Changing The Subject - Doom And Gloom

[cots]

I hate to be the harbinger of doom but I think we are in for a few bad weeks ahead.

The Queens Diamond Jubilee has played havoc with sales for the past four days. We will have just got over that and Euro 2012 starts on Friday, and that spells death for our European markets. That will just about finish and The Olympics start.

Past history tells us that these will all be bad for business. The Euro soccer means the UK, Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, Spain and Italy will all be closed for business until each team gets knocked out. It's amazing how quickly business in a country picks up as soon as their team is knocked out!

The Olympics is a global killer - especially the USA.

May as well pack up until August lol!

[jscott]

I agree, with tons of sites always closing, programs biting the dust (and lots not paying), big ones like DeeCash/Mediarevenue having processor issues with Netcash and such, google Penguin update literally bending some of us over and raping our virgin buttholes, summer slowdown (some say is myth, i personally always believed it's fact). etc etc

Things not looking on the brighter note

I'm still working my ass off, maybe even more than normal, so after summer I am hoping to jump out really hard and hoping sales shoot sky high (probably only hopes though lol)

[SGS]

We always do VERY well with Bank Holidays, Football WC, Olympics etc as web porn is escapism.

Bank Holidays have always been our biggest sales days of the year. If you look at the High St they have offers, promos, extra advertising, etc, etc, etc. But what do most websites do? Just carry on regardless so yes I can see your business dying as its still running on a 2002 business model.

[js69]

What, exactly, do you see as wrong with a 2002 business model? I do agree that holidays can be bumper sales days?

[SGS]

2002 business model is dead or dying. There are better ways of doing things now that bring in far more sales.

[js69]

Originally Posted by SGS

2002 business model is dead or dying. There are better ways of doing things now that bring in far more sales.

I am not sure that porn really has a business model apart from selling dirty pictures. It seems to be an ever changing playing field of content, which has been pushed to the extreme, new marketing strategies like social media, pinterest and on and on. Piracy is a big problem that I think is being chipped away at. And finally, webcams which actually, unless you are in that business, are prolly the biggest drain of resources. I haven't seen anyone who posts on this board with a radically different model since 2002. But then again, I see very little difference between that and pre 2002 except that billing is easier. When billing became easy, profits of those of us who had figured it out on our own, suffered for sure. Not enough to keep this from being a very profitable business to be in if you are established.

[SGS]

We have always had a business model from day 1 online. Not everything we have done has worked but we have always had a plan that we work to and we still do now.

We see so many sites still doing the same as they did 10 years ago which makes you scratch your head. No wonder so many are falling away and there will be loads more dying sites out there which will close over the coming months.

It's got nothing to do with Football, the Royals, Olympics or anything else. It's just changing times.

[js69]

I believe all retail is affected by football, royals, olympics, the ups and downs of the stock market, 911, tsunamis, you name it. Its like bricks and mortar businesses. They close your street to fix the storm drains, you lose money until the traffic returns to normal. In the case of online, its a little different, but the effect of world events, slowdowns and outages is the same.
The real reason that no one is making the money that was possible in the past is that people perceive porn as cheap. Girls are way more willing to do it today. The naughtiness factor has disappeared and that is the new reality. We have to deliver fantasies that, perhaps, are unobtainable. If anyone claims that they are doing as well as they were back in the day they are either lucky or lying.

[cots]

Originally Posted by SGS

We always do VERY well with Bank Holidays, Football WC, Olympics etc as web porn is escapism.

Bank Holidays have always been our biggest sales days of the year. If you look at the High St they have offers, promos, extra advertising, etc, etc, etc. But what do most websites do? Just carry on regardless so yes I can see your business dying as its still running on a 2002 business model.

Hi SGS

You know that I always respect your opinions! No one can survive and thrive as you have and be ignored!

I dispute your 2002 model comment. We try to adapt as we go along. I am sure that you do well on the days you mentioned but for us it's hit and miss. Are you a football fan? I am. My calendar has every game in for Euro. OK I won't watch every game - but I know the ones that I will definitely watch. Porn is not an escape for football fans - football games are. Also we are a one man band with six sites to change/update. I don't know your staffing levels bit i bet there is more than you?

Conversion will stay very similar over the next few weeks but traffic will be way down. Yes I know we can do as much as possible to generate extra traffic but that has to be out into perspective.

