GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - What makes a great tour design in 2009? Post your fave sites!

AmeliaG · 10-16-2009, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harvey

The easy answer: depends on many factors. Plus, I think those that are in the know won't want to share it, with the amount of competition and the business as a whole in such low shape, it would be pretty dumb to share what works and what not.

Personally, I think anything PRO (even if it implies investing more money) will always be better. And when I say PRO, I think what people perceives as "design" is the least important part of a tour, you can have a bunch of tables and no graphics at all and make a great tour that will kick everyone else's ass when it comes to conversions, or you can have an ultrahigh glossy design which converts as well.

In the end, if you do some research and know where and what to look, you'll notice that great design not necessarily means great marketing, as a matter of fact they rarely go together. Sadly, in this business you just roll the dice and hope you get lucky, because good designers aren't supposed to know about marketing (why would they? out of adult, marketing people tells the designer/s what to do and how to do it based on research and testing) and bad designers aren't good at marketing either: they just are bad.

For sites like yours, well, I guess you'll know better, you really need somebody that knows the niche, I'm amazed at people who say that they can do anything and in every single niche and their designs will always convert. I never, ever, ever saw it happening, of course. And it will never happen, it's simply out of any reasoning.

A decent designer trying to do a good work will bomb you with questions on your niche, on what do you want to see, on what do you think your surfers want to see. Then research on the given niche, study, look for information. And then come with something that will probably need some adjustment but will be way closer than those designers saying "I can have it by tomorrow!". Any designer saying that isn't serious, IMHO. That attitude is just showing that the designer didn't care at all, just throwing a fast photoshop collage and cash-in!, repeat and rinse.

On the other hand, any client asking for a tour to be made in 2-3 days isn't serious either. And even worse, because they later cry because the tour won't convert. Doh! You asked for a marathoner, not a designer, so that's what you got!.

Again, just my humble opinion.

Wow, are there seriously people who want tours turned around in 2-3 days? I don't think I have ever had one turned around that fast, not once. Partly, I think that kind of design needs to percolate for a while before a designer can really get cranking on it and a tour is just a really crucial piece.

I feel like I used to have a really good sense of what sorts of design were in style on the web though. Now, it seems like a lot of designs I see are really just a CMS page or five outside the members area i.e. big thumbs or samples from updates on a black background with a logo at the top. Which is kind of all programmer and no designer. Only I see a lot of those sites having great content and not converting so hot. I know people say it is the tubes or whatever, but it seems like certain sorts of design probably still help more than others.

Unfortunately, for my niche, I have found designers who are super into it sometimes deliver less well than ones who just really know their design and pay attention to specs. In terms of niche expertise, I know what text will turn my audience on or off and what they consider a hot picture versus an icky or simply average one. From a taste standpoint, I can tell if I think a site has good content for the niche and know what a good quantity of content is and what image size my audience tends to prefer. But tours are special. My members seem pretty happy for the most part, once they are inside. But I think, no matter how expert someone is, there is always more to learn about getting those members-to-be inside.