Webmaster Survey - Age Verification Systems
AVS Chat Board
Sept. survey - Banner programs and sponsors
AVS pricing and commission comparison
We did a survey asking webmasters for their opinions on different AVS's they have used.
Below is are the averages of the results, the ratings were based on a scale of 1-10,
with 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest.
Click on the link for webmaster comments about each AVS.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
Webmaster Comments
AdultCheck
"The only real AVS on the market"
"This is where I make my most money."
"For gold sites, AC is King! If you put up a good gold site with them and
look after it, it makes money. It makes money from the links list alone too
... if you are too lazy to advertise just build lots of AC gold sites. Its
damned hard to get sites accepted these days with crack downs on words like
'extreme' 'teen' 'young' and even 'girls' and their standards are getting
harder to meet in terms of design, quality and originiality - though this is
a good thing really as it does keep the rebills coming and the rubbish off
the links list. All in all, the gold system would be excellent if it were
not for the very simple problem that TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE PASSWORDS. It is
very easy to put a few days hard work, a few hundred bucks worth of content
and a few days getting listed (after making all the changes Edison winges on
about) and find that the bandwidth eats up MORE than your commission ...
leaving you out of pocket even with half decent sales.
The only way araound this that I can see is to raise the price of membership
- reduce the numbers but increase the revenue.
The regular system on AC is terrible. It is ridiculous to even consider
putting a site on your own bandwidth on AC these days as it would definitely
not cover its own cost in bandwidth!
AC would do well to listen to their webmasters and at least explain why some
policies are impossible or unreasonable instead of snubbing, ignoring or
ridiculing the comments made by the people who, afterall, make their money!"
"Very hard to get listed in their links listed if you use a free
host....Which they had a better mulitple site module -eg- "add a site"
Do not use that much."
"In the year I was with Adult Check, I got no service, very little correct
answers, and made little money."
"Still overall the best in my opinion, but I feel the
popularity of AdultCheck has begun dwindling over the past 6 months. Sales
on my AdultCheck sites have dropped while those on Age Check and Lancelot
seem to be increasing each month. Don't really understand the cause of
this...perhaps AdultCheck has just got too large or perhaps the market has
been saturated with AdultCheck IDs. Whateveer the reason, I am seeing a
continuing decline. Have been pushing AdultCheck since 1997. AdultCheck
also seems to be losing contact with it's webmasters as it grows larger and
larger."
"Every one seems to have a password, as soon as you put a site up it can kill
your bandwidth."
"Too many passwords therefore very high bandwidth per sale..."
AdultSights
"A very simple layout and it works:I wish I had used this one a couple of years
ago or least before I started concentrating on Gold sites."
"Adultsights has no customer service, and they let any site in, and that
messes with sales."
"I've had a couple of mails go unanswered..."
AdultVerifier
"Very well designed AVS, I like them because they don't push
their own programs taking away from your sites."
Age Check
"Extremely poor service often do not respond. Changes sites at will."
"Signup easy, along with free space you can use for Platinum sites -
everything to get you started. Webmaster support can be a little slow at
authorising sites - espically Platinum sites - if you pay for bandwidth -
get ready to have used while waiting for Platinum authorisation. Still, I
have to admit this is one of favourites with exception to them being a
little slow."
"From a webmaster's point of view there are only two reasons to use Age
Check. They do not convert as well as NV or AC, but they DO have a Platinum
program so upgrades are easy to come by from their links list and they have
a middle page bonus which adds up if you have a few hundred sites making a
few bucks a week.
They seem a little stale now, which is a shame because they looked destined
for greater things about 8 mnths ago ... signing up sites is apain in the
ass because of all the emails and remails required, and their scripts are
very fragile and often get broken. Not very compatible with WebTV, though
they have sorted their problem with AOL."
"Haven't really made any money with them but they seem ok."
"I like Age Checks support and service, they rock when it comes time to
needing help and they don't care if you are a newbie."
