Adult webmasters are always seeking new ways to achieve not only more signups, but longer member retention. The truth is, if getting new members to join is the hard part, why is keeping members for more than 3 months often overlooked as being the "easy" part. For many webmasters, it's not so easy.
|
"It became obvious. People WANT something for their money. Something they can hold, and touch..." |
I remember the good old days when members would join and forgot they joined, or forgot to remember to cancel, or never even looked at their credit card bill (or make payments for that matter, which is none of MY business) and recurring members for 6 months or more was cake. And not based on the quality of the members area either. Back then the notion of joining and getting away with charge-backing adult subscriptions on the net was not so commonly known to be an easy way to get porn for free.
I've sat in the customer service chair and helped members cancel requests by phone and email. I've had much success picking up on how surfers search for what they want and getting them there. I've worked for adult credit card processors, hosting services, and developed turn key adult sites. I've seen webmasters fail who invested money into poorly developed business plans, fell to fraud, or to bad traffic. I've also seen webmasters succeed and not even really know why.
4 years later, I've taken a step back to look at a new reality. With 500 times the competition, webmasters are obsessed with finding ways to earn new and KEEP members happy. With everything from trying to limit hardcore porn from over running the net for free to advancing technological streams and interactivity for that one on one erotic feel to encourage sign-ups. Privacy and fraud are such a major issue on the Net everyone has a reason to be weary of subscribing to anything online, even newsletters.
But as I have always explored ways to protect adult webmasters from fraud AND keep customers happy, I couldn't help but notice that sex toy and adult retail sales are up. Adult video's and DVD's are still being bought, not to mention Viagra and sexual enhancers.
It became obvious. People WANT something for their money. Something they can hold, and touch, and hide. Selling tangible goods helps to PROTECT webmasters from fraud. A signed receipt upon first delivery is mostly all you need to challenge a chargeback. PRIVACY is an issue, look at "Evidence Eliminators" and the market for software to remove all traces of erotic surfing from a user's computer. It is not only an issue of protecting your private information from being pirated on the web. Bandwidth is EXPENSIVE. And from a surfer's perspective, how much do you hate sitting there and saving your favorite images from a site you've joined on the web. First you have to download it to see it then you have to download it to save it, on a 56k ugh!
A solution seemed so simple. Publishing a magazine is too expensive. But how hard it is it to burn a CD copy of the base members section and provide monthly content updates (or every other month)? Users can stick it in their CD-Rom drive, click Index, and surf the CD and start a multimedia porn collection. How expensive is it to buy blank CD's and send one to confirm the subscription requiring a signature upon first delivery? Each CD can come printed with an updated username and password. A unique key to help keep kids out or at least limit the amount of exposure if they find a CD or password. There are so many advantages I wonder why this practice is not more common.
After analyzing this idea I began to think, what is the overhead involved? Say you are a small pay-site webmaster with 100 members.
- CD-R (100pk) - 33$ for Imation 700MB/ 80 minute CD-R
- CD Labels - about 15$
- CD Sleeves (cheaper than jewel cases to ship) - 7$
- Shipping - about 50$
Roughly 100$ (1-2$ per member) plus time to burn the CD's, depending on the amount of data; 4-6 minutes with a good burner. 6-7 hours a month or you could hire a service to handle the production and distribution. The CD's should be fairly mild in appearance for plain shipping, neatly labeled and discreet.
Untitled Page
With a good system and some shopping around you will save money in bandwidth usage and hosting costs increased by and users download-hounding your actual site, more accurately target and limit stolen password damage, save money in fraud damage like charge-backs and high risk processing rates and fee's. The main reason the "high risk" of selling adult site subscription is so high is because there is no signed receipt, signature, or proof of id verification and acceptance.
There are not limits to as far as you can take the idea of CDPaysites and how you wish to present your material. Download speeds would no longer be a factor and the better the CD updates, the longer members will maintain their subscription. How about adding up-sell features you can integrate into your CD-Rom for cross promotions with sex toy links and private chat, maybe even a download-free dialer option, or direct link access features to one on one private chat schedules with your "featured amateur". You can even sell content archives of your site or offer base member content or bonus disks on trial subscriptions.
Think of how much your members will love getting more for their money, enjoy creating a multimedia porn collection, keeping their porn off their hard drives and not having to wait for slow connections or downtime. Your site will never be "down" that's for sure! "The wife will only think it is a software update". Regardless, there is something in this concept for everyone (including content providers and adult store catalogs), and worth exploring no matter the size of your operation.
I look at sites like Perfect10.com and think, "If I could have an archive of that content I'd join in a second". I look forward to my monthly issue of MacAddict and think, "If only there were some erotic movies or 3D adventures on this CD". I don't expect adult webmasters to publish a monthly magazine to compliment their sites. But if some kind of tangible compliment was offered I know I would feel I got something real for my monthly subscription costs. The above idea I've termed "CDPaysites" is just a start.
New concepts in adult site marketing, ad displays, products and presentation are what can help keep our industry from being susceptible from economic swings and move surfers interest into getting something on the web they can get off to online and OFF the web.
Everyone gets more for their money with the sustained vested interest of protecting everyone's enjoyment. My fellow webmasters, expand and innovate, create something new! Breaking out of the mold and investing in adult site innovations will keep our industry exciting and fresh with positive interest.