GFY Educational Series: Getting The Most From Porn Review Sites

[The Admiral]

Good read. Thanks for the info.

[GARY LEE]

So I have been solicited twice with e-mails from rabbits asking to review my site. Both times I have given you a working password and installed a backlink on my site. I have multiple sites but both times I was asked for cuntrybabes.com.
It seems to be a waste of time. I don't mind the free backlink you get out of me but I really would like to be reviewed. Good or bad I can take it. I just want to hear an opinion by someone so respected in our industry. If I really suck and that's why you don't want to review it let me know that too at garylee@cuntrybabes.com.
Like I said you solicited me with your e-mail. Now it's time, let me have it.

[Raven Porn Reviews]

I've only run into a few sites that don't understand the benefits of getting an honest porn review. It's all about giving the consumer confidence to make the purchase. With a trusted review they feel secure knowing what is behind the tour, even if it is not a rave, review.
With out a reputation for honesty a review site is worthless. If your looking for another honest porn review site to submit to: raven-porn-reviews.com

[sadiedazzle]

Thanks for the info. I'll be submitting my site for review.

Sadie

[enginecash]

Great article, thank you!

[Cherry7]

The person chosen to tell about review sites thinks BangBros is the hottest, most sexy erotic site, the most beautiful girls, good looking men, amazing photography and great videos, at a great 96/100 WOW !

This is like a restaurant reviewer telling you the best food is at KFC.

Or a film reviewer telling you the best film is Rambo 5

The fact that the review site is an affiliate means it is a reflection of how it can convert its traffic and NOT how erotic, creative or original websites are.

Honest review sites could play the role they do in other industries and arts in encouraging the best, frowning on bad practices, and pointing audiences to the unknown better sites.

Review Sites take traffic from hundreds of sites and send it to the few.

I assume that the mad scoring system, which has 10 points for Navigation but none for how hot the girls are, is to make the "fix" easier.

[Coup]

Review sites are intriguing ways to earn revenue and enemies all at the same time!

[dc0ded]

excellent article. very well written and very informative. thank you very much and keep posting such nice articles.

[My Pimp]

May be I should try this .

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

How long does a review of a site take? This is important when doing a review. Comparing what a film or food critic does with what 90% or more of pornsite reviewers do is comparing apples with baked beans.

I seem to have forgotten this thread still has a life after my initial post! My bad. Here come some responses..

Paul, I get the frustration, but no reviewer in any industry has the full story. Food critics eat one meal, not the entire menu. Film critics comment on the finished product, on the acting and directing, but may or may not know the challenges that are faced during production, how the director directed the actors to act or what decisions the studio made that interfered with the director's true vision. It's a hurdle we all must overcome to get the most important details to the user.

No review encompasses everything. We just need to try to be honest with what we find.

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by Socks

We launched in late 2001 and at the time there was only Adult Reviews, Janes Guide and X3Guide (which has now bitten the bucket), making us one of the first review sites online. At least that I can remember! My model was simple. Do everything exactly opposite of what everyone else was doing. I knew there were enough good sites out there that I didn't need to lie and say every one of them was "the biggest" or "the best". At the time there was very little information about what lay beyond the free tour for each site.

Thanks for the extra history, Socks! WaybackMachine has JanesGuide live in 1998 and X3 in 2002. I just wish i could update my original post!

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by AmeliaG

I know, in my niche, I've seen review sites give high scores to dead sites with like 20 updates ever, while dinging photography sites which update daily. And I never see text even mentioned in scoring and only occasionally in the review itself.

Is there anything a frustrated webmaster can do to address this?

Hey Amelia! Yes, I think there are things you can do to mitigate the damage. When you submit, leave notes for the reviewer on the type of site it is and what audience it's targeting. Even if they don't like the angle, or their scoring criteria is set up to favour a different type of site, a good reviewer will add your points into the review.

Really, it's just about giving the reader all the tools to make up their own mind. That's why bad scoring reviews still sell. Users have enough info to be able to think and make decisions for themselves. You just need to work with the review sites to ensure the important points are covered. I don't think most would have a problem with that as long as they can still have their editorial judgement as well.

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by GARY LEE

So I have been solicited twice with e-mails from rabbits asking to review my site. Both times I have given you a working password and installed a backlink on my site.

I just checked our system and we have zero requests for a site that has "Cuntry" in it. I do have a Gary B submitting back in 2007, though, and I have a note that I emailed him re. the link as he was looking for me to send him a banner, which I assume I did. Anyway, I'll mail you now.

Sometimes things fall through the cracks. It doesn't happen often. If you're having a trouble communicating with a website, try a different route. It may be hard to believe but technology sometimes fails.

