New bdsm/fetish paysite owner/model with traffic Q seeks advice
 

Hi all, this is my first post. I created and run http://www.vilehabit.com, I do everything but the camera work ('designed' the site if you can call it that-thank you, dreamweaver- do all the modelling, promoting etc.) and am looking for new ways to promote. I've done some link/banner exchanges, submitted to pic posts & toplists in my niches (bdsm, latex fetish, female submissive, with hardcore). I was hoping for a little advice, as I'm getting exasperated. The site opened in December and my sales aren't too great, though I think the content is good, original & we have tons of video content. I haven't made any free sites yet to submit to TGPs, it seems so time consuming that I don't know how I can do it and still create content, do live shows (I do 20 hrs or so a week of live time on ifriends to bring in the cash, that is where it is at so far but I'm looking to phase that out and have something running that is more self-sustaining.) Am I wrong in trying to get traffic from places that only feature bdsm & fetish, rather than places that have everything but do have my categories within them? If I'm missing some big glaring point or if my site sucks and I'm just not aware of it please let me know, I can take it ;)

It's good that your trying to be different on your site, but it's not working. I am guessing you have all your text in/on graphics so you can have different fonts, but it's quite difficult to read if you can read it, much is bulry or covered over by other images. Hard to explain, but I did'nt want to read it, probably because it was not to clear or because it was over an number of different images. The collage can be a cool idea, but does'nt work here, just looks on the crappy side, probably because the images seem to be too burry or too compressed. To me the text, which is a big part of your selling, should be very crisp and clear. Also the graphics should be very clear. I get an idea where you were trying to go, but dont think it's working in this case. Plus if the images on the tour look bad, what will the surfer think the inside content looks like?

Also since you have all your text in graphic format, your increasing the load time for the surfer, many surfers are still on dial-up. They could be leaving because it takes a while to load.

The join page looks terrible, the images are blurry, stretched and the text is squeezed into a small space on the sides. The join page is one of your last chances to sell the surfer, gotta make it good.

As for the selling, I see you pushing mainly ifriends, nothing wrong with that, but more surfers are being pushed there, it's no wonder your not making many sales for your own site. The biggest reason your not making sales for your own stuff is because your using tickets club, you need a real merchant account, gotta pony up the $750 visa fee, other wise your just wasting your time.

ronnie

Hi Tyranni

We'd love to work with you, and think that we're well positioned to help you promote. Feel free to hit me up on icq- 64614011

I hear what you're saying, the intro page is mainly for a promo and apparently that isn't working too well anyway. Probably better to start out with the tour rather than having them click a link to get to it. I haven't seen many leaving my page for iFriends on the exit pages of my stats, or else I would change that. However I am phasing out a few of those links, and the fanclub promotion in favor of free live shows offered to my members. Thanks for your honesty, I'll work on my join page & re-evaluate the ifriends promos.

To anyone:
Re: merchant accounts-- I looked into ccbill but as a canadian company that is a no go unless we form an american corporation. does anyone know of a good option to get a canadian merchant account?
What is wrong with ticketsclub, I've read some negative feedback about verotel but I've also read negatives about ccbill...?

Another point--the focus of the site is on video and many of the images are video stills. I guess I should only use hi res pics in the promo areas and specify that the other ones are vid stills, and put up more free promo video clips in the tour. Thanks for the tips, I know what I'll be working on for a while now! I'll save the promotion until after I do a bit of re-designing.

You for sure want to use the best posible content on the tour you can. If the content looks bad on the tour the surfer might asume it's not much better inside, I would.

Would be much to your advantage to do more of the cam for your own, or push that you do cam on the inside.

I have yet to here of any one doing well or good with tickets club. Friend of mine had a paysite before the visa fee, ended up getting put on tickets club and sales went down to nothing. Maybe some one has better experience with it. I think for one is is kind of confusing to the surfer, what they are really getting into, it does'nt reall explain much I dont think, maybe just me. If I was a surfer and wanted to join a pay site and come to some page that wants me to join some club, would'nt make sense. Like I said, maybe others have found success with it.

Another question, how much traffic are you getting to the site, and where it is coming from? Might not be getting enough to make sales in the first place. You should also track how many of your visitors even go to the sign-up page.

ronnie

I think Ronnie's got most of it so far, the tour really needs some work and vid caps are always rough on surfers, member's area or no. If you can build up a member base then keep doing 20 hrs/wk for them you can probably retain exceptionally well.

Emmanuelle has offered her help and she specializes in niche sites, so I'd advise you to get in touch with her :)

I think you've got a lot of potential there, and I haven't seen too many fetish specialty camgirl sites thus far. You've just got some road between you and being able to really capitalize on it.

Just my newbie 2 cents and mainly from a surfers point of view but....

As ronnie has said, the images are poor quality which is an instant put off, bandwidth is cheap enough for you to use nice hi-rez ones. Far too much clutter if you ask me in general.

Your tour has to be a hard hitting, high impact, whack in the face of a page and the join page has to close the deal. I know it's not the same niche but compare it to something like http://www.lady-sonia.com/

You want nice clean pages with obvious join links and the good points of the site in clear bold text. Surfer attention span is very low - you need to give it to them on a plate, at your site I feel as though I kind of have to wade through loads of text to find out that it's even a paysite.

It might be worth you getting the tour designed for you by someone who knows what you are doing because it seems like your actual content is pretty damn good. Especially when you are compared to the hundreds of paysites that are just a few pictures and movies slung in the members area. If you truly give what you claim to on the tour, you shouldn't have any problem retaining members, you just have to work on getting them through the front door in the first place.

Good luck with your site, I'd promote you if you had a good tour and 50%+ revshare.

As for promoting... if it's free, get traffic from anywhere that has your niche, or even anything similar.

Also, personally, I would drop all the trades and links out from your paysite - they are just traffic leaks. Buy another domain or 2 and build portals, search engine sites, freesites, galleries or whatever on your other domain which all point to your paysite - basically promote it as if it was a sponsor. You can then have all your trades and recips seperate leaving your paysite nice and clean.

Thanks everybody, I'm taking what you said into account and changing things little by little.

Emmanuelle, I am not really sure what you are offering but I'll be in touch soon.

I'm going to get a Canadian business ID so I can hopefully get an account with ccbill and I am talking to paycom.

Went at it from the surfers POV and found lots of BDSM only TGPs, so after working on the tour etc. then I'll be at that.

Re: the links and such, I'm about to weed out the ones that bring in little to no traffic, and keep the ones that I need for traffic. Some of the higher quality ones won't put up with being on a free site that links to the main site. I have a few other domains registered: sexslaveconfessions.com and latextreme.com that I could use to promote vilehabt.com. Thanks again for the help, everyone, it gave me a new perspective, reminds me of the tough critiques back in painting class at university :p

Sorry if my critique was a little tough. On the positive side, as I say, if you get them through the front door, I'm sure they will retain really well because of the excellent content you appear to have. Many pays sites are all tour and no content - it's good to see something that is not.

Not sure if I made myself clear about the links and domains or maybe I'm missing what you are saying, but I meant keep your pay site clean and then on you seperate domain you make a site with all your toplist and picpost recips. You put content on this site, loads of text and some teaser pictures. Then send picpost surfers to this site and your toplists will send some back. You also have ads on this site which advertise your paysite. Bacially, on your site that is free every click goes to either your paysite, another page on your site that is free, or to one of your toplists. Your toplist traffic comes back to the free domain you are making not to your pay site. It's just as if you are an affiliate but instead of promoting someone elses program you are promoting your own.
I don't think there are many, if any, sites that will only list you if you are a pay site.

However, if youare getting a lot of clicks to your pay site from these toiplists and such, then it might be worth leaving it as it is for now.

Looks like a really good site potentially. If you tidied up a bit, made a small amount of less risque content publically available for gallery building etc and opened an affiliate scheme then I am sure people would help market it for you.

Your join link doesn't work

http://www.vilehabit.com/join.htnl

html :)

Yikes, I haven't checked this forum in a month, guess I should have. Thanks for the heads up, those links at the top are the few that I don't check regularly, now I will remember to. Amazingly signups have still been good, looks like they could have been better though if I'd checked my work.

Thread update: I've been doing OK with Verotel and am happy with their service and the site is doing pretty well and retaining well even though I do next to no advertising. I plan to start TGP building and link-listing and maybe free site building this month and next to see what kind of difference it makes. I started an account with CCbill and willing to drop the VISA fee but I have to send them a copy of my social security card which I've not had since I can remember. Thank you to those who contacted me, but I don't want to commit to working with anyone until I get my shit together enough to really know what I'm doing as far as promotion and traffic goes, and I would like to remain as independent as possible, which is the whole point of veering off from working at a camsite to running my own.