iFriends dying a slow death...
 

iFriends used to be the undisputed king of Webcam sites. The site was always had a total clusterfucked mess of UI, but there were always 2,000+ models online and the models earned great money and when I used to promote them I was killing it. A "bad" week with them was when I made less than $5k.

But now.......

Less than 400 models online, but many... shit MOST models are on more than one account. I found one chick on 10 accounts (!!) so I'm guessing maybe 200 models really online... TOPS. Their traffic as per Alexa is pathetic...

They have a newly rebuild "v2.0" site now and it's like they haven't learned a fucking thing. Same piece of shit UI. Whoever designs their site needs to fucking retire. Furthermore the "fully functional" v2.0 site barely works. I found all kinds of problems just browsing around a few minutes.
http://www.ifriendsv2.net/

So my question is...

What the fuck happened? Any have any insight to offer on this?

They probably run some other big site now and just let that one die a slow death.

As a webmaster you usually can't sit on the same project, even if it's good.. Gotta keep developing new things with the times.

Their traffic as per Alexa isn't all that bad... they still hold the #617 spot in the US. For fun, compare it to the graph for The Hun.

Alexa doesn't allow you to go back more than 6 months now, but before the update, which also boosted iFriends ranking, you could see where iFriends was 5 years ago compared to now and it's not pretty...

Also, where there is money there will be models. That models seem to be leaving iFriends in droves tells me something is wrong.

They talked to Carmella Bing and are all doing a pilgrimage to Las Vegas, where the "real money" is.

How exactly are the Las Vegas pilgrims making "the real" money?

ifriends will be fine...i doubt they are walking away from the cashcow they created

Look at all the yellow piss.

I did ok with them at one point, my conversions have dropped as well.

they have not really been purposely milking the live cams for a long time. Many years ago they seemed to be more centered around memberships and the constant supply of content they got free. Any webcam time was more like an upsale.

But ifriends membership is only $6-7 /month. I thought that webcams are profitable because of the customers who spend hundreds a month on chat. I mean it's $3 per min. usually. I tried it once and 10 minutes flew like nothing and it was better than porn video.

Members can buy a monthly "fan club" membership for a specific model. There are is also a bunch of other shit they have done like DVDs, buy panties from the girls, etc. iFriends has had some of the dumbest ideas I've ever seen through the years like shitty 3D videochat for example. Yeah that really took off :1orglaugh

Well, they're not the only webcam site on the Net anymore, now they have strong competition, like webcams.com, imlive.com, livejasmine, camz.com and others.

So what's better with cams, revshare or pps? I know it's easy to spend $100 and more, every month, on sites like webcams.com - hot models! and you get 25-30% from that sum.

If it's a good program and a fair percentage then revshare all the way. A few good members and you'll have big money coming in for years.

That sounds really nice. thanks a bunch:smilie_we

Wow, I just looked at my stats and there are several weeks recently where I don't make a single sale. For the last 5 weeks none of my downlines have made any sales either. I would have called 2004 or 2005 a slow death, this seems to be almost terminal velocity. At this rate I might receive a check (payout set at $250) in a few months.

Yeah, let's just say I've noticed a similar trend...

From what I hear all of those cam sites are struggling to stay afloat.

Many models have stopped doing cam chats thru sites, and do them privately on YM. Also, many get scared away because now so many people use screen capturing to record the entire show and post it. A high percentage of webcam models do webcam and not a personal paysite because they didn't want their images spread all over the internet, now that's happening so many are finding other means or quitting all together.

Webcam studios/sites should start hiring existing porn stars and amateur models on a regular basis. I remember when I participated in a free public chat on camz.com, I think, with Diamond *something, can't remember her full name, with lots of other members and it was a very good show. they could just sign contracts with models and make a schedule and people will know that every evening they'll have a great girl on girl show for one price of $20 bucks. and there are so many unemployed PRO models who would be glad do perform on webcam for $300 /hour or less. I'm thinking of starting something myself. no membership, just quick CC form and a contract with individual model, platform - YM. So what do you think. We, webmasters could start something like that.

Best of luck to you. Hope you have dealt with models a great deal. Specially if you plan on letting them work remotely let alone expect them to show up at some studio. I would seriously suggest and hope that you have a plan A, B, C, D, through Z and to play it safe continue on through ZZZZ.

After tackling that little issue, finding that just perfect time of the day to have this show is going to be a real winner. To early for PST, to late for EST, completely wrong time for EURO countries, etc.

Hitting the ground hard after that issue I would hope you are ready for and understand the control issues users have. Everyone wants to be in charge, everyone wants to be giving the orders via chat, to many feel left out. Moderation will really have to come into play in a big way regardless.

