incentives for new members

[basement]

i've seen some sites that offer a free month, or special rates, or a free
video for joining their paysite. do you find that this kind of incentive
improves sales much? i tried it with a small paysite of mine years ago,
but didn't notice that much improvement.

[Lee]

I think it depends on the target site itself.

For example, i know a lot of companies offer 'free access' to another of their 'mega sites' imho this type of thing is next to useless as an incentive especially, if the megasite in question has exactly the same content as the one the surfer initially joined.

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

i remember some sites gave recurring members free airline tickets back a few years. don't know if that helped their retention or not.

[Fetishlady]

i don't think incentives help boost the sales of sites but some exceptions to big affiliate programs.

[Soonnow]

...a lot of companies offer 'free access' to another of their 'mega sites' imho this type of thing is next to useless as an incentive especially...
Lee

I'd have to disagree there. As a surfer who'd been known to join now and again.
It's usually a question of choosing between competing alternatives.
- a promise of access to an entire "family" of sites does carry some weight.

Airline tickets on the other hand, would trigger my spam-alarm !
The promise of anything tangible as a prize would scare me off as well
- I don't want these people to know where I live :signhere:

[Mindy]

We plan to start testing out different ways to keep up repeat business.

Our return rate is so good that it will be hard to tell.

First Test is just starting...Any customer who has not bought more minutes in 30 days is getting an offer to get 2 hrs free when he or she purchase 2 hrs. I believe we also put a time limit of 2 weeks on the promotional code letting them know it was a limited time offer.

We also want to just have radom good customers get extra minutes for loyalty etc....I was also thinking of a customer referral program...like refer a new customer get free 30 minutes. The only problem with this is 1. Everybody is a cheater 2. Even though we love it and watch it we are still not a society that nessasarily accepts it into mainstream life( well at least on the straight side) So that is up in the air!!!

It never hurts to try different techniques out

[Dzinerbear]

I think one of the mistakes we often make is assuming the people who surf for porn are also interested in other kinds of pornor formats. And while I'm sure there is a fair amount of cross-over, a surfer's motivation for joining a site could be completely different from the consumer who buys a DVD, a video, or a magazine.

So if you tried to entice me into buying a membership to your site by offering to send me a magazine, I probably wouldn't be all that interested. If you offered me a DVD, I might be interested if I could choose from amongst a bunch of titles to make sure I'm getting something I'll actually watch.

Then there's the cynical side of me: what is wrong with your site that you need to try and coax me into buying?

And finally there's overboard. I used to promote a bear site called Butch Bear, they killed their affiliate program just last month. At one time, they offered too many options and I found it too confusing. I tired to tell them I could convert better if their join process was more streamlined. But alas, what do I know, I'm just a webmaster. But to their credit, they seemed to have paired it down to:

One-time, non-recurring 30 day membership (without calendar)
Recurring subscription (without calendar)

But the closer to 2006 we get, they'll probably opt to put in (with calendar) options, too, so that'll be a total of four different types of memberships. And I just think that's far too confusing.

Also, if you're going to offer enticements, then you have to worry about fulfilment and that's another ballgame. And if people hate the DVD you sent them, are they going to chargeback the whole membership? Or will they just think, "oh well, this piece of crap was free so I won't worry about it."

Personally, I'd put my effort into making my site the best standalone product it can be.

dzinerbear

[basschick]

frank had a panty paysite i was involved in. the site was 100% softcore panty girls. if you joined for 3 months, or rebilled twice, you could receive a pair of panties actually worn in a shoot.

i think what we mostly discovered is that guys who like looking at panty girl websites don't want to receive panties in the mail

[basement]

Patti is right I think we only gave away 3 panties.