Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Webmaster Discussion
#1

I have a real concern about tube sites. It seems I get a request every other day to open an account and post content. Offers of my own “channel” etc just keep coming.

It also seems that “traditional” sources of traffic (TGPs, Blogs, link-lists etc) are opening their own tube sites too. So our business seems to be changing even further towards giving more and more content away for free.

I guess the question is can tube sites really be good for a paysite, or are we moving towards so much free jerk-off material on mega tube sites that all we’re doing is slowly killing our own businesses?

#2

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

I agree with Dean on this one. Its great for the short term but in the end driving surfers to gigs of free movies is a mistake that we will all come to regret. I guess if you dont do it you may not survive in the long term as like it or not, thats where we are all heading.

#3

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

It’s a good thing that there will always be need for photo galleries… so more people go into tube sites more traffic that is searching for pics will my sites get…:slight_smile:

#4

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

It can work ok if you don’t flood a particular site with 50 or 60 separate clips. If you are allowed control of the uploads, and the ability to delete the posts as you choose, then you can have some decent results by posting a clip of a current featured model, then in a few days as the views drop off, you delete it and post a new one. If a clip gets a lot of views and you see a spike in sales, then that clip would be considered a keeper, and could stay in a channel. Getting a video in the “most viewed” or “top favorites” has some staying power and can result in some longer term results.

If your channel ends up with 40 or 50 clips, a surfer can eventually get off without checking your site for more. Keep the free stuff limited. Post the same clips on each tube site, then wipe them out at the same time and replace them. Don’t let it accumulate. Keep the variety going. Don’t post 10 of the same model or scene. Show variety in your channel. Some solo, some duo, keeping in mind that hardcore will always get more views.

Its tempting to keep adding more. You get more tube site subscribers, more friends, more comments, etc. But being popular doesn’t mean you make more money. It just means you are lured into giving away more than you need to to generate the traffic and sales.

I wish more sites would show a little self control and limit what the upload, maybe in time they’ll realize that less is more when it comes to traffic and sales from their tube marketing. Tube sites are very much a “flavor of the day” type of marketing. The viewers don’t seem to spend a lot of time going through videos that are deep into the catalog. They spend time on the most recent, top viewed, top favorites. Once you are out of those areas, the videos just become filler and they begin to de-value your content in time.

#5

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

That is a great way to monetize tubes without flooding the net with massive archives of free porn. My main worry is that as tubes grow, the value of paysites become less and less. Without the huge archive that wouldnt happen.

#6

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

[QUOTE=Adam Mason;20628]I have a real concern about tube sites. It seems I get a request every other day to open an account and post content. Offers of my own “channel” etc just keep coming.

It also seems that “traditional” sources of traffic (TGPs, Blogs, link-lists etc) are opening their own tube sites too. So our business seems to be changing even further towards giving more and more content away for free.

I guess the question is can tube sites really be good for a paysite, or are we moving towards so much free jerk-off material on mega tube sites that all we’re doing is slowly killing our own businesses?[/QUOTE]

Tube sites are great for bringing traffic to your site, if you’re in control of your content, and sometimes, if you’re not.

One day I was checking my traffic logs and realized I was getting great traffic from Xtube. I followed the links and found that someone had stolen a few clips of mine and posted them to Xtube. They had a few hundred thousand views and had been on for a couple months.

I quickly got my content off Xtube (thank you Xtube) and put my promo clips up on my own account. It worked even better!

The most successful content producers don’t flood the market with long clips showing the beginning, middle and end of their video with tons of photos. The more you give a surfer the better your chances of them seeing something that discourages them from buying (i.e. showing a duo and the end where the guy cums jacking off instead of on a guys back, chest or mouth. A big turnoff for some. You just turned away possible customers).

How many mainstream movies would you have not seen if you saw tons of photos of the movie and clips of the beginning, middle and end?

My personal philosophy has been to be select about who I give my content to and how much. I have really great affiliates who I’ll give content to that nobody else has, that sets them apart and shows a side of my site that nobody else will see but through them.

