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warlockx · 07-09-2006, 06:29 PM

HI all.
We have a bondage membership site, Bondagemaidens.com. We started from scratch about a year ago. My partner Rudy had twelve years experience as a Producer in a successful, but badly managed adult fetish company. He?s won several AVN awards for his work ? he?s truly gifted as a producer. I?m a successful contractor, and this adult business was my fourth startup company ? all my previous ones made money. I?m also pretty good at bondage and rigging, and I?m a pretty good bondage producer.
About six months ago we were finally on line and sold our first memberships; meanwhile, we?d started producing DVD?s and were selling them through Bon-vue. We started shooting in my house and my garage, which soon started causing problems with my live-in girlfriend. That happened with my former wife when I ran the contracting company out of my house, so we rented a commercial space and made a studio. I don?t have much time, as I have two businesses, so Rudy was doing the webmastering and video editing. He?s a good editor, but is the first to admit he?s not the greatest or most efficient webmaster. Still, the site is getting very good reviews, and our videos are getting good reviews on AVN. Our recur rate is 20%. We shoot all our content ? that?s two full-day shoots a month, stills and video, two-camera. We do two updates, one video and one stills, a week.
About three months ago I started catching up on the learning curve of an adult business and we started getting up to speed on marketing. Our DVD sales through the one distributor have gone from 150 a month to 800 a month in five months. Our revenue from the membership site has gone from $300 a month to $2000 in three months, mostly from submitting a gallerie to 280 TGP?s every day. We got our affiliate program going with a couple of posts on Netpond two weeks ago, and we?re getting a signup a day through the affiliates. I broke up with my girlfriend, but we stayed friends and I hired her to work on the website. She had some experience with the same adult company Rudy used to work at, and she?s coming up to speed rapidly.
SO ? everything?s great, right? Nope. We?re losing about five thousand dollars a month, mostly on the studio ? cost about $3500 a month ? and on my girlfriend?s salary, about $3000 a month. I?ve invested about a hundred thousand dollars in the project so far, and Rudy?s invested a year?s worth of his time, full time. My financial team at the contracting company is all over me like a cheap suit about the losses, and while they work for me and I don?t have to listen to them if I don?t want to, I?d be dumb not to ? they?re right. Yes, the growth in sales looks promising, but it won?t get to break even for months even assuming the sales don?t flatten out or dip, and Rudy needs to start making some money for all the time he?s putting in.
What to do? Well, we?re considering closing the studio and moving back to my garage. Rudy?d have to get an apartment ? he lives over the studio ? and that means he?d probably have to get a full-time job, which means he wouldn?t be able to do much work on the site if any. I can lay off my ex-girlfriend until the site can pay her, but of course that further reduces our ability to work on the site, probably effectively to zero. We have to produce two one-hour videos a month for Bon-vue ? that?s worth about $3000 in revenue, and gives us tons of content for the site, but it takes Rudy about two weeks of editing time, and we?re on a schedule of two updates a week on the site plus the marketing, which also takes time, .
HELP! Any ideas what to do?

07-09-2006, 06:29 PM
warlockx Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 5	Problem with membership site HI all. We have a bondage membership site, Bondagemaidens.com. We started from scratch about a year ago. My partner Rudy had twelve years experience as a Producer in a successful, but badly managed adult fetish company. He?s won several AVN awards for his work ? he?s truly gifted as a producer. I?m a successful contractor, and this adult business was my fourth startup company ? all my previous ones made money. I?m also pretty good at bondage and rigging, and I?m a pretty good bondage producer. About six months ago we were finally on line and sold our first memberships; meanwhile, we?d started producing DVD?s and were selling them through Bon-vue. We started shooting in my house and my garage, which soon started causing problems with my live-in girlfriend. That happened with my former wife when I ran the contracting company out of my house, so we rented a commercial space and made a studio. I don?t have much time, as I have two businesses, so Rudy was doing the webmastering and video editing. He?s a good editor, but is the first to admit he?s not the greatest or most efficient webmaster. Still, the site is getting very good reviews, and our videos are getting good reviews on AVN. Our recur rate is 20%. We shoot all our content ? that?s two full-day shoots a month, stills and video, two-camera. We do two updates, one video and one stills, a week. About three months ago I started catching up on the learning curve of an adult business and we started getting up to speed on marketing. Our DVD sales through the one distributor have gone from 150 a month to 800 a month in five months. Our revenue from the membership site has gone from $300 a month to $2000 in three months, mostly from submitting a gallerie to 280 TGP?s every day. We got our affiliate program going with a couple of posts on Netpond two weeks ago, and we?re getting a signup a day through the affiliates. I broke up with my girlfriend, but we stayed friends and I hired her to work on the website. She had some experience with the same adult company Rudy used to work at, and she?s coming up to speed rapidly. SO ? everything?s great, right? Nope. We?re losing about five thousand dollars a month, mostly on the studio ? cost about $3500 a month ? and on my girlfriend?s salary, about $3000 a month. I?ve invested about a hundred thousand dollars in the project so far, and Rudy?s invested a year?s worth of his time, full time. My financial team at the contracting company is all over me like a cheap suit about the losses, and while they work for me and I don?t have to listen to them if I don?t want to, I?d be dumb not to ? they?re right. Yes, the growth in sales looks promising, but it won?t get to break even for months even assuming the sales don?t flatten out or dip, and Rudy needs to start making some money for all the time he?s putting in. What to do? Well, we?re considering closing the studio and moving back to my garage. Rudy?d have to get an apartment ? he lives over the studio ? and that means he?d probably have to get a full-time job, which means he wouldn?t be able to do much work on the site if any. I can lay off my ex-girlfriend until the site can pay her, but of course that further reduces our ability to work on the site, probably effectively to zero. We have to produce two one-hour videos a month for Bon-vue ? that?s worth about $3000 in revenue, and gives us tons of content for the site, but it takes Rudy about two weeks of editing time, and we?re on a schedule of two updates a week on the site plus the marketing, which also takes time, . HELP! Any ideas what to do? __________________ BondageMaidens - 1000's Of Images Of Beautiful Submissives In Bondage Distress BondageMaidens Affiliate Program- 50% Rev Share! 10% Webmaster Referral Bonus!