PHOENIX, AZ – The “Solo Sites” seminar took place at Phoenix Forum Thursday afternoon at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.The Phoenix Forum is an annual industry conference attended by approximately one-thousand adult internet professionals. The three day event includes seminars, parties and networking events. The first day of Phoenix Forum featured a series of seminars focused towards “newbie” webmasters with little or no experience in building and marketing adult websites. The “Solo Sites” seminar featured a panel of experts that included moderator Steve Lightspeed from LightspeedCash, plus speakers Sami from SammySmack, Rico Dog from Panchodog, Richard Young from RichCash, Dan Hogue from CamZ.com, Buzz Aziani from TwistedCash and Aron Simpson from TNA Cash.
The conversation stared with method of retaining members of solo-girl websites.
“I do my journal every day,” said Sami, who pointed out that her members expect the regular updates. The journal is also a way for her members to interact by posting responses to her entries. “Everyone can converse in the journal.”
Lightspeed admitted that his company has built a chat board as a means for the members of various Lightspeed sites to interact.
Young pointed out that there’s some risk to giving adult website members a forum to voice themselves in front of other members.
“Once in a while you get one of those bad members,” said Young, explaining that it’s not ideal if an unhappy member decides to start complaining.
Lightspeed added that there are potential legal issues with chat boards.
“If you let people post their own pictures then you have to make sure they’re reviewed before they go online,” Lightspeed warned.
Simpson told the audience that his company will pay special attention to member requests, and even shoot special niche photo sets based on members’ comments.
“Keep your members happy,” agreed Garrett. “Give them enough value.”
But Garrett said his company stops short of offering custom photo shoots for members who pay for it. “We try to do as much as we can,” said Garrett, who then acknowledged that member requests were often too bizarre and the models too flaky to make custom-ordered sets worth the effort.
Aziani said that tricks like message boards and journals are nice, but members join adult sites “for a reason,” and at the end of the day it all comes down to content.
Although the topic of the seminar was “Solo Sites,” Lightspeed admitted that his company doesn’t really run “solo” sites since all of his sites cross-promote. Although most of his sites focus on a certain model, images of other models are also included. Members who join one site can add additional site memberships at greatly reduced rates.
“Bundling has made a big difference for us in retention,” said Lightspeed.
Young said an effective retention technique is simply an active website.
“You want [members] to constantly think, ‘What am I missing right now?’” said Young.
According to Aziani, webmasters shouldn’t fail to sell items used by models in photo shoots.
“There are other ways to make money other than subscription sales,” said Aziani.
Garrett said that tracking what members do on a website is very important. He said that there are some third-party software solutions that can help, but acknowledged that they are rather expensive. Lightspeed admitted that his own in-house tracking system cost his company over $200 thousand to produce.
Sami told the audience that she often holds real world parties and invites her members; to date she hasn’t had any bad experiences with that approach.
As far as start-up expenses, the panel spoke about hosting costs, professional design fees, software scripts, and credit card processing.
“One of the most important parts of your business is hosting,” explained Garrett. He argued that opting for the cheap hosting company might be devastating if the result is site down-time.
All of the panelists seemed to agree, however, that when it comes to dealing with website service companies, it’s always best to find companies that have experience with adult websites.
