the underachieving videos?

I don’t really think this is a good idea. It is too easy for a competing sponsor program to go in and give bad rankings to other sponsor videos, and could be easily abused. Also, I’m not sure how it is on Bjorn’s site, but a lot of videos usually don’t even get rated by surfers.

I do like the idea of focusing on quality though. Usually you can tell how popular a video is by how many views it gets…so why not put the videos with the most views for the week or month at the top of the site in a ‘featured’ category? They also tend to usually be the best videos.

Then videos with the least views in say, a 1 month or 3 month period should be removed from the site. As long as there is more fresh content coming in all the time, surfers will keep coming back, but I don’t really see the benefit of giving thousands of unlimited videos.

It’s also good to make things a bit more difficult for them. Make them have to log-in after watching a certain amount, even if it’s a free log-in. Get them to opt in for emails and then you can market to this email list and announce to them the ‘most popular video of the week’ or something like that…it’s sure to get them back to the site.

#11

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

[quote=dannyz;57715]I don’t really think this is a good idea. It is too easy for a competing sponsor program to go in and give bad rankings to other sponsor videos, and could be easily abused. Also, I’m not sure how it is on Bjorn’s site, but a lot of videos usually don’t even get rated by surfers.

I do like the idea of focusing on quality though. Usually you can tell how popular a video is by how many views it gets…so why not put the videos with the most views for the week or month at the top of the site in a ‘featured’ category? They also tend to usually be the best videos.

Then videos with the least views in say, a 1 month or 3 month period should be removed from the site. As long as there is more fresh content coming in all the time, surfers will keep coming back, but I don’t really see the benefit of giving thousands of unlimited videos.

It’s also good to make things a bit more difficult for them. Make them have to log-in after watching a certain amount, even if it’s a free log-in. Get them to opt in for emails and then you can market to this email list and announce to them the ‘most popular video of the week’ or something like that…it’s sure to get them back to the site.[/quote]

Funny you say that, as way back when Bec found that video tube like wordpress theme, it has that feature. Ratings too, but the most popular, that is done in the backend, for listing the most viewed, along with highest rated.

The idea of an optin list would be good too, for pushing the month’s latest releases, the highest rated, etc. Sort of what our video store does, for its stuff and according to the counter staff, they do get a lot of people phoning in to reserve their copies. In other words, it does get read, does get an action, and that is a good thing.

my 2 cents

#12

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

i disagree. usually what you can tell by views is how popular the thumb preview is.

#13

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

i disagree. usually what you can tell by views is how popular the thumb preview is.

This is true to an extent. People are also more likely to view a video if it is rated highly, which does also make ratings a factor.
They may also view it for the niche, or the title. If people really like the video, they will go back and watch it again and again, no matter what the thumbnail. They also may spread the word and send the link of a good video to their friends. I’ve noticed on xTube, the most viewed videos are also usually the ones that are most commented on and also highest rated. As long as the ‘featured’ videos are based on the most viewed videos over an extended length of time, such as say a month, then it should be a pretty accurate gauge for what the most popular and liked videos are.

#14

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Or the placement its gets. I can tell you right now, if you goto a big tube site like gaytube, the first video will have huge views and it goes down video by video from there.

#15

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

[QUOTE=dannyz;57726]This is true to an extent. People are also more likely to view a video if it is rated highly, which does also make ratings a factor.
They may also view it for the niche, or the title. If people really like the video, they will go back and watch it again and again, no matter what the thumbnail. They also may spread the word and send the link of a good video to their friends. I’ve noticed on xTube, the most viewed videos are also usually the ones that are most commented on and also highest rated. As long as the ‘featured’ videos are based on the most viewed videos over an extended length of time, such as say a month, then it should be a pretty accurate gauge for what the most popular and liked videos are.[/QUOTE]

People will go back to a video more and more depending on how many comments a video will get also. Trust me. i have some videos that have over 100 comments and surfers keep coming back to them. And they buy. Some of the most highest rated videos I have put on tube sites are the ones that make the least sales.

To make a tube site REALLY profitable. You need to create a community. Surfers “subscribe” to my videos. On one tube site I have over 2000 subscribers to my videos. Every time I post a new video, they all know about it. I have some videos that have been “favorited” 1,000+ times. If you create a community on a tube site where members can create a profile, have friends, subscribe to videos they like, mark some as favorites, and have playlists, then you are talking about making some money.

#16

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

[quote=Intense_Lloyd;57733]People will go back to a video more and more depending on how many comments a video will get also. Trust me. i have some videos that have over 100 comments and surfers keep coming back to them. And they buy. Some of the most highest rated videos I have put on tube sites are the ones that make the least sales.

To make a tube site REALLY profitable. You need to create a community. Surfers “subscribe” to my videos. On one tube site I have over 2000 subscribers to my videos. Every time I post a new video, they all know about it. I have some videos that have been “favorited” 1,000+ times. If you create a community on a tube site where members can create a profile, have friends, subscribe to videos they like, mark some as favorites, and have playlists, then you are talking about making some money.[/quote]

But adding a community just makes the Tube even a bigger one stop shop. A tube shouldn’t be a end destination right? You want people to click and go to the sponsors. Everything you just described would surely have the opposite effect. If you make it possible to bookmark their 100s of favorite videos, let them know when there is new content they like posted etc etc… why would they need to go and buy a membership when you created a perfect free video site for them??

I do see your point but in terms of getting bookmarkers but it’s also the major weakness of a tube. It’s all about creating and giving the surfer more and more. The fight for surfers is so extreme that the goal of selling memberships seems to be forgotten.

I do think we created a beast that we can’t control, and it’s having a wider impact than we know. Unfortunately all the tube sites are too busy fighting for the most amount of surfers that common sense is going out of the window.

Would love to see what happens the day bandwidth costs go up again!

I can see there is no point for me to limit amount of videos on show, i would be the only one doing it and people would simply go to another site instead for their video fix.

#17

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

bjorn,

This is something that I just don’t have a logical answer to. I know the tube sites that we get the best sales and conversions from are community based. Maybe after a surfer plays his favorite video over and over again, he gets bored and goes joins the site? Maybe he favorites a few as he watches them and picks the one he likes best and go joins the site? I don’t really have the answer.

#18

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

I would seriously reconsider the idea of charging surfers a small amount to access more videos, make them full screen, etc.

Cam4 makes money on surfers by charging to make the video full screen, charging to interact under certain conditions, etc.

Many specialized social networking sites charge to have full access, or expanded features, available and members happily pay it.

#19

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

Well, I don’t think many sponsors would appreciate a tube owner charging surfers to see their content!

#20

Re: Improving Tube Profitability

I don’t think that will go over very well with many sponsors. I think there have been sites that have tried this in the past and they’re quickly accused of piracy, theft, etc. Rightfully so in many cases.