Making free sites sucks

ronnie · 2006-12-12, 10:34 AM

It sure takes time and it is harder than it use to be. Over the years I have gotten burnt out or lazy, more times that I can probably count, but my adult stuff has always made more than any regular job would pay. I believe any one can make more than say, walmart pays. Just one sale a day would pretty much cover that. But, the biggest drawback of this business, any business for that matter, is you dont have a boss hanging on you to make sure the work gets done. We all know, though we dont want to admit it, that it's real easy to get distracted, the net has a million distractions. It's too easy to find out 3 hours later you have'nt gotten any "work" done. You sure have to be disicplined.

When I started in this biz, my motivation was to get away from the job, I was SO sick and tired of working for some one else, working when they told me to, taking the crap pay they wanted to pay me. Same went for my wife having to take stupid crap at a stupid job. My wife was'nt thrilled with the idea, but I told her I was going to do it, it was going to work and that was that. It did'nt take long to make more than the job was paying, because I knew it was going to work.

It is harder in this business than it use to be, so we need to work smarter, more efficient and most important, get the most out of what we do. It amazes me every day to see people not getting the best out of their work. We all have a limited amount of traffic, so it is in our best interest to squeeze every cick out of it. How many people even track their ads? Not many from what I see. If you want to get the most of your traffic, how can you do that when you dont know how your ads are performing, or how they are not performing?

Every day I see sites that would not get listed anywhere, yet the same people keep doing it ever day. I still see people using ads I know do not pull crap for clicks, yet they keep doing it every day.

It use to be you could throw up a crappy site and make money. I use to churn out crappy avs site after crappy avs site and every one I made would make at least one sale, every time. Being that it's not as easy as it use to be, I believe, more than before we need to treat this like a real business, not really a bad thing. If you had a real life brick and mortar store, would you keep trying to sell products that customers did'nt buy? Or sell products that did'nt make a profit? More importantly would you keep using ads that did'nt bring many customers in your store? If you did google adwords, would you keep using an ad that did'nt get clicks? Would you keep paying for clicks that did'nt make you any sales?

Blogging is the big rage right now and it does work. Yet I see far more crap blogs than good ones. Some people believe if they mass produce enough, they will get enough traffic. On the other hand what if you did one really good blog instead of 10 crap ones? Could save you time and make you more money. I have one blog that out pulls all my other blogs and really dont take that much more time.

How many people read marketing or sales books? We are in the business of marketing and or sell porn, well actually a fantasy, but it's still selling and marketing an idea/product. Can we say we do our best to sell it?

Most people making good money do it by having multiple streams of income. If one slows down or dissappears, it wont be as much of a big hit. The same could be said for traffic, the more sources, the less one loss is going to hurt.

So often I see people complaining they are not making any money, yet they have a high post count in a short time on a message board. Dont complain if your not doing the work. By the same token, networking is so important in this business, more that most realize, yet few do it. But moderation can be the key.

If you dont like doing free sites, dont do them, or at least do other things like blogs or hubs, ect, or to build up other things so you might be able to get away from free sites. It's been said over and over, the more you enjoy something, the better chance you'll have at success. The opposite can be true.

I think that most would agree, besides galleries, free sites are the best avenue at getting descent traffic if your new or not networked. I have done some free sites and I know the traffic can last quite a while, longer than I thought. If we know they produce traffic, are we doing all we can to get sales out of the traffic? Or we getting the most traffic out of each site? Many people dont get listed everywhere like they say.

Lets face it, we all KNOW this business is making billions, we all know that for a fact. The money is there, we just have to do the best to grab our share. Every one has the opportunity.

None of the above is directed at any one in this thread or on this board, just my rambling and observations. And I'll be the first one to admit, I have been guilty of it all at one time or another..

JD · 2006-12-17, 08:03 PM

Hi Ronnie

Nice post!

Re:tracking banner conversions etc. what do you use for tracking banner conversions? I have to admit I have always been a "throw a new banner in there" type of webmaster and i have never kept track of good banners vs bad banners. I suppose theres some scripts out there that you could use, but I would not want to piss any link list owners off, if it has some fancy java or cgi on the page. What would you suggest for banner tracking? And what about text link tracking, is it possible to track this?

The way I have always made sites is to just whack home made text links in, or some banners from the site in question, never paying too much attention to which free site the sales came from etc. Even today I find it a bit tricky to know exactly what site made the sale. Unless you make a new NATS campaign for each site you do, but nats isnt available for sponsors such as top bucks, tcg or nasty or bang bros etc.

I have to say, I am just trying anything and everything right now, just to make a couple of sales, so I am all over the show really lol. I have some blogs but they are probably under your "crap" ones you mentioned. I dont always know what direction to go, so I do a bit of everything, but thats not necesarily a good thing as I could possibly be beter going in a direction that suited me more. Some people say, work out what works and multiply that, but I havent really found anything that works as such yet, as it does seem to be months and months of doing somethng before you will see a result, and being impatient at the best of times is not a good trait for me as I know you have to wait like 3-6 months to see some results for free sites or blogs.

