Designing a Tour
It has been suggested that I write a little something about designing a paysite tour. Many tours can be very difficult to navigate, and here are a few tips I have picked up on over the years.
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First off, a disclaimer: I am not a designer, and I have utmost respect for anyone that is. However, I do review sites on a daily basis and there are times that I have to spend a couple minutes just to find the join button. So, since I do not own a paysite anymore, I will discuss this from an AVS point of view.
I am asked to critique designs fairly often, and have run a design company in my prior employment, so I do have a little experience.
Do Not Confuse The Surfer
You would think that this is a given, but apparently not everyone gets it. A common problem I see when people design AVS sites is that there is no warning given to the surfer that the site is part of an AVS system. All the text and graphics are talking about MyPornSite.com and everything it offers, but as soon as they hit the join button they are taken to another domain that mentions nothing about MyPornSite.com but instead is now talking about the AVS system and the accompanying upsell.
To me you have just turned your join button into a blind link. The surfer is all worked up to join MyPornSite.com and he hits join only to discover a page that is now talking about Sex Pictures Pass and Buttfuck Bonanza. Do you and your surfer a favor, let them know ahead of time that in order to gain access to your site, they will have to sign up at the AVS system you are promoting.
The Clever Use of Mouseovers
As I stated above, I have frequently run across site designs where I literally had to spend minutes trying to find the damn join button. Since I am reviewing the site for inclusion into our system I will take those few minutes to actually find it, but if I was a surfer, I would be gone. If someone wants my business they should not make me work at it spending my money there. One feature I always tell every person that asks for a critique is to use mouseovers.
By that I mean have the JOIN, or NEXT or any other button I want the surfer to click change colors when their cursor passes over it. Make it a bright, glowing color that will catch their attention, not some subtle change from ivory to eggshell white. Make it go from ivory to orange. You want it to stand out.
Let the Surfer Join ASAP
If you are going to have a five page tour that is fine, however, do not make the surfer click five times in order to get to the join page, where they are most likely going to have to click one or more times. Give the opportunity to join immediately, meaning on the first page of the tour put a link to the join page, and on every subsequent page of the tour add the join link.
It is a known fact that for every time you make the surfer click, you lose 50% of your views. So, if you have a two page tour, with the join page on the third page, out of 100 potential sales, you are going to end up with about 25 clicks to the join page. It gets worse with every additional page in the tour if there is no join link given to them.
Give the Surfer A Reason To Join
By this I mean, don’t give the surfer so much that they can bookmark your tour and just come back to whack off to it. I always recommend that no pink or penetration (oral, vaginal, or anal) is shown. Blur or put sparkles over the penetration or pink. If you are using video clips, make sure it ends before it gets to the good stuff. Speaking from experience, when I first discovered Internet porn I bookmarked all the good tours.
Avoid Flash
I know that some designers like to show off their skills, but this is not always a good thing. Remember, search engine spiders do not read Flash, so while it may look pretty, it is a little self defeating. If you insist on utilizing Flash, make sure you have good, relevant Meta tags.