Originally Posted by jayeff

Not by any means comprehensive, but here goes...

Most of us - whether or not we realize it - are trying to convince the customer that we can deliver his fantasy. Of course we cannot, so inevitably our customers will be disappointed. The Playb*y clubs certainly made mistakes, but one of the things they did very well was to create a fantasy which they could deliver. Ho*ters do much the same thing.

To bring that around to the customers' point of view, the most basic thing is to deliver what we promise, but sites also need individual personalities, themes, whatever you want to call it, so that they can be distinguished one from another and enjoyed for their own sake. "Thousands of pics", "hours of full-screen video", "every perversion know to man", etc... these are elements of the fantasies people seek in porn, but not the fantasy itself and if they are not molded into a whole they will disappoint. Well-done solo sites and some fetish sites, by their nature do provide a deliverable fantasy and that is a major reason for their success. Sites like MET Art also have a very clear theme/style which, as much as that indefinable thing called "quality" is why they roll on, year after year while many other sites last only as long as the current flavor of the month.

Second, we need to define our market because if you do not know to whom you are selling, you cannot focus your marketing. To mention Playb*y again, it aimed for the (upper) middle class, an economically attractive group, but a relatively small one. H*stler did a brilliant job of positioning itself for the working man, guys with less money to spend but far more numerous. But most porn sites are simply out there, making no attempt to define themselves or their audience clearly. As a result, online porn has largely ended up like those sleazy strip clubs in London's Soho, where the girls pop in and out of the back doors of the different "clubs" to do their shows.

When the West-end pubs empty out there are always guys who have had too many drinks willing to believe the doormen outside these dives who promise "the girls show everything inside guv". But if you want me to spend $30-$50 each and every month I want to be getting something I can enjoy sober.

Last for today, a big appeal of the 'Net is its potential for interactivity while at the same time, we collectively deal with millions of customers and totally lack the feedback we would normally benefit from in almost any other sales environment. We base our businesses almost entirely on assumptions - they buy it, they must want it - but that is very dangerous, particularly since for most of the past 10 years demand has far outweighed supply.

As a customer I want to be able to get back quickly to the pics and movies I have enjoyed most, so favorites definitely. I'm not sure I can be bothered to fill in ratings and so on, but if you as a webmaster cannot track what your members are viewing most, tune your content and layout accordingly, well I guess you are in the wrong business.