what works best on blogs, pics or videos?

[HunkyLuke]

I am going to be redoing a number of our hosted RSS feeds and was wondering about entries with pics vs those with embed video clips. What do you find makes the most sales on your blogs? Pics or videos?

[dzinerbear]

I use pics almost exclusively. I don't like using hosted videos because they can slow down your blog if the sponsor's server isn't top notch. I've tried the odd vidieo here and there, but not enough info really to tell.

[PUMPaul]

Similar to Dzinerbear experience.
With only 1 exception do I use sponsor's code to embed videos. I like to host my own thumb and player but stream from the sponsor's server.
High quality pics with a deep link to the free preview video on the tour seems to work best for me.
I have very small traffic so results statistically are probably not valid.

[Gin]

I use a mixture of pics and vids, but with a majority of pics.

[HunkyLuke]

High quality pics with a deep link to the free preview video on the tour seems to work best for me.

oh thats an interesting idea, so the surfer would click and then go to the paysite tour starting on the video-specific page. I could see this leading to a lot of new video pages on the tour.

Do you separate your promos from your tours? I am wondering how this would affect tour speeds. We have all our promo clips on different servers as they were using too much bandwidth and we wanted to keep our tours snappy.

[PUMPaul]

I'm a very small fish compared to most of the webmasters here and very much so to Hunk Money so my situation is specific to me.
With most MP4/FLV players, you can host the video on any server you like and point the player to the file so...

For my blogs: I add alt text and title tag to the thumbnail used and host on the same domain as the blog embedding in and point my player (hosted by me) to the sponsor's video file. I am not good with code so use JWPlayer (cost $89) and their online set up wizard creates the code for me.

For my site: due to my current tour being hacked I've been redoing my tour on a new server and am createing my promo FHGs with scene summary directly into the tour for affiliates and SE to deep link to. The folder with preview vids is protected against hot linking to help save bandwidth.

My experience with amateur sites is that tours with deep linking to the preview vid of the scene described convert best for the surfers I attract. Bait Buddies, Spunkworthy, Randy Blue, and Southern Strokes are a few examples with nicer than average conversion ratios. Randy Blue embedded vids load so slow that I stopped using them on my blogs then switched to the way I do now. The only sponsor I use their embed code for now is Intense Cash. Their embeddable player can be customized to size and loads just as fast as hosting myself (most of the time) and they don't have a deep link enabled tour.

I'm definitely not an expert and only do this for a little extra cash and fun so if anyone has suggestions to be easier, make more $$$, or other sponsors with open vid codes I'd love to hear about it.

I'll let you know when new PUM tour is up Luke so you can see and make some helping comments for me.

[HunkyLuke]

Thanks for the feedback Paul, I am going to try setting up some deep linking on my blogs and see how it performs for me.

And yes, please let us all know when the new PUM is online, I am looking forward to seeing it.

[dzinerbear]

Deep linking to Pride Bucks sites has definitely improved my conversions. I don't have to host the video, I can just say, "click here to watch the free video" and get them right to it.

[PUMPaul]

Deep linking to Pride Bucks sites has definitely improved my conversions. I don't have to host the video, I can just say, "click here to watch the free video" and get them right to it.

Damn it Michael, that is the same text I use. Now I'm being dinged by the oogle bot for duplicate content. <joke>

I do deep link to Pride Bucks as well and love that they offer both links (rev and PPS) in the affiliate emails directly under the zipped file links.

[MarcoMTL]

I think it all depends on the promotional content.
If you give a great teaser that shows almost everything and is enough for the visitor to jerk of, he will use it instead of clicking. That's the risk with videos.
The thing is just to tease.

I really think that it can depend on one picture, one video cut : the look of a bottom to his top, a particular face expression, the view of a perfect ass, etc... If the visitor is captivated by a particular image, he will go to the sponsor site. Now too options : Either he pays the membership (if the site looks serious, is not too expensive, etc...), either he goes to torrent sites to find it free.

So i use my own judgement. If i find an image that teases me a lot, i use it as preview. On the contrary, if some pics in a gallery are disappointing (one actor looked good on one particular image, but is ugly on others), i just remove them. If the most teasing part is in the video, i use it. If the video shows too much, i don't use it. If the video shows boring bored actors, i don't use it. You got the point. I select everyting that is positive, disregarding the negative elements, or the too positive ones ^^

Regarding deeplinks, once again it depends. If the deep page is well one, it surely helps. But it's a risk, because it usually only shows one part of the site. The best is deeplinks that give a direct access to the scene the visitor is interested in, but don't forget to add previews of the other scenes of the site. If it doesn't, the visitor may leave the site without seeing the whole content. So i think that sending to a home that shows a lot of previews is good too because the customer's eye can be caught by new images. And if it happens, he will be more willing to get a membership. If the scene you promote is one of the latest updates, it will be on the homepage anyway. And if the visitor is really motivated, he will look for it and in the process will browse the site thoroughly, which is great.

To sum up. Everything depends of the promotional content. Focus on the teasing part, delete the bad one.

Too much free content is the enemy. The thing is to tease, not to make the visitor jerk off on your site.

Ideally the link has to go to a page that shows both the scene and all the content the sponsor site offers. That's why i don't usually link to TGP/MGP pages, they are too restrictive. A good deeplink is for example the ones from Suite703. They show a teaser and samples of others scenes below. The homepage is great too.
I like Lucas Entertainement video teasers, especially the interview or behind the scenes ones. So i find them usefull because the vistor wants to know more, without seeing too much.

Hope it was helpfull. Of course, i don't always follow these rules myself, must admit i'm often lazy or not motivated by some content

[NALEM]

I use pics almost exclusively. I don't like using hosted videos because they can slow down your blog if the sponsor's server isn't top notch. I've tried the odd vidieo here and there, but not enough info really to tell.

So, maybe you can try top notch server. Anyway, video is more visual, vivid, and better contribute the text content.
How do you like?

[ponyboy]

I have about 20 blogs now, I try to use both pictures and vids,I like them to be hosted on the websites site, I do keep a strick width to all pics and vids of 365 wide, and centered.
This one is like a day old playing with the theme when i have the time, it's hand written, some rss feeds, blogs are fun and easy ool
http://nighttwinksandjocks.com/

[conran]

I agree that the video needs to be subtle but hot. Enough to get the juices flowing, but not too much

I use video sparingly on my blogs, but I don't quite know why. Maybe I just enjoy playing with images and creating the collage.
Come to think of it, surely that's one thing affiliates would appreciate? Ready made collages. I wonder why most sponsors don't seem to provide this?