How personal do you make it?

[Lee]

I've looked over those polls you posted before. The polls are geared at straight surfers and the number of people polled are miniscule. Useless.

Yet its all the actual feedback from surfers we have to go on so we must give it some emphasis until some better source of data comes along, like trying stuff out ourselves, which i have done.

I recall when talking about members area, EVERYONE on GWW said that simple to navigate, clean members areas are what surfers want and what helps members retain... Were they right?

Regards,

Lee

[Xstr8guy]

I recall when talking about members area, EVERYONE on GWW said that simple to navigate, clean members areas are what surfers want and what helps members retain... Were they right?

We inititally didn't take any advice on the member's area of UKnakedmen. So I can't vouch for what other people said. And yes your advice was greatly appreciated!

But I think you are way off on what members want. Our member's board is greatly appreciated by our members and we really do use some of their suggestions for future shoots. Some of them are very creative. We spend lot's of time writing text descriptions for our tour. But we haven't carried that over to the member's area until this week. But I'm quite sure that the members will appreciate the extra information if they aren't looking at the tour for updates. To many members, that extra little bit of information can make them feel closer to the models.

Imo, you only have the opinion you have because you run an affiliate program where any kind of personalization is absent. You simply want to believe that your's is the only correct opinion.

[Lee]

Imo, you only have the opinion you have because you run an affiliate program where any kind of personalization is absent. You simply want to believe that your's is the only correct opinion.

Actually no, i added all kinds of interactive features inside the Condom Cash sites, message boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, private web space, blogs, you name it, ive tried it and it did nothing to help retention or sales.

From phpfox, vbulletin, bloghoster, world wide messenger and every other type of personalization/interaction script inbetween that you could potentially think of, they have all been used inside the members areas and they all did nothing because the members just wanted to get off.

Ive wasted thousands of dollars on personalization/interactive scripts for my members because i thought it would be good for the sites, but it wasnt.

Ill admit that i had a few good suggestions on the board that helped with improving retention, like placing banners lower on the pages but other than that, the features themselves did nothing to add to the profitability of the sites.

Regards,

Lee

[Dzinerbear]

Actually no, i added all kinds of interactive features inside the Condom Cash sites, message boards, chat rooms, instant messaging, private web space, blogs, you name it, ive tried it and it did nothing to help retention or sales.

But Lee, you didn't give the members the one thing that is really important – good, original content. You can't expect any member to stick around a site, regardless of the bells and whistles you might add on, when you're not providing them with something they haven't already seen all over the Web. Perhaps if you were to take one of your sites – your best selling site – and update it twice a week with original content, you might see some improvement in your retention. Until you do that, I'm afraid your argument can not be substantiated.

Michael

[Lee]

But Lee, you didn't give the members the one thing that is really important – good, original content. You can't expect any member to stick around a site, regardless of the bells and whistles you might add on, when you're not providing them with something they haven't already seen all over the Web. Perhaps if you were to take one of your sites – your best selling site – and update it twice a week with original content, you might see some improvement in your retention. Until you do that, I'm afraid your argument can not be substantiated.

Michael

Original content is over rated when it comes to people saying that is what the surfer wants.

Surfers dont care about original content, they just want to get-off... To hot guys.

If surfers were concerned about exclusive content then id not be making any sales at all by your conclusion.

Surfers want to join a site to get-off, they dont care if the content is exclusive or not, so long as the model they join the site for it 'hot' and turns them on.

For the record, my retention right now is almost at 40%, thats damn good considering its not original content... I know people who have original, exclusive content that cant retain above 15%.

Regards,

Lee

[Mansized]

Original content is over rated when it comes to people saying that is what the surfer wants.

Surfers dont care about original content, they just want to get-off... To hot guys.

Amazing! Just too amazing to respond.

[gaystoryman]

I don't think 'original content' is over rated, i think the term is 'overused' and even 'misused' which does dilute it at times. I do think the surfer cares along with other factors. I just don't buy into this, that the surfer is simply out to jerk off to whatever comes up that mildly interests them.

Maybe some of the supposed facts, about why exclusive isn't selling, has more to do with the price, the quantity, and other factors, but I think real exclusive content does give a boost to sign ups, if properly marketed, and is real.

I see stuff that is claimed to be exclusive, when i have seen in other places. If I notice that, the surfer sure as hell does, because I am not a surfer, no where near their level. :kickcan:

[Dzinerbear]

I don't know about anyone else, but when I watch porn for the purpose of jacking off, I want to see something new. I don't want to watch some scene from 2001 that I've seen several times already. I don't think I'm all that unusual in that respect.

Michael

[Lee]

I don't know about anyone else, but when I watch porn for the purpose of jacking off, I want to see something new. I don't want to watch some scene from 2001 that I've seen several times already. I don't think I'm all that unusual in that respect.

But you also dont want to see exclusive content, you want to see something NEW that you havent already seen. Im sure there are movies from the 80's that you havent seen which you could jerk off too.

New doesnt mean exclusive.

You also wouldnt be jacking off to the content just because it is exclusive would you? I mean if that was the case, you'd be jacking off to straight porn sites as a lot of those feature exclusive models, youd be jacking off to twink sites because a lot of those have exclusive content, you jack off to something because of 1 reason and 1 reason only, the guy in the movie/image set, whatever is 'hot' to you.

You dont jack off to the content because its exclusive. Just like the surfers dont, they get off to the content because the model feratured in it is hot, whether its exclusive content or content thats 100 yrs old.

Regards,

Lee

[Alex_Manifest_M]

I think it very depends on what type of site/sites you chose to operate. I believe the exclusivity of content has great value. Perhaps a surfer doesn't care while he is watching if the content is available elsewhere, but if it is only available on a particular site, then he will have to go there to get it. We have added some features that allow a member to customize his experience and the response has spurred us to do even more.

[Lee]

but if it is only available on a particular site, then he will have to go there to get it.

Exactly, but with so many sites now using the same producers to get their 'exclusive content' many sites also now have the same models on them also, hence why i said that exclusive content these days is over-rated.

It used to be 'exclusive' meant exclusive, the model/models could only be found on 1 site, nowadays the same models appear on 20+ sites on one site they are a bottom, the next a top, the next they are a sub, the next they are dominant, the exclusive content factor no longer matters, because the same models can be found on a multitude of sites.

Ultimately it now comes down to the model being 'hot' and the surfer wanting to see that model naked, no matter whether the content is billed as 'exclusive' or not because even 'exclusive' is no longer 'exclusive' in the industry.

For exclusive content to really start to matter again we need to be looking at the exclusive 'model' business model but the costs involved with that are going to be astronomical.

Regards,

Lee

[Baghdad Bob]

i think it depends on the type of site