having an attractive well-designed tour doesn't mean you can't have plenty of text on the page for search engines as well.

a lot of people tell me the theory that no explicit content and leaving stuff to the imagination sells. but when ars and topbucks censored their tours, man did EVERYONE's conversion drop. lee, do you remember? it was a fucking disaster *LOL*

plenty of amateur tours sell as well as professional tours. the secret is not to make a bad looking tour, because there is a BIG difference between amateur and ugly. also when making your own tour, make sure that each and every page has naturally flowing links that lead to the join page. i go to a lot of amateur tours and there ARE no links to join on some pages *LOL*