Having paid my respects - as always - as an affiliate of Lady Sonia I was surprised at the latest galleries from John. I always look forward to receiving the monthly update and plan/process the galleries four weeks ahead. This month's galleries were pretty much very old, recycled stuff. I am sure you will tell me they are incredibly successful but in my humble view they in no way represent the current status of the site.

Feel free to tell me I am a knob but wanted to try and respond to your "2002 business model" criticism. Our "pay sites" are up around 20% this year. It's our affiliate side that is struggling!

[js69]

OK....Super Bowl Sunday usually sucks. I never even know when soccer games are on. I guess that says something.

[cots]

Originally Posted by js69

OK....Super Bowl Sunday usually sucks. I never even know when soccer games are on. I guess that says something.

Haha - that's a European thing. But watch out for the next World Cup as the USA are getting better and better all the time! Of course you call it soccer to differentiate from "football" which is grid iron. As the USA continue to improve, as they will, then the World Cup becomes a major influence.

BTW my beloved Manchester United played four friendly games in the USA last summer as part of our our pre-season tour and pulled in high crowds including selling out the Washington Redskins stadium when we played Barcelona!

Soccer is growing fast in the USA! In fairness NFL is growing in the UK too and there is serious talk of an NFL franchise in London!

[cots]

Originally Posted by SGS

We have always had a business model from day 1 online. Not everything we have done has worked but we have always had a plan that we work to and we still do now.

We see so many sites still doing the same as they did 10 years ago which makes you scratch your head. No wonder so many are falling away and there will be loads more dying sites out there which will close over the coming months.

It's got nothing to do with Football, the Royals, Olympics or anything else. It's just changing times.

Sorry - one quick question. What are you doing that is so different? I understand that "Sonia", or your marketing team, spend a lot of time on social media etc but where has the site changed? The only obvious thing is that Sonia is slowly being replaced by "multi models" and no longer does/shows hardcore in the tour. Am I missing something?

Sonia used to be my very best sponsor but that is no longer the case by a long way.

[SGS]

Originally Posted by cots

Feel free to tell me I am a knob but wanted to try and respond to your "2002 business model" criticism. Our "pay sites" are up around 20% this year. It's our affiliate side that is struggling!

We are really concentrating very hard on the "in-house" side like just about everyone one else now as this is the area of growth and it's this side that gives us the flexibility to be able to make price changing and offers as and when we want.

The affiliate side is fine for the *good* affiliates that are still out there but it's not an area that we will be chasing up on going forwards. At one time about five years ago we were doing 200+ new joins a day from just FHG's alone (good days ) but those days are gone forever and it's a different business model now. We have concentrated *VERY* hard on having a LOT of our own "in-house" traffic over the years and with that and the growth of "social networking" sites we are still able to do the same number of new joins at a 50% discount (as we have no affiliate payout) and at a 50% discount we are seeing our retention now climbing to the early 2004/5 level as well.

We have never seen football or any other sport have an impact on our conversions and really I wouldn't expect to. We advertise to the entire world and just need the people who live on just one village street a day to subscribe to make a very good living. It really isn't that hard is it?

[SGS]

Originally Posted by cots

Sorry - one quick question. What are you doing that is so different? I understand that "Sonia", or your marketing team, spend a lot of time on social media etc but where has the site changed? The only obvious thing is that Sonia is slowly being replaced by "multi models" and no longer does/shows hardcore in the tour. Am I missing something?

Sonia used to be my very best sponsor but that is no longer the case by a long way.

Sorry, just replied at the same time that you posted.

We have actually taken down every other model (or are almost there anyway) so that the only person on the site is Sonia. Hardcore is out as "solo" converts *MUCH* better for us and makes it easier for us to sell through social media as she interacts with the viewers.

We do sell to a lot of other sites (mainly CCBill) and by far the biggest sellers for us now are all mostly now solo too. I think that the punter has tubes and file sharing for hardcore perhaps but the subscriber who is seeking a "personality" is more likely to join the site.

[SGS]

Originally Posted by cots

Sonia used to be my very best sponsor but that is no longer the case by a long way.

You are always going to struggle against our marketing which is selling is selling a 30 day subscription for $12.95 and our marketing is just about everywhere in the punters face.