What are some good retention tips?

[JoesHO]

as was mentioned before, many of the sites today just do not even try to retain , or so it would seem.

Please share with me some tips that the old school used to retain ( not the auto rebill of course LOL)

But seriously do things like this work?

1.) exclusive content?
2.) multiple upsells and interactive devices such as games or message boards
3.) lower price for remaining a member ?
4.) pre pay 90 day memberships?
5.) added sites included as a one price for all type of thing ,etc.. ?

anything that comes to mind please share your thoughts on .

[ReverendSassy]

I'm sure all of those things help but I also think that adding in niche specific stories help too. If you're interested in doing that, hit me up at ReverendSassy@mail.com

[Trev]

Personally I think that when a surfer hits your site, pulls out the plastic and buys then he/she has seen something that ‘they’ want. They might have seen it on a hundred other sites, but chose to pay at yours.

Look at your tours, the answer is there somewhere and if they ain’t retaining then your not providing what your tours say you should be.

I also think getting member feedback is a massive thing so try including votes and stuff to your members area on just about everything…. Because people love to think their view matters (and when they pay the bills it does)

Words are a funny thing… we use them for the big sell but often they sell us short!



Hey but what the hell do I know… I used to process with Ibill and I lost my last recurring member to a site that’s been dead for over 2 years

[cj]

>>Look at your tours, the answer is there somewhere and if they ain’t retaining then your not providing what your tours say you should be.


Well I think he's just summarized the entire topic of retention into 1 sentence here folks!! LOL

Its pretty simple ... if someone signed up at your site they must have liked something in the tour ... so give them everything that's in the tour and everything remotely related to whats in the tour & expand it from there.

here's my question ... what do you think the maximum possible retention is if you did every single retention technique possible?

as a % from trial to full member .... how many people do you think it would be possible to keep, keeping in mind the % that cancel before they even login, non payers, etc ...

[gonzo]

Originally posted by cj@Mar 29 2005, 06:52 PM
>>Look at your tours, the answer is there somewhere and if they ain’t retaining then your not providing what your tours say you should be.


Well I think he's just summarized the entire topic of retention into 1 sentence here folks!! LOL

Its pretty simple ... if someone signed up at your site they must have liked something in the tour ... so give them everything that's in the tour and everything remotely related to whats in the tour & expand it from there.

here's my question ... what do you think the maximum possible retention is if you did every single retention technique possible?

as a % from trial to full member .... how many people do you think it would be possible to keep, keeping in mind the % that cancel before they even login, non payers, etc ...

I recently sent traffic to an Asian site that I couldnt figure out why they always cancelled. Would you believe that the hotties on the tour were no where to be found on the inside?

Give them what they paid for! And whats in the tour is what they are expecting!!

[helix]

Regulary scheduled updates for the content. But if you advertise weekly updates, make sure you have weekly updates. A content management system for the backend can simplify things.

[cj]

Gonzo, if you saw how mass produced front ends were developed you'd see why the connection between tours and members areas has never quite *clicked* LOL

the tour is built based on highest possible conversion and the members area is built on 'how much can we cram in here' ...

its a business plan that only works as long as surfers are stupid

here's my retention tip ....
i think affiliate programs should start skipping building tours, give an affiliate access to the members area and say 'build your own tour' based on our content ... every affiliate we've let do that has excellent traffic/stats/conversions ...

[Dravyk]

Back in the day, I used to write sponsors and say, I have content of the model on the tour. Is she actually in your site?

I'd always get the same answer "yes" ... whether they were in there or not!

... Scum! <_<

[Nickatilynx]

rhymer,springerdude , the dancing monkey is back...ahahahahaahah

have at 'em boys.

"The we do not edit posts" does not apply to Graham.

[Sausage]

What level of interactivity do you think members look for?

I am actually designing a new members area as we speak and am leaning towards making it as interactive (games, members board, model chat etc) as possible. Have you found that more a site being more interactive helps retention or maybe even damages it? Just interested in what some of you more experienced folk think..

[brand0n]

so you are trying to give the surfer what they are looking for to stay around longer amounts of time?


why would you do that? just throw "standard memebers page 34" up, click the prechecked cross sales, exit to a dialer/ expoit and make a million bucks




















wait a sec, your joe.. i forget

give the surfer wtf they want. if you are selling an anal site stock it fucking full of anal pics, movies and feeds, dont force a bunch of other shit they dont want down there neck in hopes of making an extra buck. go slow up alot of the major upsales (the more they spend with other companys the less time they are going to spend with you. i dont care what anyone says about this.) and when they cancel, send them a good bye letter saying we are sorry to see you leave.....but! click here now and for 12.95 well reissue your password for 6 months!

