In my next installment, we’ll get down to details“Since nobody pays to enter a “free” site, I’m under no obligation to provide universal access; this allows me to make the site as “happy” as I want – full of DHTML, JavaScripts, browser specific code, and whatever else I desire!”
While developing the “profit plan” for Project: Pic Post, I gave a lot of thought to who would use this site. Since nobody pays to enter a “free” site, I am under no obligation to provide universal access; this allows me to make the site as “happy” as I want – full of DHTML, funky JavaScripts, browser-specific code, and whatever else I might desire! While much of the content wouldn’t cost me anything, I wanted to keep my expenses as low as possible – after all “a penny saved is a penny earned.” To do this I needed a way to filter my traffic, and so a radical plan was born…
How could I allow new users (those who are most likely to visit my sponsors and purchase a membership) into my site, while eliminating as many free loaders as possible? While there is no “foolproof” way, I decided to segregate users upon entering my site. Only those with MSIE 4+ or Netscape 4+ with Java enabled would be allowed to enter; other users would be sent straight to my sponsor laden “exit” pages.
I can hear some of you exclaiming “Wow! He’ll lose a lot of traffic and sales that way!” I have to disagree. According to my server logs, >80% of my visitors use MSIE 4+ or Netscape 4+. If they are using something less advanced, why is that? They are either using a “non-standard” browser (which probably means they aren’t “serious”) or they are on a “legacy” system which means they probably cannot afford to sign up with my sponsors. Either way they’re a waste of bandwidth and are sent straight to my exit pages. I win!
But what about surfers who have Java disabled? Let me relate a story: I recently had the opportunity to provide customer support for some pay sites, and I can tell you that the majority of people who sign up for them wouldn’t know a JavaScript if it bit them in the ass, let alone how to disable it in their browser. If a surfer is advanced enough to know how to disable Java, he’s smart enough to realize that all the porn he could ever want is available online for free – so he’s very unlikely to whip out the plastic and sign up with your sponsor! Let him go off and burn somebody else’s bandwidth!
Is my filtering scheme costing me sales? Probably not, in fact it may increase them as those who slip through the filter are sent to my exit page, which links to my sponsors and other sites. Also, to ease the “disappointment” of those who don’t make it into the “real” site, I offer extensive “content” on the main exit page – so much so that it would pass for the actual site! As a Mac user put it “I wouldn’t get upset if there were tits on that page!”
In my next installment, we’ll get down to details
