What's going on at Bondage.com
 

Hi, everyone. Figured I'd stop by and update folks on what we've been up to, and do a little "send us traffic" pitch.

Redesign
We've recently launched a completely redesigned site -- top to bottom work, with a great deal of attention paid to the splash page, main index page, and free user registration page. Many props to the people over at Mansion for an excellent job on all three.

Like any community/dating site, our sales cycle is longish, so it'll take a little while to see the full imapct of the redesign. However, free user signups jumped 40% literally overnight with the redesign, so I'd say we're on to something good.

Affiliate Tools
We've improved our ability to deep link with affiliate codes; you can now link to any page on the site (blogs, forum posts, columns, you name it) with your affiliate code in the querystring. It's pretty straightforward, but if you've got any questions don't hesitate to ping me or Gateway.

We've also updated our RSS feeds, and they all support affiliate codes now. Just add ?track=yournatscode to the RSS request, and every link generated by the feed will have your affiliate code.

As always, when someone you refer sets up a free account, we permanently link your affiliate code to the account. If they wait to upgrade to a paid account in 5 years, you get paid.

Geek-out
It wouldn't be Bondage.com if we didn't geek out for a minute, so here goes: the new site is entirely XML/XSL based, meaning that the code and the presentation are totally separate. That's what allowed us to use a real designer this time around (and wow did that pay off). Future improvements like greater internationalization and AJAX personals searches will come about much faster using this technology.

Our switch to XML/XSL also means that anything you see on the site can be easily exposed as an RSS feed; if you don't see the feed you want, just ask.

Sales Pitch
Geek-out finished. Here's where I should go into the marketing song and dance, but fact is, I'm terrible at that. So here goes: Bondage.com by far the largest BDSM community, with everything from forums and groups to stories and vids to personals and blogs. We're not just a dating site -- people actually keep their memberships after meeting someone. Plenty of couples have two paid memberships! We retain like you wouldn't believe, and have incredibly customer loyalty and satisfaction. Our affiliate program (which itself needs some real work as far as design and UI go) runs on NATS.

We're responsive to both our affiliates and customers, and work on software development literally around the clock. Our technology is second to none -- XML/XSL, geotargeting, CDN, collaborative filtering, social networking, you name it.

So (here's where I go into used car salesman mode) give us a try with your BDSM/fetish traffic. And feel free to hit me up if we can do anything to improve our offerings.

Cheers
-b

Why do you have a geo-ip surfer banner in your sig?

Why not?

Just incase you want t join and find some bondage girls in your area :) just kidding..


Here is some further information on how to link to the various sections of our site

- Normal blog list: http://bondage.com/blogs.html
- Blog list w/code: http://bondage.com/blogs.html?track=natscode

- Normal user's blog page: http://bondage.com/i/1519077/blog.html
- User's blog page w/code: http://bondage.com/i/1519077/blog.html?track=natscode

- Blog entry permalink (get url from entry title): http://bondage.com/blog.asp?i=1519077&e=22551#22551
- Blog entry permalink w/code: http://bondage.com/blog.asp?i=151907...natscode#22551

So basically, just add track=natscode to the querystring, and it will work.

Important: You must use a valid nats code for this to work; if you actually use "natscode" or other random gibberish, it will redirect to the main bondage.com page rather than the intended destination page.

head on over to Penguin Cash

get signed up and start making some cash with bondage.com

:1orglaugh

Sadly, you're probably right. Point taken :winkwink:

Er, to demosntrate our stuff? :)

-b

Looks good I think I will get tied up with you as I see there are 1,268 profiles near Las Vegas. Mondo Bondo. Great Name.

looking good!! cool!

freakin' shweet

Sounds great. Thanks for the update.

one problam with the geo banners.. they are sometime wrong..

lol

Of course -- there's no such thing as 100% accurate geobanners. It depends on all sorts of things from ISP's keeping their ARIN info updated to the IP database providers getting it all right. The bet is just that they're better than non-targetted banners on the whole.

-b

hey Aiken,

What IP Database are you using if you don't mind me asking?

I am in Vancouver BC, sometimes IP2location lists me as Richmond, BC (20kms away) however yours is listing me as richmond quebec .. which I havent seen before ...

btw nice improvements!

cheers

you may want to have that ip script checked out. its listing me as being in purchase, new york.

i live in kentucky.

We're using Maxmind's DB. It's definitely not entirely accurate, but no geo DB is, as far as I can tell.

-b

Bump for the largest BDSM community on the Net...

hmm Maxmind is suppose to be the best
.. strange

maybe for canadians you should just target the province.. because bell seem to get their ips from everywhere

Hmmm, maybe that is a "suggestion" for you to purchase new york?
:P

Aiken,

The new Bondage.com looks phenomenal! Thank you so much for trusting us at Mansion to do the design, look and feel for your new community site. It was a pleasure working with you on it and we really hope it works out well.

:thumbsup

Wow, the site looks great! What an improvement over what was already a great designed. Congratulations!

It would work a little better if the clock matched the timezone of the country/city

here are some other geo banners avail.

http://bondage.com/geobanners/gb_05.jpg

http://bondage.com/geobanners/gb_04.jpg

http://bondage.com/geobanners/gb_06.jpg

etc..

also hit me up with any special requests, I handle the affiliate program for bondage.com

Ah, you're quite right. Will get that worked on. Thanks!

-b