AVS Sites vs. Free Sites - Which do you prefer?

[Allfetish]

Originally Posted by 4thaloveofdough

Okay I did a post on PPS vs. Revshare, now it's time for AVS vs. Free Sites. I've tried promoting AVS sites a few years ago and had no luck, but I gave up without really putting any effort into it. My question is, do you really get better conversion ratios with AVS? I know people say that since visitors are proven to be willing to use their credit card sales are better, but is this really true or just theory? What are your past experiences with AVS?

My observations.

AVS:

+ Slightly better traffic quality when it comes to the initial hit (after first getting listed). But after this initial hit, freesite traffic has a slight edge.

- About 100 - 400 hits per day per major AVS listing for the first few days when you get near the top of the list. After that the amount sent averages to about the same as freesites.

- Can be harder to create sites for than freesites, or easier. Depends on the AVS. But with most of the major ones in order to get the most hits you have to create a premium site for their premium program. Most of these premium programs want ungodly amounts of content and hassle.

- Some AVSs have rules such as no watermarks (they say no large watermarks, but it effectively ends up the same) on the content in order to get listed. This will hurt you if you use sponsor content.

+ If your site gets delisted, generally you have the advantage of knowing about it and will be able to resubmit it right away. Even if you have 500 sites. Absent special arrangements, you can't do this with freesites.....usually. So overall your sites are probably goign to be listed longer on AVS.

- Internal AVS is usually outside the public area these days. This means those internal pages are not indexed by search engines. This is in contrast to your freesites which ARE indexed by search engines usually. So do not expect SE traffic from the internal AVS.

- AVSs tend NOT to like people who do not actively sell their program and generate signups. They consider people doing upsells only to be leaches. Some will start making excuses to not list you, or may even just flat out ignore you.

- You probably aren't going to make much money just doing AVS and relying on upsells these days. You need to sell the AVS as well.

+ You can typically submit more than one site in theory to the AVS per day. Some allow 3 - 5, others are in theory unlimited. But try submitting 100 sites a day for a month withiut making a single AVS sale and see what happens.

Freesites:

Well, my fingers are tired now from typing all that.
The above should be enough details. Hope it helps.

[4thaloveofdough]

Originally Posted by Allfetish

- Some AVSs have rules such as no watermarks (they say no large watermarks, but it effectively ends up the same) on the content in order to get listed. This will hurt you if you use sponsor content.

This was something I was wondering about because isn't it kinda wrong to charge someone to view a SPONSORS content anyway?

I was thinking that I would make a few AVS sites for each niche I promote and promote them with my freesites using one of my outgoing links like Sir Moby and ecchi said.

Thanks for the input everyone, it's been very helpful.

[Allfetish]

Originally Posted by 4thaloveofdough

This was something I was wondering about because isn't it kinda wrong to charge someone to view a SPONSORS content anyway?

Most of the sponsors do not mind as long as you are promoting only them on those pages. Some do mind (check the terms), others will want you to email the url to the avs sites for approval.

One thing about AVS is that it is nothing like it used to be and progressively gets worse part due to conversions, another part due to lowered payouts, and another part due to the AVSs own actions such as taking the linkslist off of public pages or raising site requirements.

I started out doing AVS in late 1998. You used to be able to simply throw up a site and earn $50+ a day from people signing up from the AVS public list alone (none of your own real traffic). I'm not kidding or exaggerating here one bit as hard as it may seem to believe for anyone who is kind of new to this. Makes ya wish you had time machine, doesn't it?