What does it take to be lucrative in the freesite game nowadays?

[ponygirl]

I mainly do freesites, that is where I'm getting the sales. I get the odd gallery listed too, but the freesites are what I focus on. I also have my hub turned LL - this mainly sucks time & doesn't return anything yet but it's got good pr & it's for the long term, while the freesites are mainly to get some fast cash.

Up till March I was working ft outside the house, so 2 freesites/week was good for me. Now I try to do 5/wk, but mostly end up with 4.

As you get better & faster at it, you will start to see more traffic, then more sales. I'm sure what I'm doing and making is piddly shit to a lot of people in this biz - in fact, I know it is but I'm not necessarily looking for the big bucks, just to make a living, like I would anywhere else. If that's what you're aiming for then I think it's possible, even probable, unless you give up too soon, or just totally suck

Main thing I have learned is that you have to have LOTS of patience - just like any other business, the first year is going to be the worst, you'll lose money & think of bailing every day, but get over the hump & it gets better.

well, that's my story & I'm stickin to it

EDIT - oh ya, and TIME - your family will hate you & complain they never see you, you will not sleep, your eyes will go buggy and your hands will cramp - just be prepared

[Linkster]

I can tell you that there are two pitfalls a large percentage of people fall into when starting with freesites - they try to use sponsor content and they go with the cheapest lowest bandwidth host they can.
While these sound like good ideas they have caused more problems for free site makers in the last two years than any others.
First - the content(free hosted stuff that is) - while its free and readily available - it (in most of the larger programs out there) has been used so many times that its just not going to get approved at LLs - or at least the LLs that will send sales - they want quality content for their surfers and you should want quality surfers - so I would recommend spending the 5 or 6 bucks it costs these days for a set of content per site and it will pay for itself in the long run

Second - the host - every day I look at 404s and "exceeded bandwidth" pages when Im checking my links - and all because the submitter wanted to shave 5 bucks off the cost of the hosting a month - it is in your best interests to always check around (pretty easy to do here with the amount of posts on the subject in the past) and pick someone thats not going to go out on you in 2 months.

Last - do I think its possible to make a living from free sites alone - not a chance - but then my idea of a living is probably different than yours - if you want to be making $1000 a week in a year - yeah thats very possible with free sites as long as you learn traffic routing and filtering, listen and read everything you can on this board, and do some of the tricks already posted here where you set up hubs of your free sites and work towards your own network of sites that "captures" surfers and builds their traffic.

[MrYum]

What a great thread!

Nice contributions everyone

Got into free sites a couple years ago...as the previous model had stopped working entirely. Won't even go into the sordid details of that

As others have stated...frequently, free site sales come much later down the road. That said, if you can find something fresh that's not overexposed yet...new sites can generate nice sales too. Just ran across one of those site recently...nice to see those quick sales and low ratios again!

Again as others mentioned, it really depends on what you need to live. Unfortunately, because of how and where I choose to live...this biz doesn't pay my bills. Fortunately, I've made some other decisions that have kept things alive.

And I'm constantly adapting what I do to streamline processes...find new traffic streams....grow the business. Not really any 'easy' roads in the biz these days, but at least it's a fun journey...and it's not boring!

There's always something new to learn...something new to try...that's actually one of my favorite parts of the biz

[Surfn]

I agree with Linkster. Dedication and perseverance and you should be earning $1000.00 per week in a year.

Like any business the more you put into it the more you get out.

[ponygirl]

where I live, $1000/wk is a decent living indeed
that's pretty inspiring coming from a couple of very respected & experienced folks here

guess I'll get back to work

[Bill]

C'mon, guys, it's not nice to taunt people.

I'd agree it's just barely possible a skilled businessperson could start with nothing and be making a kay a week in one year. But even that person, if they couldn't call on contacts for help, would be hard pressed.

For most people, that's just not possible anymore.

It was possible from the early days to about 2002. Now - not so much.

And by just _submitting_ freesites? I just don't see it. Where are all these people, if it's so easy?

I don't think anybody could do it from freesites alone, not from scratch, today.

[Linkster]

Bill - with perseverence and using good content, researching niches that convert as opposed to just doing general teen submits, I truly believe - and have seen proof of - that someone who worked their ass off for one year should be able to make that at least.
Granted it takes getting into posting on boards like this to do the networking thingie and getting some free help along the way (which also happens with the networking aspect) and researching the heck out of a niche - Ive seen it happen in the last year for some people - so its a reality in my mind

Your question about where these people are - they are few and far between - cause most people starting out just dont have the dedication to stick to it

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Linkster

Your question about where these people are - they are few and far between - cause most people starting out just dont have the dedication to stick to it

I think that's a very big part of it - people seem to think porn is easy money and it's quite discouraging when you have a terrible week or even longer. I didn't say I thought it was easy, I don't think I will be making 1k/wk anytime soon

What I do believe is that if you are persistent, determined and don't give up, you can make a living from any business that you put your mind and skills to, in this biz or any other.

At least that's what they taught us in business school

[tickler]

Originally Posted by Linkster

...researching niches that convert as opposed to just doing general teen submits, .... and researching the heck out of a niche

I would highly recommend checking out some of the TV shoes like Kink, if you can get access to it.

I found out more about latex and all the related products after watching a half hour show, then months of surfing SEs would have provided. Another one recently explained the difference between balloon fetish "players" and "poppers". And they really don't get along with each other.

I even started researching a couple of niches after seeing them on CSI. One show had Plushies & Furries, another episode had a Biting fetish character.