What exactly is and AVS site?

[jayeff]

Originally Posted by SheepGuy

Fonz is right, the X sales make it worthwhile

Well until about 2000, yes. You could easily double your ID sales income with upsells. But since then, total traffic to AVS programs has dropped dramatically and the number of sites has increased many times over. The rules on upsells have got tougher while the program operators have become more aggressive with their own promos.

I haven't put up an AVS site in close to 5 years because by then my upsell income was already down to 10% of my ID sales.

People really should distinguish between free-ID sites like SexKey, old-school AVS like Cyberage, and video-only AEN. Despite superficial similarities, they are quite different business models and the same traffic, marketing, etc doesn't work for all three groups.

On the subject of upsells, for example (although some may disagree), I always regarded upsells on the free-ID sites as pretty much a bonus and looked to ID's for the bulk of my income from them. On the old-school AVS, as already noted, once upsells were half my income, while on the new AEN's, there are no upsells at all.

The AEN's on the other hand all have built-in features allowing you to have your own affiliates and retention is in the same ball-park as the old-school AVS. Retention is not - unless the game has changed - a factor with the free-ID programs, because you get a one-time payment.

I am so out of date as regards the free-ID programs, I cannot usefully comment on them. Deluxe Pass, Jans Webring and Porn Access I can recommend to anyone who has design skills or access to them, because that (and a healthy dose of traffic) is the key to success with the video AEN's and they can work very well.

Old-school AVS I have a hard time being objective about. I was lucky and only lost small change over the disgusting behavior of Adult Check and the webmasters who stayed with them. But exactly when you would have expected Cyberage and NetVerifier to notch it up a bit to take advantage of AC's scam, they behaved as if, with the competition gone, they didn't need to bother any more. Ever since they have just cruised along on their declining traffic, letting the script kiddies keep churning out more sites every day. I know exactly how people who are already established with them make money. But it is very hard to sincerely recommend them to anyone new to the business.