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A Bathtub Epiphany
Posted On 30 Nov 2000
“Busa revealed to me one of his thoughts on the subject: ‘Build a site YOU would like to surf.'”
“Busa revealed to me one of his thoughts on the subject: ‘Build a site YOU would like to surf.'”
Do you plan your sites before building them – and if so, do you consider what the customer wants, or just what you want him to have – and how do you know the difference between the two? Read on…
It all started a few weeks ago… I was having another of my little discussions with Busa, touching on a variety of paysite design and other related issues. I was telling him about how I am (still) in the process of re-building my main AVS site, when he revealed to me one of his thoughts on the subject: “Build a site that YOU would like to surf…”
I thought about this statement which seemed to defy all of my previous “marketing wisdom” which dictated that you should build products to satisfy the needs of your target market. That is to say, always try to give your customer what he wants not what you want him to have. Of course, since I was a consumer before I became a producer, I guess that I AM my target market after all!
What I Want
So I began to consider what I would like to see in an adult web site, and started listing the features and content that were most important to me. My initial results surprised me. While I originally thought about “live video feeds, high quality thumbnail galleries, interactive games etc.” what I ended up writing down was “clean and simple design, fast loading pages, and easy navigation.”
“It was then that I realized the ‘content’ of my ‘ideal site’ was not my top concern!”
It was then that I realized the “content” of my “ideal site” was not my top concern! Perhaps this is a reflection of my design background or of my past experiences with visiting and reviewing literally thousands of adult web sites. Or perhaps it shows my frustration over searching ten pages deep into a site, just to have to wait five minutes for a download of “Miss Right” to finish.
What About Content?
“Content isn’t important? You must be kidding?” I hear some of you say… Well, one dirty little secret of some of the bigger pay site operations is that despite their many individually themed front ends, their members areas contain nearly identical content – and in fact often share the same backend! The “Teen Teasers” site you joined one day may also be the “Mature Mammies” site you visited last month – with the only difference being the URL and the design of the tour pages! This isn’t always the case, but it happens more often than you might expect.
It is also a fact that many of the most popular sites rely on the same sources of content, and so duplication is inevitable. You will see this even more so on free sites – ask any site reviewer for a busy AVS, link list, or TGP; they’ll tell you exactly how often they see the same damn pics over and over again! Heck, I build MY sites using the same old sponsor content – then try to upsell the surfer to my sponsor for the perceived “good stuff.”
The point of my discourse is that while having a wide variety of fresh, high quality content, updated daily if possible, is very important to a successful site, there may be other factors that are equally, if not more important to your customers. The only real way for you to know what those factors are is to ask them. I asked myself and was surprised at the answers. Ask your own customers what’s important to them – you may be equally surprised!
Why a “Bathtub Epiphany” and what’s with the “cat”? I actually write most of my articles while sitting in an enormous bubble bath (on a clipboard, not balancing a laptop precariously on my knees). My young micro-tiger “Butterscotch” (he looks like “Garfield”) sits on the edge of the tub, assaulting errant bubbles. So when you read my articles and think to yourself “This guy’s all wet!” – you’re more correct than you know!
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