This week's site review ...

[Dzinerbear]

Hey all,

We've been trying to review one site a week here and it's been going pretty good. As per Lee's note in last week's thread we'd take the first URL posted in that thread for this week's review.

Lee's probably still in bed, so I'll take the initiative and get this baby moving. (If I'm bad, I'll present my bare bum for a spanking.)

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. And if you'd like your site reviewed next week, we'll take the first URL posted in this thread. However, please keep this week's comments to Hairy Bear Movies.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[Tristin]

Wow, this sounds like a great feature. I would love my site reviewed but you professionals would probably make me cry.

Anyway I would love to provide feedback for the site above, but I am on my way to the gym. When I get home I will have a look see. Again, This is a great idea here.

[Lee]

Lee's probably still in bed

Damn you know me to well LOL

Okay heres my review for Xstr8guy...

The first thing that strikes me is the 'color' of the page, i dont know much about the mature niche admittedly but, personally, i opt to change the color from a red to a brown, black or maybe even a grey. Because the site features barebacking to, i might even consider using a black and yellow color scheme (much like a warning sign) to give it a feel of the 'forbidden', if that makes sense?

The other thing on this page that id personally change it the 'join now' and the 'free video' links. They are to small, make em bigger so that they the the prominent things on the page

In addition, the oe movie preview that i did watch (the first one) gave it all away, why join a site to see the 'action' when it is already been shown for free on the tour? It just doesnt make sense to me and, im sure the surfers are thinking the same way.

IMHO, those clips need to be edited so that they cut off RIGHT BEFORE the guys shoot their load...

Get your surfers so worked up that they think they are going to see a guy shooting a wad of cum only to stop the clip at the most crucial part.. the cumshot.

Itll annoy a few of them but, at the same time, youll probably find they get so frustrated that they'll join to see the money shot

Im also not a big fan of excessive scrolling on a tour page, you have a heap of 'white space' at the end of the tour which leads to a counter, if you must have that much scrolling space, in addition to a counter, throw up a 120x60 or a 468x60 banner on that part of the page to why send surfers to a counter for free when they can potentially be making you money? Another thing you might like to add in that area is a 'JOIN NOW' link

Other than that i actually quite like the tour, the images being used are clean and crisp unlike so many other 'reality style' tours and, you dont give to many of the images away either.

Id try and play with the color and definately cut those movie clips so they dont provide a cumshot.

Overall though, not a bad looking site.

Regards,

Lee

[Tristin]

Ok, I took a look at the site. Well bears are not really my thing but i will do my best. I will have to agree with Lee about the long scoll to the counter. I don't know if you did that for any reason or what. Makes the site look allmost unfinished.

The tour seems good, I like the cum shots in the tour, I don't think it gives to much away. But then again I'm no expert on these kinds of porn sites. The color and layout seem good as well. I think if you can get more people into the site you will have no problem selling it.

You could add a webmaster program which would help draw more traffic in. Ok well I guess that's all I can think of right now. good luck

[Top Cat]

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not an expert on site design. But have to say the red on red overwhelmed me. And although my tastes generally run to the boys in Michael Jackson's (legal) porno collection, I don't think your two main models are all that hot...looking at some of your content I think there are better choices.

[Tristin]

humm, maybe all that red is a bit brite. Maybe if you just changed the back ground and tour headers to black, and left the rest. Like this......

[gaystoryman]

Hmm, well for me I kind of agree with Lee on the colour scheme. A brown with yellow would be different and perhaps more pleasing to the eye.

As to the tours, I have to agree, get rid of that extra space but I'd also cut them down. I think they are way too long. Instead of 3 to 4 to a page I'd go with one.. making the page short load, snappy and each page different so it gives a better flow to your site having loads of content. Putting so much on each tour page makes it too busy in my mind.

I agree in principle that money shots need to be kept out of the free area, but some blend might not be a bad idea, perhaps one would be a compromise.

In my opinion (no expert by any means) a tour needs to be enticing in that it leaves you wanting to know more, which is why a person would join. I'd also change the 'links' in that I'd have one for members to login (giving a sense that a non member is missing out) plus instead of join i'd use 'instant access' to try and capitalize on the need to get in and see more with the last one being 'continue'. Not next or even adding preview or tour because eventually you want that link to end up at a join page. These three links in my view should be the last thing at the bottom and be visible in the first screen shot with a nice advertising head tag right above the whole three buttons.