[JoesHO]

***click here now and for 12.95 well reissue your password for 6 months! ***

I like this idea, but I think 90 days would be a better term....

[flashfreak]

Originally posted by Sausage@Mar 29 2005, 07:55 PM
What level of interactivity do you think members look for?

I am actually designing a new members area as we speak and am leaning towards making it as interactive (games, members board, model chat etc) as possible. Have you found that more a site being more interactive helps retention or maybe even damages it? Just interested in what some of you more experienced folk think..

I agree, interactivity is the key to improve retention.
Surfers become more and more sophisticated, video and pic galleries is just not enough for them nowadays, they trade dvds with content from various sites and they can find it for free too on p2p networks.

they key is to create a community, to make them feel they belong to the site and this can be done only through interractivity.

ask them what they want to see next, install a voting script so they can give a score for each scene, install polling systems, start contests ( using our games of course ) giving away prizes like monthly memberships, mugs, t-shirts etc.

[brand0n]

Originally posted by JoesHO1@Mar 29 2005, 09:00 PM
***click here now and for 12.95 well reissue your password for 6 months! ***

I like this idea, but I think 90 days would be a better term....

who am i to argue

90 it is!

[Yug]

I'm not quite sold on the concept that 'give a surfer whats on the front page and it will retain better'.

I mean, I have been involved in my fair share of mass produced front ends with generic members sections to be sure. And I think theres a much better chance of the surfer converting past the '3 day trial' if you give them the same content that is on the front ...

... but I dont believe that is 'enough' to keep them coming back for months. And I know that there are those that never come back but keep getting billed, but they aren't really the ones you build better members sections for. They are the ones who kept the 'awesome frontend | generic members' concept going for so long.

The question is, how much difference does a dynamic, fresh and vibrant members section make to long term retention? I've heard that alot of adult companies have given awesome members sections a go, only to find that the retention levels stayed the same or only went up slightly. Or worse still, if they actually 'alerted' their members to new content, people were more likely to cancel.

In a perfect world, a user would sign up to a porn site in the same way they get a magazine subscription ... because they enjoy the content thats inside it, and they look forward to what the next month has to bring.

[Becky]

I'm also not sold on the idea of giving them what is on the tour and they will retain. After all, how many different pic sets do you use on the tour? I would be willing to bet it's not that high. So they can get through those in a pretty short period of time. Then what? I also don't think giving them a ton of other content is the key.

Updates are crucial, but I don't think that is the only thing. IMO, the price point is the biggest factor in retention. Find the right price point for the content you offer and the amount of updates you provide and you will have many happy PAYING customers.

[Inabon]

Originally posted by brand0n@Mar 29 2005, 08:10 PM
so you are trying to give the surfer what they are looking for to stay around longer amounts of time?


why would you do that? just throw "standard memebers page 34" up, click the prechecked cross sales, exit to a dialer/ expoit and make a million bucks




















wait a sec, your joe.. i forget

give the surfer wtf they want. if you are selling an anal site stock it fucking full of anal pics, movies and feeds, dont force a bunch of other shit they dont want down there neck in hopes of making an extra buck. go slow up alot of the major upsales (the more they spend with other companys the less time they are going to spend with you. i dont care what anyone says about this.) and when they cancel, send them a good bye letter saying we are sorry to see you leave.....but! click here now and for 12.95 well reissue your password for 6 months!

I agree 100% with the upsale thingy. it has to match content but it can not take your surfer away.

[gonzo]

Im curious to know what you guys give the surfer if its not whats on the tour? Them college calsses in marketing....must be worthless that I took.

Do you believe the surfer is a customer or a mark?

[Nickatilynx]

Until he pulls out his credit card a surfer is a bandwidth sucking leech , once he pays , give him what he wants...and again and again...and then sell him some stuff he really doesn't want , or need , but make him think he does

Simple really.

[Opti]

Originally posted by gonzo+Mar 31 2005, 03:24 AM-->
Most people have simply given surfers what they have or can get hold of content wise... then build tours to convert whatever traffic they can historically.

People yell about content is king but apart from a few sites that are like an extention of the operators personality and are obviously taking their entire life maintaining.. I'm not aware of any content rich site that works any better than a crappy one as an affiliate sending traffic.

I've never cared what content a site has.. just what they offer on the tour.. and some of them must still be making $$.. as they keep paying me.. so I'm sceptical you MUST have content to operate a profitable paysite. Seems like a lot of hard work if it doesn't help too ;-)

I would be looking at offers like the cheap rebill option when they go to cancel Joe... and offering them some extra reason to stay apart from your site content.. like the promise of a password to a different site as a "free bonus" each month they recur... or when they cancel, ask surfers if they werent satisfied with your site, if they can nominate another website that they do consider is good.. and mail those site suggestions to your member database for affiliate sales.

Opti

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