Convertions

[kalle7]

I miss the old days when there was some sort of stable income in this business and that means only a year ago for me Same time last year I could make 3 - 4 galleries a day and make 60 - 150 bucks from it. A free site submitted would make some instant sales and continue with that for several months and keep on bringing in sales for even more than a year.

Today I am looking of how things have changed from only a year back. I am still making galleries, but now it seems like I have to make 10 - 12 galleries to even see a sale from it even that I submit it to more places and get more traffic. I do not submit them to every little tgp list on the net, but have concentrated my submissions to some of the biggest ones with more quality traffic. Also there seems to be no reason to make free sites anymore either cause I really do not see any sales coming from those any more. And even my own LL and SE traffic seems to not convert at all

What is strange in all this is that I sometimes get small periods of good sales. For example I tried a new sponsor some months ago and got 5 sales the first three days from the galleries that I had made. I had a ratio at about 1:80. But suddenly I could not make any more sales there no matter what traffic I sent. I contacted the support at that sponsor to find out if there could be a problem with my account. I gotta say that that experience I do not want again. The support department was reluctant to answer me on the simplest questions. He said to me that I had two sales, but I knew that I had 5. But it took forever to get him to confirm that. He also asked me what I did think I should convert at... He also said to me that I could not expect to convert better than 1:500 - 600. That was very strange to me cause I just had converted at 1:80. Not the best way to make webmasters trust your program if you ask me.

(Funny thing with that program was that I removed all my links for that sponsor. It took about 3 weeks before I got paid and the day after I got paid I got another sale there.... without sending traffic. I actually took a screen shot of the stats where it says 0 clicks - 1 sale )

I had actually experienced this situation before also when I in January signed up with a new sponsor that had been around for a while, but that had been down cause of change of management I think. I started to make galleries for them and made 6 - 7 sales the first weeks, but suddenly I could not get any sales there anymore. The ratios just dropped horribly. Later I also tried another sponsor with gallery traffic and I got sales there for a while with the galleries I made, but after some months it was dead. I stopped promoting the sponsor cause "no sales = no traffic". But in october I decided to test it again to see if anything had changed. And to my pleasure I started to get sales again with a ratio of 1:200 - 300, but the joy was short. 3 - 4 days after my first sale I could not get a single sale there either. Even after building some fresh free sites I could not get a single sale. Right now I am at about 1:17000 with that sponsor and that is with a mix of quality gallery traffic, free site traffic and traffic combined of my own LL and SE traffic.

One of my best sponsors this year has recently started to have horrible ratios as well. I have been used to have a ratio of 1:400 with mixed gallery, free site, my own LL traffic and SE traffic. The last couple of months the ratios have dropped to about 1:2000. I really do not understand this development even that I see a pattern in it all. Does not sponsors like that we send gallery traffic? |confused|

The funny part is that I have some pay sites of my own where I use CCBill as processor. And the sales this year are as stable as last year. The conversion ratio is about the same and during all the “summer slow downs” and “winter slow downs” they are doing just fine. But these season slow downs seems to have a big impact on other sponsors and I really do not understand that either. I just contacted one of my sponsors and asked if there were something special going on since my ratio had dropped. He told me that the last couple of months had been bad all over this business . I really could not understand that cause my sales at my own sites had been stable and normal. Should not these bad periods of sales be for every site if the situation was normal?

It seems like I will never quite understand this business and if things do not change it definitely does not look like this business is something to make big plans for in the future.

[Agent]

Last summer I was getting sales almost daily for a long stretch, and when I didnt get a sale I got a rebill. Now it seems the sales are slowing down and the rebills are dropping fast. I'm getting frustrated.

My traffic has increased and I've erected more sites. I don't understand the drop either. I primarily use only 5 sponsors but last night I started hunting for more. To make matters worse I took up a "real" job at a video games store so I could make a little extra money to fund more projects and pay on my student loan. Because the hours are shit and the pay is ass, I'm just going to be loosing money working there and being misserable at the same time.

I'd like to point the finger at skimming but I don't really know. As far as I can tell my traffic is coming from the same places. All I can do is keep building and trying new things. I'm working on a TGP now. I'm probably swimming against the current with that one but I'm trying it anyway.

[Lemmy]

I hear what you're saying Kalle. The last 3-4 sponsors I've tried have given me great conversions the first month or so, and then suddenly dropped like a bomb to 3000:1 and worse.

I haven't been around long enough to spot any trends in the business in general, but I do know that my best sponsor is only getting better and better, so from where I'm sitting it's not across the board.