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by Cherry7

The person chosen to tell about review sites thinks BangBros is the hottest, most sexy erotic site, the most beautiful girls, good looking men, amazing photography and great videos, at a great 96/100 WOW !

Just a note on the comment above.

For the record, we are fans of his site, Cinema Erotique. Even after all of his issues, he was still nominated for one of our awards for high quality production. (He only lost out to one other site that puts tens of thousands into production) Despite a solid review and additional acclaim, he just can't seem to accept that different people can have a different idea of what brings value. I feel bad watching him tear his hair out over it. I just don't know what else to do, except bumping his score to a 97. Now where did I put that scoring switch again...

Sorry, Cherry.

If you can't accept that other people can have different opinions of your work, review traffic just isn't worth it for you, no matter how many sales it can bring.

[Cherry7]

I have an opinion and I stick to it until someone shows my the reasons I am wrong.

When a review site has an illogical and complex scoring system which ignores many factors but favors certain ones. Resulting in a few sites being featured on your home page and and other sites buried deep, ones suspects something else is happening than the search for the best value for money for your clients.

This does a disservice to your visitors and websites owners, and the industry.

I mention one of your criteria Quality, you define it solo in terms of bit-rate, ignoring all the other factors that effect picture quality.
You give high marks to sites which update, knowing that quality cannot be produced as quickly as poorly shot material....

It is also worthy of note that a high percentage of posters just believe its rigged. You haven't even convinced your own industry that you are trustworthy.

A film reviewer will give equal weight to an Indie film as to a big studio production. They win the respect of their industry. It is a shame that the "adult review sites" are mostly a scam.

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by Cherry7

I have an opinion and I stick to it until someone shows my the reasons I am wrong.

As always, you have zero idea what you're talking about. Many of us have tried to have a decent conversation with you but you are too set in your ways and you refuse to allow for different opinions other than your own--even when the opinions come from those who have much more experience in the area than you do.

G'luck dude. You need all that you can get moving backwards in an industry that's moving as fast as this one is.

[adultflash]

Nice info, thanks!

[2ndxachrm]

nice write up. will be submitting once i have my site all dialed in.

[DirtyHardCash]

Great Article!

[Bat_Man]

Very important topic .. Thanks for sharing ..

[realgirlsgonebad]

very very helpful thanks as we're going to look at getting reviewed soon.

[GFELIFE]

gfelife is da best

Originally Posted by Doug of Montreal

The following is a guide to dealing with review sites. When I say review sites, I mean those that function as a review site should, with proper consideration to honesty and accuracy. This piece is written largely from the perspective of how we work here at RabbitsReviews, but most of what we do is pretty standard when it comes to review sites.

Why Get Reviewed?
There's something about reading a good, balanced review that people trust and are willing to take action on. I've dined at more restaurants over the years due to some critics recommendation in a newspaper or magazine, gone to movies or stayed away based on how many rotten tomatoes they've received and I buy electronics only after scouring the Net for multiple review sources. I'm not the only one. Many people turn to reviews instead of jumping in blind and you can only gain access to this traffic by being listed.

Another good reason to get reviewed is to get an experienced opinion on your site. It's easy to get too close to a project. Reviewers generally have a depth of experience and enough distance from a site to give it an honest and balanced assessment. Use that to your advantage and improve on your site where you can.

Finally, scores matter less when it comes to a review than the review itself. You should submit even if you think you won’t do well. The scoring impacts how much traffic you get but has very little affect on whether or not people will buy. Case in point, Giant Gay Cocks is one of our lowest scoring sites. They scored a 43 but we've sent 13 sales in the past year. If you believe in your product and have something to offer, your score won't matter as much as us being able to convince surfers that they won't get ripped off.

So those are a few great reasons to get reviewed. Let's go a little deeper.

Our Responsibility
We are here to record what the industry is doing and to be a voice for the consumer. We have two main responsibilities that we take very seriously. First, anyone looking to protect the long-term viability of their business needs to put the customer first. To do that we need to be honest. And secondly, for our business partners, we have a duty to accurately represent the sites we review. Thankfully, we have mechanisms in place that help ensure these responsibilities are met.

The History
RabbitsReviews was launched in 2003. At that time, there were a handful of others already online, such as AdultReviews, which launched in 2001, and TheBestPorn, which may have beaten us to the gate by a few months. Both had been working in the industry for some time and were able to stake an early and lasting claim, but there was still room for growth and competition. Since then, there are many more review sites in the game. Take a look at this list to see for yourself. RabbitsReviews has been able to slowly gain more search engine traction and (at last count) has become the most visited porn review site online. We've seen the inside of over 9,000 paysites and dealt with over 2,000 sponsors. (Try switching epass account payments with that many to sort through. With seven years of experience under our belt, here's our look at what we do and what we think you should know to get the most out of submitting to us, or any other review site out there.

