Thanks for all the nice comments! :)

We've had much better sales in prior months, and this month we feel was slow. We thought we would just show the most recent sales to let affiliates know that you can still make a little extra money with us.

This is the first time we've ever posted figures. Yes, we are very small, but considering the market and that we are coming up on 2 years online, we're are going smooth and staying alive.

Thanks again for taking a look see. :thumbsup

and Welcome to the new affiliates that have just signed up! :)

We usually average about 1500-2000 hits per day for the Apples, and about 800-1000 hits a day for the Jolies. We get more hits on the 2nd page, as some of our affiliates send traffic right to the 2nd page, instead of the 1st page (the warning page).

The Jolies get less traffic, but sell better than the Apples per traffic they get. Strange.

We just started using banners and skim / going back and forth between them. Banners are expensive, we try to keep our cpc under .015 . Skim is a good buy, but only about 21% of the skim actually hits the site up, so we should be focusing on the banners more this month.

Thank you all again for the nice words!

I was re reading them... too many to reply to each, but I do think it was very nice of you to chime in with some props!! :thumbsup Nice rush!! Thank you again...! L

redirect money from paid advertising (banners/skim/etc) to content. more content serves as content AND advertising via affiliates. main focus should be shooting content and getting affiliates. you should have WAY more than 2k hits a day. you can get that with more affiliates - banners & skim are a waste for you :2 cents:

One good blog or 2 max would get you 2k se hits a day, you need to push this more :)

congrats

what kind words?

focusing on banners?

wtf?

Damn, I forgot there's two sets of twins...

I hope your other months are better.

Start listening to those who know!

Wow... haha.

You could do much better, bro. Just sayin'. Those girls are HOTT. Could easily be banking 30k/mo. :2 cents:

sounds great

What happened to all of the clever people in this business?

If we could bank $ 30,000 then couldn't you as an affiliate be banking $ 15,000 per month? We still can't figure out the mystery. Banners, skim, affiliates? Combo platter of all 3....

Why are banners bad? everybody says skim is no good, buy banners. Now we buy some banners and people are saying banners are bad? :( it never ends. We're buying right now 80% banner / 20% skim (sounds like milk ingredients)

The business of traffic generation, running adult web sites and an afiliate program are pretty complex stuff requiring a wide array of knowledge and skills if you expect to make a lot of money with it in 2010. If you have little experience and but a facile understanding of it all, you are going to keep muddling through with only mediocre sales. You're only doing as well as you are because of the uniqueness of the content. The same meterial in the hands of some of the other people on the board with more experience in the internet porn biz and with running pay sites and an affiliate program could potentially do multiple times the business you are doing now. Keep an open mind and try to learn. In the last year and a half, you seem to have caught on just enough to make a little bit of side money.

I would seriously consider partnering with someone who knows what they're doing, shoot a bunch of new content and pay the person 60% or more of the profits do to all the work for you. You'd make WAY more money and probably get more respect.

Those babes are hot. :thumbsup

You've had numerous attempts from people who make double that highest number to help you, but you 'know it all'.

If people making 10 times as much money as me were willing to hold my hand, I'd be listening to the advice and working to implement the ideas, not telling them "I know what I'm doing".

your affiliates combined would be banking 15k a month, you bank the other 15k (we're talking gross of course). that's where the power of the 50/50 split is

banners are not 'bad' but they are not the highest tier of traffic. and they're having less and less impact due to what advertisers call 'banner blindness' of viewers.

it seems from your replies that you want to rely on internal traffic, which is fine but... to get those higher tiers of traffic (search engine, type ins), as Jim_Gunn pointed out it takes a lot of experience, resources, and time. if you don't have those three things, your next best bet is to get in bed with affiliates who do.

Most of the advice was:
1) "change your tour, your tour sucks."
2) "Give us more fhg's"
3) "contact us we have a solution for you."

1) We think our tours are fine. Amateur and realistic. No "glam" bullshit.

2) We regret even issueing FHG's because that contributes to the 'free porn' problem online. We believe "less is more." Don't give it away, make 'em pay for it.

3) Everybody is trying to sell us something or take advantage of us. "Do this, buy this, don't do that" It's a feeding frenzy on people like us that don't have internet skills. I feel bad for all the new comers that get eaten alive by all the sales talk and referrals.

