Dixter.com Re-Design - Suggestions??

[GPallan]

Having a total mental block, so thought I'd put it out there and see if I can get some new ideas. Thanks in advance!

I'm redesigning the tour for dixter.com to feature its 50something exclusive videos. We're not shooting any more content for the site, so I have to design the tour to maximize on the content that we already have. We'll be adding 2-3 non-exclusive videos to the member's area per week to maintain good member retention, but these won't appear on the tour. We're just adding them to help with retention.

What I'd like to do is to have the tour cycle through these 50something videos so that the tour doesn't start to look stale. My thinking is to have about 20-30 of the vids on the tour at any given time, and then cycle through the other vids once per week.

Thoughts? Should I go with a simple three-page reality tour with about 6 episodes per page? Should I opt out for a static tour like BSB? Should I keep the 'pictures' and 'models' sections?

Thanks guys!

[Bec]

What are you using for a content management system program? Some let you set up videos to auto rotate on a time frame that you specifiy. That could be the least painful way of programming this, plus your tour can usually be setup with the macros that show what's currently "new" and what's "coming next" automatically.

[nickbaer]

There are time when I think that several smaller, independent sites should team up, so that members have more to choose from,and as such, customers will have a (less hard) time finding and wanting to join a somewhat bigger site.

Somehow, we independent studios need to be able to compete for customer's attention, and $$s with Chi Chi, Falcon, Titan, etc.

And it isn't going to be with 100 independent studios sites, with 50 models each.

[GPallan]

i'm using SiteDepth, and yeah, i can have it programmed so that it auto rotates through the content. so that's not a problem. my concern is more with design/layout of the tour and how much content/episodes i should display on the tour, considering the fact that the site only had about 55 exclusive videos.

thanks bec!

What are you using for a content management system program? Some let you set up videos to auto rotate on a time frame that you specifiy. That could be the least painful way of programming this, plus your tour can usually be setup with the macros that show what's currently "new" and what's "coming next" automatically.

[GPallan]

that's a good idea, but not sure if it's something i want to undertake right now. will be a lot of work. i want to do a simple tour re-design and automate the site

There are time when I think that several smaller, independent sites should team up, so that members have more to choose from,and as such, customers will have a (less hard) time finding and wanting to join a somewhat bigger site.

Somehow, we independent studios need to be able to compete for customer's attention, and $$s with Chi Chi, Falcon, Titan, etc.

And it isn't going to be with 100 independent studios sites, with 50 models each.

[GPallan]

and just to clarify...

deciding to stop shooting exlucive content for dixter was something that we had to do. as you know, producing exclusive content is very costly and time consuming. it made more sense to use the current exclusive content we had and start adding non-exclusive content, BUT on a much more regular basis. In the past, we used to add one exclusive video ever other week. with non-exclusive videos, we'll be adding 3-4 full-length scenes a week. this way, i actually think the site’s retention will improve significantly.

this in no way is meant to harm either our or our affiliate sales. My goal is to make this more favorable for both our affiliates and us.

so my intention is to use the current content to create a tour that maximizes on conversion, and to create a member's area that does the same for retention.

[GPallan]

so having said that, do you guys have any suggestions as to how i should design teh tour?

should i go with a static tour? a tour that cycles through the exclusive videos??

[sc32803]

I was wondering if you could go into more detail about why you're not producing original content anymore. I assume you already own the equipment (video camera, lights, etc.) so isn't your only real expense in hiring models? You should be able to get models for around $500 on the low end, so is this really out of your reach? Personally I think members will start to notice if you're not adding new, fresh content so that could be trouble.

My other advice is to give some more thought to what kind of site you want Dixter to be. I'm vaguely familiar with it but can't really classify what your niche is. Also, the last time I checked I don't think you were offering hi-res still photos of your models for promotion... it looked like you were just offering video frame grabs. If this has changed, please let me know.

Sorry I didn't really answer your site design question but you have a good brand name in "Dixter" and I think you have great potential. It just sounds like you might be taking a step backwards instead of forwards.

[nickbaer]

We've discussed here for years, the dollar value worth of a model. Some time ago, there was a conclusion that scale is about $250.

There's lots of content sellers trying to keep the scale high by selling their stuff high, but how many webmasters have failed by buying into that? Not very many come on here to say they've failed. Content sellers aren't going to tell us which of their clients have stopped buying.

I once paid 2 well known Porn stars to do 2 oral/anal money shot scenes, for $600. Took 2 years to make my money back. Another studio/webmaster here said he had the same luck (misfortune) with the same porn star.

A month later I worked with 2 unknowns, for $300, and made my money back in 2 months, and to date their revenue is like 10X their cost.

It's a function of being in the right place at the right time with your models and your customers. I imagine even Chi Chi or Titan or JetSet, over their extensive years of history of filmmaking, made a movie once with a model that didn't sell.

If you're paying $500 for a model, and are not selling it, then the model was not worth $500. And that should be a predictor for the future.

Why is "he" - nor "you" - selling? Could be the vast competition of small studio web sites. The "niche" look of the model. Selection and quantity for the price. Seasons of the year.

There's no guarantees that putting up a website with guys performing sexual scenes, is going to attract much more than the free porn surfers. To wring cash out of the bottom feeders takes longevity experience, branding, buzz, customer loyalty, niche and theme.

[sc32803]

Nick, I agree with your last paragraph and that was my point with Dixter. They've been around for awhile and have a good brand name so my advice is that they continue to shoot original content but do it in a unique niche that makes them stand out from the pack.