[stuveltje]

to be honest i have bin focussing on my sales last year 2004 with 2005 and i can tell you, hell did i went down with all my sponsors.........i did manage to get that money back with other things, but still it sucks i worked 4 years my butt off to see this year my sales getting less at most sponsors, i do see a strange thing, my ccbill sales are more then my pps sales the last months, while i have more pps then ccbill sites........bizz is strange........still have the energie to go with the changes....go for it, bizz isnt only free sites, tgp galleries, linksites and hubs..there are lots of other things but i do agree with you ....strange things are going on

[Sergio_TeenBoys]

I think it's the common problem. This market is growing and every day new and new competitors appear

[Elias]

Well I've heard people both complaining about asles gowing down and praising a successful year. The competition is growing, but the market has grown too together with the Internet itself...

[tigermom]

I wonder, what are your main traffic sources? is it LL's/TGP's? or is it search engines? or something else? Can you tell by your stats if your visitors are repeat visitors (which might explain why initial sales and then nothing, maybe you are having the same people over and over again to your site?)

[Mr. Stiff]

I've got a feeling some sponsors credit your for sales you didn't make..
I tried a new sponsor the other day.. From one gallery, with (IMHO) pretty shitty content, I made 2 sales the first 30 hits. 2x revshare, $3.30 (trial)

From a sponsors point of view; spending $6.60 to 'convince' a webmaster to keep sending traffic to you isn't such a bad deal

Or maybe I'm just paranoid..

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Mr. Stiff

I've got a feeling some sponsors credit your for sales you didn't make..
I tried a new sponsor the other day.. From one gallery, with (IMHO) pretty shitty content, I made 2 sales the first 30 hits. 2x revshare, $3.30 (trial)

From a sponsors point of view; spending $6.60 to 'convince' a webmaster to keep sending traffic to you isn't such a bad deal

Or maybe I'm just paranoid..

Certainly a change from the norm, a sponsor being accused of padding sales instead of shaving them. Likely the only one that will ever know for sure is the sponsor.

My sales are down compared to this time last year, but I attribute that more to the significant increase in the price of gasoline and heating fuel. Pervs simply have less discretionary income to spend.

[Sergio_TeenBoys]

Yeah, that all take place unfortinately

[Papa]

One of my best sponsor sucks ass these days and it's getting worst and worst !!
Since the begining
1:800 (since 2003 to october 2005)

November 1:1100

December soo far 1:10 000 + !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr. Stiff]

Jikes.. 1:10K is pretty damn bad!!
At what ratio do you decide to drop a sponsor?

[Papa]

I'm wondering..... but i got very very nice rebills with them plus Epassorte right on time
Sad, i think the sites should get a face lift.

[SmithsMedia]

Kalle its been a tough year all round I feel, my business has grown though seeing that I am into my third year it really can only go that way.

What I have seen is retention % drop across the board which means I have money spread across varius sponors which is not ready to be paid out. Theres been a couple of real lows with CCBill convertions too so to counter this I have started to build up other regular revenue streams.

Products were added to my list of things to promote earlier this year and the sales from these have really boosted my figures - Last month 554 uniques 1/35 conv - and as such I will be sourcing more products to sell alongside memberships.

Also in the past few weeks I have been approached by a UK company who are basically paying to remove one sponsor and add them, instead of taking a revenue there are in effect leasing the site.

In summary I am seeing lower convertions on memberships and high convertions on products this year - it would be nice to have them both mind :-)

[tickler]

Originally Posted by SmithsMedia

Theres been a couple of real lows with CCBill convertions too so to counter this I have started to build up other regular revenue streams.

Unfortunately too many ccBill sponsors shove everything through the single base account. The WM ends up with no way of knowing that this site is doing 1:5000 and another site is doing 1:50. I would much rather send the traffic to the site doing 1:50 and make more money for both of us.

Originally Posted by SmithsMedia

Products were added to my list of things to promote earlier this year and the sales from these have really boosted my figures

Cross sells to related products seem to work pretty good if done properly.

[guestcam]

Originally Posted by kalle7

got 5 sales the first three days from the galleries that I had made. I had a ratio at about 1:80. But suddenly I could not make any more sales there no matter what traffic I sent. I contacted the support at that sponsor to find out if there could be a problem with my account. I gotta say that that experience I do not want again. The support department was reluctant to answer me on the simplest questions. |

I can see you KNOW what the problem is but are being delicate to not come out and say what the problem is.

We all know what the problem is. Welcome to DEADWOOD.

This game is fixed. The game across the street is fixed. So is the one next door.

So heres the solution: find a sponsor who is willing to be a friend to you. You want IN ON THE FIX.

We are not going to stop the fixed games. We MIGHT befriend the right sponsor who will keep us the the 'no fix' list of webmasters.