Back to the grind )

cheers

JD

Mr Exotic · 2006-12-17, 09:07 PM

Hey man, most every sponsor I use I can tell where my sales came from, topbucks, nasty, etc. Except on those no data refferers, haha.

Right now I am still sticking with the free sites thing as my main thing, but I have decided if I want to really go anywhere I am gonna have to work way more and at different things at the same time, and doing different things at the same time is terribly hard for me, I get into a mind set and I have problems doing anything else, gonna have to get off the one track mind mode. Just here lately I have put a little more effort into my tgp galleries, starting up a link list, and getting ready to start a fake tgp project with my cousin that will probably end up being a full time job in by itself. Seems to get things going you have to give up your whole life, but once the ball gets rolling you still need to stay on top of things, but you can relax just a tiny bit.

Halfdeck · 2006-12-17, 10:11 PM

Try different things and figure out what you like doing.

Don't chase the money too hard, because it doesn't matter how much money you make, if you gotta sink alot of hours into it and if you don't enjoy what you're doing, sooner or later you'll quit.

If you love what you do - for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health - you'll keep going.

ronnie · 2006-12-17, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JD

Hi Ronnie

Nice post!

Re:tracking banner conversions etc. what do you use for tracking banner conversions? I have to admit I have always been a "throw a new banner in there" type of webmaster and i have never kept track of good banners vs bad banners. I suppose theres some scripts out there that you could use, but I would not want to piss any link list owners off, if it has some fancy java or cgi on the page. What would you suggest for banner tracking? And what about text link tracking, is it possible to track this?

The way I have always made sites is to just whack home made text links in, or some banners from the site in question, never paying too much attention to which free site the sales came from etc. Even today I find it a bit tricky to know exactly what site made the sale. Unless you make a new NATS campaign for each site you do, but nats isnt available for sponsors such as top bucks, tcg or nasty or bang bros etc.

I have to say, I am just trying anything and everything right now, just to make a couple of sales, so I am all over the show really lol. I have some blogs but they are probably under your "crap" ones you mentioned. I dont always know what direction to go, so I do a bit of everything, but thats not necesarily a good thing as I could possibly be beter going in a direction that suited me more. Some people say, work out what works and multiply that, but I havent really found anything that works as such yet, as it does seem to be months and months of doing somethng before you will see a result, and being impatient at the best of times is not a good trait for me as I know you have to wait like 3-6 months to see some results for free sites or blogs.

Back to the grind )

cheers

JD

As for ads, one of the best tracking script is http://phpadsnew.com/two/ and best of all it's free. Incredible script. It does have a learning curve, but well worth it. Few people on this board use it, so if your ever stuck, should be able to get some help. I've never see a LL owner say anying about it, strange if they would. Now if you use a JS one, then you might get some flack, or bots not liking the code. Our goal is to get any many surfers to the sponsors as possible, it's a sales game. More people that see the paysite, more apt to sign-up. Of course better your ads pull, the more you send to the sponsor.

As for tracking sales, yes most sponsors do show, but not always. So you see the ones that make the sales and do more.

As for the waiting, thats not really true, least for free sites and tgp galleries for example. They both usually get traffic within a day or so, so in a week, you should be able to see what works and what does'nt. Should be able to see which ads work, which dont, eliminating the dogs. On another note, which sites/galleries get the most interest. It will take a little time, but I dont see it as months. Now a blog, that might take a little longer, they do need to "build-up". Nothing wrong with trying many things, just drop the ones you know for sure are not working, and give each venture enough time to evaluate if it works for you or not.

Also, of course the more focused you are, the better you'll do. Save time, automate what you can. Think of all the things you do in a normal day, see if you can streamline them or automate them.

2006-12-17, 09:07 PM	#3
Mr Exotic rifuckingdiculous Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Cornfield in Indiana Posts: 532	Hey man, most every sponsor I use I can tell where my sales came from, topbucks, nasty, etc. Except on those no data refferers, haha. Right now I am still sticking with the free sites thing as my main thing, but I have decided if I want to really go anywhere I am gonna have to work way more and at different things at the same time, and doing different things at the same time is terribly hard for me, I get into a mind set and I have problems doing anything else, gonna have to get off the one track mind mode. Just here lately I have put a little more effort into my tgp galleries, starting up a link list, and getting ready to start a fake tgp project with my cousin that will probably end up being a full time job in by itself. Seems to get things going you have to give up your whole life, but once the ball gets rolling you still need to stay on top of things, but you can relax just a tiny bit. __________________ Submit Free Sites/Galleries

2006-12-17, 10:11 PM	#4
Halfdeck You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New Haven, CT Posts: 985	Try different things and figure out what you like doing. Don't chase the money too hard, because it doesn't matter how much money you make, if you gotta sink alot of hours into it and if you don't enjoy what you're doing, sooner or later you'll quit. If you love what you do - for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health - you'll keep going. __________________ Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