Tube sites are great for business if used correctly and remember, most tube videos are crap quality. If you shoot all your content in 16:9 how do you think they’ll fit it in that little square and still make it look good :wink:

#7

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

I’ve never been keen on Tube sites, just try them out yourself. The bigger and more videos they have, the less likly it is any visitor will need to leave the site. They are very entertaining and fun to use. No problem with that, but it doesnt mean its good for business.

Besides, for me, gaydemon has always sold very well and thats with giving away very little for free. The most I’ve ever given away is using TGP galleries. So if its possible to have good sales ratios without using lots of free content (videos at least) then why have a tube site?

Free sites are also a totally different thing, you tease them and give them very little other choice. “If you like it, buy a membership!”

Tube sites are more like, “if you like this, then you will also like these 500 other videos”. So if your goal is to jerk off, why would you not be able to jerk off with whats available at tube sites? Of course porn collectors might not be satisified by it. But many would.

So how can Tube sites be good?

Anyway, thats how i see them.

I am testing out a tube script myself, but main intention for that is to have a way of creating easy to use Flash Videos for my blogs while also storing those files.

[quote=Adam Mason;20628]I have a real concern about tube sites. It seems I get a request every other day to open an account and post content. Offers of my own “channel” etc just keep coming.

It also seems that “traditional” sources of traffic (TGPs, Blogs, link-lists etc) are opening their own tube sites too. So our business seems to be changing even further towards giving more and more content away for free.

I guess the question is can tube sites really be good for a paysite, or are we moving towards so much free jerk-off material on mega tube sites that all we’re doing is slowly killing our own businesses?[/quote]

#8

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Tube sites are as much about user interaction, ratings and community as they are about porn, or content.

There is a reason Blogger.com has an Alexa rating of 12 and Youporn.com has a rating of 28, and Rapidshare has a rating of 29.

These sites are getting millions of users to come back again and again and again. So let’s say 1:500 is the conversion rate for sales on a tube site. With 5,000 clicks an hour that would be a good start to some good money.

Tube sites are going to push membership sites to be more interactive and give more of a unique experience to members. Amateur Straight Guys has had a members forum for years and it works well to evolve their member culture and keep people coming back. :blowme:

#9

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

most of the people i know working tube sites don’t do 1:500 - they do 1:2000 or worse. there are a couple who do better, but most have rough conversion ratios. of course, as long as you pay a reasonable price for bandwdith, that’s still not an issue.

#10

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

I’m sure they do sell, they would. Its all about numbers after all, throw enough hits at any site and you will get sales.

But its the bigger picture one has to look at as well.

Ok so they sell, but does Tube possibly change surfer habits in a bad way? The tube sites have a lot of traffic, but could it not be that they also change the habits of surfers so that more and more they will rely on Tube sites rather than a conventional membership site. Slowly making it worse and worse. They educate surfers to come back to them for more rather than selling. Teaching them to watch it for free and not buy.

We can all see why a tube site is popular.

But just about any person will tell you that the more you give someone, the more they expect. So sure, you are getting some sales now, but surfers are also changing their habits and maybe turning into little video monsters who surf tube sites and are less likly to visit a normal site.

Just look at the current trend where Tube sites are demanding longer and longer clips and more of them. So they are competing with each other by offering more for free. That is an evil circle to get into. To satisfy their members needs they got to give them more and more.

#11

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

i think we’re already into that circle. first pic posts gave surfers a single pic for each clip. then tgps appeared, giving surfers 10 pics, then the rules for most went to 12 and then 15. then came mgps, and we were givng the surfers video clips, then longer clips. now it’s tube sites.

i suspect that mgps could be more competitive against tube sites if each video gallery contained a single clip rather than 6 10-second clips, which is just annoying.

#12

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Using YouTube as an example yes & no.

Yes, in that when someone hears of a news event the first place they go to get visual media of the event is YouTube, no matter what news organization broke the story.