My opinion is that too many cram too much into a tour. They try to show it all which really is counter productive. I mean yes you want to let the surfer know as much as possible, but i'd use more pages for two reasons.

One, it gives you more pages for the SE to crawl and list, adding to your position perhaps in the SERPS.

Two it gives a sense that you have a lot to offer to the surfer. It makes them feel that the site is complete and not a fly by night affair. Cramming so much into one or two pages doesn't do that.

Course this is just my warped view, after all I am blonde and drink coffe not lattes.

Ian

[Dzinerbear]

Hey Jim,

First thing I'd try is changing the models. No offense to Will West, but he's not all that "bear" in my books. Eric Evans is brawny enough to be called a "muscle bear." But West just never did it for me in my bear books. He hairy, older, and has a great cock, but that's another site. And every "bear" I go to has West on it (even mine) as if he's the only bear on the planet.

Second, the red's a bit on the pink side for my taste. Maybe try the traditional brown, yellow, orange colours associated with bear sites.

Third, I'd try getting rid of those faded pipeline things and try for cleaner lines and borders. I quite like the interface where the clips are, I just don't like those pipes.

Fourth, I find your cum tour at the top is lacking something, it's missing the layers upon layers that those tours always have. (That's what I call them anyway. And it's a look I've never been able to master them. ) Check out this one, everywhere you look, there's something to look at:

http://bearsexuality.com/maintour.php/1972/100/A

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[Xstr8guy]

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not an expert on site design. But have to say the red on red overwhelmed me. And although my tastes generally run to the boys in Michael Jackson's (legal) porno collection, I don't think your two main models are all that hot...looking at some of your content I think there are better choices.

OH MY GOD! It's Andy Dill! Boy do I love you!

I'm wish you were on my site. I have several of your Titan videos... big fan here.

Sorry to digress, I am a little star struck. I'll respond to the critiques in a few minutes... just had to gush over Andy for a moment.

Btw, what's with you liking young smooth guys? In my fantasies, you seem to like guys like me

[Top Cat]

OH MY GOD! It's Andy Dill! Boy do I love you!

I'm wish you were on my site. I have several of your Titan videos... big fan here.

Sorry to digress, I am a little star struck. I'll respond to the critiques in a few minutes... just had to gush over Andy for a moment.

Btw, what's with you liking young smooth guys? In my fantasies, you seem to like guys like me

Oh my gosh, I think even my avatar is blushing! I bet we could work out some kind of deal so I could star on your site...I am a media whore (among other kinds) of course.

I do like the twinks cuz they're so pretty...but I like a real man cuz he knows what the fuck he's doing!

[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.

I think its a good tour, but it could be called Amateur men or gruff hairy guys, or Real blue collar Men or something other than bears.
When you say bear I expect to see all furry beefy bearded/goateed/stached masc guys. Even though I personally like bears I dont make bear sites because its extremely hard to find REAL bear content.

I dont like that guy on the left http://www.hairybearmovies.com/
That picture really bothers me, with his head tilted like that, it just kills the flow for me. He has no hardon. If I had a hardon when I came to your site, that picture took it away. Limp dicks really turn me off. I want to see hardons or bulges, or dont show below the waist and I can imagine what the guy has below.

Those 2 guys behind him on the left are hot though. Big juicy dicks, thats what I like to see.

If I were you id take the guys who are hot and really do look like bears and put them on 1 page, and get rid of the rest.
Youve got hot content there, just make it more prominent and get rid of the non-bears
youre better off having 1 page tour with HOT HOT irresistible bear men than 2 pages with so-so blah guys.

See what I mean
http://www.manhuntervideo.com/store/catalog/
its only 1 page, but those guys are bears and way hotter.

