Your paysite startup cost?

[Jeka]

I'm wondering how much you spent in total to launch your first paysite until it was ready to make signups.
So from domain over scripts and content to site design etc.

[juggernaut]

LOL dont ask me this. I still look at my whiteboard and want to bash my head with a hammer. It depends on what type of paysite you are talking about. I would think my kind are the most costly to start up. Cam site. Ie software and BW two biggest $$ suckers. In the last year HUm? 1 part of me says not to say anything but another part of me will tell you. I spent close to 20k in the last year getting my site up and running but keep in mind that about 6 of that was ripped off from me. The rest went to software (of which I found out 1 month later I could have picked up for 2/3rds what I paid for mine from a differant company.) Anyway its been a long hard road for me with not much light at the end of the tunnel. Many sleepless nights, in fact I would say almost 3 months this year I have not really slept due to this site. I would say invest little to no money if you can. As I look back at this whole nightmare I could have done the whole thing for about 5k.

[LB]

Invested around $15k into starting up my program, and only most of the paysites were already set up and had a nice backlog of content updates.

I would say you are probably looking at anywhere between $5k-20k depending on whether you have traffic, have affiliates, have design capabilities, what niche you are in, whether you are doing your own content, getting it shot, or loading your members areas with generic stuff, and around 100 other factors


NB. Without traffic and experience the odds are your paysite will be a tax writeoff.

[LindaMight]

I invested $100 to start my site back in 1999. Had free hosting, owned a digital and video camera, already had pictures of me and George, had free design. I paid for the domain name and for some quickie instructions on html. And then the LEARNING began and I still know squat. But....we're still here going strong.
Linda

[juggernaut]

Originally Posted by LindaMight

I invested $100 to start my site back in 1999. Had free hosting, owned a digital and video camera, already had pictures of me and George, had free design. I paid for the domain name and for some quickie instructions on html. And then the LEARNING began and I still know squat. But....we're still here going strong.
Linda

Thats what I'm talking about. Thats what you call using your head to get a ROI. Good job Linda showing how smart and careful planning before you make moves can keep you alive. Cool shit..

[Ramster]

Linda did it the smart way.

If you've been in the biz for a while and have already bought lots of content that's a good start. And if you already have traffic sources and contacts that helps. YOu could get started for $5K easy with scripts, more content, design and a few other things.

Starting from scratch? Well it could get costly. More importantly you'll need to know how to get traffic to it.

[Adult Traffic]

Not so much.

I own about a hundred GB of content already.

I bought 3 domains for it, $27.00
Content management script, $250.00
Custom Apache Code protection script, $140.00
E-mail collection and management, support, billing scripts, I already owned.
Custom coding besides the 6 weeks I worked on it, about $200.00

Fucking one of the best designers in adult several times a week, PRICELESS
.

[LindaMight]

Thanks. (I really like juggernaut )

[rtv]

I invested about $50K in my Nasty Angels in 2003.

[abcdwebkate]

Most of our calculations for large scale sites have been at least $10,000 US mostly because of labor, hosting and marketing.

You can definitely start small with a lot less than that though.

[Jeka]

Ok so anywhere between $5k and $50k, thanks for replies
And how much are your monthly costs to run your paysite?

[LindaMight]

Wow $50K. Makes my $100 look pretty darn good...

Linda

[Outcast]

About $30k to start in 2004
Monthly:
Hosting $2k
Salary payment(including site improvement) $15k-30k.
Advertising: $$$$$

[Fonz]

I'll just stick with promoting other's paysites for now...

[DonPaul]

first paysites I started was cheap Lately though its become more and more expensive. Buying TONS of content, good hosting, affiliate software, freehosting for webmasters, the list goes on.... Still good money to be made though But stakes are much higher than before.

[CelticTiger]

I'd be interested to know how much the average membership is worth to a paysite or how much profit paysites take from something like a $35 membership.

Anyone bold enough to post some figures?

[DonPaul]

there have been some good threads about this, I wont go more into it than that, people don't agree on it anyways hehe Especially the guys that say they can pay $35++ without shaving, still pay for freehosting, content, etc etc and STILL make a profit!

[Jeka]

Originally Posted by DonPaul

there have been some good threads about this, I wont go more into it than that, people don't agree on it anyways hehe Especially the guys that say they can pay $35++ without shaving, still pay for freehosting, content, etc etc and STILL make a profit!

But those sponsors make also profit from massive upsells and of course most of them shave, no matter what they say

[emmanuelle]

My very first paysite cost me $15 for a domain, and $100/month for hosting. This was back when paysite hosting easily cost $8 / gig.

It can be done still, just takes some elbow grease that few people are willing to invest anymore

[rtv]

Detailed investments:
site design $1.5k
members zone software $600
members zone design $500
affiliate program design $3k
affiliate program software $2k
promo tools design $500
advertisment $3k
incorporation $2k
content non-exclusive 7k
exclusive content $25K

So that is aproximately $50k

[LB]

Good thread

Jeka - our running costs are around $3-4k per month and that doesn't include salary or content, and is also for a fairly small program.

Will shoot up to around 6-8k per month once we get more hosting and start throwing advertising $ around.

Also upsells arent as major a factor as you think. They add a little extra to your bottom line, but they definitely don't add a huge lump of cash to your pocket.

[spookyx]

If you are very careful and do a lot (most) work yourself you can start fairly cheap.

if you are going to have an affiliate program I recommend these guys, they are easy to work with and have very good programmers for custom stuff.

http://www.taboorevenue.com/

You can start with a medium sized dedicated server and grow as needed.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by spookyx

if you are going to have an affiliate program I recommend these guys, they are easy to work with and have very good programmers for custom stuff.

http://www.taboorevenue.com/

You can start with a medium sized dedicated server and grow as needed.

They'd be a lot better if their stats broke down traffic to individual sites. Maybe there's something I'm missing (there often is) on their interface, but all I see is the lump sum of traffic to all sites. Crapola. They show a break down for sales to each site, but what good does that do me? I don't makes sales. Ask anyone. I'm less than worthy.

[spookyx]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

They'd be a lot better if their stats broke down traffic to individual sites. Maybe there's something I'm missing (there often is) on their interface, but all I see is the lump sum of traffic to all sites. Crapola. They show a break down for sales to each site, but what good does that do me? I don't makes sales. Ask anyone. I'm less than worthy.

I will mention that to them, they are always adding features to their software.

[Epicjim]

Most recent site...10K to start....solo stuff...