This week's site review ...

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Originally Posted by Marc

Im definetely not a pro, but im into Bears and im very picky about my porn, so I can give my 2 cents. : )

I wouldnt join that site. Most of the guys there dont turn me on. Maybe 50% of them are bears, the rest are just lean guys with a couple of hairs on their chest.
no facial hair, no belly, light body hair, then he's not a bear.

hth : )

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Just a quik note. I agree that those aren't truly bears, they're more in the category of "Real Men". And since you try hard enough to make your point of "NO TWINKS", perhaps "Real Men" would be better than "Bears".

I'm also not a fan of red on websites. One, it's old news. Two, the color red itself is temper raising & aggravating to the viewer on a sub conscious level. It's just not a color to use on sites so dominantly.

But I'm also not a fan of Member Sites. Not with so many other sites with free access.

PapaBear

black and red - still my best selling colors. go figure!

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Originally Posted by basschick

black and red - still my best selling colors. go figure!

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red is great for hardcore. It gets people excited
i heard that people spend more money on red products and eat more red foods.

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Originally Posted by Dzinerbear

Xstr8guy requested our help when he said, "This site doesn't covert for shit. Help!" http://www.hairybearmovies.com/

Try and keep your comments helpful and constructive.

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Here's a quick rundown of your site report. I hope this helps :high:

Download Times

Connection Rate Download Time
14.4K 580.81 seconds
28.8K 290.40 seconds
33.6K 248.92 seconds
56K 149.35 seconds
ISDN 128K 45.74 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps 3.97 seconds

As you can see, unless the surfer has a T1 connection the site will take close to a minute to load. Surfers typically have an attention span of 8 seconds or less (usally less lol) The XML and javascript your using to protect your content significantly increases the download time beyond what I listed above, as well as having to open connections for all the graphic files and transition effects you have.

IMAGES_SIZE - The total size of your images is 444704 bytes, which is over 100K. Consider optimizing your images for size, combining them, and replacing graphic rollovers with CSS. I think the 1/2 meg of graphics on the page make it load very slowly. I snagged some of your graphics and optimized them in photoshop and cut the size by 1/3 by selecting the 'save for web' option.

TOTAL_SIZE - The total size of this page is 749384 bytes, which will load in 149.35 seconds on a 56Kbps modem. Consider reducing total page size to less than 30K to achieve sub eight second response times on 56K connections. Pages over 100K exceed most attention thresholds at 56Kbps, even with feedback.

TOTAL_OBJECTS - The total number of objects on this page is 60 - consider reducing this to a more reasonable number. Combine, refine, and optimize your external objects. Replace graphic rollovers with CSS rollovers to speed display and minimize HTTP requests.

I think you give too much away on the page. Cock, cumshots etc. Anyone wanting to get off could easily do it on your graphics and videos. Not good for sales.

I'm a fan of transparent sites where people see an inaccessible version of the members page etc. I think this eases the minds of many surfers as they know what they'll get inside.

Awesome HOT content, great look and cool special effects. I think the reasons sales are flat ( listed above ) can easily be worked out. :thumbsup:

i've read that all over - including classes back when. good examples are marlboro, coca cola, and the classic campbell's soup cans.

in blind taste tests, they gave bunches of people two sodas. in reality, they were exactly the same except for the coloring. almost everyone found the red to be sweeter.

red can be a powerful color if used well...

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Originally Posted by Marc

red is great for hardcore. It gets people excited
i heard that people spend more money on red products and eat more red foods.

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I'd love to review the site, but i'm on dialup. When it's done loading in a few hours, I'll have a look. Yes, I realise the site isn't meant for people on dialup. Are there so few people using it now that it can be ignored? Maybe "enter, exit, dialup" will become the new standard.

Dial up? They still have that? :eek:

I have talked to Lee about this thread and I'm going to co-ordinate the list of sites people submit for review. It seems like a pretty good tool for webmasters and we don't want anyone to get lost in the shuffle. Also, we'll continue to do this once a week and that way the reviewers won't burn out.

I currently have two sites on the roster for future reviews. So if you'd like to add your site to the list, please PM me.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

Squirt, thanks for the speed analysis. The page loads in 4 seconds for me and I'm on DSL. I am real anal about not overcompressing images. But I will make the page load alot faster with the redesign.

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Originally Posted by Squirt

I'm a fan of transparent sites where people see an inaccessible version of the members page etc. I think this eases the minds of many surfers as they know what they'll get inside.

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I am a fan of transparent sites too, but I've never really been able to get my head around how to design them. Something for me to work on. :)


DigitalJay, the site is meant for surfers with broadband connections only. The movies inside the members area are full-length DVD's ripped into 4 or 5 scenes. I have yet to get a complaint about the length of the downloads. But I do agree that I need to speed up load times on the tour.


