What constitutes a good gay porn website?

[GayGeek]

Hi folks,

I'm putting together an article on GayGeek (that's my website) about what constitutes a good for-pay gay adult website. By this I mean a traditional membership-based gay porn site, or some sort of site like AEBN that offers pay-per-view services.

For purposes of this question, assume the content matches whatever turns you on. So answers like "lots of blonds" or "big, hairy bears" aren't necessary.

Also, generate the list from the customer's perspective. It may be a valid business strategy for a website to use pop-up windows, DRM protection on videos, and javascript that disables right-clicking to save photos to your computer. Customers look for the opposite of these practices though, and their perspective is what I'm trying to use.

I'm looking more answers like:

- An optional slide-show system for viewing photos. Users should have a pause control as well as an adjustable speed setting.

- An easily located set of links to the website's privacy policy, 2257 information, customer service page, and cancellation page.

- Videos that are Mac-friendly (ie; not just Windows Media Player format)

- A design that works in IE6, IE7, and Firefox.

- A checkout system that can translate into different languages for the benefit of ESL (English as a second language) customers.

- A site that doesn't have pages that automatically load and play video with sound. (Important for users surfing porn at work or whose spouses are asleep nearby).

- A site that doesn't break the back button with javascript.

There are hundreds if not thousands of ideas like these. What do you like to experience when you are surfing porn?

--Aaron

[basschick]

i go to a lot of surfer boards - specifically communities of guys who join paysites. what they want right now include:

high quality downloadable videos - full scenes with no DRM. some also like the video to be broken into several clips.

most surfers who talk about what they like prefer WMVs to other formats - one poll showed over 80% liked WMVs, although mac users prefer quicktime followed by MP4.

most prefer horizontal pics - they say with horizontal pics a 1024x768 pic fills their monitor where a 768x1024 pic requires scrolling. good point.

no one is happy with pre-checked cross sales on the join page - especially those that are hard to find.

many prefer a no-rebilling join option.

regular updates so they know when to come see the new stuff. funny about that because if the site updates every tuesday and you come on friday, the stuff will still be new to you.

videos are preferred over pics by a fairly strong margin.

---

personally i prefer big downloadable high quality full scenes (not a fan of clips), lower quality video (sat 512k to 1 Mbps) if i want to preview a video before downloading, a set of vidcaps for each movie, digital stills that are offered in downloadable zip files, pics that aren't very repetitious! i reviewed a site the other day where you had to click each thumb on some gallery pages to determine that the model had moved his arm like 6 inches. otherwise the pics looked identical in thumb size.

i also like a WORKING search function, the latest updates right there on the member home page (well, everyone likes that), dates on all the episodes so i can tell how often the site updates.

Hi folks,

I'm putting together an article on GayGeek (that's my website) about what constitutes a good for-pay gay adult website. By this I mean a traditional membership-based gay porn site, or some sort of site like AEBN that offers pay-per-view services.

For purposes of this question, assume the content matches whatever turns you on. So answers like "lots of blonds" or "big, hairy bears" aren't necessary.

Also, generate the list from the customer's perspective. It may be a valid business strategy for a website to use pop-up windows, DRM protection on videos, and javascript that disables right-clicking to save photos to your computer. Customers look for the opposite of these practices though, and their perspective is what I'm trying to use.

I'm looking more answers like:

- An optional slide-show system for viewing photos. Users should have a pause control as well as an adjustable speed setting.

- An easily located set of links to the website's privacy policy, 2257 information, customer service page, and cancellation page.

- Videos that are Mac-friendly (ie; not just Windows Media Player format)

- A design that works in IE6, IE7, and Firefox.

- A checkout system that can translate into different languages for the benefit of ESL (English as a second language) customers.

- A site that doesn't have pages that automatically load and play video with sound. (Important for users surfing porn at work or whose spouses are asleep nearby).

- A site that doesn't break the back button with javascript.

There are hundreds if not thousands of ideas like these. What do you like to experience when you are surfing porn?

--Aaron

[markwolff]

I would agree with most everything patti has mentioned, with one exception that being videos with no DRM. Right now on my sites i don't have DRM, however i am in the process of completely overhauling all my members areas and streaming all the videos in flash only on a 720x540 player. I know that review sites dock points for sites that do not offer full download, but i am really having a hard time justifing it these days. Right now in the members areas of my 3 main sites, i have well over $450,000 in content, that just what i have spent in the last 8 years on shooting content and editing it. I offer over 25 exclusive full length dvd's on markwolffvideo ( over $1000 if you bought in store) Plus a ton of additional content for $29.95 month. Now when you rent a $20,000 Pontiac from Hertz for $199 a week or a Hilton Hotel for $250 a nite ($500 if your in NYC ) you don't get to keep the car or the hotel room, so why would someone expect to access, download and keep close half a million dollars of content for $29.95? This might also have something to do with all the pirated material and illigal tube videos, how do you think people get all that content? I am starting to see more site owners like me re-thinking there plan of offering full downloads of all there content, it might have been the only way to go a few years back when slow internet connections did not allow for high quality streaming, but now with better hardware, better connections and the quality of flash, i think you are going to see more sites offer streaming only. At least the big sites with lots of exclusive and expensive content.

