What Are you Top Concerns with Tube Sites?

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by gonzo

Like TGPs and then MGPs the evolution of tube sites have been blamed for the economic downturn in this industry.

Outside of stolen content what would you list as your top concerns?

The concerns are the exact same as they were with TGP's, MGP's, and before those Picposts and even the old traditional "free site".

The key with all of the above is to make them a tease. Wet the surfers appetite with the sample tray but make him buy his dinner. A good paysite tour is designed that same way. The problem is there's always going to be someone who will offer up more content to gain the additional traffic.

That sets off the cascade. Joe Dumbass has more traffic because he's giving away the store, and his competitors then think they have to offer more as well in order to keep up.

Now what has made this possible is cheap bandwidth and the advent of flash video. The guy offering only the tease and focusing on a niche is going to have far superior conversion rates and make a lot more per visitor. But the cost of hosting a tube site is manageable enough to do the big box retailer model, make very little per visitor, but use the volume to drive sales to ad networks, dating sites, etc and still make bank on razor thin margins.

The reason people scream like raped apes about all of this is two fold:

1) Videos have always been the ultimate upsell. They've been protected simply because no one could afford the bandwidth to giveaway more than a minute or so for over a decade. Now all of the sudden you can go watch entire scenes all over the web.

2) Not everyone can afford to run a tube site or even if they can they're not willing to take the risk of managing that thin margin. You cant put one out and leave it on autopilot for any number of reasons including getting your ass sued off over piracy when a user uploads something they dont own. How many do you think would be whining if they could all run their own?

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

The concerns are the exact same as they were with TGP's, MGP's, and before those Picposts and even the old traditional "free site".

The key with all of the above is to make them a tease. Wet the surfers appetite with the sample tray but make him buy his dinner. A good paysite tour is designed that same way. The problem is there's always going to be someone who will offer up more content to gain the additional traffic.

That sets off the cascade. Joe Dumbass has more traffic because he's giving away the store, and his competitors then think they have to offer more as well in order to keep up.

Now what has made this possible is cheap bandwidth and the advent of flash video. The guy offering only the tease and focusing on a niche is going to have far superior conversion rates and make a lot more per visitor. But the cost of hosting a tube site is manageable enough to do the big box retailer model, make very little per visitor, but use the volume to drive sales to ad networks, dating sites, etc and still make bank on razor thin margins.

The reason people scream like raped apes about all of this is two fold:

1) Videos have always been the ultimate upsell. They've been protected simply because no one could afford the bandwidth to giveaway more than a minute or so for over a decade. Now all of the sudden you can go watch entire scenes all over the web.

2) Not everyone can afford to run a tube site or even if they can they're not willing to take the risk of managing that thin margin. You cant put one out and leave it on autopilot for any number of reasons including getting your ass sued off over piracy when a user uploads something they dont own. How many do you think would be whining if they could all run their own?

From what Ive been reading there isnt anyone that has a clue about running a Tube site other than to sell ads to Lars and the rest of the Zango fan club... other than the obvious.