The Perfect Tour
 

So, what do you think is the perfect style for a tour now?
I've seen people lately suggesting that episode style tours are boring and out. There are now more tube and transparent tours out there and I have tried all of them, but my results were not conclusive. I didn't really see much of a difference in conversions, although I now actually provide both on www.kinkykicks.net.
Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who believes that static tours are the way ahead. Only showing your best updates and maybe having an api at the top which scrolls your most recent content added to the members area.
Anyone tried this method with decent results?

I asked a question to Ed Hammer on another thread as he stated he was using static tours so I thought I'd post my questions here rather than taking another thread off topic.

that's some funny shit!! :1orglaugh

Which part?
And to clear up any confusion, by 'static tour' I mean one that isn't set to auto-update via CMS. I have heard of sites running their members area off cms but running the tour manually.

BNMedia do you care if I prefer to sign up to the old program via ccbill?

That seems like a silly way to do it, to my ears. I've always coded CMS projects to be able to show static ("fixed") scenes that could be set to update XYZ. Then, if you want to change it in the future, it's a snap .. you don't have to "hand-code" any changes.

No, feel free. The NATS / CCBill combo has had mixed feelings amongst affiliates and I was considering dropping it anyway.
Please be aware though that as long as I am using Nats any surfer clicking on a regular CCBill link code will get re-directed to a tour page with a nats tracking url. The hit still registers with CCBill though.

Yes, I completely agree.
To elaborate further why I'm asking is, yesterday I was chatting with Konrad about how we could use Mechbunny to run a paysite and what tour / members area's work best.
We discussed different methods but his preferential way was pointed out in an example site http://www.prolapseparty.com/
Now unless I'm mistaken this site runs its members area on Mechbunny but the tour is hand coded. I'm led to believe that this is converting well from a search on here.

Having to hand code a tour would be a real headache for me and in all honesty I'm not sure if I'd have the time to do it. The point of this thread is that I'm curious if anyone else is running a site this way and what the results were.

Reading my initial post again I realize that some of it is ambiguous. Ie. you can run a reality style episode tour as both dynamic or static. I hope this makes more sense!

Your software and your tour style are not the problem. Your tour is simply not selling people well enough to make them want to sign up.

A tour's job is to sell the customer, to tease them and convince them to sign up by offering enough benefits and leaving them wanting more so they have to join. Currently it appears more like your strategy is to show someone endless samples in the hopes that they see something they like and sign up.

Look at some of the more successful sites in yours or similar niches and note the differences between your tour and theirs. 1 major difference is that most are not showing page after page of updates. I also don't see a lot of 1 minute preview videos like you're showing. I saw one sample with a free trailer 1:27 in length. It's way too much free video for what you're trying to achieve sales-wise.

I suggest you try this:
Test a 1, 2 and 3 page version of a CMS powered tour that shows only your best quality or most popular 10 updates. Limit surfers to only viewing 5 free preview videos. Cut the length of your free videos to no more than 30 seconds. Show a models index page of all your models but make the thumbs link to the join page. Make your footer thumbs slightly smaller to fit 4 per row and show more of them but make them non-clickable. Rework your update description text.

If it was my site this is all I would do. I tell you this having designed hundreds of tours over the years for some very big programs. I would also pay someone to design 3-5 really nice header graphics and rotate them on page load.

You may want to dump the transparent tour. It's possible that your updates are not varied enough for you to benefit from showing more of the same thing over and over as a strategy to make people want to join. If you do decide to keep it, definitely do not link to it from the standard tour. All you're doing now is saying "see more, see more, see more" when you want to be saying "sign up, sign up, sign up."

Focus on the tease factor and I bet you'll see more sales.

AJ

BTW, feel free to email me and I'll share some examples of solid Elevated X powered tours that might give you some insight and strategy ideas.

AJ

Two words: split testing.

Hey Baz, hit me up please. I have something for you :thumbsup

SKYPE : crak_michael or ICQ : 139036653 :)

AJ, solid advice as always.
Actually I did see a surfer comment somewhere once suggesting that we are very generous with the previews! I'll take a fresh look at my tour setup. I will shoot you an email as well.

The perfect tour? That's easy.

Styx with Dennis DeYoung, with Rush and Dream Theater as opening acts.

I've just added you on ICQ and sent you a message.

Three words

Multi Varient Testing


Some more words

Split testing is SO 10 years ago, technology has improved, anyone not doing MVT is a retard.

PIRIOD.

I'd never heard of the term until now. I'm clearly a retard! :(

I just emailed you a bunch of Elevated X CMS powered tours with some trend info and insight into what each is doing. I hope this helps. :thumbsup

AJ

Yep, just had a quick look through.
All good! Many thanks.
It's 1am here now so I'll have a good proper look at everything tomorrow :)

If you need any help with it, let me know



You get the results WAY faster than a/b and it is much better.

90% (arbitrary number pulled out of my ass) of "tours" are designed to mislead, redirect, and deceive. The "best" tour is no tour at all.

Old contrivance is old.

:thumbsup:thumbsup

I'd be interested in doing it on a partnership basis (percentage of increased sales, or you don't pay). Feel free to ICQ me to work out details. :thumbsup

Are you fucking kidding me?

http://www.kinkykicks.net

Ok, perfect. Thanks!

That's split testing, you moron.

And it's Multivariate Testing.

He saw "split" and his brain read "A/B" I'm assuming.

We recently revamped the Blakemason.com tour and ratios got much better for most everyone almost immediately. The tube style tour at homoemo.com also increased sales. You have to test to find what works best for each site. Since Blake Mason is considered a premium site with 760+ exclusive videos the current tour does best.

$75 PPS promo coming up on Blake Mason with no hoops and no minimums or maximums if you have gay traffic.

Where do I suggest otherwise, you delightful lovely man?

Call me crazy, but that sounds to me like you're suggesting that MVT is not split testing.

Because if you think the way the samples are displayed make a lot of difference. You're in the wrong business.

It's like the Titanic's stewards discussing how to arrange the deck chairs. :1orglaugh

And the problem is?
index.php is a sniffer script to detect mobile traffic.
This is how I was originally shown how to setup mobile detection and it works fine. However, I've recently discovered I can set the mobile detection up in .htaccess and will try this soon.

But I don't suggest that, do I?

It's me saying MVT is better than traditional split testing, which *usually* is just a/b. Indeed if you google split testing, the A/B wiki page comes up.

"A/B testing, split testing or bucket testing compares a control sample to other samples in order to discover how to improve response or conversion rates."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing


Whereas MVT has a page to itself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multivariate_testing

HTH clear up any confusion.

The takeaway from all this though is there never is 'a perfect tour', you should constantly be testing and improving. And I think we're in agreement about that.

Some guys are too many free videos on the tour. The others have to do the same. It's a trend.

That isn't what I asked! :/

The design, layout, whether we do it this way or that way. Isn't going to get a dick hard enough to get a surfer to buy. It would be great if it did, it doesn't and we have to be sharper than that.

In a market that's saturated with sites and tours whether you put it out this way or that way is meaningless.

Look at the product for the key, what makes it different from every other site selling the same. Why does it stand out. What's the real appeal to it?

Then how can you promote it in a way that surfers notice it so it leaps off the page at them?

Are the samples on the tour shot specifically for the tour?

Does the content affiliates have to promote you with really stand out?

Asking what kind of tour everyone else uses works best is lame.

If you have done all the above, then split test the two types and see what works for you best.

http://kinkykicks.net/tourseo/conten...stration/5.jpg http://kinkykicks.net/tourseo/conten...stration/3.jpg

He looks bored. what ever way you arrange the tour, he will still look bored. He also looks unconvincing in the video sample.

Now I'm convinced http://kinkykicks.net/tourseo/traile...ne.html#update

Good stuff http://kinkykicks.net/tourseo/traile...ie.html#update Looks a bit studio, but not a problem. He's getting kicked to death poor guy.

Your stuff is good, in fact very good. My balls hurt just watching it. So here's an idea.

Cut a sample video from 10 of your most loved scenes. Then reduce the size of the header and drop the words down the page. Stick the sample video right in front of the surfer, maybe with the words on it "Click here Whimps".

Then updates, you can mix that in with text. Line of videos then a line of text to sell the site. Make sure the surfer knows what he's getting for his money.

This is wasted space.

If you sell books, text is good. If you sell videos, videos are good. I don't see one on the first page until I scroll down. :(

Don't worry about Paul, he's just a delusional senile old man. Might as well put him on ignore now, any post of his you read will be a waste of your time. Unless, of course, you want confirmation on your planned course of action. Whatever Paul says, do the opposite.

Keep arguing with Damian about if it's a split test or Multivariate_testing.

That will get 1,000s more joins. :1orglaugh

Damn, they are really kicking him hard , no joke...

Yes I was saying that my tours are static and my members area's run under Elevated X, When I finish my new tour for lilcandy.com I'm going to look into having a programmer take my exact tour, and make it work through Elevated X. I don't think the cookie cutter tours fully generated are the way to go. As far as the style of tour, it's all on what you think will convert make diff types and split test or whatever. My new tour we are building now, is a mix of new and old, If you wanna have a look feel free to msg me :)

I think the main thing it all comes down to when designing a tour is that you must make it dummy proof, make sure your surfer is not overwhelmed, keep things simple :)

That's ... the point? You don't understand the niche, obviously.

Can I see that list?

So bored looking guys in the niche, so why are the kicking the shit out of him later. Maybe he should of looked more bored. :1orglaugh

You have mail :)

Haha! Maybe they'll feel bad and not castrate him, eh? :1orglaugh