Basschick & Marc, now I'm really confused, lol. Should it be red or not? Until you two posted and said that red sells really well, I was going to go in a completely different direction. Maybe if I just "butched up" the red... got rid of the pinkish tones. Whattya think?

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Basschick & Marc, now I'm really confused, lol. Should it be red or not? Until you two posted and said that red sells really well, I was going to go in a completely different direction. Maybe if I just "butched up" the red... got rid of the pinkish tones. Whattya think?

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Well im not a designer, or an expert, but I surf bear porn all the time and i can tell you my porn buying opinion.

Ive been to bearwww.com and bear411.com everyday for years and I couldn't tell you what the colors of those sites are. Bsb.org and topbear.com have also gotten my money and I dont know the colors of those sites either. As a surfer all I care about is the pictures I see, and if theyre hot enough I want more and might pay for it.

As someone into bears, I would be tripping over myself to find my credit card and sign up to these sites immediately:
http://www.boysgalore.com/allyoung/2620bl_cir01.gif
http://www.5k0.com/hot-nude/hot-love...bear-lovin.jpg
http://www.thebestingaymen.com/ssbl.jpg

I would Never sign up for this hard bears site because those guys are clean shaven and too clean cut. http://www.stationporn.com/max-hardbears.jpg

So it doesnt matter to me the colors, only the pictures of the guys.

On your current site you have a lot of clean shaven guys. I cant stress how important facial hair is.
Think Carl Hardwick, Jack Radcliffe, Buster.
In San Francisco ALL the bears have facial hair. The bigger and bushier the beard and furrier the body, the better. Thats what the audience wants.

I totally agree with basschick though that if you use a darker color then your images need to be bright, otherwise the whole page looks shadowy and blurry.

Xstr8guy - the red i'm talking about that sells is bright red like a marlboro package. that is the red that sells, not other kinds of reds.

btw, before you go crazy on changing everything, why not talk to your video provider and see if you can get bigger vidcaps - and preferably of hairy shots. regardless of page color, hairier guys SHOWING their hairiness in the pics is what will catch the eye best of a guy looking for hairy men.

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Squirt, thanks for the speed analysis. The page loads in 4 seconds for me and I'm on DSL.

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goto a blank page in your browser, then clear your cache. Type in your domain, hit enter, and press ctrl reload on the browser. You images and scripts are already in your cache, that's why your dowlaod speed is 4 seconds. I did your site report on http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ . When I went to your site personally on my computer it took close to 30 seconds. So on someones first visit to your site that's on ADSL / DSL it takes a while to load.

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

I am a fan of transparent sites too, but I've never really been able to get my head around how to design them. Something for me to work on. :)

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It's easy just copy your members page, change all the links to your join page and make that page one of your tour pages. But if you're thin on content to do that lol

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Originally Posted by Squirt

It's easy just copy your members page, change all the links to your join page and make that page one of your tour pages. But if you're thin on content to do that lol

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I've been recommending this for a long time, but everyone says "no, no, surfers want a glossy tour that gives no real concept of what the members area is like, with made up lame stories to go along with overused photosets" fuckin jackasses. Squirt's suggestion is the only way to do it right imo. Or you can keep doing "glossy" tours that resemble a million sites that have totally ripped people off by having a horrid members area.

That's NOT directed at you X, just a general rant. For one of the BEST examples of how it's done right, take a look at http://www.suicidegirls.com
People will respond with "that site is too busy, surfers are simple idiots and like glossy dvd cover looking tours" or other such bullshit but I promise you this site does huge business, and they know what they are doing.

there are plenty of beautiful, glossy sites out there making sales - and if the tour is similar and the content doesn't suck, they make rebills.

there is no one design formula.

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Originally Posted by Marc

On your current site you have a lot of clean shaven guys. I cant stress how important facial hair is.
Think Carl Hardwick, Jack Radcliffe, Buster.
In San Francisco ALL the bears have facial hair. The bigger and bushier the beard and furrier the body, the better. Thats what the audience wants.

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Marc, I agree with you completely! I am not someone who doesn't understand the niche. Check out my avatar... I'm a bear myself, although not heavy... just heavier than I want to be. ;) I could be hairier, but I always have some kind of facial hair. I'm even on bear411.

My problem is with content. I would kill to have Jack Radcliffe on my site, but until I'm A LOT more successful, that ain't happening. I get most of the movie content on that site from Deluxepass and they just don't have a great selection. I also supplement the DeluxePass content with movies from World Wide Content and Adult Legal... and they don't even have a good selection!

I said in previous post that this site really needs to move to a different domain. Hairybearmovies.com is definately not a good name for the current content. It really was just wishful thinking on my part.