You're a clever person. You know all about the adult Internet and you know all about how to read a web page. It's good to be clever. But that savvy can be a hindrance if you begin to assume all surfers are as clever as you are.
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"Your surfers deserve to be treated with respect ... If they can't find important links on your page, it's your fault." |
When you create an adult website you have to learn to think like a surfer. Not all surfers are as familiar with the web as you are. Not all surfers see pages in the same way you do. You know damned well where you posted important links on your adult page yet surfers tell you they can't find those links. You lose surfers and anger customers and your animosity towards them grows.
First of all, get over yourself. Whereas you might be more schooled on web pages than the average surfer, you are most assuredly NOT the "fo schizzle de shiznit". If you were truly the king of all bling, you wouldn't need surfers. You need surfers. Never forget that.
Secondly, there are stacks of studies, which show that different people look at the same web page differently. Some eyes gravitate to text links. Some focus on graphic ads. Some look for menus at the top of a page, some look towards the bottom. Quite a few scan the page in a zigzag fashion, starting at the top right, then to the middle left and on down to the bottom right. Your surfers deserve to be treated with respect towards their abilities. If they can't find important links on your page, it's your fault.
Your customer service links are the most important links on your adult site. Just because your business is virtual doesn't mean you get to ignore the needs of your surfers. The web is cold enough. Don't leave your customers hanging with no where to go. You have to take them by the virtual hand and show them where to go.
You have to post Contact, FAQ, Cancel, Join and Tour buttons conspicuously throughout your web. You must show surfers where the help documents can be found on every page of your web. One set of tiny text links posted in the footer of your main page isn't enough. Your surfers need more. They need repetition and glitz to guide them.
Repeating important links doesn't have to clutter the design of your site. For instance, you might include graphic menu buttons into a bar, which runs across the top of your page, while at the same time you also embed those links into a side menu and in the footer.
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Another way would be to display graphic links just above the fold on your tour, while simultaneously posting them-in text form- at the top and down past the scroll line. Design with the understanding that each surfer browses your site in a unique way. Give the top lovers something to click up top. Give middle lovers a middle set of links. Give bottom dwellers a clickable set of directions.
Glitz is all about grabbing attention. When you post your help links, make sure they stand out in whatever format they come. Tag text links so they are a different color than regular body text. Tag active and visited links so they're different colors than the regular HTML link. When your surfer looks at a text link, make sure they know they're looking at a hyperlink and not plain text.
Text link colors don't have to be obnoxious but they should stand out from site copy. Also, avoid the blinking text link. Surfers hate them.
When you create graphic links for your page it's natural to want them to match the design. Aesthetically that's that fine just don't create buttons which blend so well, they disappear into the background. For example, if your site colors are various shades of blue, you might want to enhance the lettering on your buttons with a contrasting color like yellow. Depending on the file size of your page, you might want to sex up graphic links with cool JavaScript rollovers. Graphic buttons/links should look like links. Don't make the mistake of creating graphic links, which are indiscernible from actual graphics.
Surfers buy from sites they trust. Every day surfers are getting smarter. Many of them have been burned by dishonest webmasters or have heard horror stories about our profession in the media.
One of the easiest ways to instill trust into your surfers is with customer service linkage. Show them you have nothing to hide by posting links to contact information. Show them they're not alone by posting your help links. Show them where the tour is. Show them where to join up. And just to be righteous, show them where to cancel. Show your surfers that you have what they need and you are happy to please. Make customer service links easy to find and repeat them throughout your site. That way your customers will feel as clever as you do!