Pricing for new websites
 

So this is something I've been wondering about as I have been trying to get my new site off the ground. And that is membership pricing. If this is discussed in the educational series, I missed it.

So it occurs to me that many of the truly large mega-sites like Brazzers, etc have literally years of content, thousands of videos and may only charge $29.95/month for membership or in that range.

Assuming you're launching a new site in the same basic hardcore niche, it seems problematic to me to launch at the same price point. Why would any surfer ever pick a new site (which might have a handful of videos/pictures) over a mega-site? I'd think you'd have to bring something very very unique to the table to attempt this.

Does that mean starting at a lower price point, especially in this economy, hoping to get surfers willing to pay a lower price? Because I also know that consumers often equate low price with low quality and it's possible to kill potential sales by lowballing it; I'm also not sure if you can make it up with volume at this point in the game given the free porn/piracy/etc. issues.

Now, I'm working in a microniche (smoking fetish as you can probably tell by my name) and I did look at what others in my niche are charging. And frankly it's all over the map. I've seen as low as $11.95 for a site that's been around for quite a while (dragginladies, not sure how often he's updating) and as high as $34.95 for a site with very few total sets ~40 across 1.5 years (cigarvixens.com). One of the longest running sites (smokesignalsonline.com) charges $24.95 per month recurring. They've been around for years and have hundreds of hours videos and something like half a million pictures.

I guess I'm wondering if there are any guidelines for setting membership prices for new sites, just given the realities of competing against well-established sites in the same niche.

Thank you.

put yourself in the position of your customer. Do a customer analysis of who will by your product and then perform a SWOT on your product.

Also try to think about what customer will be able to get for the money. Brazzers has 9k plus files in HD yes, but who is gonna down that much in a month, while going work and do other real life stuff. If I can site rip you in a few hours and not come back probably best not to be that cheap and most savy customers will cancel and re-sub a few months later after the MB is added then cancel etc.

Me personally I would likely be able to get 10-20gb a month, what is that much content worth to you.

From your post it seems smokesignalsonline.com is the one to beat, I would start prices low like you new so your on offer or trial or somin, then scale up as you start to match their content levels.

Just some suggestion to help with the cogs in the brain ticking over. Good luck, if you have want to get indexed by my website releases feeds let me know on ICQ 619629001

I fit in the category of not being the size of Brazzers, LOL. Anyway, I charge $2.95/2 day trial/recurring, $9.95/30 day/recurring, $35.95/90 day/non-recurring, and $99.95/1 year/non-recurring. I also take phone at the rate of $16.95/30 day/non-recurring, and $29.95/60 day/non-recurring. Payment by check is same price as credit card.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the input, guys. Much appreciated.

I charge 35.99$ per month and I can rack up to 1300$ in sales. a month.. but this month is bad bad bad.

Yeah, I'm noticing that Jan is pretty awful.

Just curious: what niche is your site in? What kind of competition is there?

thanks!