No, in that when an individual wants more information and/or more quality video of the event, they goto the source.

You can see how this relates to porn. People hear of a new porn video release…

YouTube has already changed the surfing habits of those looking for visual media content.

Tube sites have many drawbacks that we tend to overlook. People get tired of sifting through tube site content to get off. While variety is a plus for tube sites consistency will never exist on a tube site, while it abounds in most membership site content. It’s also difficult for most people to keep stuff you like from a tube site on your computer for later viewing.

There is no doubt that we are losing a certain percentage of market share to tube sites while gaining subscribers that might not have ever seen our material had it not been on a legal tube.

You can give someone more and more hamburgers for free, but at some point they’ll want something more to eat then hamburgers.

I don’t post half my ideas about where tube sites are headed because I don’t want to give them any ideas. Tube sites could be much worse then they are now, and much better. Watching their evolution will be interesting but one thing is for sure, they need content!

#13

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

There are always going to people who will not pay for porn period…there are people who will not pay for cable either BUT if they can steal it then they have no problem.

When was a struggling college student I would never have thought of buying porn when I was horny and had tons of time to search for something to get off to…but now that I have money I am perfectly willing to pay for sites that are the niche that I like to watch and I am a porn webmaster and look at porn all day.

The point is that eventually most surfers (again excluding college students and those who will never buy porn) WILL find quality sites that have the content that they want consistently and will buy it. Of course, if they can get off to common stuff like twinks then they will never pay as that content is everywhere…I am talking about specific niches that are hard to find.

#14

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

tube marketing works.
The only problem are the tube sites that offer full length movies or charge members to access content that they have not paid for

#15

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Does a site make money? It’s a pretty dumb question isn’t it? Lots people say tube sites have horrible ratio and so on. They always forget that saying “tube sites” is like saying “tgp” or “mgp”. Now how many kind of tgp/mgp there are in this biz? A lot. From hard skim (sometimes with 0 clicks to content) to no-skim tgp (100% click to contents). The traffic on these kinds of sites is totally different.

One of the most “tubed” sponsor is JuggCash. Their movies should come from somewhere. JuggCash is not a small company run by dumb n00bs. They have money to sue almost every tube site with “stolen contents”. Maybe aren’t their content stolen? I’m sure that they’ve found a way make money from 20 minutes clips uploaded on several tube sites. I can’t another reason to justify their actions.

Users want more and more and more and more. They’re never satisfied with all the available porn. They don’t care about free movies around. If a paysite worth the price of the membership they spend money. We’re in 2008, time’s changing. Censored dicks and no-nude scenes are things of the past. Now a days people like watching lots of movies before spending a dime. I don’t care about how much content are around. Good things always sell.

To answer the first post of this discussion I would say that a well edited clips - even 5 minutes long - could really spin the marketing of a paysite.

#16

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

I was forgetting… about people who say “tubes give away too many content”… I know a couple of friends of mine that have collected during the years about ten thousands clips taken from mgps and tgps. With an average length of 20 secs… 20 x 10,000 = 200,000 / 3600 = 555 hours of free movies.

#17

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

my tubes convert on average well under 1/100, usually more around 1/10-25, how does your tgp/mpg/freesite traffic that you pay the bw to host compare :slight_smile:

Tubes work great, even 5+ min ones, sometimes 3 mins is good sometimes more is needed.

#18

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Hey Todd what are some of your tube addys? I’ve heard that you’re good at them and know what you’re doing.:cool:

[QUOTE=BabyMaker;20703]my tubes convert on average well under 1/100, usually more around 1/10-25, how does your tgp/mpg/freesite traffic that you pay the bw to host compare :slight_smile:

Tubes work great, even 5+ min ones, sometimes 3 mins is good sometimes more is needed.[/QUOTE]

#19

Re: Tube sites - good or bad for business?

Thanks everyone for posting their thoughts and experiences. I guess I am just a little scared, but some of the advice here does make sense in terms of focus and limiting content on tubes. I will ponder some more :wink: