Great Join Page Designs
 

I'm aware that beautiful join pages do not constitute great ratios but be that as it may, I am wondering if anyone has come across really nice join pages. Stuff that isn't the regular cookie cutter adult site join page. Something that is sexy, modern, sleek and overall, intuitive.

I guess I should say that I am also not looking at the biller's join page but the site's pre-join where the user can select their membership price point, username. password, etc.

So no one else into aesthetically pleasing components of web sites? Oh well ...

I'm always checking what big players are doing...
Check join pages from Bangbros, RK & Co...

Hi Romario,

I have been looking at the usual suspects too like RK, Bangbros, Twistys and none of them seem to be doing anything that can be classed as aesthetically pleasing. The best I have come across so far is:

http://www.clubseventeen.com/join
Looks clean but perhaps also looks a little complicated from a surfer perspective.

http://www.18onlygirls.com/
This site has an uncomplicated pre-join page but it isn't anything ground breaking in terms of design.

Makes me wonder why no adult sites that have various price points as well as join options (credit card, debit card, check) don't use join pages like this for example (minus the "what's included"):
https://vwo.com/pricing/

As stated, I totally understand that pretty join pages don't always equate to better join ratios but it just seems that the adult sector isn't even trying to marry the two and instead making other aspects of their sites pretty and letting standards, in terms of design, drop when it comes to the join page.

It's just an observation and I thought I would be able to spark a healthy discussion on the topic.

Nicking someone's design is dangerous. I recently stopped working with a client because they heard taking the big boys pre join was a good idea. Their ratio dropped every month for 6 months and I kept telling them to revert back to the one I came up with. They wouldn't despite the plummeting sales after the change. The lesson? Test and measure what works for your traffic, not other people's...

I agree that what works for one site won't always work for another. This isn't about "borrowing" a design though. I'm just curious why pre-join pages in our industry seem so standardized and why there is not really any cool stuff happening.

It all just seems very cookie cutter, albeit with different colours and images. There just isn't anything there that makes me go "Wow, ok! Now THAT'S a sexy join page" ...

Funny that you mention us, we are testing a lot with that one right now. What makes it too complicated in your opinion?

The 18onlygirls one is a Vendo pre-join. They (Vendo) optimize everythign for you to get the best results on your traffic.

The first thing to understand is that, chances are, if a company is "good" and "smart", they will A-B test their pre-Join pages. So of the ones you showed as examples I am guessing that the website owner has determined, through testing, that what you see does the best - for THEM.

Or maybe not. LOL But here is what I have found after selling paysites for 6+ years: unusual works best. Surfers may see hundreds of join pages on adult tours - they check 'em out, even if they do not actually Join - so my belief (and success to prove it) is to have clean, simple designs like these:

http://www.erosexotica.com/join.html
http://www.felluciablow.com/join.html
http://www.screwmywifeclub.com/join.html
http://www.leslesbians.com/join.html

You may notice on these pages that the Join options are small and odd-shaped. they also have a tiny orange border around them. Why? Because after YEARS of A-B testing these Join pages work wonderfully well - for ME. Believe me, if I found another design that worked better I would switch in a heartbeat. LOL

Many, many, MANY Join pages (the "pre" Join pages, not the CC processer's hosted forms) are ugly as shit and I, too, wonder about how effective they are. Too many choices, or a clunky design, would affect sales - I would THINK. But again, the ONLY way to know is to A-B test everything.

Just because the "big players" use it doesn't mean it's the most effective. They are dealing with literally millions of join hits. Don't think for one second the people behind their join page are worth their weight in dog shit. They might make 100k, but that doesn't mean that that 100k couldn't be 150k.
Don't cross sell
let the surfer know what they are buying
be absolutely transparent and win back the trust of horny men

it's not hard.

Hi Roald,

Maybe using the word complicated was a bad choice. What I mean is that there are so many options on the page that it may actually turn users off.

For example, why present me with the Ideal option? Do your statistics show a large number of UK users opting for phone billing? Like I said, it is one of the nicer pages I have seen but I feel it could be that much more better.

Vendo optimize join pages for their customers? Wow!!! If you see Cees in the building please warn him that I may be contacting him coz now I feel he doesn't do enough work :)

Hi TPN,

The objective wasn't really about conversions to be honest. I am simply looking for people who are using "different" join pages to the norm for adult. Effective or not, I'm simply interested in seeing how people in adult are pushing design.

I agree with A/B testing and don't just do this on the join page. I do this on several pages in an effort to reduce bounce rates and give users a reason to move forward into my funnel(s).

Following on from what you mentioned about ugly join pages, there seems to be an extraordinary number of them on adult sites when compared to topend mainstream sites offering services. I just can't bridge the logic that says adult sites convert better if their join pages are ugly or cluttered.

There was a site I saw this year (but dang if I can remember the name!) and it was a CCBill site. The links on the Join page (their own pre-join html page) were not buttons or images. They were text links.

So it looked like:

One month Membership: $24.95

But the link was just plain text. Apparently their conversions went through the roof after this. But this was an 'amateur' site so it worked really well. I tested it on MY sites and conversions tanked so I switched back to what you see now.

Anyway, the reason adult sites' join pages look so crappy compared with 'mainstream' services sites is because in mainstream trust is a HUGE issue. In Adult, it's more a spontaneous/horny NOW kinda thing (although "trust" is obviously still an important factor in Adult). So in mainstream the more professional you look, the better. In Adult, depending on the niche and amount/source of your traffic, a crappy "amateur"-looking page, or a dark, brooding "fetish"-type page, may work best for you. The "big guys" get millions of hits worldwide so they are like the Wal-Marts of porn. LOL So their designs need to satsfy all comers, nationalities, niches and languages.

Yes clear, we are looking into the geo targeting payment options.

Vendo does that yes however their percentage is also quite a lot higher ;)

Going back to A/B testing; most people take 2 or 3 versions of the page, set them up using their testing too of choice, monitor them, make adjustments and finally see what the outcome was. If their ratios are improved that's it for their testing.

What about a 4th, 5th, 6th variation of the page? Where do you settle? Do you test different pages on different traffic sources or do you optimise for general traffic?

What do you specifically use as a tool for A/B testing?

Mvt is better than a/b

I use unbounce.com and optimizely

I had a script made for my HTML pages for A-B testing. It splits every other visitor to the desired location/tour page.

For me I try to be 'realistic' about testing. I have no idea what the "rule of thumb" on all this is so I basically just keep tweaking/testing as long as I see a 10% increase or better each time. When I get to a 7% or 8% improvement I typically stop for about six months. Then I do another A-B test to see if pages are still working and in that "zone".

Again, I have no idea if what I am doing is "right" or not. LOL I have many balls to juggle being a small company so I do what I can; I'm sure larger companies are tweaking/testing more often.

Hmmm, I'm not totally convinced that mvt is better than A/B. There is definitely a place for MVT but it requires you to throw a lot more traffic at variations than A/B testing and you can't really test totally different variations of pages. Not to mention that it certainly does introduce some constraints on creativity in certain circumstances.

A/B testing has it's drawbacks too but is far more flexible in my opinion.

Would still love to see some sexy join pages if anyone has examples they've come across. I'm speaking from a creative perspective and not in terms of "does it convert or not".

Nice discussion. It's interesting to hear about other peoples approaches to testing. (Thanks TPN).

you mean join 1?

Yes, I mean the pre-join. The join page before it hits the biller's join page.

Yes, point taken, MVT does need more traffic.

Definitely agree here. I'd like to see a join page from a site with lower volume that converts well and is also differentiated well. Any takers?

Make it simple, intuitive and no nsfw or nsfhome pics. Easy does it.

Hi Paully, by design most images in adult are nsfw or do you simply mean don't use any hardcore images?

