Money with Free Sites?

[Tekster]

You regular free site builders, are you making any money? I mean is it worth it? It seems like I suck at selling or my free sites are that bad that I get about one sale every 5 free sites. I do get listed just about everywhere I submit, I do get the hits, but no sales.

How are you doing with your free sites?

[KG Gary]

I'm doing pretty well.

One sale every five freesites isn't good. Do you concentrate on juicy text, or lots of banners? How many freesites do you have floating around out there in porn-land?
Maybe it's just the sites/sponsors you are promoting?
I've found that some sponsors just don't seem to do well on freesites, but will convert nicely with TGP traffic.

Once a month I check which sites have been converting best for me and focus more on that sponsor for my future building.
I've found that doing this makes a big difference once you've filtered out sites that, for whatever strange reasons, don't convert or suddenly stop converting.

[Ramster]

Free Sites are a long term build. They stay on many link lists for a long time and rotate to the top on some days so they make sales in the long run. And with some SEO you can get some decent SE traffic too.

[NY Jester]

Tek - the whole Free Site niche of traffic is a new venture me as well, and I questioned how it made any kind of $$ as it seems my traffic is slow coming. From what I have read here and other places, and on the lines of what Ramster said... FS' are a good SE tool and once they all start getting picked up by the SE's the traffic is better and the sales are quicker.
What type of traffic are you getting to the FS's...the thing I find with my Free Sites is not getting the raw numbers you need to convert a sale..if I could find a way to get much needed traffic I'd bottle it and keep it for each site I built.

J-

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by TekAngel

You regular free site builders, are you making any money? I mean is it worth it? It seems like I suck at selling or my free sites are that bad that I get about one sale every 5 free sites. I do get listed just about everywhere I submit, I do get the hits, but no sales.

How are you doing with your free sites?

Tek, for me converting freesites is much harder than it used to be. In 2003-2004 it seemed like I usually got 1 sale per freesite on the initial LL traffic. In 2007, I would say my numbers are more like yours. I might get 1 in 5 off the initial LL traffic to my freesites. But, I also get them for freesites I made and submitted many months ago. The more you have floating around, the better chance you have at making an extra sale.

If you do it right, building and submitting freesites shouldn't really take all that much time leaving you free to work on other avenues like your own LL,hub, or blog.

[ponygirl]

I'll agree with Lowry - I see sales off of older sites more often now, it seems almost as if they have to 'season' before they make a sale anymore

I'll notice when I go on a submitting spurt I do tend to see more $$ a couple weeks down the road (then I get sidetracked and don't sub for a week, which sucks lol) I also switched to mainly revshare not too long ago and am very grateful for that now.

I've been doing a lot of work on my LL, and am starting to see revenue from that too, but it's taken me 3 years to get here, so don't get discouraged. Everyone always says it here, but it's true - just keep building stuff and it'll pay off

[plateman]

exactly what lowry said, the week of thanksgiving has always been low for sales for me, and look for dec THIS year to really be bad for converts...

If it wasnt for revshare I couldnt pay my bills anymore, and I am loosing trust in the popular PPS sponsors

[LD]

My sales seem to come in spurts. I'll get 4 or 5, and then have a long dry spell. I've done a few AVS too, without much luck. I've noticed too that some of my submissions do not get listed till weeks, sometimes months after the initial submission which adds more delay to the whole process.

I have thought about going back and doing some mirrors on my old sites to spread them around a little more, since now I have a better feel for where the best traffic originates. Would this be worthwhile?

[papagmp]

Originally Posted by LusciousDelight

I have thought about going back and doing some mirrors on my old sites to spread them around a little more, since now I have a better feel for where the best traffic originates. Would this be worthwhile?

I've done this on a few FS's - if I'm not up to creating a new FS, I may just create a doorway page or two and submit it to another dozen LL's.

[papagmp]

I'm doing about 1 sale in 2.5 sites but I submit to a bunch of LL’s - and about half of those re-occurring subscriptions so the rev-shares are starting to build. I get more sales when I hit the clubs with one of my models – and I get to hang a sexy girl on my arm and enjoy a beer or two. At least with free-sites, I don’t have a dozen guys wanting to audition so they can get in the models pants.

[Tekster]

Thanks to all for the replays. I understand about the long time benefits and SEO, but I was getting worried, thinking that most people get a bunch of sales with the surge of traffic when first submitting the FS.

I still get some sales of the old sites as well. And now I feel a whole lot better since it looks like I am doing about the same as everyone else.

[LD]

Originally Posted by TekAngel

I still get some sales of the old sites as well. And now I feel a whole lot better since it looks like I am doing about the same as everyone else.

Hey Tek, how long have you been submitting? I'm coming up on six months and about 99% of my sales have been in the last two months. Time does seem to be my friend at this point..hard to fight off discouragement, though...

[Useless]

Certain sponsors will convert during the rush of traffic on a new site, others won't. Finding which will convert quickly is a trial and error effort. Bookmarker traffic, which can be a big part of that initial rush, has seen it all and though they do buy, it takes that special something to convert them to the sale. (Think nasty, exotic, different.) SE traffic is better, assuming the surfer can actually locate the item they searched for buried somewhere within a link list's listings. SE traffic directly to your free sites is ideal, but it's really goddamn difficult to compete with older sites in the SEs.

(I reserve the right to modify and completely disregard these opinions depending on my mood and what the voices tell me.)

[JustRobert]

I believe my sales with freesites are like yours as well TekAngel.

