content or traffic

[John Temple]

What's harder to get: quality content or quality traffic?

John

[Jace]

from my point of view I think traffic...

I have a bunch of top notch photographers at my disposal and one trip to LA with one of them I could have an entire library of the best content...but for the past month I have been working on building up the traffic to my site and it is a slow painful process

Anyone can hire a good photographer and fly somewhere where there is a bunch of hot girls and take pics....but to manipulate the internet into surfing to your site is a little trickier

both are fun as hell though

[Sabby]

Mmmmmmmmmm...

Traffic turns me on alot!


Sabby

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by John Temple

What's harder to get: quality content or quality traffic?

John

Traffic.

No question.

Especially quality traffic.

[Toby]

"He who controls the traffic, controls the Internet."

[Hell Puppy]

Now one thing that still holds true though is that one good killer idea that results in a site with sought after content is still the true rainmaker and can virtually come out of nowhere.

Look at what MySpace has done in the last 2-3 years.

In this industry we tend to only see traffic and content as black and white. There's more angles to content than just snapping pics.

[Bishop]

Traffic is harder.

Content quality is in the eye of the beholder.

Traffic is either good or bad.

[Paul Markham]

It's chicken and egg.

Jace is right there are lots of quality photographers waiting to work, but there are also lots of quality traffic drivers around. The trick is affording them.

To get either you need to be in a position to pay for it. Good shooters are not working for peanuts. They don't shoot video and image sets for $300, well not if they have a clue what their content is worth.

A load of traffic people will send you great traffic if your site pays better than where they are sending it to. This will snowball as the message gets around.

The key to everything is GREAT CONVERSIONS. Try doing that with crap content or crap traffic. Do it well and you'll be making money.

We have great content and convert very well, http://paulmarkhamteens.com/tour/, we are growing and building on the great traffic. Can probably afford to pay more for the traffic and will look at it soon.

[gonzo]

Nice site Paul. Congrats.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Bishop

Traffic is harder.

Content quality is in the eye of the beholder.

Traffic is either good or bad.

Not 100% true.

This is about making money. It's about finding content 10,000 people will buy the stuff 100 people in the entire universe who would buy. Would you know the traffic is good or bad if the content was crap?

Agreed that you can find someone somewhere who will like the weirdest or crappiest content available. But can you recognise the porn the majority of people into that niche will spend $30 to see and stay for long enough to justify giving the cream traffic drivers $50 a sign up?

Jace seems to think he has quality pornographers sitting round waiting for his phone call. Well the truth is quality pornographers are working all the time and are not short of money.

If you want to know what's the most important the answer is simple. It's the one you don't have right that you need the most. I do not need quality content, I got it and the skills to create more. However some with all the traffic could put content as more important because no matter how many hits you get, the bottom line is the number of signs ups you make.

Gonzo thanks for the compliments, just really a side line at the moment, but who knows for the future.

[gonzo]

Your welcome Paul.
I do agree with Bishop though. Even with the right content that more than 10,000 people will buy its more difficult get those eyes to your product.

Jace has a leg up on most of us as he is plugged into the network of people that have quality content for sale. I know he did some considerable leg work earlier this year to shore up those contacts.
I dare say he could make som money by referring people to the right places for content.

[selena]

Originally Posted by Toby

"He who controls the traffic, controls the Internet."

Points.

If we can still give them, that is. I haven't tried for awhile.

Edit: If we can, I'm unable to remember how to do it.

So just know you have a mental point with me on that statement, Toby.

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by selena

Points.

If we can still give them, that is. I haven't tried for awhile.

Edit: If we can, I'm unable to remember how to do it.

So just know you have a mental point with me on that statement, Toby.

We are going back to the way we always used to do it. Fuck points..... give

[Jace]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Jace seems to think he has quality pornographers sitting round waiting for his phone call. Well the truth is quality pornographers are working all the time and are not short of money.

Unlike most people in this business Paul I have really tried to go out of my way to help people when I can, and luckily a lot of those people are photographers. I have one here in Atlanta that shoots mainly for Playboy that I can call any time of the day or night, he always picks up the phone, and I can get his next avilable day at no charge. I also have 2 photographers in LA and 1 in Florida that I consider friends that I have helped out and would do the same for me.

I make it a point in my world to help people, and if they don't help me back when I need it it doesn't bother me, but it is always an added bonus when they do

[Bishop]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Not 100% true.

This is about making money. It's about finding content 10,000 people will buy the stuff 100 people in the entire universe who would buy. Would you know the traffic is good or bad if the content was crap?

Agreed that you can find someone somewhere who will like the weirdest or crappiest content available. But can you recognise the porn the majority of people into that niche will spend $30 to see and stay for long enough to justify giving the cream traffic drivers $50 a sign up?

Jace seems to think he has quality pornographers sitting round waiting for his phone call. Well the truth is quality pornographers are working all the time and are not short of money.

If you want to know what's the most important the answer is simple. It's the one you don't have right that you need the most. I do not need quality content, I got it and the skills to create more. However some with all the traffic could put content as more important because no matter how many hits you get, the bottom line is the number of signs ups you make.

Gonzo thanks for the compliments, just really a side line at the moment, but who knows for the future.

Good post Paul but our perspectives are different. With VOD you have the all the popular stuff that you know people want to see and all the odd stuff that only a few want to see. The content people like is a matter of personal taste.

If the plan was to build a site that had one specific type of content and not everything then the quality of the content becomes much more important. The importance of the traffic would be the same.

This goes back to one of the earlest instructions that I think we have all told people who are just starting in this industry. Build what you like. Build sites that you would pay to see the inside of. If you don't like it why would anyone else want to see it? Those of us - like you - that have been doing this for a long time have a better knack for building any kind of site and have it perform well. That takes time to learn and it is understandable that some people choose to only concentrate on one type of site, the niche they feel most comfortable with.

[Nickatilynx]

Does no one utilise the "search" function.

This has been discussed to death at least 25 times....

boring.

(oh and the answer is "traffic")

[NY_TIM]

traffic for sure