Great To Know
 

I've been trying to find a solution to exactly the same problem, but gained a lot of great info reading the posts. Thanks!

I thought archive cash used to have great join pages, but we all know they turned out to be a scam.

I think you don't want to distract the visitor from the process of entering his data. Possibly display a link to your live chat support that may help.

I dont use any adult image on my pre-join page. I dont like the idea of them shutting down their browser if the wife/kids/boss walks in.

They may need a minute to go find their credit card and I figure if they are there they have just about decided to join barring some outrageous pricing or cross sale trick.

I want them to focus on getting their cc out and picking a join option without worrying about being "caught".

btw I'm not suggesting you copy my pre-join page. Im a shitty designer and I'm sure there are plenty of slick designs that would do better but thats the concept I'm going with and so far so good.

It also may be the last chance to show them some hot pix of whats inside to push them over the edge to pull out the cc. I think you should have some of your hottest pics on the JP

I get what you're saying but my dynamic isn't impulse buyers signing up for a trial.

and I dont want them closing that page.

I want long term joins and that's what I get.

I see your thinking here and I agree with the sentiment. BUT (you knew there was a but coming, but thankfully not a 'butt cumming' heh) someone can get "caught" on any of the Tour pages. I mean, they have to GET rto the Join page first and chances are they will have had to go through the Tour pages to get there, no?

Also, this doesn't deal with the Internet history issue (the #1 way most guys get "caught"). Then again, I've seen everything from videos on Join pages ro traffic leaks to clip stores on join pages, fifteen payment options on Join pages, a single payment option on Join page, blank Join pages with just words (no images), join pages with so many images you can't locate the actual join links, etc etc. LOL

So hey, whatever works. :D

What method do you guys use to test join pages? Are you saying that you literally put up a join page LIVE and "test" it that way?

And how do you determine the parameters?

Seems like you'd have to give a join page a full month to test it so that all the factors come into play: end of month bills for people, weekly or biweekly paychecks for people, weekend buyers, etc. etc

And even then...some months are just better than other months.

The "testing" seems like it would still kinda be "by the seat of the pants".

And then there's the issue of lost money. What if you are testing a join page that is really sucking? How many potential members did you lose?

Just an observation.

I know it's very risky to be "testing" stuff live. And to truly get enough data is difficult

We just split the traffic to an A and a B version in the same time frame.

Seems like at the end you still have to make a critical judgement yourself though. What if an inordinate amount of traffic comprised of adults with credit cards who will actually buy a membership went to "A" just coincidentally?
And at the same time...also coincidentally, a big percentage of guys without credit cards or who won't buy porn went to "B".

In that scenario, you could potentially have a much better "B" join page that would perform better than "A", but you wouldn't know it.

Of course I'm assuming that you run the test for a while and not just one day.

But even then...if one of the pages performs better than the other one...you might be losing members who went to the underperforming one.

I guess you have no choice but to do it though. :)

Hi Robbie, I really think you are over thinking this. Any kind of testing of this sort isn't ever going to be 100% but the aim here is to give yourself the best possible chance you can. By not testing you run similar, perhaps worse, risks simply because you don't know. What you don't know, when it concerns conversions, is always worse than what you do know with some margin of error built-in.

These tests, even if not 100% accurate, don't use small sample rates. For instance, the last google experiment I ran on a 3 different versions of a page lasted 30 days and 120K users before it decided a winning page for me. I think people with more traffic would get there quicker but that is typical for any experiments I have run in the past.

I agree, I was just extrapolating out all the possibilities.

I would say that in the end...you need to look at the data you have and then use your experience and knowledge of a particular niche and the members you already have (assuming you interact with them) to come up with the "final" join page.

And then if your sales tank...immediately PANIC and go back to the old one. lol

you need a certain amount of volume to take out the outlying data, so you get a statistically accurate average. Big programs have a huge advantage here, as they can see results in hours, versus small programs which could take months...