Its hard to say as more and more sales are coming across without a referring url in a sponsors stats. So I never know if those are coming from FS, galleries, TGP, LL, hubs, etc... Which should let you know that FS is only one part of the equation to survival, at least for me.

[bDok]

Keep building. Really you need to do what Lowry mentioned above. Need to get other projects cooking if you want to make some more money. It really is about getting things out there and indexed.

One thing I know is that now that i'm submitting to a bunch of different niches things are picking up with sales from freesites. I'm working on getting even more categories going after turkey day. From there need to filter the traffic off to hubs that contain links to more sites that fit the niche you are driving traffic from. It's a battle for sure, but really it's all about keep building.

I'm not just saying freesites either. Cause if I had to live off my freesite money I would be without a car and wouldn't be going out on the weekends.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

Tek, for me converting freesites is much harder than it used to be. In 2003-2004 it seemed like I usually got 1 sale per freesite on the initial LL traffic. In 2007, I would say my numbers are more like yours. I might get 1 in 5 off the initial LL traffic to my freesites. But, I also get them for freesites I made and submitted many months ago. The more you have floating around, the better chance you have at making an extra sale.

Ditto

Originally Posted by ponygirl

...but it's taken me 3 years to get here, so don't get discouraged....

Tell me about it.

I'm still receiving nice monthly checks from a sponsor I no longer build for, it takes time and a lot of sites out there.

[NY Jester]

To keep this going...Do webmasters in general create more FS's then they submit? I mean do they create 20 a week and only submit the limit which is 1-2 FS's a day depending on the particluar rules of the LL and then add those 5 plus the "extras" to a hub or their own mini link list?

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by NY Jester

To keep this going...Do webmasters in general create more FS's then they submit? I mean do they create 20 a week and only submit the limit which is 1-2 FS's a day depending on the particluar rules of the LL and then add those 5 plus the "extras" to a hub or their own mini link list?

oh man, I wish

I just don't have enough time in the day. Sometimes I get on a roll & can crank out one per day for a week or so, but it's so easy to get burned out on freesites too that I have to take a break or things get stale. I wish I had the time & discipline to do that

I do have some submitters that do seem to have it down, though. One every day, pretty much no fail. I gotta admire that!

[LD]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

oh man, I wish

I just don't have enough time in the day. Sometimes I get on a roll & can crank out one per day for a week or so, but it's so easy to get burned out on freesites too that I have to take a break or things get stale. I wish I had the time & discipline to do that

I do have some submitters that do seem to have it down, though. One every day, pretty much no fail. I gotta admire that!

What she said...

[sue-fl]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

oh man, I wish

No shit

I've been good the past few weeks and have been submitting 4 sites a week which is about my max. I don't do this every week because of my life offline, my LL, my two hubs... I too believe I could make much more money if I was more consistent. Just seems like something always comes up to throw me off track to often.

Most of my sales come from my free sites though. I have tons of them listed on line in the 3 years I've been doing this. Sales come from old and new sites. The past few months I have been seeing sales from my other projects which is encouraging.

Time is on your side TekAngel...

[SheepGuy]

Originally Posted by NY Jester

To keep this going...Do webmasters in general create more FS's then they submit? I mean do they create 20 a week and only submit the limit which is 1-2 FS's a day depending on the particluar rules of the LL and then add those 5 plus the "extras" to a hub or their own mini link list?

I can do that with AVS's but not with free sites, I'm pretty much always sitting on 10-20 AVS sites that haven't been submitted to any LL's. I find it much more time intensive to build a free site, but I'm thinking that's probably just me.

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by NY Jester

To keep this going...Do webmasters in general create more FS's then they submit? I mean do they create 20 a week and only submit the limit which is 1-2 FS's a day depending on the particluar rules of the LL and then add those 5 plus the "extras" to a hub or their own mini link list?

I do. I build freesites pretty much all year but when I'm on I am kicking out 5 a day which is rare these days. I am still submitting freesites from which I built in the first 3 months of this year.

[NY Jester]

I find it much more time intensive to build a free site

No I have to agree. I find it takes me much too long to make a decent free site. I try to keep it clean as possible, keep the design fresh and not duplicate color/layout, etc too much. MML offered some advise on another thread to make 30 templates so that you're switching out every time you make one. I know I did that with TGP Gallery pages and it works well. Saves time and keeps my site slooking different when I can submit daily. I made 8 templates so that Im never using the same layout on the same day for the most part. Using 8 always offsets the days I use a certain design. Im sure it works much like that with Free Sites/ Avs sites etc.

J-

[Tekster]

Thanks to all of you, this is just I needed, maybe it does not sound like encouragement to everybody but it does to me. I guess I will just keep on going like the Energizer Bunny.

[spookyx]

Originally Posted by TekAngel

Thanks to all of you, this is just I needed, maybe it does not sound like encouragement to everybody but it does to me. I guess I will just keep on going like the Energizer Bunny.

TekAngel,

My advice is to build at least 1 freesite a day, and don't get caught up in the "i need nice graphics" trap. mix it up. make a lot of very plain ones, some with nice graphics if you can. and pick content and the niche wisely, try different ons. keep building and submitting, and take a look at the linklists, for example if link-o-rama says the are looking for more "tranny midgets on tricycles" for the god's sake submit those, look at niches that don't have 80000000 sites listed, make a lot of those, so when someone clicks on a category, and then a site, chances are its yours.

just my 2 cents