At age 25 I never though I’d be considered a veteran of anything. Well, maybe a veteran Girl Scout or a gymnast, but never an adult industry professional. With most of my roots in the industry originating from working for credit card processors and hosting companies, I have had a bird’s eye view of what adult webmasters have had to deal with since early 1998. They call the years 1997 and 1998 the "Golden Age" of online porn. I know that I, fresh out of college, got my career boost and learned my livelihood in this prosperous time and environment. But things have only gotten harder for webmasters of all ranks.
The previous two Adult Site Innovations in this series, CDPaysites and XXX Drive, challenged adult site webmasters to break out of the normal Paysite mode and offer their members some unique features not commonly found among the vast competition. But those ideas can only work if you have the financial resources to either begin a new project or redevelop your business plan and marketing strategy to introduce a new concept to the market.
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"...today's adult site webmasters need to be able to assimilate new ideas quickly and easily." |
With little time for learning curves, today’s adult site webmasters need to be able to assimilate new ideas quickly and easily. For one, the "test before you invest" rule applies to most webmasters who do not have time to dawdle over every new idea; Concepts that can be easily integrated and responsiveness timely measured are more likely to metamorphosize the current Paysite model into the smooth selling and retaining machine it once was.
I read an article the other day that stated there are over 100,000 competing adult pay sites. This number does not include AVS, free sites, TGP’s, promotional domains, etc. Imagine yourself standing in a crowd of 100,000 people. How are you going to stand out? Sure, up close we all look different and have our own unique characteristics. But from far away we all look alike. I think the fact that it is YOU running the site should make it stand out. If you can’t get the attention of the entire crowd, at least get the crowd around you convinced.
What if adult webmasters were more like porn tour guides? I rarely surf for porn alone online. Instant messengers are awesome to use for surfing together with your best friend, lover or stranger, it can be fun hunting for, comparing, and sharing pics you find or collect online. I think webmasters who offer the feeling that they are escorting and sharing the online xxx experience with their members will find more enjoyment running the site and increased member retention, as members begin to trust the webmasters judgment to bring them their money’s worth.
Here are some ideas of easy ways to interact with your members (that do not require the webmaster get naked) and the benefits of each:
You can install or use a remotely hosted voting poll scripts and implement them into your site in a flash! Whether you have 50 or 50,000 members, the benefits to using voting polls on your site are surely worth the effort.
Not sure what content galleries to update your site with next month? Ask your members by showing them a few samples and having them vote on which gallery they either want to see, or want to see the most of next month. Team up with an amateur webmaster or get some samples of some amateur galleries, assign a bio/personality to each, and allow members to vote on which one they want to meet or see featured. Thinking of adding a new section or video feed? Want to feature a Porn Star and sync it to video sales? Let your members do the talking - customer feedback is extremely valuable and so is member retention. Your members will enjoy having a say.
Some Voting Poll resources can be found at Hosted Scripts, Hot Scripts, and CGI Resource Index.
Many adult webmasters do not host or display all the content they own on their servers at one time. Offering updates of the Webmaster’s Choice Pics or even having a weekly chat where members can request the webmaster for favorite or exclusive pics in his/her archive, and posting them as Webmaster’s Choice updates with credit to the username who requested it, will give the member the feeling that they just had a song dedicated to him/her.
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Having a contest or a give away is a good way to keep members coming back to your site throughout the month. By using email, a message board, or feedback form you can have a trivia game to test member’s porn knowledge. Run a contest for the "Joke of the Month" or "Best Original Sex Story" and have member submit you content for your site! How about a "How Did You Lose Your Virginity" Contest or have members submit pictures of themselves holding up a sign or featuring a display of your domain/web site name. Offer a free extended month’s membership, a free subscription to a site you have partnered with, or sex toy or video give away’s. Low cost ways to interact with your members are abundant.
I don’t know about you, but most guys I know who enjoy online porn also play video games online. This is a good idea for male webmasters who often have a more difficult time interacting with members since they are not the "sex object" the members had in mind. Schedule a weekly time or event to play games with your members such as Quake III 9:30pm EST, This IP. You can offer web based games in your Member’s area that are interactive & multiplayer such as those offered by Xamo Content. More than making money, you can make these events fun, broaden the adult entertainment experience for your members, and maybe make some friends in the process.
These low cost ideas are for webmasters to increase not only the enjoyment of doing their job but their income as well, and are just another round of innovative ideas for webmasters who may feel like they have blended into the background. If you are still struggling in an effort to get members and not yet worried about how to keep them, I recommend that you visit Traffic Lounge for a course on search engines and adult marketing concepts.
And to sound off once again; Push the bar, raise it, kick it up a notch, stir things up and make some money! Innovate and create something new! Breaking out of the mold and investing in adult site innovations will keep our industry exciting and fresh with positive interest. Best of luck to you all!