You're basically saying that they have sites that have a lot of traffic and can get better and quicker results.

What are some of those sites that are with "big programs" (relatively speaking, cause most of them aren't as "big" as they were a few years back)?

I'd be curious to see how much traffic they have and examples of what some of them ended up with for join pages.

I myself...instantly thought about Naughty America (Naughty Revenue) site "My Friends Hot Mom"
But just looking at Alexa as a general idea of traffic...it isn't "big" at all.

MetArt.Com IS a big site traffic wise.
The Join Page I ended up at was pretty generic. Has three price points, credit card billing and bitcoin and other "coin" options.

It's real, real drab and plain. But I'm going to assume these guys tested all kinds of different versions and that one is the one that does it.

Of course you need your knowledge and experience to direct you towards your end goal which is to capture more joins. Why not put that knowledge and experience to work to come up with some concepts that form the basis of your tests.

For instance, you could specifically run some MV tests to see which of Claudia's tits pics on the join page generates more joins. Once you've run that down, maybe try a different colour for the Join Now button. Once you've run that down, maybe try different variations of the actual Join Now text, like "Subscribe To Claudia-Marie" or "Join Now For More Claudia-Marie" ...

Keep in mind that MV tests require you to throw a lot more traffic at the variations that A/B tests so maybe A/B tests would work out better for you. At the end of the day, your join page is just an extension of your other "landing pages" and should be tested to ensure you are maximizing your traffic generation efforts. Why would you want to work so hard to create a great landing page that works well on various traffic sources only to lose users once they get past that landing page and hit your join page?

P.S.: On http://join.claudia-marie.com/signup/signup.php you have a link titled "Intdig" that leads to a 404.

I think you also have to be realistic these days. In theory, you could A/B test (or MV, or MTV, or VH1 or whatever) endlessly, constantly tweaking in search of that 2% improvement.

Like with all things you gotta know when to stop and move on.

Doh! Thanks! I changed hosting companies a couple of months ago and I guess that's a link that slipped through the cracks on me!

So I thought I'd bump this thread with an example of a join page we're thinking of using for a new site. Any and all criticism accepted no matter how harsh ... The aim here is to take what I feel will actually help

http://sharpedezine.com/mockup.jpg

I've made the image above clickable so you can see it at full size.

I can dig it. Very clean. The numbers don't really add up but I assume this is a mock-up for design purposes.

Hi Paully,

Yeah I noticed the numbers AFTER I exported and was hoping no one would catch that :) You're right though, it is just a mockup.

One thing I am thinking I'll change is "Billed Annually" to "Annual Subscription" and "Monthly Subscription" .... does anyone think users are more receptive to the word subscription than billed?

I like it, clean and to the point.

However only way to know how this performes is to just test it :D

Split the sign-up procedure into two steps.

First one should ask for name, email and password. After that's done, ask for the DOB, gender and seeking.

It has been proven time after time that being asked for a lot of information in one go means you're much less likely to go through with the sign up. Split the procedure and break it down: you'll cram out more conversions.

Hey Roald, yep definitely will need to test it. The initial version that was drawn up had all the menu items and site footer on it and it just seemed like a huge distraction. Fingers crossed this tests well once we put it to use.

Hi Arnox, you do have a point and this is something we've thought about too. We will be drawing up a few versions of this page and doing some A/B testing on them.

One of those versions does in fact have 3 tabs with the second one being used for DOB, gender and seeking.

Another version of the page will continue to have just 2 tabs and we only ask for DOB, gender and seeking AFTER the biller has passed the user back to us on successful join.

Overall, I am happy with this mockup but I can't help but feel there is still something I've missed, some text that I should or shouldn't have. Perhaps something inherently wrong with the layout.

Will showing that there are actually 2 steps to the process actually turn people off? I can't say that I have seen many adult sites with a checkout style join page and maybe there's a reason for this?