Member Retention Techniques? (BIZ THREAD)
 

So you've got your site setup, and you've finally got some members. You're running a non-exclusive site, what's the best way to retain members? Montly give aways?


What kind of ideas do you guys have?

Thanks

1. constant updates
2. different formats for videos
3. allow them to download the movies
4. ask them what kind of content they'd like to see

easy to use + updates = retention

free blowjobs

member interaction never hurts

Platinum Feeds content is designed to increase member retention!!

Updating is a must. If I'm paying a monthly fee, I want to see new content several times a month at least.

Something "to do" - I like blogs and stories to read but I may not be typical in that.

Community is interesting - I've seen sites that do it, but I wonder if surfers really care about a forum or other interaction or are they really just looking for a fast kick?

Cyn

Bump, any "unique" ideas or tricks?

Besides the obvious such exclusive HQ content and frequent updates? Try a members only msg board, have some of the "stars" post, have a section to show all your updates...works friggen great for us.

Ray

A few things..:
1) Easy to use, navigate, and find content.
2) Build content profiles areas to group content.
3) Voting and rating system & polls.
4) Multi daily updates or as many times as possible, at least weekly.
5) Message board, comments system, build a community.
6) Give away items for 3 month membership marks or have games and contests.
7) Allow member submitted content & pay for it. MSG Board for submitted photos.
8) Have wmv, mov, and mpeg formats & bandwidth & downloadable videos, one large downloadable scene video, multi photo sizes & downloadable zip files.
9) Newsletter for content updates.
10) Favorite/bookmark system.
11) Super fast member area servers.
12) Simple and advanced search feature.
13) Bonus content & bonus sites.
14) Cheaper membership costs, cheaper rebill rates monthly.
15) Instant customer support and damn good online support and info.
16) Web form access for auth for less video playing issues.
17) Less trials and more full month memberships.
18) Make the site have no errors or dead-end pages.
19) Offer video & picture sets that match, even stories, games, ect.
20) The more exclusive content the better.
21) No webmasters, more focused branding and less content saturation.

About all I can think of right now.

Nice post Doc. :thumbsup

Yunno, it's funny, I remember just a few years ago where the unspoken rule was to find a way to make a member just forget about his membership. Confusing backends with very little accessible content helped.

Things are different now. People are more aware of what's rebilling on their cards.

Wow, thank you Doc!:)

Your posts are always informative.

bugger right ;)

you can do all the above and then some, but if you really want to retain members, make sure your updates are what they joined the site to see.
If you have a teen site, dont post pics of 40 yr old ladies in pig tails and school girl outfits, if its a BBW site, dont post pics of fit girls and so on.

"9) Newsletter for content updates."

This can actually act as reminder to cancel memberships. Personally I don't recommend it. They'll see anyhow there's an update when they'll visit your site and possible visit it for last time before canceling the membership.

Here is the real answer:

CONTENT

1000+ gigs to stun an awe. Thats the key to retention. And the ability to make it look good/presented nicely of course.

double post... oops

Thanks everyone.. :)

As my first post says "easy to use + updates = retention". You don't need any of the features listed, if they can use the site, and you update the hell out of it, it can look like thehun and it will retain.



Two ways to look at that Soul Rebel. First, you have to remember they have to subscribe to it, for the purpose of getting the reminder emails. Members that will cancel, already did or won?t forget. The guys on this list want to be reminded about updates, they will come back more, stay longer, and enjoy the site more.

It works out, you will have people get reminded and cancel, however you may retain the people the like and use the feature longer. It can also stop people from forgetting about the membership, letting it auto rebill, getting pissed and canceling to never returning to the site, so another lost sale.

Hmm, lemme see if I can dig up a couple of quotes from some "legends" in the biz....

Here's one of the more entertaining ones.

oh ok, got it :)

This was in response to a thread about a major program that has/had(?) very little content in the members area.

some great info in this thread , Thanks!

some great info in this thread , Thanks!

I have a killer script that will help you with updates. You can set it to load new stuff every day or every 1000 days...

Hit me up and I will explain it to you.

Doesn't every CMS do this?

Nice thread! :)