2006-12-12, 10:34 AM	#1
ronnie Wheither you think you can or you think you can't, Your right. Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: midwest Posts: 2,274	It sure takes time and it is harder than it use to be. Over the years I have gotten burnt out or lazy, more times that I can probably count, but my adult stuff has always made more than any regular job would pay. I believe any one can make more than say, walmart pays. Just one sale a day would pretty much cover that. But, the biggest drawback of this business, any business for that matter, is you dont have a boss hanging on you to make sure the work gets done. We all know, though we dont want to admit it, that it's real easy to get distracted, the net has a million distractions. It's too easy to find out 3 hours later you have'nt gotten any "work" done. You sure have to be disicplined. When I started in this biz, my motivation was to get away from the job, I was SO sick and tired of working for some one else, working when they told me to, taking the crap pay they wanted to pay me. Same went for my wife having to take stupid crap at a stupid job. My wife was'nt thrilled with the idea, but I told her I was going to do it, it was going to work and that was that. It did'nt take long to make more than the job was paying, because I knew it was going to work. It is harder in this business than it use to be, so we need to work smarter, more efficient and most important, get the most out of what we do. It amazes me every day to see people not getting the best out of their work. We all have a limited amount of traffic, so it is in our best interest to squeeze every cick out of it. How many people even track their ads? Not many from what I see. If you want to get the most of your traffic, how can you do that when you dont know how your ads are performing, or how they are not performing? Every day I see sites that would not get listed anywhere, yet the same people keep doing it ever day. I still see people using ads I know do not pull crap for clicks, yet they keep doing it every day. It use to be you could throw up a crappy site and make money. I use to churn out crappy avs site after crappy avs site and every one I made would make at least one sale, every time. Being that it's not as easy as it use to be, I believe, more than before we need to treat this like a real business, not really a bad thing. If you had a real life brick and mortar store, would you keep trying to sell products that customers did'nt buy? Or sell products that did'nt make a profit? More importantly would you keep using ads that did'nt bring many customers in your store? If you did google adwords, would you keep using an ad that did'nt get clicks? Would you keep paying for clicks that did'nt make you any sales? Blogging is the big rage right now and it does work. Yet I see far more crap blogs than good ones. Some people believe if they mass produce enough, they will get enough traffic. On the other hand what if you did one really good blog instead of 10 crap ones? Could save you time and make you more money. I have one blog that out pulls all my other blogs and really dont take that much more time. How many people read marketing or sales books? We are in the business of marketing and or sell porn, well actually a fantasy, but it's still selling and marketing an idea/product. Can we say we do our best to sell it? Most people making good money do it by having multiple streams of income. If one slows down or dissappears, it wont be as much of a big hit. The same could be said for traffic, the more sources, the less one loss is going to hurt. So often I see people complaining they are not making any money, yet they have a high post count in a short time on a message board. Dont complain if your not doing the work. By the same token, networking is so important in this business, more that most realize, yet few do it. But moderation can be the key. If you dont like doing free sites, dont do them, or at least do other things like blogs or hubs, ect, or to build up other things so you might be able to get away from free sites. It's been said over and over, the more you enjoy something, the better chance you'll have at success. The opposite can be true. I think that most would agree, besides galleries, free sites are the best avenue at getting descent traffic if your new or not networked. I have done some free sites and I know the traffic can last quite a while, longer than I thought. If we know they produce traffic, are we doing all we can to get sales out of the traffic? Or we getting the most traffic out of each site? Many people dont get listed everywhere like they say. Lets face it, we all KNOW this business is making billions, we all know that for a fact. The money is there, we just have to do the best to grab our share. Every one has the opportunity. None of the above is directed at any one in this thread or on this board, just my rambling and observations. And I'll be the first one to admit, I have been guilty of it all at one time or another..

2006-12-17, 08:03 PM	#2
JD Lord help me, I'm just not that bright Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 107	Hi Ronnie Nice post! Re:tracking banner conversions etc. what do you use for tracking banner conversions? I have to admit I have always been a "throw a new banner in there" type of webmaster and i have never kept track of good banners vs bad banners. I suppose theres some scripts out there that you could use, but I would not want to piss any link list owners off, if it has some fancy java or cgi on the page. What would you suggest for banner tracking? And what about text link tracking, is it possible to track this? The way I have always made sites is to just whack home made text links in, or some banners from the site in question, never paying too much attention to which free site the sales came from etc. Even today I find it a bit tricky to know exactly what site made the sale. Unless you make a new NATS campaign for each site you do, but nats isnt available for sponsors such as top bucks, tcg or nasty or bang bros etc. I have to say, I am just trying anything and everything right now, just to make a couple of sales, so I am all over the show really lol. I have some blogs but they are probably under your "crap" ones you mentioned. I dont always know what direction to go, so I do a bit of everything, but thats not necesarily a good thing as I could possibly be beter going in a direction that suited me more. Some people say, work out what works and multiply that, but I havent really found anything that works as such yet, as it does seem to be months and months of doing somethng before you will see a result, and being impatient at the best of times is not a good trait for me as I know you have to wait like 3-6 months to see some results for free sites or blogs. Back to the grind ) cheers JD