Become Your Own Customer
- by Cyndalie Ashlock
Growing up my father used to spring all kinds of metaphors on me as
little tidbits of wisdom that he, in his own way, just had to pass
along... "Dummy Up" was one, but it never quite hit home without the
smack upside the head for doing something stupid. "When in doubt,
throw it out" was a great cleaning philosophy I still use today. But
one stuck with me more than others. Whenever I wanted anything really
badly, albeit toys or boys, he would always say I had "tunnel vision,"
because it's only when you get too close to something, the harder
it is to truly see or criticize. Many webmasters are so wrapped up
in being 'The Webmaster,' and creating their sites in tune to what
other webmasters prefer or suggest, that they forget their role of
being their own customer.
When was the last time that you joined an adult pay site? What was
your experience like? How did you select which site you wanted to
join and what was the icing on the cake to finally convince you to
fork over your card number? How many different forms of online payment
have you actually used? How many of us would actually tell our mom,
sure mom dialers are safe, go ahead and call your psychic from your
computer? Have YOU ever actually used a dialer to pay for something
online? What about online checks? Forking over your CC Number is one
thing, what about your bank account number -- do you want online pornographers
to have that too? And don't say "I'm a webmaster, why pay for porn?"
If that is the case, you will become your own worst enemy. Write it
off, it's "market research"!
It is astounding to see just how few webmasters have actually become
recent customers of what they work so hard to provide and promote.
When you design a new Web site, database, or functionality on your
Web site, how many times have you gone through every step to find
broken links, bad scripts, page errors, compatibility, and actual
function? For most webmasters, this is what we do best. But the marketer
in me says there is another flip to this coin, and it's the only side
our surfers care about.
After five years in adult webmastery, I know that when a site catches
my eye enough to consider joining, they are either doing something
right or I'm a sucker. Either way, there are things to learn from
these sites, and I'm here to break it down from marketing to billing,
and I suggest all webmasters become their own customers and find out
if their own sites are ones that they would join.
Case in point, being found. There are two ways to market in this business.
You can either play the numbers game where it takes money to make
money in advertising (PPC, PPI, Banner) and bulk traffic purchases,
or you can go the targeted market route. There are advantages to both:
Quantity vs. Quality traffic. Mega porn sites, hardcore and soft,
have a higher tendency to do better the Quantity route because they
gain the advantage of branding, and with a large number of affiliates,
quantity can grow while advertising costs may drop after the program
and branding launch. However, plan to have some major bucks to advertise
to both Surfers and webmasters.
Targeted traffic tends to have better results for smaller, more niche
sites, from amateur to midget fetish. Since the surfer knows exactly
what he or she is looking for, they may be more inclined to purchase
from a site that promises the type of content they are seeking that
they may not find at a mega site. However, the lack of "brand name"
recognition for smaller sites leaves more responsibility on the webmaster
to make the surfer feel SAFE enough to purchase.
To give an example, when a surfer goes online to purchase a porn subscription,
he or she may already have a site in mind they saw a few times before
that they are still interested in. In order for this person to come
back, a brand name, domain, or bookmark must already be in the surfers
mind or machine, or search engines will usually point the user to
an affiliate who is promoting the site. If this affiliate runs a pop-up-hell-click-through-page
the user may try again or get sidetracked. It is very important for
large and small sites to be sure they come up first in the search
engines with a clean click-through to make the most on returning traffic.
For any site I would consider joining, the first thing I look for
is how to cancel before I join. I've spent time doing customer service
for adult site billing services many many years ago. This experience
was invaluable to me now, as I see many of the issues are still the
same when it comes to an adult entertainment surfer. "What is this
charge on my bill?" Communicate to the surfer for each billing method
you provide, EXACTLY what they can expect. Show them where to cancel
from your join page, this way they do not feel trapped. PROVIDE not
only a URL and/or e-mail for Emergency Support (either to you or your
billing service), but also provide the Customer Service Numbers for
the billing service right from the join page! Hiding your cancel links
or simply leaving it up to the customer to find his way to cancel
can only lead to charge backs costing YOU money.
Have you ever paid and joined your own site before? Try it again!
How long does it take for the user's account to become enabled? Tell
them how long they must wait if it is not instant. Have you tried
subscribing to your site with an online check? What appears on your
bank statement? Regardless of whether you can publish this information
or not, or if it is provided by your billing service, it's always
a good idea to have a "Questions before you Join?" link to an FAQ
or e-mail link, so the customer knows the site is alive and the owners
are responsive.
Several online billing companies provide the option of customizable
join forms for adult sites. Co-branding these join forms is important
however it will make your customers feel secure knowing that their
payment details and personal financial information will be handled
by a professional and discreet billing service. Not everyone wants
"Jimmy's Porn Shack" having their account numbers, so within the co-branding
option for payment forms, reassure your potential customers that they
are in good hands and will be provided with secure and professional
service.
Recently I joined a site for a trial period and had a great experience.
The site is well branded and easy to remember, and I had been to the
site maybe 6-7 times prior to considering the purchase. In these times
people are not so frivolous with their purchases online. The days
of "my dog stole my credit card number" are dying fast, and the "I
wasn't me!" credit card scam is fading. It wasn't too long ago, and
still common with some services today, that billing companies placed
credited and charged-backed numbers on blacklists. Suddenly these
customers who thought it was a "safe way to scam" are experiencing
the inability to make online purchases at other sites. This is our
first line of defense when it comes to protecting adult merchants
from repeated "scammers" and "stolen" card numbers.
My only qualm with my recent adult site purchase was the that the
actual cancel page which requests your card number did not appear
to be secure because it was in a frame set. To an average surfer this
would have been a red flag, and they may have felt safer calling their
credit card issuer and asking for a cancel or a chargeback, rather
than just submitting their card number to some site they were sent
to cancel at from the site they joined - that does not appear secure.
Since porn customers are always suspicious of online scams, an average
customer would NOT have felt 100% secure. I did not at first, so I
sent an e-mail. As a webmaster I was able to figure out why there
was no secure lock in my browser window. It was only after going to
Properties and viewing the page out of frames that I was able to confirm
the page was secure. Only after understanding why things appeared
this way did I calm down. I had expected top service from the billing
agency and was surprised that something this simple, even if it is
correct, can throw a customer out of whack.
So with all this in mind, find a site that peaks your interest where
you feel safe, and would consider a purchase. Compare yourself to
the "big boys" and your smaller competitors as well - What are they
doing right? Regardless of how much quantity or quality of traffic
you have, the end result is the same: the Join page. Promote honesty,
discretion, security, and professionalism, from your home page to
your members' area. Communication with your surfers is essential for
new sales and retention.
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