[GayGeek]

I would agree with most everything patti has mentioned, with one exception that being videos with no DRM.... i am really having a hard time justifing it these days.

That's a fair enough point and your decision to make, Mark.

But remember, I asked this question from the customer's point of view. There are no circumstances that I can think of where a customer prefers DRM to no DRM.


Anyway, here are a few other things customers like.

- Billing options that reflect the needs of non-North American customers.

- A site that has been thoroughly examined for typos, bad links, missing gallery pictures, etc.

- An internal "bookmark" function whereby users can specify their favorite photo, videos, etc. Then they can return to the bookmark page for instant access to their favorites.

- Downloadable .zip files of all photos in a photo set.

- Sites that avoid gratuitous animation such as scrolling text, flashing or moving icons, funky effects on the cursor, morphing or transition effects when switching pages or pictures, etc.

- Multiple resolution sizes for photos sets.

- Flex-width sites that work on varied screen sizes.

- An entry page in the members area that is neat, concise, up-to-date, and makes it easy to locate the content you are looking for.

(Funny story on this one -- GayGeek reviewed a website that shall remain nameless. The "entry page" in its members area was a whopping 27 screens tall in my browser. The site was overflowing with content and you could stay busy there for months, but the site was so badly put together that with the exception of the latest updates it was difficult to find what you were looking for. Even the "help, I'm lost!" page was 19 screens tall.

Our reviews gave the site a D to D-minus for the website's visual appeal and ease of use. This was based on the opinions of four reviewers who reviewed the site independently of each other.

The webmaster was outraged at his overall scores and sent me an e-mail demanding we remove/change the reviews. In the ensuing conversation he stated that he spends over $30,000 annually on web design. I told him that if I were running his website I'd fire the designer and rebuild the site infrastructure from scratch. He was outraged and canceled our affiliate membership to discourage us from listing his reviews. (Didn't work -- we still list it along with his site's mediocre overall grade.)

Moral of the story -- Webmasters are often convinced that user experience on their website is high even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Never be so sold on your website design that negative opinions are inherently wrong and invalid.)


Anyway, let me know what else you come up with.

I want to put together a list of guidelines for good website design. No webmaster will ever use them all, but the list will be a a good place to start when looking for inspiration on how to redesign a website.

--Aaron

[markwolff]

Hi Aaron Yes i know you will never find a customer who want's DRM on the members areas, he would like to be able to download everything and keep it for that $29.95. My opinion was that, is this really something a customer should expect from a web site, and should sites that are being reviewed get points deducted for not allowing there videos to be downloaded. All the features you have mentioned are things that should be used in the evaluation of a web site, there are probably hundreds of criteria you could base a review on. I just feel that offering all your content in a downloadable format to keep, for a small monthly fee is somewhat of an unreasonable feature to deduct points for . It would be similar to a auto review of a new Mercedes S600 the writer could go on about how he loves the car, the performace, the fit and finish of the interior, the engine performance, etc etc in the end give it a 10 out of 10 but deduct 2 points at the end because Mercedes would not let me keep it, at the end of the review week. This is a bit off topic, but as i said in my first post, with all the pirated material out there, and complaits about the tubes, and stolen content, it seems to me, that many of these sites are just adding to the problem by giving away there entire members area to download. If a site wants to allow there members to download all there content for $29.95 that's fine, that's there business plan, and maybe it's working. I just think that it seems a bit unreasonable for review sites to deduct points for having DRM. I think over the next few years you are going to see many studio owners like myself, take a second look at offering there content for download, and move over to stream only. With my new site, i will probably still offer some of my older releases available for download, however all my new content will be flash stream only.

[Alex_Manifest_M]

I agree totally with what Mark is saying. We are not and never had attempted to be the Golden Corral of porn. To sell an entire content library for $29.95 is not smart in the least for anyone that does not have a huge member (5000+) recurring base. The economics simply do not add up. There is zero reason for anyone to rebill on a video/images only site with that sort of set up. Trite as it sounds "Do the math" and you will see why, as a surfer, you should never remain a member of a site. Join one month out of every 4-6 and that is plenty if you REALLY love the content. Otherwise, load up the wheelbarrow and move on to the next one.

