Your Site
  Written By Raven

During the course of my Internet travels, I've reviewed and critiqued many sites. My eyes have seen the glory and the tragedy, from the small gallery to mega pay sites. I'm going to share with you some of my observations.

Because we are all sales people, consideration must be given to factors we normally wouldn't think about, until no sales are made. Then, we wonder what went wrong. Unfortunately, the only feedback we ever receive is the zero on our stats pages. While going to resource sites to ask for criticism helps somewhat, only the surfer knows why your site isn't conducive to sales.

When creating a gallery, think about how much time there is to capture the surfer's attention. We used to follow the seven second rule. That includes load time. I've been looking at galleries lately. I'm noticing they are more graphically intense, more creative, laid out differently than they used to be. Gallery creation has become an art form. The competition out there is fierce, so your gallery has to stand out, in order to be seen amongst all the rest. Considering how TGP's limit your advertising real estate, much thought has to go into your design. I doubt if you'll sell a gallery today that looks like one created a few years ago. When I visit gallery making sites and look at their portfolios, what I see are designs. Graphic designs. The average user is still on dial up, so I know these pages will take longer to load than a text based creation. I don't see any way around that, considering the massive amount of TGP's on the Internet. The gallery page HAS to jump out and be noticed or it will be lost and the only money spent will be the webmaster paying his or her bandwidth bill. The rules governing a gallery page are fairly simple. Keep the page clean. Let the surfer see the content. Don't fill the page with blind links or multitudes of banners. Balance the content with the amount of text written. Think carefully about the colours. Make the advertising stand out, so the surfer will click on the banner or text link and go where you want them to go.

Free Sites
The idea behind the free site or feeder, as they are known today, is to feed something else, be it a sponsor site or your own pay site. When the traffic arrives to this type of site, the goal is to get the surfer off as quickly as possible. The content is not of the best quality, the design is basic, at best. Free sites should be simple. The more graphically intense they are, the less likely your surfer is going to pay attention to what you're marketing. While I have seen some free sites that are beautiful, I've never thought it necessary to wow a surfer with design. A feeder site is merely a way station. Let me qualify my statement, by saying I'm talking about sites that are not going to be submitted to link lists. There are rules on link lists which restrict what you can do with a feeder. The ODP (Open Directory Project) has changed their rules. Again.

Your surfer needs to be manipulated by the layout of the site. Here's the deal. You're a webmaster now and you've got to think like one. While the surfer is not your enemy, he sure as hell isn't your friend. He is a mark and you're there to pitch him. The more surfer friendly your site is, the less likely you will get him to go anywhere. Using colours that clash, backgrounds that force his eye to your ads, sending him to popup hell if he clicks off are some of the methods used. While it sounds repugnant, it works. I also recommend creating hub sites, filled with both clean sites and 'dirty' sites. Creating your own 'fake' link list is a good thing. Feeders have to load quickly, although not as quickly as galleries. Mouseovers are used to hide sponsor links. If you're not submitting to a link list or ODP, blind links can and should be utilised to get the surfer to the sponsor. Don't get too fancy with feeder sites. While scripts are very cool, they cause the site to load slower. Keep it simple.

Pay Sites
Here, the tour is the final stop for the surfer. If your gallery, feeder or AVS has done its job, the surfer has already been pre qualified and halfway to pulling out his credit card. When you're creating a pay site, much attention needs to be paid to every detail. Too often, I don't see this. A bunch of pictures on four pages of tour do not a sale make. A pay site doesn't have to be huge or intense. It has to be interesting and seductive to the surfer. I've seen some very graphically basic sites that sell many memberships and retain beautifully. Colour combinations that please the surfer, text that drives him wild, content that is sharp and revealing without giving the surfer his orgasm, page layout, site name, appropriate pricing. All these components are what make the surfer join. That certain undefinable something that gives your site the twist it needs to be different. To stand out amongst the rest. Meet the need of the member on the inside and you've now got retention, which is what makes for long term income. Too often, I'm seeing pay sites that do not appeal to anyone. Pictures without text, videos that take too long to load and are not of good quality, layouts that make the surfer have to work too hard, unimaginative graphics. This all works against you, the pay site owner. There is no detail too insignificant.

Here's my thinking. I was taught, if you want something done, do it yourself. Short term dependency on TGP's and Link Lists is a benefit when starting out. The way to build a long term income base is to concurrently build your own indendent traffic pump. Link Lists have their own rules, as do TGP's. They are in it to make money, just as you are. While they are a great place to start and they are a great adjunctive, the only way to really succeed is to build your own traffic base that you move to wherever you want. Think of your empire as an interconnected highway system. When you're new, you're in a rural area where there are no roads. It's your job to build the road to the city. By the time you're done, you've created a system of roads that all lead to some money making enterprise.