DD's original post touched on a few different areas: "I am finally starting to promote my websites and was just fishing for some feedback. The old days are truly gone, it seems, with mass TGP submissions, 1-on-1 webmaster relationships from the point of 'being in it together' etc. In your expert opinions, how good are toplists, as a tool, i.e. Top 100 sites, etc. Are they still even viable in our industry as far as converting traffic? Password sites are making a killing nowadays; it seems too, charging 'gold' memberships for our member's hacked passwords. It's just not right, peepz. Also, what about Certified Fetish and Picka Picka? It seems like they don't convert near as much as they used too. Are our customers just spoiled from all of the free shit on the Internet these days? I talk to everyone about this and they are like, 'yeah, there is so much good free porn out there, why would I want to pay for it.' I would suppose that keeping your content exclusive and out of the hands of the crackers is key, because then your content retains its value. If you have any feedback, words of wisdom, etc. Please pitch in."
Originally, I offered some brief advice, saying that it really is harder to sell the same old stuff. I don't find FHG's as profitable as they used to be, but free sites are converting much better. I have been making lots more money with PayAsYouClick these days and giving away a lot less content. With PayAsYouClick you don't have to worry about password robbers at least, which is a great added benefit.
Tropicool offered some advice, as well, saying that while he felt DD would do OK with niche-specific toplists, adult blogs seem to be 90 percent hype and not a good source for generating significant traffic, even when you are listed prominently. Running ads via Google Adsense can provide decent traffic levels though, he added.
After these comments, DD returned: "It is interesting you mentioned not making as much as the old days with FHG's. I would agree. What are your thoughts on why our consumers have moved away from that? Maybe 'pop up hell' TGP's have hurt the industry in that regard? People are just sick of clicking windows that go nowhere. Of course you can't really regulate misleading links or TGP's that just suck. I find my conversion ratios are much broader than they used to be. I heard someone say that 50-75 new adult sites go online worldwide everyday. Saturated market?"
Thinking about all of this, I'm not too certain that there's many 'pop up hell' TGP's left, so there's likely more effect on FHG profitability coming from an overload of free porn and the lack of a compelling reason to make a purchase, which results from poor design and insufficient marketing and sales savvy. Increasing competition is certainly taking its toll, but it's perhaps the offer that needs re-adjusting. Still, traffic is increasingly hard to come by, making webmasters work that much harder – and smarter – to get their share.
While I would normally respond to threads such as this on the boards, I think that lots of webmasters would be interested in the answers – or be able to help with their favorite tips and tricks for traffic building and website promotion in 2006. All you need to do to add your comments, suggestions and favorite promotional methods is to click the link below:
