Why's content buying such a FRUSTRATING experience?

[Rictor]

My hard drive crashed this week and I lost all my bookmarks, including two years worth of content provider links. Doh. Took me forever to compile that list of providers for every weird niche I was building sites for.

[Far-L]

As primarily a stream provider, but with the perspective of a buyer of content for HG Video, I can certainly appreciate a great deal of what is being said here.

With regards to registering... Please stand in our shoes for a sec... tons of surfers come into Homegrown Content and they think that they are entitled to a megasite of free porn... not just a demo of our products. These people are not webmasters but rather savvy surfers out to take advantage of our goodwill. They have no intention of buying anything but just want to get access to free movies.

You simply cannot let these hordes, and mind you I bet quite a few should not even be seeing porn at their age, into wreak havoc and have unlimited access to the content. The bandwidth they consume does cost money.

There are in fact a number of mainstream businesses where registering is required before purchase.

You cannot drive a new car off the lot for a test drive without showing proof of insurance and a license. You cannot purchase at many auction houses unless you register first. You cannot get certain software licensing unless you register first. We don't send out new releases of our videos and dvds to wholesalers that have not been first qualified with a biz tax id, name, address, etc.

The reasoning is simple. It is an attempt to reduce fraud and qualify the buyer.

It may take a few minutes and be a pain in the ass to register, but I think it is a bigger pain in the ass to get ripped off by some con artist that has no intention of being an actual customer.

I hope you see where I am coming from.

In the final analysis... at least with our stuff... we are worth five minutes of hassle in order to put our 20 years of BRAND building to work for you....

[GeorgeTH]

re. registration:

this is in fact one issue which annoys me, too! But I understand the view of providers as well with legal concerns and offering 'fresh content' to porn surfers.
On the other hand: if I come to a content site and have no idea what they're offering BEFORE I get my access password then more likely I'll ignore that site (and revert to my bookmarks) - so give us at least access to (let's say) one page showing your latest 8-12 sets, block if you like the option for large size previews, and THEN ask for a registration. You won't harm any kid with a small thumbnail showing a nude or some foreplay (and in many cases the header graphics are far more 'into your face'), and it won't cost you a fortune in bw either...


re. emails from content providers:

short and juicy is better! The email address I provide is an online service, which is not really good with displaying badly written html emails, so the more complicated they are the more likely I won't see them.
and: the shorter the more likely I will look at them! There's this content place called Garill who send almost every week an email of 300-400 kb = far too large! They suffer the same fate as almost all CECash emails (which are too long as well) - unopened into the trash! And hence I have never bought anything from Garill. Whereas emails from AdultCzech (to name one) are short and informative, and most likely I'll go and have a look at the larger samples.
Another issue with your emails: if I follow a link from your advertising email I don't want to be forced to enter my password in order to get to the page! In that case I most likely close the browser window instead of going and searching 2-5 minutes for my password. You send this ad to an email address in your database, so it's already a confirmed lead - why do you ask for another confirmation?

George & Farrell have some interesting points.

The main thing is Farrell like me is trying to find out if the guy is surfing or buying and trying to reduce fraud.

George not sure what you mean by getting into the site, we give a "Free Entry" into the site from our email and then if the webmaster wants to buy he has to log in, which can be saved in jhis cookies.

But this problem with registering is a funny one and I for one do not understand why it is always being talked about on a message board. Were registering takes 5 times longer, asks the same or more questions only provides the ability to post.

Where as registering on a Content Providers site gives you the what a porn surfer wants and is prepared to pay money to see. Have we got our priorities wrong?

[Ramster]

As I said I hate registering but I do understand it. Otherwise a surfer could come in and look at everything until they're...well don't need to look at anything anymore. hehe

[Far-L]

The irony is not lost on me either...