What makes a paysite tour convert?
 

Let's assume my members area rocks. I have lots of videos, pictures (exclusive and non-exclusive), live feeds, stories, etc. And I update it maybe twice a week with maybe 1,000 more pictures.

How do you build a tour that converts? How do you communicate that your members area is worth at least a trial sign-up?

Free chocolate chip cookies.

You build a paysite and you don't know how to make a tour that converts? My answer: Pay a designer :)

the pre-sale is what makes the site convert

dangle the cheese in front of the mouse and they'll jump after it. show them what they're getting and what they can expect if they joined.

do a search on gfy. there's quite an extensive thread on this topic. I think it's the exact same subject you used.

Cheaper than all of the big sites with no trial period. Period.

:1orglaugh

Paying a designer is the easy part. Telling the designer what you want is the hard part. Just saying...build me a tour that will convert...probably won't work unless your designer happens to run paysites of his own and knows what converts.

Graphic brevity -- mixed with a good amount of text info to make the potential member feel informed and itchin' to stroke.

It worked for Ogilvy!:xomunch

very true

Curious...why do you say that Ronaldo?

No trial, eh? Hmmmm.

Simple design, original content, no popups/exit consoles and weekly updates :2 cents:

If the designer knows what he is doing... It's not that hard at all. Your part is to know what your site is about, what niche it's in and what it's strong points are. The designers job is to create a fully fledged marketing solution for that and come up with a matching design. If he can't do that, then he isn't worth your time and money

Just my :2 cents:

P.s., im a designer :) :thumbsup

If you don't know that then you're not ready to start a paysite. Period

Strongly worded text threatening to show up at the surfers house and beat his punk ass with an axe handle if he doesn't buy is sometimes the most effective method.

Okay, if it'a so easy...then why do all the big paysites convert like crap? Is it not the tour then but other factors? Shaving? Over-exposure?

I can send 50,000 surfers to a site like Sweet-Cuties, which has a simple, clean design, as he said, and it will convert decent. I can send the exact same traffic to some megasite that payed $5k for their professional, traditional tour design and not get a sale.

most paysites from big companies look pretty much the same. cookie cutter sites with pretty graphics just like every other site the surfer has seen a zillion times.

pray to the paysite gods. repeat daily.

The purpose of a tour for a paysite is this:
Get the surfer's mind OFF of their wallet, and get their hand on their cocks.
Get them to start stroking... then throw them to the join page.

Seduce your surfers with your tour. Don't give away the farm, and make them blow their wad before you get the cash. Give them just enough, to make them want more.

That's about it.

Tried the cookie cutter tours no luck,

Now I go with a simple design, but I show the prospective buyer 2 full size pictures of every set on the site, no B.S.

It can be a pain updating the free and the members side but it looks alive bookmarkers know the site is active.

It will burn some bandwidth, I do 10k a day on bookmarkers alone.

I feel you need to show or convince them that you have the goods these days.

My opinion is that if you have the traffic and have a product that you can't see anywhere else, you'll convert.

IF, you don't gouge the hell out of them. Instead of $40 per month, charge them $30. If I was worried about seeing the same old stuff again, there's no way I'd fork out $40. But, for someone who HAS been shown that they ARE going to get something different, $30 is much easier to swallow. IMHO

I agree with this. I don't know about every picture set in the members area...but at least a thumbnail preview of every exclusive girl you have.

I think the pay sites that diguise themselves as a free site tend to do the best. You tease the surfer just enough to make them want to pay for the full show.

Keep the comments coming...and hopefully the pay site owners are listening.

Ok here is another, this one had a three page regular tour,

www.nudeidols.com

We changed to a more of a teaser tour it shows allot more then most but not near as much as my glamourmodelsgonebad site, I will have some figures on conversions soon, as the site is new.

We keep trying to find a happy medium between showing to much and not showing enough.