"Been using now for about a year, seem really cool."
"I really doo hate the adds.....! Is it really necessary?"
(good score though)
iShield
"Used twice now - how can I say this.... it's toss." (very bad rating)
PornoPass
"Well, these were my favourites... There are too many people with Gold
passwords here. Bandwidth drainer. I really hope they do something to
bring in new blood."
"Sales have been low this year for several reasons, but they have always been
'honest' with webmasters, kept them informed and never lied to them - unlike
AC who are renowned for underhand behaviour and going back on their word
Editors note
(and of course ignoring their webmasters which NV never do). Their gold
program is easier to get onto than AC's and as such it is easier to get more
sites up in less time ... this was great for a year or two, but now we are
feeling the effects - cancellations are high and bandwidth usage is painful
even for sites with next to no sales. The standard is just too low. Rebills
would be more sustained if the overall standard of gold sites was improved -
and of course if Net Verifier did not skim profits ... I have seen the
proof, and it is the only reason I do not use them any more."
Editor's note:
In the over 3 years that I have used AC and been very closely
involved with dozens of Adult Check webmasters, I have not seen
any "underhand[ed] behaviour" or seen them "going back on their word".
Quite the contrary, I have found them to be strictly honest and
to keep their word. I speak with roughly 200 webmasters each week
and have never heard any hint of the kind of things for which this
webmaster says AC is "renowned".
"Never made any money with them."
"Serious concerns with regard skimming, heard some nasty rummers recently
of people who I know quite well regarding skimming of rebills."
"They make a big deal of paying out if you've lost sales...
I've lost loads and they tell me that they will look into it, and they don't...
Too many complaints!"
Sex2Z AVS
"It is relatively a new AVS - but I certainly believe a good one to choose from a
webmasters point of view. There is little competition and as there so few
members compared to the other "large" avs, the majority of visitors will not
have a password."
"I think they are 'going places'. Rather than compete with the big boys they
offer something different - they basically let you create your own pay site.
If you send good traffic to your sites on Sex2z you make good money - and no
cheating because IBill calculate and send out your commissions.
On the down side, they have no capacity to upgrade (gold for instance) and
no traffic of their own. It is great that they have few sites and few
password holders as competion for sales and bandwidth being eaten up by
millions of current members is not a problem - but they could do with more
sites ... but I guess they're new ... I think they will become a 'player' in
the real leagues pretty soon."
"Dont really use as an AVS, as they are really small, so I currently use
Sex2z as a paysite set up (ie, rather than sending traffic to the other
avs's that everyone has passwords to or to Maxcash I send my exit traffic to
my own sites on sex2z). At the moment it seems to be working really well."
"Server Reliability-10, Revenue-7-you need to send your own traffic
Integrity-10-all billing done by I-bill
Webmaster Service-10-a good responce to all my questions!
Overall Score-9-would be ten, but you have to do some work to promote your
site, as opposed to simply siging up and leaching the traffic and getting
upgrades...
Still one of the new boys, but I think in a month or two they will be up
with the biggies! - Get in now when there aren't 1,000,000's of passwords
out there just using up bandwidth for no return!!!"
Validate
"Perfectly honest - I do not try to convert sales here - I prefer to give
there customers more sites to look at and borrow some of their traffic which
I believe I can convert elswhere."
"Outdated and losing ground fast. At one point these people were set to
become one of the top two or three AVSs ... what happened? Sales went down a
lot last year, the promise of upgrades and multi-level sites never
materialised and webmasters lost faith. Now too few good sites are added and
so sales are even harder to come by as customers don't associate Validate
with quality any more. It is a real pain in the ass to join and their
webmaster service and database are both very poor. Their response to emails
is almost non existent. Its a shame because they had a lot going for them
... I guess NV took up their slack."
"I do not use their AVS service, but do use their Lancelot program for a couple
of my pay sites."
"Not really up there I can't see them getting much better either..
I use them mainly for promotion of other sites."