opinion

Placing an overall value on the traffic you send

After numerous discussions with adult portal site operators and large private affiliates about this topic, I can’t help but to bring the issue out into the open. If you were an investor, thinking about buying an adult portal site that makes its living from the push or sales of traffic to other people’s web sites, you would want to know what the average overall value is for each unit (click through or block of impressions) of traffic delivered. Call it establishing a base line.

This may seem like a common sense approach, but it is not shared by all. There are several high traffic destination sites in the industry that send traffic to dozens, even hundreds of affiliate programs, paid advertisers, PPC listings, etc. without using a common delivery system in order to generate a fixed or average value within a certain time frame for the traffic in question. In most cases, these folks wind up using a combination of methods to determine what each unit of traffic they send to other parties is worth, which means inconsistent data.

I believe that as companies in our industry mature and look at valuations on their assets, the issue of knowing what your aggregate traffic is worth at any given time becomes that much more important. Pay site networks equipped with affiliate traffic and revenue management systems have a standard. Many sites that make their living sending traffic to pay sites, regardless of how they are paid, rely on stats provided by the recipients of their ad inventory, which are unique to each affiliate program they send to. Since affiliate programs tend to count traffic differently from one another, first page versus second page uniques, frequency of an IP to count as a unique, raw versus unique, etc., having your own traffic counting platform that administers delivery of your inventory with a single standard is definitely to your advantage.

Where you are being paid for sales/revenue generated and not for the traffic sent, you can easily divide impressions or clicks you send to each program you support by the revenue generated to come up with the ‘effective’ cost per click (eCPC) or cost per thousand impressions (eCPM) for your traffic. This is the means by which ad networks and large scale agencies place a value both on what they sell as well as major elements of their companies overall. You can use ad serving systems to do this or similar traffic management tools. The end goal is that all traffic you send off your site should be delivered through a single ad serving mechanism, which counts impressions, click throughs and other measurement standards the same, regardless of who is buying or receiving the ad inventory.

If you know you send an average of 800,000 click throughs a month overall to the full range of sponsor sites and advertisers you support and you average $40,000 a month in income across all the programs receiving your traffic, you could reasonably assume that the average value of each click through sent is $.04. Once you have a set standard in place for determining this average traffic value, the process of evaluating new sponsors or paid advertisers for their economic value is simplified. Unless you have ulterior motivations for sending traffic to a particular advertiser or sponsor, you should be able to test and then weed out campaigns that generate less than your established eCPC.

If you have ever wondered how successful and well established ad sales companies come up with rates to charge or even the justification to charge on a per click basis for traffic versus just sending to sponsor program offers, it is by following the practice for traffic valuation noted in this commentary. Virtually all companies in this category use a similar standard for determining how much traffic is worth on their sites/networks.

As a passing thought, do not assume that you don’t need a traffic counting and delivery system based upon having only a certain volume of traffic for sale! There are too many traffic sources that may only generate hundreds or even tens of outbound clicks per day that once properly valued on a per click or per block of impressions basis, find out that their traffic is worth many times what the norm might be for your niches or specialty areas. Once you know, you can ultimately deicide whether to charge for measured advertising aka click and impression deals or to send to sponsors that convert well enough to allow you to meet or exceed your average eCPC or eCPM. This is actually a very involved topic. We are talking about empowering average webmasters to assert the value of their traffic based upon measurements that the webmaster/affiliate/publisher controls, not the sponsor program. More to follow soon.

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

Zhe Founder Karyn Elizabeth Creates Gender-Affirming Lingerie Fashion

For years, the mainstream lingerie market has been shaped by narrow beauty standards and cisnormativity, with little room for gender diversity. Most lingerie is designed to fit cisgender female bodies, while trans people are often forced to go DIY with uncomfortable solutions like pantyhose, duct tape and ill-fitting shapewear.

Naima Karp ·
opinion

Breaking Down HB 805 and How it Affects the Adult Industry

North Carolina House Bill 805 was enacted July 29, after the state legislature overrode Governor Josh Stein’s veto. The provisions that relate to the adult industry, imposing requirements for age verification, consent and content removal, are scheduled to become effective Dec. 1. Platforms have until then to update their policies and systems to comply with the new regulations.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

Staying Compliant With Payment Standards Across Europe and Australia

So, you’ve got your eye on international growth. Smart move. No matter where adult-industry merchants operate, however, one requirement remains consistent: regulatory compliance. This isn’t just a legal checkbox — it’s a critical component of keeping payments flowing and business operations intact.

Jonathan Corona ·
profile

Neon Coyotes Sets the Tone for Trendiness With Bespoke Leather Kink Wear

If your kink wear can’t readily make the leap from a dark BDSM dungeon to a sunny, mimosa-fueled brunch, you haven’t yet been initiated into the cult of the Neon Coyotes — fresh, leather kink wear brand transforming restraints into runway-ready art.

Colleen Godin ·
opinion

Why It's Time for Adult Retail to Embrace AI

In the late 1980s, I was working in the rental car business. My first company didn’t have a single computer. Everything — contracts, inventory, employee records — was done by hand. If you wanted a report, you dug through paper files and crunched numbers on a calculator. It was tedious, but it was all we knew.

Zondre Watson ·
opinion

How to Avoid Copyright Pitfalls When Using Music in Adult Content

When creating an adult video, bringing your vision to life often means assembling just the right ingredients — including the right music. However, adding music to adult content can raise complex legal and ethical issues.

Lawrence G. Walters ·
opinion

New Visa Rules Adult Merchants Need to Know

In December 2024, I shared an update on the upcoming rollout of Visa’s Acquirer Monitoring Program, also known as VAMP. The final version went into effect in June, and enforcement will begin in October. With just a month to go, now is the time to review what’s changing and how to stay compliant.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

What Retailers Gain by Partnering With Family-Run Brands

In an age increasingly dominated by corporate consolidation and faceless supply chains, choosing to work with a family-owned and operated business can offer retailers a depth of value that goes far beyond pricing and product margins.

Briana Watkins ·
opinion

How the 'Back Massager' Vibrator Became the World's Most Versatile Sex Toy

Wand vibrators are once again having a pop culture moment. Recently, Harry Styles expanded his lifestyle brand, Pleasing, by introducing a “Pleasing Yourself” double-sided wand vibrator developed in collaboration with sex educator Zoë Ligon.

Naima Karp ·
profile

Dan Leal Talks Balance, Business and Daily Rituals

“We were in a big field, and I hopped off a little ledge to cut through some grass, and my knee just gave out,” he explains. “I thought it was my calf because I’d torn my calf muscle back in December, but I had an MRI that confirmed a torn ACL.”

Jeff Dana ·
Show More