POLL:: Old Style Tours VS. Reality Style Tours
 

Looking at stats and need to get some new tours done.
From my experience, it looks like the old style tours convert way more than the reality tours with some types of traffic.

In your experience, what does it show you? I know as webmasters we look for the pretty tours but are they really the ones that convert best?

I remember SEO guys saying that the cookie cutter ones did far better...is it still the same?

Bump for feedback :)

i dont think you'll find the magic answer for this one. depends on the traffic. if an SE surfer is looking for an old site he remembers, i think there's a better chance of converting him with old style tour, due to familiarity. but if you're sending reality traffic to old style tour, i doubt you can get the same conversions.

have a couple examples i can see for comparison?

i'm not really sure but i prefer the reality style tour...even for a regular solo girl site.

There is a formula.

Which is ....?

I dont really think that there is.

Just give them what they are looking for.


that is the only formula that I can think of.

As someone who buys porn, to me its 100% about the content.
I dont notice the design at all when I go to a tour. Im looking for something that turns me on so much I have to buy. As long a the design isnt totally horrible, like I cant navigate it, then I dont care about design.

I dont belive the design matters, most joins are on impluse and a guy with his dick out isnt looking at the neat text effects. Its all about the content. Id be curius to see a site with zero design principles with all whit bkgrd and 12 pt times new roman font would sell just as good as high end i belive

It depends on the niche and style of content. Reality style are preferred by many webmasters, and while old style may indeed convert better you have a better chance of getting webmaster traffic from a reality style design with exclusive content.

I agree with everyone but your point is spot on - the designs on the tours are more targetted for the webmaster to get all warm and fuzzy I'd think.

Remember Quiet? His sites had nothing spectacular on them but they converted and they converted well WITHOUT affiliate traffic.

Definitely though, a program probably needs both, for those who prefer cookiecutter and those who prefer reality.

well, I think the poll leaves out a lot of things, so it's impossible to answer.

First: content. If your content is crap, no matter what you do conversions will be bad. However, depending on what kind of "crapiness" are we talking about, there are ways to improve it.

Second: "Reality" vs "Cookie Cutter" (or "Old style"). And everything else? I've done at least 7 different styles and there are more to do, and let's not even start with flash tours or marketing tools not used yet in adult.

an interesting thing is what Snaker says

I've seen this kind of argument many times before and it's simply not true at all. Furthermore, at this point I can say it's ridiculous and I've the statistical proofs. If you don't believe in logic (ie, companies that invests MILLIONS in just a logo or a color palette or a slogan, do you think they do that for fun?) let's take a look to some stats.

http://fdsign.com/2007/stats/index.html

Take a look at the ARS stats for tours I've made. I only had overused content to work with (yet good content). Now, I really doubt you can show me a site with great exclusive content with that kind of conversions. I was curious about it and tried it with one of the sites featuring the best exclusive content nowadays, won't name it for respect, but let's say the content that can compete with Pornstars Galore from ARS. With this site's regular tour, Pornstars Galore sold around 7 times better (1:120 or so against 1:900). Plus, conversions for this site went even worse and I gave up when they reached 1:2000. But not before offering the owner an alternative tour FOR FREE (or at least that I could use privately). He didn't even bother to answer, so well, dunno what could have happened with that. I did this comparison with 2 other niches and same results until one program allowed me to build an alternative tour and bang, I proved my point to the A.

But the moral of the story is that design can and WILL improve any content. Period. Problem is that you won't get this with "cookie cutter 10 tours a week $200 each designers". Believe me. It takes work, it takes knowledge, it takes revisions, it takes some thought.

anyway, fwiw, just my :2 cents:

Hey HS-Trixxia

I can jump right on board with the point of webmasters looking for different things than the surfers we want to convert to members.

I have www.thebestamateur.com and it isent the last design scream hehe. but from the ratios i see posted from time to time on this board from many big programs my little site "and the way it looks" does just as well.

But many webmasters would rather join a huge program than a small site that dosent have the latest of everything.
So yes, several tour styles is a good thing and can solved some of those problems.

Nice to see a good biz thread :)

Thanks for that harvey - I've always admired your work.

thebestamateur - the thing is, if you know your niche and you know what 'you' like then I'm sure there are people who share the same thought - moreso if you're part of a 'niche fan group', you have more insight into what they want than a designer or someone who's used to the pretty sites. Thanks for your input :)

imho what matters most is the content first.. then traffic.. then the design.. :)

what he said