Quote:
Originally Posted by GatorB
the point is many people are only getting the Big Mac because its free, they have no interest in ever PAYING for one...Some people are in fact willing to pay for higher quality. And perhaps that's the type of customers you should be worried about instead of trying to force freeloaders to become purchasers which will never happen.
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Sad but very true.
I've started several discussion threads on my community messageboards, as well as (like many others) spent way too much time trolling everything from YouTube to rapidshare to PornBB type sites........and all of it is crystal clear to me. Even in a small niche that took longer than most to be penetrated by the tubes and sharing sites......the people who are freeloaders just aren't going to buy in any great numbers anymore. Period.
They may occasionally buy a clip they can't find anywhere else for a few bucks, but that's about it. Paysites? VOD? Forget about it.
I've heard long justifications from them - people who I don't know, people who used to be customers but haven't bought anything in a year or two, people who I've known personally for 20 years. It doesn't matter what rational arguments are brought to the table.
Even without sponsors stoking the fire (and in my niche, the sponsors are NOT cooperating with the illegal tubes, etc.), there are too many places for people to find the stuff they need to jerk off to - and there are too many people willing to upload it...to put the genie back in the bottle.
Finding alternative methods of selling more material to the people who still want high-quality stuff, or finding alternative upsells - is the only answer.
I still can't quantify how much of the the downturn I've seen is due to the increase in tubes, sharing sites, etc --- and how much is due to the economy. My gut feel is that it's about 50-50. But if the recession lasts a long time, many of those people who cancelled their memberships or cut back on their VOD purchases for economic reasons (and I've heard from/talked to many of them)...will find the free sources out of economic necessity (they may stop spending in a recession, but they aren't going to stop whacking off), and good luck bringing them back when the economy improves.
I'm off on a 3-day retreat later this week to strategize - because IMO the economic collapse has accelerated the decline in most of our previously successful business models.
I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only one rethinking a lot of basic assumptions that have worked for a long, long time.