We have taken a great deal of advice in the past, we have changed our tour and expanded our affiliate program. Yes, our tours will never please everyone, and our affiliate program is not "perfect." But the main problem is taking advice from strangers online because there are so many of them telling us what to do. Most of which are trying to sell us something. There are a few gems, and you know who you are, that offer great advice. But most of the angry comments come from people that don't even own sites so there is no point of reference or trust from the advice given.

If we listened to all the advice and did what every affiliate told us to do 2 years ago, we wouldn't even be in business today. We'd have 50 FHG's floating around, tons of our content poured over the net, easily accessed for free... our member's area picked clean by affiliates wanting to hand pick what they want to advertise.... and then, who in their right mind would ever buy a membership? Isn't true that 90 or 95% of solo sites max out and die within the first year?

The program model doesn't work for the site owner, only the affiliate. The affiliate maxes out the site, makes money, blows it out, then moves on the next site and leaves that one for dead.

Our way of doing business might not be the best, but we are still here. Still surviving in a market place that is clearly dieing.


.....of course, anytime I go off like this, I get a dozen "hate posts" and nasty talk. No worries, I'm used to it now. But be gentle....

:thumbsup Thank you. And I do agree Jim always has a very good point.

Thank you... That's what it's all about. :thumbsup

Lmfao. This thread is pathetic.

Most semi-adept affiliates make that on every single program they promote.

If you don't, you're in the wrong game.

The FHG's are there to promote your site, if you don't have FHG's "floating around" How are you going to get the traffic? Surfers seeing your FHG's is good.

Affiliates need content to promote the sites. You have to fins a good balance between how much you give out to affiliates and how much you keep for members. Remember that just because most of the members area content is out there spread on loads of sites and affiliates doesn't mean that the surfer has any idea about that.

Now day's you need to protect your self from Tube sites and forums widely spreading your content, not a couple of pics or short promo videos on FHG's made for affiliates.

I promote your twins and have made a couple of sales from one of my blogs
and also see lots of potential in them for you and affiliates, these are some extremely hot twins both sets and thanks for sharing your numbers openness takes courage

I would cry blood...

this thread is fucking unreal.....

A few banners on a blank page worked in 1997, but unfortunately it's now 2010. Your valiant stand against too much free pr0n is the equivalent of an ant farting in a sea of people... we'd all love it to go back to the way it was, but that's unlikely. "Adapt or die"

Unless you have a tiny amount of content and/or a low number of images for each set I don't understand why it's a problem to release more content for FHGs?

How about a more limited FHG, say with 12 thumbs visible but only 8 of them lead to a full sized image. The last row of 4 thumbs are non clickable - take a bit of a leap in the set and put the more explicit images there.

You could also blind link those 4 thumbs to your tour but that will probably just piss off surfers. You want to sexually frustrate them instead, so they'll want to click through and find more. :)

First, Congrats.

Second, You are right and wrong at the same time.

I agree with your amateur tour look for certain conversions, but!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are webmasters that could single handily send you that much in sales in a
month, and any month non-stop. But these webmasters don't like the tours.

If you cannot make another tour to please them then this is a mistake.
Your ccbill link can be sent to different tours and you can let the affiliate decide
which one.

That is a very minimal compromise.

If you are going to recruit affiliates here by making post like this then why not
go the extra mile?

A design contest with a decent payout might work wonders in this current environment.

:2 cents:

Lots to add so I'll keep it as short as possible:

Wisdom in this business is knowhing WHICH affiliates to listen to and which one's 'advice' to either downplay, ignore or give that affiliate a custom solution.

Remember: Your best affiliates are really your business partners, as much as your twins are, so you MUST treat them with the respect they deserve (and they do deserve it). Even 'newbie' affiliates, or affiliates who only send a sale or two your way, deserve your respect because you know, from your own experience, that just because someone is just starting out doesn't mean they won't be a mega-success in the future; you're just meeting them at the beginning of their journeys (and lucky you - cause when a hard-working 'small affiliate breaks through and takes you with them it's a wonderful experience).

Okay, you know this. Awesome. Every affiliate has an opinion, and what works for THEM - their world, their sites, their way of doing business. Now what YOU gotta decide, Program Owner, is which affiliate is making you the most sales and which ones ain't. 'Kay, easy enough, just check the stats. Now, are those affs giving you the advice your biggest or your 'smaller' affs?

The 'big boys" (based on your stats, let's call them 10+ sales) you listen to whatever they fucking say, okay? Just SHUT THE FUCK UP and listen to WHATEVER THEY TELL YOUR BITCH ASS TO DO.