Of course anything can be done, hell most things have been done. If you want to run with it, have fun and enjoy the ride. I would just go ahead and dye your hair gray now to save yourself from the surprise latter.

few years ago they had almost no competition

just like AFF didnt have any real competition in dating

fast forward few years later and now AFF is still at the top of the daing game and Ifriends has lost their position a long time ago

either they made some wrong business decisions, or - most likely - they just didn't care enough to put more effort to improve their product/affiliate program

I think iFriends got fat and happy and felt invincible. I posted a question asking "What happened to iFriends?" on a webcam model forum and most of those that answered said that they have never even used iFriends because they only pay by check and they would rather use a site that pays by ePassporte or wire transfer. Also, a few said that iFriends registration process for models is so complicated that they never even finished the process. The fact that iFriends doesn't at least offer wire payments blows my fucking mind. :1orglaugh

hehe... thanks

The only time I've experienced webcam chat is with the Happy Hour Bonus Credits that IMLive gives their Webmasters. And I took notice of this. It wasn't fun at all. I had this idea that promoting Solo Girl websites that have webcam shows might convert better. I don't think so. I wonder what those webcam shows are like. I wonder if it's better organized or not. Ever seen a solo girl webcam show before? Pretty much the same as IMLive crappy Happy Hour?

It depends on the 'quality' of the model/host. I would say that if you choose a nice girl to chat with, it will be a nice experience. They can really make you cum, you know... I mean porn videos sometimes just won't work for some of us ... I'm talking from a perspective of a porn surfer.

You end up with 10 people screaming to see their tits, 2 people saying wiggle your toes, 5 people begging her to rub her ass, 1 dude saying hello for the 30th time, 1 guy having this long drawn out almost personal stalker one way conversation, 15 people saying how they would fuck her, 2 people saying be more respectful, 5 people lurking like good boys, 1 moderator ignoring 36 people, and one contortion artist model trying to bend in 4 directions and type at same time while thinking she can act like she enjoys all this and keep a smile.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

We have had numerous iFriends model apply to CWH, some of which we have hired and now work on CWH. Many seem frustrated with the lack of communication between staff and the models.

:1orglaugh, but oh so true

But this thread needs will76 to come to ifriends defense. I'm sure he'd have a good explanation for all this. Too bad he is banned.

Although I have been wondering why will76 started to promote new sponsors and shied away from talking about ifriends and clickcash a lot in the past year. He would never give the real reason why. I know he said he wanted to try new programs... but there had to have been a catalyst.

the solo girl cam shows are bad ass compared to the performer that has been on 6 hours straight and her pussy is raw.

they stopped accepting spam traffic. thats how they grew their cash cow, and its the lack of it is how they will fail.

That's it, apart from that - many even quality studios are going down with dollar, I know couple people that made a decent living three years ago are struggling at the moment..

Excellent take and totally true..

Closing ratios at the camsite I promote the most are down from 1:70 a few years ago to almost 1:200. In part the blame goes to the studio managers who can't keep the girls clothes on in free chat.

I have noticed that there seems to be a lot less models working on ifriends. If I log on in late afternoon and see 23 lesbian couples ... but it's actually 5, most with multiple profiles, something is wrong.

But what I have noticed more is that their webmaster program is essentially remained the same since I first joined (probably 3-4 years ago). They clearly are still living in the dark ages of "let the webmasters make their own promo tools" and in all this time, not one promotion or bonus period. I honestly wonder if they have even a single person devoted to their affiliate program?

While just about every other major program has been constantly expanding (and mostly improving), they just figure it's best to do the same old. And it looks like we are seeing the result.

I don't think it's so much the content,

but the simple fact that those fuckers are the most blatant click/sale skimmers I have ever worked for..

You ever notice how you could have 50 sales one day, and 10 the next with the same exact traffic.. I honestly think they balance out their profits by jacking sales/clicks for any particular webmaster if they are in the red on payout, with the free memberships in all.

Their affiliate program has always been antiquated to say the least. Yes they really never change shit on that side much. Been that way long before they lost controll of all of MSN's adult searches.

To their defense though I have been on both sides at same time. Ran studios through there as well as sent traffic. Even back then I saw major swings in signups. Had plenty do test signups, click tracking etc. Never found a damn thing, so either they have the most advanced shaving program ever or well they just do not shave on purpose.

Content wise what they started to do around 7 years ago was to screw over the performers. Less communication, more special features that encouraged them to make more free content, web sites, fan clubs, free peeping shows, free video clips, auto archive picture settings, members ability to record favorite shows, and so forth.

Now it does seem like a free sign up, it is not. It always has been 1.00 as a qualifier that they get back as a credit. It also auto bills into a membership. If you accidently take fan club access you could end up tacking on numerous other charges, other accounts have higher monthly charges and so forth. Without a member spending a single penny inside of video chat, they could be looking at 40 a month or more if they joined some fanclubs for the free shows. Hit the paid video and your tacking on 2.00 to 6.00 a minute for live and about half that for pre recorded.

On the studio side we often had regular viewers spending 200 to 1000 a week in video each. One time viewers ussually ranged in the 15 to 60 range each. Occassionally you would get the one minute pop in people but even they added up super fast. So I can also safely assume that member value is well, well above whatever they paid in clickcash at all times and at all levels.

:2 cents:

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh