Cut everyone lose, get independent?

[Robocrop]

Is it time to cut everyone lose and go independent?

From the end of 2009 and into 2010 I myself has experienced more people going broke and refuse to pay up what they owe to other webmasters.

For instance, alot of programs going M.I.A without a single response on GFY, its like they have never existed, or..blaming rogue designers as usual.

Almost like you dont wanna promote others anymore, so what is the solution to all this? buy your own content and set up billing?

What I also noticed alot lately is that people on GFY tend to "scam" for small sums or ..gets into betting and go M.I.A when they didnt win, nor do they pay up to others.

I mean is it really worth throwing everything into the toilet for a small sum of $100 or less?

I also often see bigger companies claiming they got some technical issue when stats arent accurate..and it takes way too long to fix it. I always think.."ok how many sales will I never see when that occured"

I have always tried to stay away from new sponsor program but lately I am wondering if I can rely on the big ones..

Some input to this would be appreciated. ( Sorry if my english is bad )

[Robocrop]

Seriously, I want some input on this issue..people and programs fucking everyone over lately.

[Barefootsies]

Cut everyone lose, get independent?

Very few people can do it all themselves. If they could, they would be superman.

I only know a few people who shoot content, program, design, traffic, SEO and can do it even remotely well. It is a hard task, and there are only so many hours in the day. Especially if you are running multiple sites.

It makes more sense to farm out whatever your skills sets are weakest. It is less frustrating and more cost effective.

I used to do it all myself when I started. But when it would take me a week to do something, and someone else could bang it out in a few hours or a day. It simply is not reasonable for me to try and save a buck when my time is worth something.

I think most simply do not factor in the cost of their labor in the equation.

[L-Pink]

Everything that Barefootsies said plus you have to consider your costs of setting up a site people will actually want to join, your conversion rate for that site vs the profit you are currently making.

In todays economy businesses of all types are suffering losses from bad customers, accounts that are slow pay or no pay.

Monitor those that are behind/slow in paying, reduce your losses to shorter time periods and consider it a cost of doing business.


.

[BradM]

Do everything you can inhouse. Depend on no one. Pay for nothing unless it is delivered in full as agreed to or do not do the deal.

[$5 submissions]

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Very few people can do it all themselves. If they could, they would be superman.

I only know a few people who shoot content, program, design, traffic, SEO and can do it even remotely well. It is a hard task, and there are only so many hours in the day. Especially if you are running multiple sites.

It makes more sense to farm out whatever your skills sets are weakest. It is less frustrating and more cost effective.

I used to do it all myself when I started. But when it would take me a week to do something, and someone else could bang it out in a few hours or a day. It simply is not reasonable for me to try and save a buck when my time is worth something.

I think most simply do not factor in the cost of their labor in the equation.

and don't forget OPPORTUNITY COSTS.

[pornask]

I agree with both Robocrop and Barefootsies. It does look like promoting third party always results in some (probably rather large) losses on your end. While shaving using various methods is quite possible, I see more of a problem in the fact that people now have access to free and well performing spyware removal programs and those conveniently remove most tracking cookies on user's computer. This is not 1998 anymore. Most people are reasonably computer savvy nowadays and are aware of anti spyware programs and know how to use it. So even if you send a legitimate surfer to a sponsor and he converts after he's run his anti spyware, you ain't gonna get your commission even if the sponsor doesn't otherwise shave.

Going independent in that regard is definitely a win. It's more of a risk and may require more of a start up capital to get going reasonably well, but if you consider how much you have to work today to get a sign up credited to you, it really makes little sense.

As for what Barefootsies has mentioned - I used to be like that myself. if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself and even though I still haven't found a reasonably good enough replacement for my work, I did grow to realize the 80/20 principle and ditched the sites that required most work, but brought least revenue. It's a hard thing to do because you would have put so much work towards those projects and know they are about to explode yet you drop them in that instant. But what that did to me is that I have enough free time to travel the world and generate enough income to sustain my travel with little work. It's hard to ditch something you have worked so hard to build up, but sometimes it's the fastest way to results.

[FrozenJag]

Some smart cookies with great advice in this thread.

Starting your own program is way way way more work then you can emagine. It also costs probably more then you want to emagine to do it RIGHT. Even if you accomplish all of these things and your making some sales, can you still make as much money as a program paying you 40 pps?

Short answer um yeah duh! Long answer is probably not, factor in all your costs and soon your like hmmmm, I wonder if maybe I should go back to just being a solid affiliate?

If your a massive affiliate with full time employees then maybe starting your own program is a good decision. If not then I would just try to do what you do best and get as many prepaid ad deals as possible. Then the sales your making through revshare and pps become not so criticial to keep you in business. In other words instead of 3 or 4 programs going under and you being fucked, maybe it wouldnt be so bad. If you dont have enough traffic/sales to get prepaid deals then starting your own program definetly isnt for you.

Good luck!

[Robocrop]

Shit, very great answers here..

Well another point from me is, its me doing the work and shady companies can cut me lose anytime and take all the profit with 1 fucking button.

But as trying to be more independant might come inhandy these days.

[kada]

from experience, i can definitely tell you that going independent is hardwork.. youve got to be tough or you might even slip into depression mode if things dont go your way.

either way.. its better to try/follow your heart. make your own mistakes and so on. But i can assure you that unless you have something solid to offer OR loads of traffic to throw at that "OK / CookieCutter" site, its goin to be a rough ride. all da best

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by Robocrop

Shit, very great answers here..

Well another point from me is, its me doing the work and shady companies can cut me lose anytime and take all the profit with 1 fucking button.

But as trying to be more independant might come inhandy these days.

Like anything in life... it's about trade offs.

Do it all yourself, and you find it harder to grow as you will be throttled by both work load and hours in the day. If you want to make more money, you simply have to start delegating and outsourcing your weak points.

One thing I found more helpful was contracts, and provisions in those contracts for failure to complete work. Also restructuring the payments from front to back end.

[candyflip]

Doing EVERYTHING yourself sucks. I got burnt out on that.

I always like the idea of a few smaller guys grouping resources and working together. But that seldom works out either.

[Robocrop]

So instead of trying to do the hardwork, take the simple route and get burnt by other forum users or big/small programs who are in it for the short run?

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by Robocrop

So instead of trying to do the hardwork, take the simple route and get burnt by other forum users or big/small programs who are in it for the short run?

No. You need to do better research and pay for good service in your host, coder, programmers. In the long run, it saves you money to INVEST in those better quality folk.