Adult traffic arbitrage beyond dating smartlinks (yet in theory)
 

I've been doing pop mediabuys for adult dating smartlink networks for a while this year, now earnings per click and ROI went sour so I'm considering some alternatives for arbitrage.

Here's the idea I have:
1) Build an adult "aggregator" site (like ixxx.com - but not as "whitehat") based on "porn tube webmaster programs" content feeds (there's a list of more than 30 programs on Porndude's site for webmasters) and some aggregator script - BuranCMS, SmartCJ, Adent etc - that would rotate thumbnails and optimize based on CTR.
This way I'm getting the initial monetization method - from webmaster programs (they usually pay around $2 for 1000 thumbnail clicks on Tier1 geos), plus I can be pretty much aggressive with ad formats I place on site (as I'll be buying traffic there, not waiting for google to send it) - so I'm definitely placing popunders plus some floating shit ("sticker"/"instant message"/"in-page push" etc) plus few banners.
2) Buy adult popunders at minimum bids - to index or category (if relevant source targetings available), tracking source ids; maybe do some traffic trades
3) Optimize by source ids for:
- bounce rate
- page depth
- thumbnail clicks (script should allow that)
- additional ad formats (pops, floaters, banners) revenue (if ad networks allow use of variables to get a report split by source id)

The math here:
I buy pops approximately at 130% price that I'd get for pops selling - around 25% average network margin plus some discrepancies.
So what I need here is getting more than 1,3 visitor ad interactions to cover expenses and the more the better to get some extra cash, sounds not that hard. :arcadefre

"I've been doing pop mediabuys for adult dating smartlink networks for a while this year, now earnings per click and ROI went sour"

Few networks took pop traffic for dating due to bad quality. But I'm guessing you bought global and monetized with smartlink/geo redirect. Would take huge volume to make money.

I'm surprised even dating has gone down ROI wise. I'm seeing a slowdown on cams tho.

Smartlinks are for trying to salvage geos you can't monetize directly. Trying to scale a business off of media buying to smartlinks shouldn't work...

Nope - those were pops from particular geos, to API dating funnels by LosPollos
prnt.sc/eEken3kiBrwv
Speaking of buying global in bulk, CPC/CPM arbitrage looks much better to me as country fill rates in CPC/CPM networks are usually better than those in CPA networks (upd. here I mean fallback monetization - for traffic segments you don't monetize with direct deals/campaigns/offers)

I was sending pop traffic to dating offers but so far no ROI on it, anyone who i asked says how only display and maybe push traffic works on dating offers.

I can only tell it made me some beer money this year :)
Lospollos/Dating/DACH + PopAds: prnt.sc/SNLlDOVL6WBy

I buy pops. Obviously source matters, and lander matters more. Don't send to a smartlink :1orglaugh

Good idea but don't expect big earnings :)

Well, I'm not capable of doing my own landers unfortunately neither have sufficient time/budgets for big split tests for LP-side CRO. Landers provided by direct dating affiliate programs didn't work for me a while ago so I just left it to funnel guys from LosPollos - they definitely have sufficient stats for offer/funnel testing and optimization. :upsidedow

BUT now as my source whitelists (most likely) are burnt out for Pollos' offers/funnels, my ROI is currently negative.
So, leaving behind smartlinks, this topic was meant about "Pops >>> tube aggregator" arbitrage :)

Thanks! Did you try something alike? Any advice? :helpme

I never used smartlink nor CPA links, i have huge database of inhouse dating offers. Tho i never used any pre-lander, so i guess that is a culprit :1orglaugh

Huh, gotcha, thanks! :winkwink:
Is wordpress ok with traffic loads? I'm considering using burancms for first tests, seems like it has almost everything I need included

Hi, great choice 😁
PM me if need any help with Buran, I think I could add few custom features for traffic source performance tracking 😉

smartlinks aren't the right ad format for ad arbitrage. sell traffic to tubes and other aggregators.

if you want this to work you need to sign up for as many tube affiliate programs as you can. the money comes from sending a single user to multiple tubes; you can generate ridiculous rpm like this.

you won't get rich with this method. there's just not enough suitable traffic available to purchase. and a lot of people buy it for reasons other than achieving positive ROI -- ie, you're competing for the traffic with people who don't care about positive ROI. Puts you at a disadvantage.

Don't give away all the secrets :Oh crap

don't tell people it's a secret and they'll skim right over it none the wiser

Hey, buying traffic to CJ tubes is pretty much common - so go for it :thumbsup
If you're launching on Buran, it has our gallery dumps integrated already (see the "sponsor dumps" section) - so it would take just a few hours to deploy 100K+ thumbs site. PM me when ready to go, I'll see what I can add to your country rates :winkwink:

Thanks! hitting you up shortly! :upsidedow