In netscape 6 your enter link on the mainpage is in white......
In IE it's black but I mainly use NS6 and I couldn't see it.

"What makes a paysite convert"

okay... well, let's get down to the nuts and bolts of this here.

It's really not that complicated guys. But it IS a combination of things. Let's look at some of these:

1. What the fuck are you trying to sell?
Most people have no idea. Oh sure.... you say, "I just wanna have a killer paysite".... but that's not good enough. You need to know what the fuck it is you're trying to sell.

2. Design is important. Regardless of what you "think". This ties in with #1: "What the fuck are you trying to sell?" If you're trying to come off as a professional paysite, you should LOOK like a professional paysite. If you're trying to come off as some pure-as-the-driven-snow-(almost, wink wink) girl running a personal site from her home computer showing her own nudie pics, then that's what your site should LOOK like. Now.... don't get confused here.... this would fall under "Amateur site" category. But just because it's classified as "Amateur" does NOT mean you should have your kid brother slap together a page for you with Frontpage. Don't be stupid. Design (in terms of adult websites here for this conversation) serves one purpose: To SELL your concept to the surfer. Some chick running a site from her home computer probably does NOT have a site that looks like Busty Erotica. And your surfers aren't going to believe it either. If they're looking for the girl next door, that's not the type of site they expect to see when they find her. Plan your site concept (which is ultimately your selling strategy) carefully and intelligently. You need to look the part. Once you know what you're trying to sell, there are lots of ways to look the part for that plan of attack as well.... nothing is carved in stone. If you don't think a 3 page tour will work for your particular approach, then don't fucking order one just because some OTHER guy is converting like crazy with one.... his approach is PROBABLY different than yours in one or more ways so that it WORKS for him.

Other factors affecting "What makes a paysite convert"

3. Promotion: How you promote it, who you promote it to, and how HARD you promote it are equally important. If you don't promote it, you'll never get a signup. "Build it and they will come" doesn't work here.

4. Traffic: How much are you feeding it, and what TYPE of traffic are you feeding it? If you send traffic looking for gay beast to a teen site, you probably aren't going to convert.

5. Updates: Are there any? Or did you just put it up 3 years ago and haven't touched it since? Surfers HATE stale fucking sites. This includes your members area content, adding new features from time to time, maybe trying different sources of various features, and yes.... even CHANGING your award winning tour. Shit gets stale after a while. It needs to be changed. Change is good people.... remember that.

6. Your SELL: Do you get the surfer to the join page and simply cross your fingers hoping for a sale? Or do you entice the hell outta them with lots of options, last ditch pitches for trials, offering something that maybe they wouldn't get anywhere else, or maybe bonus access to something else.... there are lots of ways to help entice your surfer to buy... but standing there with your thumb up your ass hoping they buy just because you stuck a "Credit Card" button in their face probably isn't the most effective method.

7. Customer service: Highly underrated. This means taking care of your members... before AND after the sale. If they send you an email to the owner of the "girl next door" site... answer them as the girl next door. You don't gotta date the fuckin' guy, but it certainly can't hurt retention to keep him believing that hot bitch actually runs the site. But I digress.... this was about conversions, not retention.

8. Value: If you're trying to charge $89 bucks for your new site.... it better be fucking worth it. That members area better come through my screen and suck me off for that price. Value your site accordingly.

These are just a few things that affect conversions. You can't simply sum it all up in one blanket statement like "ahh the 3 page tours are shit"..... that's bs. This shit ain't fuckin' rocket science guys, but there's also no magic button for cranking out a killer converting site either. Not when there are so many different factors involved. This shit takes some brains. And if you don't understand what you are doing in the process of building a solid strategy for a successful paysite operation, you should not be playing around with paysites yet, because it will cost you ALOT of money and you will end up not making any back from it and looking for somewhere to place blame a few months down the road. Instead, continue learning from people that have experience until you do understand the process.

Good luck, and happy planning! :)