Now: if sales go DOWN after you do whatever they say you talk to them like proper business partners and the two of you (or however many) FIX IT. Together. Like real partners should. If sales go UP rinse and repeat.

And if a smaller aff tells you/asks you to do something you POLITELY tell them their sales need to go up before you can do that. "But my sales WILL go up if you do A,B and C!" Okay - then TRY IT for a month, maybe six weeks. if sales go DOWN you talk to your aff like a real business partner would and you FIX IT. Together. If sales go UP then rinse and repeat.

If you had hardcore content I could help you out myself but, with the twins, all I can offer is advice.

And your tours? yes, offer a few for your affiliates, if you can afford to do them/pay for them. If not, you will be limited (somewhat) depending on the traffic your affs send. But tour design isn't the biggest issue (personally, I think you should tone down a bit, LOL). Knowing your traffic (and how to get more) is much more important.

Finally: A/B Testing. pay for a script, DO IT, become addicted to it. It's THE only way to tell if what you're doing - and the advice even your "big" affiliates are giving you - is working or if you're just spinning your wheels.

Lastly, don't try to re-invent the wheel. Look at what successful websites/program owners are doing and just fucking copy them, but with your own sense of style, your own 'twist'. Sexy twins is enough of a twist right there.

best of luck to you! :)

Thank you very much! :thumbsup

Thanks that's a good idea for thumbs.... leave some hot ones non clickable and others that do click open. Good tease idea. I'll try that. :)

What do you mean by a design contest w/decent payout? Would people make us a free tour? and get what in return?

Thanks, very solid info here. Question: A/B testing and what is "pay for a script?" Sorry I don't know what that means.

not bad but i must agree with some remarks: Get a designer for a few $100 en freshen the site up a tad

The girls are really cute and I wish them the best of luck.

Might as well give my advice.

1) The Tour - The difference between a really sharp tour and an average looking serviceable tour is never "make or break". I do think you need a somewhat simpler tour with some samples, at least one video montage or something. Members have been ripped off non-stop the last few years, they want to know what they are getting. The freeloaders will never buy so ignore them and sell to the paying customer. Your aversion to giving out free content suggests you are wholly focused on freeloaders, which is the wrong approach.

2) The FHGs - FHGs do more than just give MGPs easy galleries to import. They also allow you to keep in touch with affiliates who may have forgotten they signed up. They also show affiliates that you are an active and growing site/program. Most affiliates look at the latest FHG date to see if a program is doing well. The chance of them signing up goes up several fold when they see regular FHG updates. Trust me. I was an affiliate and when I saw a revshare site with outdated FHGs, I would not sign up. PPS guys don't care as much, but for revshare it does.

3) Free Content - As the program owner your only responsibility is to those girls, your affiliates, and your members. NOTHING ELSE. It's not your job to take some ideological stand against free porn and an evolving adult marketplace. To borrow a line from Al Pacino, the cat is waaaaay the fuck out of the bag on free content.

Remember, your job is to make those girls and your affiliates as much money as possible and to give your members the content they are paying for. Take all of the advice in this thread into consideration then use that principle as your calculus for making changes to your site/program and you'll do just fine.

Good luck!

I love the "know it alls" they know everything... except how to make money. :2 cents:

why are you posting here then ?

All the best with it!

A/B testing is simple and complicated. LOL Basically, you have a script that sends every other surfer to a differant tour you want to test. That second tour (B) has one minor change, maybe a font or a color or a picture. A remains the same. You let it run then judge which version does better, or no change means it's not important. That's the easy simple answer.

So get a programmer to write you one. I assume you have a dedicated server?

nice site a decent money, esp nowadays

:2 cents:

most people putting him down I'm betting make less these days... LOL

any growth is a good thing

Says the failed porn webmaster who's now spamming adult boards with his insurance BS :1orglaugh

Good to see you Scott, I missed you, like an absent lover.

good for you :)

looks great

i really like the twins site

Thank you very much! :)

Thanks Mike! :thumbsup

A little cream in da coffee never hurt....

http://www.thejolietwins.com/image3/bc3cover.jpg http://www.theappletwins.com/image3/ac4cover.jpg

Any growth is good yes, however she could be making 5 times that amount if she listened to what people say. :2 cents:

Everybody in this thread replying to her and her program is wasting bits and bytes. Including my post right here is a waste of energy.

Taking a stand against free porn is good, however since it already is out there why not try and find the best way to ride it.

Damn what a waste of damn fine twins :2 cents: