I have been contemplating my site design for the last few days, wondering what I should do that is going to attract the attention of surfers. I started doing some research. I looked high and low, near and far. I would guess that by day’s end I had seen at least 1200 adult web sites.
I found that a lot of them were very flashy, eye catching if you will. I thought “Man that’s what I need!” The next morning, I began my quest for the most eye catching pages I could possibly muster. This is what I came up with.
Later in the day, after hours of trying different designs, I decided on one and resolved myself to stick with it. I stopped working for a while, and went out. When I came home I could not resist giving it another gander. That’s what I wanted.
Through my quest I had an epiphany. I had seen many beautiful pages, splash pages, XML pages, and Flash pages too. But what I had not seen was any attempt to keep the surfers attention. Sure they had the flashy intros, 3 days for 2.99! and that sort of thing. Upon looking into some of them, yes only some – my credit card can only handle so many 2.99 charges – I found that almost none of them had any substance.
We have all as an industry been concentrating so hard on getting them in that we have forgotten the art of customer service. Sure we say “Fresh Content,” “Live Video” blah, blah, blah. How many of us really provide those things? Not many. I will be the first to say that when I’m busy elsewhere, or money is tight, I’ll skip that update and the buying of new content.
We have it nailed! Conversion rates are soaring in almost every niche: I’d bet that the retention rate is sliding though… We have won the sprint, now it’s time for the marathon. We must re-double our efforts to provide the very thing that will keep our clients coming back again and again. On-time updates, new material, keeping our word. We promised them that for so many dollars a month we would save them the trouble of hunting it down. Just do it. I am sure that everyone who does this will have a marked improvement in their retention. We have won the sprint, now it’s time for the marathon. We must re-double our efforts to provide the very thing that will keep our clients coming back again and again. On-time updates, new material, keeping our word.
We should all take stock of our sites and wonder how we can improve our service every day.
Editor‘s Note: Tom once again makes some interesting, perceptive, and valid points about the state of many adult sites. With paying customers being harder to obtain – and more importantly, retain – Webmasters need to increase their focus on the basics, and this includes providing real customer service.
Sure, a really good marketer will always emphasize the fact that his or her site offers “Thousands of Pics!” – even though the number is ‘only’ 2,000 – it is “thousands” nonetheless, and proudly proclaim that the site is “Updated Daily” – when all that is really updated is the sponsor provided Pic Of The Day (POTD). While neither of these statements will get you into trouble with the FTC, they will have a sobering effect on your site’s members – member’s who are savvier by the day, and more reluctant to stay on your site, or to join another site... Be smart, focus on the basics!