As for what members want

1. Customer Service
Porn sites should not be faceless entities that do not respond in a speedy and effective manner.

2. A unique experience.
If they are going to pony up the cash, they want far higher quality (in content and delivery) than they will find on a tube site. A site should offer more than just video and some ho-hum photographs

3. Promises kept.
If a tour is inaccurate or updates are not done as promised it makes all of us look bad.

[basschick]

good call on keeping promises, alex. most sites i review don't to varying extents ranging from the claim of DVD quality - less than 1% of sites have commercial DVD quality videos, but at least 33% of the sites i see claim to have it - to the entire site using the wrong niche. as one of the reviewer who works with me said recently about a site "Oh, goody - a twink site with no twinks!"

[Lee]

Anyone else notice that most seem to think that a 'good' site when it comes to what the surfer wants is basically a list of 'features' that will make it harder for site owners to make money and control their content distribution?

.zip downloads, larger images, bookmark features, more content, higher quality content, less ads, lower cost memberships, exclusive content, free previews, non-recurring billing, DVD downloads, no DRM, the list goes on.

Granted some of these things are needed however, at what cost?

Why dont we all just stop charging the surfer to access porn sites and start giving access to our sites away for free, it certainly seems to be the direction we are heading towards so long as we start caving in to the demands of our surfers.

I cant think of any other business model, anywhere else in the world, where a company has a product to sell and they change the core basics of that product on an almost weekly/monthly basis based on what the consumer (or the retailer [read as affiliate] selling that product) wants.

The bottom line is this, sex will always sell, it has done for centuries, it will continue to do so for centuries to come.... Whether the end user can download files in .zip format, view it in HD, or get fresh updates every day.

The lists above are not benefits that 'sell' a site, they are the 'features' of having a site membership, features dont sell a product, benefits do... This is basic sales and marketing 101 that pretty much any salesman will tell you.

What is the feature of a loaf of bread? Its white or brown, its pre-sliced, its soft or crusty, it is pre-cooked, its edible. The benefits of a loaf of bread? It can stop you from going hungry... Everyone has to eat, therefore, everyone will buy a loaf of bread if they are starving and have the money to do so.

The only reason all of the things above even made their way in to the paysite business model was because PPS affiliate programs had to think of ways to stay in business, because they ravaged their way through surfer, after surfer, year after year using dishonest billing techniques, upsells, cross-sells, limited trials, etc.

They had to start offering their members more features in order to keep their business model alive, this had a trickle down effect, which hit the other programs and now, most of the things above are considered as 'needed' by affiliates and paysite owners, guess what, they arent, surfers will still become members to a site even without all of those things, they always have, they always will, we are selling sex, nothing less, nothing more and as i mentioned above, sex will always sell.

My highest converting paysite right now is one that isnt even in the Condom Cash affiliate program, it has a 1 page tour, with nothing but several thumbnail images and some basic text on it, no previews, no clickable thumbs going to the larger image, no updates to the page, nothing, just a basic HTML page with a bunch of images and text on it.

http://www.rimminghunks.com

That should be proof enough that surfers will join anything, the site design is shit, the content is old and stale, the text isnt specifically 'exciting' but it still pulls sales, lots of them and guess what, they rebill too. I have about 50 sites that are designed like this, that each took me no more than 10 minutes to put together and they all make sales on a regular basis, at $40-$90 a pop.

The sooner more people start realizing we are salesmen, not entertainers, the sooner we can all start making more money, not less.

Sex sells, and will always sell, even in times of economic and political turmoil.

Regards,

Lee

[alexbucks]

That's a fair enough point and your decision to make, Mark.

But remember, I asked this question from the customer's point of view. There are no circumstances that I can think of where a customer prefers DRM to no DRM.


Anyway, here are a few other things customers like.

- Billing options that reflect the needs of non-North American customers.

- A site that has been thoroughly examined for typos, bad links, missing gallery pictures, etc.

- An internal "bookmark" function whereby users can specify their favorite photo, videos, etc. Then they can return to the bookmark page for instant access to their favorites.

- Downloadable .zip files of all photos in a photo set.

- Sites that avoid gratuitous animation such as scrolling text, flashing or moving icons, funky effects on the cursor, morphing or transition effects when switching pages or pictures, etc.

- Multiple resolution sizes for photos sets.

- An entry page in the members area that is neat, concise, up-to-date, and makes it easy to locate the content you are looking for.

This is what we offer on Boylantis.com and AlexBoys.com.

[Squirt]

I agree totally with what Mark is saying. We are not and never had attempted to be the Golden Corral of porn. To sell an entire content library for $29.95 is not smart

This reminds me of the days of weekly rotating content on a site, could be back in style soon.