The Submission Process
Submitting to RabbitsReviews starts off a process that can take anywhere from a few business days to six weeks. This is pretty standard for review sites. We offer rush review service for webmasters who are in a hurry to get their review online and that takes three to five business days. Some other sites also offer ways to get listed faster. At Rabbits, we require something additional in order to put these cases to the front of the queue, but most sites are patient enough to wait the usual three to six weeks it takes for a review to be published. The length of time depends on how busy we are, but if you're at all concerned, make sure to contact the site you're submitting to for a general idea of how long it will take and what you can do to get your review online quickly, if need be.

The submission process at most sites is pretty standard. You can check out the submit forms for RabbitsReviews, TheBestPorn and AdultReviews while WebmasterScore allows you to submit to multiple review sites at the same time. It is usually helpful to add someone to ICQ from the site you're submitting to. That way if there are issues or questions, you can get them resolved quickly.

Here are some of the finer points:

User Names and Passwords: We require a one month pass to your site(s) but it's better to give us at least two months to avoid problems. That's about as long as it takes for a new review to come in, get approved, get reviewed, have the graphics done, have it edited and then put in queue to be posted. If you set access for any less time, or enter a login that's bad from the start, it slows down the process by us having to come back and contact you for another one and can often lead to us abandoning the review. Give us 30+ days. We've been doing this for a long time, and so have the other leading review sites, so there's very little chance of abuse. To this end, don't give us a login like rabbits/reviews. We've had a handful of webmasters complain that they've had to cut off our accounts due to large number s of people logging in and downloading content. We've been around for long enough and any password sharing site will have obvious logins like that on their favorites list. In other words, be smart.

Recips: Not all review sites require a link back, but most ask for one. It's part of our business model at Rabbits, though. If you have a program, we are willing to work with you to find a place to put it, but we don't take any new submissions without one. It's just not fair to everyone else. If you run a site without a program, we can still list you, but we are very particular about that link back.

Site Info: We ask for additional information about download limits, trials and exclusive content. It helps speed up the process and if you can't provide an answer, and we can't figure it out for ourselves, we'll err on the side of caution.

Additional Info: If you think there are some finer points to your site that you want considered, make sure to let the site know when you submit. For example, if your site features content that you think has never been shot before, let them know. Or if you have a ton of movies but you've put half of them in a different area that could be overlooked, make sure to say it. The chances of getting the review you'd like go up when you take the extra step. It's worth it.

Our Review Process
Every site is different, but here's our workflow:

1. New submissions are checked, approved and then assigned to a reviewer
2. A reviewer will take anywhere from three days to two weeks to start the review, depending on the work in their queue. They have about 90 minutes to scour a site, write the review, tally the score and then it's passed off to graphics.
3. Graphics may take a few days before screen shots are complete and FHGs built. They pass that off to editing.
4. Editing will put the finishing touches on in three to five business days to finally go over the review one last time and then release it for publication.

Our reviews are largely a hands-off process. There are guidelines to ensure our standards for copy and SEO are adhered to, but once in, the reviewer has full control of the review and scoring for any given site.

[desyranoir]

Thanks for some great inside information!

[Cherry7]

Originally Posted by Doug of Montreal

As always, you have zero idea what you're talking about. Many of us have tried to have a decent conversation with you but you are too set in your ways and you refuse to allow for different opinions other than your own--even when the opinions come from those who have much more experience in the area than you do.

G'luck dude. You need all that you can get moving backwards in an industry that's moving as fast as this one is.

Ignoring all the points I have made, you just resort to insults.

Who are these people with experience? More experience in what? Reviewing porn?

As you don't know me, my qualifications, my history or anything about me other than my website and a 5 minute meeting you are talking bullshit to cover your total lack of any rational argument.

[Doug of Montreal]

Originally Posted by Cherry7

Ignoring all the points I have made, you just resort to insults.

Who are these people with experience? More experience in what? Reviewing porn?

As you don't know me, my qualifications, my history or anything about me other than my website and a 5 minute meeting you are talking bullshit to cover your total lack of any rational argument.

I've actually had more discussions with you than any other webmaster--ever. I apologize for my overall lack of patience with you. After all these years, it appears you've used it all up. Ah well. Catch ya in London?

[jcche19]

good i am learning a lot here

[Jess-Legs]

Good read. Thanks for the info.