I would join this site too
http://www.topbear.com/preview/index.html


hth : )

[basschick]

first thing i see is the murkiness of the page. if you want a dark page, the pics should be brighter and crisper, or else bordered with white to counterbalance it.

second thing is the episode pics from the videos. half these guys aren't hairy at all. the ones who are hairy - the vidcaps aren't focusing on that. you need vidcaps that really show off those hairy chests, arms, etc. regarding the guys who are hairy - in a perfect world, i'd show hairy body and dick, but in a tradeoff, hairy comes first for me on a bear site. the big pic on a reality site should illustrate the niche, imo.

the buttons need to be clear and easy to read, not blurry. try white writing - it stands out. and your text describing each scene isn't easy to read. i'd put it on a background that is one color, and i'd try bold text.

nothing really stands out on the page for me. there's no really big text, the text between the episode tables isn't big or bright or noticeable. don't be afraid of bigger, bolder white text on a dark site - the idea of text is to stand out enough to help create a feeling of fantasy and immediacy.

and there ya have it - my review. hopefully it will be of some value to you.

[Xstr8guy]

OH MY GOD! I just wrote a super long reply and I screwed up and hit the back button and it's all gone!

I guess I'll reply in smaller chunks.

[Xstr8guy]

What a bunch of great folks around here! You all put so much energy into helping and had such great ideas!

The first thing that strikes me is the 'color' of the page

I totally agree! I don't know what possessed my to go against my instincts on that. It's almost pink,

IMHO, those clips need to be edited so that they cut off RIGHT BEFORE the guys shoot their load...

I will try non-cumshot clips and see how that works. I have another site with cumshot clips and it converts like a motherf___er, so I thought I would use that formula again.

Im also not a big fan of excessive scrolling on a tour page

We seem to have a difference of opinion on that. I love scrolling tours... not changing that aspect of the design.

I will have to agree with Lee about the long scoll to the counter. I don't know if you did that for any reason or what. Makes the site look allmost unfinished.

Back in the day, AdultCheck required counters to be 30 page breaks down the page. And ever since then I've done that with my counters. I should stop doing that right now! Lol. I love gayrated stats, so I would like to keep the counter.

I'd also change the 'links' in that I'd have one for members to login (giving a sense that a non member is missing out) plus instead of join i'd use 'instant access' to try and capitalize on the need to get in and see more with the last one being 'continue'. Not next or even adding preview or tour because eventually you want that link to end up at a join page. These three links in my view should be the last thing at the bottom and be visible in the first screen shot with a nice advertising head tag right above the whole three buttons.

Thanks Ian! Very good insight into the buttons. I will definately take your advice with the redesign!

First thing I'd try is changing the models...

My biggest problem with the site is that I tried to shoe-horn the content that I had into a domain name that I liked. The site is really more of a mature/daddy site. I should probably just move the content to another domain... don't ya think?

Third, I'd try getting rid of those faded pipeline things and try for cleaner lines and borders. I quite like the interface where the clips are, I just don't like those pipes.

Yes, I hate the pipes too.

Fourth, I find your cum tour at the top is lacking something, it's missing the layers upon layers that those tours always have. (That's what I call them anyway. And it's a look I've never been able to master them. )

Lol, I can't design that way either. I'm certainly no Scorpio when it comes to design. But I quite like an uncluttered look... it makes sites stand out from the rest.

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...

I personally don't like heavy bears, but I believe in a less restrictive definition of "bears". Having said that, I don't think all of the content on the tour is appropriate... it's really more of a mature/daddy site.

first thing i see is the murkiness of the page. if you want a dark page, the pics should be brighter and crisper, or else bordered with white to counterbalance it.

Lol, I think we all agree that color of the page needs to be changed. Since the images on the first page are screen caps, it's very hard to get them any criper or brighter without distorting them even more. The idea of a lighter border is a great idea.

the buttons need to be clear and easy to read, not blurry. try white writing - it stands out. and your text describing each scene isn't easy to read. i'd put it on a background that is one color, and i'd try bold text.

I thought the buttons were the only good things on the tour. But your right, they are too hard to read (and to small).

there's no really big text, the text between the episode tables isn't big or bright or noticeable. don't be afraid of bigger, bolder white text on a dark site - the idea of text is to stand out enough to help create a feeling of fantasy and immediacy.

Lol, I'm petrified of BIG text. I always thought it made a site look dated. I will give it a try though.



Thanks so much for all of your ideas. I can't wait to redesign it and show it to everybody!

[basschick]

it's possible that the place you bought the vids from can give you bigger vidcaps. if so, you can do a LOT to make them look damned good.

a lot of people are afraid of big text, but it sure does stand out and click better. i think most of us are trained to be subtle, but this is advertising - you need the messages to stand out. it's worth a try - you can always change them back