Ringtones

[PSU4Life]

Whats the deal with ringtones? Do most people who sign up think they are really getting "complimentary ringtones" and don't read the print saying they will be charged $9.99 a month?

I was researching the market and trying to see how people think about these offers.

 

[DruSam]

That's why affiliate networks told everyone to stop using the word "free" on their ads and landing pages. Too many customer complaints.

 

[aeiouy]

Well you picked the wrong place to research the market, as I guess almost nobody here has actually bought "free" ringtones for the cell phone.

 

[sknydave]

Says $9.99 on the top of every landing page for those offers

 

[PSU4Life]

Sorry, didn't mean anyone here bought them. Seeing if anyone had thoughts on what the people that actually sign up for these things are thinking. Paying $10 a month for a few ringtons seems stupid to me, but I guess young kids are doing it or something.

sknydave: Jamster's Azoogle landing page does not show price on top but its in the fine print, but your right most do show the price on top. But it's usually not that visible.

 

[Adsense Loser]

Promoting ringtones has always seems like a money losing proposition. The problem is the targeted demographic often doesnt have creditcards, already has ringtones, or doesnt want to pay for them.

Then again someone someone can have a completely different take on it.

 

[ImagesAndWords]

Paying for ringtones

Promoting ringtones has always seems like a money losing proposition. The problem is the targeted demographic often doesnt have creditcards, already has ringtones, or doesnt want to pay for them.

Then again someone someone can have a completely different take on it.

Well, at least here in Europe - where SMS technology and billing is ahead of the US market - charges for ringtones, etc. are not made to anyone's creditcard. The buyer simply orders the ringtone, enters his/her phonenumber as the payment, and the charge gets put on their cellphone bill.
That way, a lot of kids can buy ringtones without ever having to worry about creditcards.

The ringtone market is heavily saturated here however, so what sells most these days are licensed ringtones such as Top-40 singles, soundclips from blockbuster movies, etc. The problem with that for the average aff. marketer is of course that we don't have the copyright to be selling such ringtones ourselves. A lot of the big ringtone sites have paid big bucks to Warner, Sony, etc. for the rights to these tones.

 

[gdubs12345]

Well, at least here in Europe - where SMS technology and billing is ahead of the US market

Are the carriers different in Europe? I tried a campaign targeting the u.k and i hardly got any clickthoughs past my landing page. I tried to do some research and i saw they have t-mobile, but i think their other main carriers are different. And the international ringotnes affer at azoogle had the same carriers we have here (cingualr,verizon,sprint,etc.)
Im having the shittiest luck with ringotnes. I have a sweet landing page , but i cant get any conversions or cheap clicks

 

[Hylo]

You'll get nowhere with cingular,verizon or sprint in the UK anyway. Main players here are O2, Vodaphone, Orange, T-Mobile and increasingly 3 network but mainly the first three.

 

[rigrunner]

Yeah gotta let them know that they're costly else you'll get complaints and possibly shut down.

Especially if you're from the UK... Advertising standards and all that...

Jamster is what the kids know and love in the UK - if you can sort out some affiliate partnership with them you'll be doing well. They're still on UK tv every advert break, all over the magazines, I think they only place they haven't his is radio..

If you've got the traffic going to the landing page but no sales/clicks maybe you should be trying something else? Maybe one of those text-for-dates sponsors, downloadable games/apps or wallpapers.

Kids buy one ringtone then bluetooth it to their friends, but the older generations will buy and buy.... The thing is they always tend to be unsure on the costs/how to get it on their phone/what it will sound like. They're the more cautious generation but if you can tap into those you'll be made.

As for the kids, try to offer them custom stuff - things they won't be trading so much, failing that the latest number one song

I know one of my older uncles spends a few hundred quid a month on ringtones and games for his phone... eeejit!

 

[aeiouy]

Promoting ringtones has always seems like a money losing proposition. The problem is the targeted demographic often doesnt have creditcards, already has ringtones, or doesnt want to pay for them.

Then again someone someone can have a completely different take on it.

Seriously dude. Can you for one time just not say something so dumb. Everything you say is 100% wrong. How can you be so consistently wrong.

You should have said:

Since I don't know what I am doing on the internet, promoting ringtones has always seemed like a money losing proposition. The problem is I am too dumb to know that ringtone offers don't require a credit card, so I think they won't want them. On top of that, every kid in the world already has ringtones and a pay service on his phone, or they don't want to pay for them.

The World's Biggest Loser (adsense, affiliate marketing and everything else)

Nevermind. Forget all that. You are right. It is impossible to make money on ringtones. What was I thinking. Ringtones suck don't do ringtones it is impossible. I was wrong, adsense loser is right. Kids don't have credit cards. Ringtones will cost you your house, your family and your dog. Please for god sakes stay away.

 

[Reefer420]

how would you target ringtones in developing places like china? Would you have to make a regional specific site and know the language- or would a english page make it. There must be affiliates selling chinese pop song ringtones right?

 

[Andrew]

Do some market research, the big hurdle is the offer needs to be compatible with Chinese mobile providers. Might have to do an exclusive deal. You definately aren't going to be making $10 a lead, then again Chinese traffic is so dirt cheap you don't need to.

 

[Josh P]

We can't yet... we have to wait for all the companies (AZ, CPAE, Max, etc.) to get a offer for them, and then we can.

 

[EduardoM3]

Adsense loser is intentionally spreading bad information or hes just fucking stupid. I already corrected him in another thread, and hes still talking out of his ass.

Do you have any idea about what your talking bout?

Im not surprised ringtones arent profitable

Why:

1. lots of competiton from other ringtones providers
That could lead to a loss of profits from the actual providers, but not the affiliates. Additional competition from the provider end only forces them to raise CPAs.

2. Too many people selling ringtones on myspace, adwords ,ect
There is no one selling ringtones on adwords, unless its "artist ringtones". The golden terms are untouched because of QS.

3. alot of the demographic who wants ringtones don't have credit cards on hand to buy the ringtones
You dont use credit cards to buy ringtones (you actually can, but not the type of CPA offers run on Azoogle/Hydra/XY7/CPAEmpire/COPEAC, etc.)

4. poor landing pages with alot of leakage
Where is the leakage? There are no outbound links on the landing pages with the exception of ToS type links on the bottom. They are 1 page landing pages.

5. Buying is a calculated decision that involves weighing pros and cons. Often someone will click and ad and then once he gets to the order form click back because he doesn't feel ready to make a purchase.
There is no "order form" with CPA Ringtone sign-ups.

Do I think ringtones has lost its touch? Yes. The MMA/FTC has put regulations making it much harder. But please, dont talk about what you have absolutely no fucking clue about. I dont mean to bust your balls, but some people might actually believe what your saying.

 

[PiLe]

Thanks Eduardo, those answers are very useful to me too because I'm also CPA newbie. Looking forward to learning more from pros at this forum.

Emir