Free advertising for paysite owners :)

RawAlex · 2005-01-18, 10:24 AM

John: Here is where your idea falls down: Quite simply, if is it such a great idea, why not do it yourself?

Buy some exclusive video content (it's not THAT expensive) watermark it to a filter domain, and distributie it for free and see what happens.

Use that data (number of people typeing in that URL) versus the amount of bandwidth used and use those numbers to promote your product.

An idea and $5 will get you a big latte at starbacks. You can also get it with just the $5.

As for DVDs, you may not have understood this, but many membership sites either don't have the rights for DVD distribution of thier own material, have signed those rights away, or would be concerned to have their material on DVD because the rules for obscenity are more easily applied to a tangible product. Many of them shoot their video at low enough quality that people would not be lining up to buy it if they saw it on a DVD. 1CCD camera stuff looks okay at 320X240 on a computer screen, but it looks like HELL on the TV screen.

Finally, if you are going to be in marketing, remember that it is ALL about marketing. If your idea is truly unique and new, and you really believe in it, it can stand to be seen in the light of day. You don't have to try to sneak it out the back door when nobody is listening. If you idea truly works and you have proof of it's financial viability, the membership sites will line up at your door to make cash.

Right now you are presenting a "fantasy" marketing idea with no numbers to back you up, no experience with the concept, no test run. no test market, no samples, and no way to show the actual expense / return ratios. Without all of those things, you would be laughed out of any company, adult, non-adult, or disney.

We aren't sheep. But many of the people in this room have been doing this since 1996 or 1997. We have seen things come and go, and we have seen really go ideas that have stopped panning out over time. The free site model is developed as a way to distribute content for free in return for viewing ads. We can provide empirical data that says "for everyone 1000 visitors to a free site, X will click on a banner, link, or otherwise do something productive other than whack off".

Until you can say for certainty that "for every 10mps server running full cap all month, you will get X surfers, Y% of which will go to your join page" and have the data to back it up, well, you are just a guy asking people to spend money and give away the one thing they are trying to sell in order to HOPE something happens (without proof that it will).

I know people who put carefully controlled clips of their content out on services like kazaa, bit torrent, and whatnot. But they use the benefits of the P2P network (You only pay a little bandwidth to get it out there... once it is out there, you can quit) and the long term nature of these file exchanges to get people to come to your site. The bandwidth / visitor ratio is within reason most of the time. However, the clips are often carefully edited to show limited action, to tease, or whatever. They are not sending out major clips from their paysite member's area for free. Moreover, many of them use Real encoding as it allows for popup windows to be encoded into the streams, which can help to drive people to the front door of the site.

It's just the facts. Prove us otherwise with real world numbers.

Alex

2005-01-18, 10:24 AM	#1
RawAlex Took the hint. Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,597	John: Here is where your idea falls down: Quite simply, if is it such a great idea, why not do it yourself? Buy some exclusive video content (it's not THAT expensive) watermark it to a filter domain, and distributie it for free and see what happens. Use that data (number of people typeing in that URL) versus the amount of bandwidth used and use those numbers to promote your product. An idea and $5 will get you a big latte at starbacks. You can also get it with just the $5. As for DVDs, you may not have understood this, but many membership sites either don't have the rights for DVD distribution of thier own material, have signed those rights away, or would be concerned to have their material on DVD because the rules for obscenity are more easily applied to a tangible product. Many of them shoot their video at low enough quality that people would not be lining up to buy it if they saw it on a DVD. 1CCD camera stuff looks okay at 320X240 on a computer screen, but it looks like HELL on the TV screen. Finally, if you are going to be in marketing, remember that it is ALL about marketing. If your idea is truly unique and new, and you really believe in it, it can stand to be seen in the light of day. You don't have to try to sneak it out the back door when nobody is listening. If you idea truly works and you have proof of it's financial viability, the membership sites will line up at your door to make cash. Right now you are presenting a "fantasy" marketing idea with no numbers to back you up, no experience with the concept, no test run. no test market, no samples, and no way to show the actual expense / return ratios. Without all of those things, you would be laughed out of any company, adult, non-adult, or disney. We aren't sheep. But many of the people in this room have been doing this since 1996 or 1997. We have seen things come and go, and we have seen really go ideas that have stopped panning out over time. The free site model is developed as a way to distribute content for free in return for viewing ads. We can provide empirical data that says "for everyone 1000 visitors to a free site, X will click on a banner, link, or otherwise do something productive other than whack off". Until you can say for certainty that "for every 10mps server running full cap all month, you will get X surfers, Y% of which will go to your join page" and have the data to back it up, well, you are just a guy asking people to spend money and give away the one thing they are trying to sell in order to HOPE something happens (without proof that it will). I know people who put carefully controlled clips of their content out on services like kazaa, bit torrent, and whatnot. But they use the benefits of the P2P network (You only pay a little bandwidth to get it out there... once it is out there, you can quit) and the long term nature of these file exchanges to get people to come to your site. The bandwidth / visitor ratio is within reason most of the time. However, the clips are often carefully edited to show limited action, to tease, or whatever. They are not sending out major clips from their paysite member's area for free. Moreover, many of them use Real encoding as it allows for popup windows to be encoded into the streams, which can help to drive people to the front door of the site. It's just the facts. Prove us otherwise with real world numbers. Alex