Did gas prices suck the life out of adult sites?

[T Pat]

My sales suck and my little paysite's chargebacks are already 3 times what they were last year

[plateman]

I think everyone would agree that there ratios arnt what they should be

yes I do believe that high everything prices except porn is the major thing holding things back a bit

put your self in the shoes of the average US consumer and aug is a bad month for most places except retail clothes and school supplies ect.

I remember when I first started working on cars at the dealers and other shops that aug was every year the worst for biz

my wife took my girls shopping for school clothes and she told me you wouldnt believe the deep discounts the stores had to get people to buy, and most stores she was in (not walmart) good quality clothing stores and she notices that everyone was buying only what was needed

and believe me the average US family that has kids is gonna be saving for xmas extra early this last quarter of the year

so you gotta work extra hard in the next few months to glide over the dips that come in this biz

promote under promoted sites and programs, target different people that have money left on there cards

the problem imo came years ago when credit was to easy to get and most over bought and now the last few years after you buy your everything expensive now and pay your 4 or 6 credit cards and people see month to month that after they pay those cards not much play money is left if any

things will get better, but google isnt helping much by showing the surfers the tube sites and such, but you really can't blame them

sales are way down for me this month, but I took a traffic hit

also my brother married and divoriced a stripper and a popular stip club in my town and even from what he tells me that the girls are seeing way lower tips from the drunk customers there, since the extra cost of gas, then most of those customers are smokers and cigs are taxed high so that = less money for the girls

same thing in our biz right now, unless you can find something that will sell with better richer surfers

[SheepGuy]

Traffic is up for me, sales are up as well, but not as much as they should be with the extra traffic. I think that economically the day of reckoning is at hand, but I don't think it will affect porn as much as it will affect sales in every other area of the economy. When times get tough and people can't afford to buy new toys constantly they'll play with the toy they were born with and porn is a very cheap accessory.
That said, if you're not marketing something unique or hard to find you'll likely be in for a slump.

[Lucifuge]

Originally Posted by T Pat

My sales suck and my little paysite's chargebacks are already 3 times what they were last year

Hi T Pat,
In my 'normal' biz, we do a hella lot of credit card transactions and get chargebacks usually from impatient people that can't stand to wait for a refund or exchange (we do a lot of eBay selling). Are chargebacks that common amongst people that subscribe to adult sites? How do the sponsors handle them? And how are you 'penalized' (if the case may be) for such transactions?
Thanks

[elKabong]

Tube sites have to have something to do with decreasing sales...

Just do a google search on "porn", "free porn" and "sex".

I wonder why google allows illegal sites to show up in the search results...

[T Pat]

Originally Posted by Lucifuge

Hi T Pat,
In my 'normal' biz, we do a hella lot of credit card transactions and get chargebacks usually from impatient people that can't stand to wait for a refund or exchange (we do a lot of eBay selling). Are chargebacks that common amongst people that subscribe to adult sites? How do the sponsors handle them? And how are you 'penalized' (if the case may be) for such transactions?
Thanks

I don't think chargebacks are any higher in adult, I do think money is tighter for my paysite's target market.
I use Verotel for a processor, there is no penalty for refunds (insufficient funds or ask Verotel for a refund)
A Chargeback is when they dispute the charge with their credit card company for that there is a charge of $3.80 (if I remember right) and if your chargebacks go over 2% my account can be suspended or additional security deposit or holdback percentage added.
I lumped my refunds and charge backs together to get the 3 times last year figure
I'm actually running 1/4 insufficient funds, 1/4 not happy with content, 1/2 chargebacks.
Expecting a Dear Pat letter any day now