The adult Internet space has become a competitive marketplace, particularly the pay-site segment. With such a competitive environment, webmasters and affiliate reps need to be getting the most traffic and sales from all their traffic sources. One segment that's become an excellent source of sales is review sites. The question is: Are you maximizing everything that these sites have to offer? Here are some great tips and advice on how to maximize your relationship with the review-site market.
Get your sites listed
Get your sites listed on as many of the review sites as possible. Although review sites historically do not have the largest volume of traffic, they do have some of the most highly qualified and targeted traffic. Some of the review sites will even let you get listed right away and hold off on doing the review initially. These listings will drive an amazing number of sales just by themselves. If the review site requires your site to be reviewed right away, just make sure you're ready. Review sites will not take down your review just because you are not happy with it. Work out all your bugs first.
Find out the review criteria that each review site uses before building your pay sites
Most webmasters go about this backward. Instead of doing their research and finding out what factors the review sites think are necessary to be one of the top sites in our industry, they build out sites and then try to reverse-engineer with changes and fixes. Most reputable websites will give you the specific criteria they base their reviews on. If you haven't asked them for it, do so. Then read through them and incorporate as many features as possible into your sites.
Read your reviews with an open mind
Pay sites are like our own children. We love them, nourish them and take care of them 24/7. It can be frustrating and devastating if you feel you received a poor review. As much as that may be difficult, try to think of the reviews as constructive feedback from an independent third party. The review sites are not trying to give you a poor score; they did so for specific reasons. Take a look and see if the reviewer possibly may have a point. Take their comments and use them as energy to constantly improve on your sites. If you have questions about your review, ask for clarification. The sites should happily clarify and explain their opinions. Additionally, most if not all review sites will re-review your site again once you have had time to make improvements and changes.
Use the review sites to beta-test
Review-site traffic is very consistent traffic. Each review site should generally convert at a constant ratio on your pay sites. When you're launching a new product, ask the review sites to send you some beta traffic. If the site does not convert at the same or better ratios than you are used to, then you know to retool and improve your tour pages. If your beta site is converting at better than usual ratios from the review sites, you know you are on the right track and ready to move toward launch.
Review sites are research databases
Are you looking at the next niche to break into? Are you looking for a great site to add to your member-area upsells? Are you checking out what is happening with the top sites in the categories that you compete in? These and many more reasons are why you should be searching through review sites for market research and data. Comparing what each of the review sites is saying about all the other sites out there is a great way to determine your next strategic move. Don't let this valuable and free market research go to waste.
Then go out and buy memberships to some of the top-rated sites. There are specific reasons why the review sites think those sites are the best in the business, so go figure it out. Most webmasters have no true idea what their competition is because they do not do their homework.
User comment and reviews
Many review sites now let your customers post comments and reviews about your sites. Make sure to scroll down and read those, too. User-supplied feedback is another great tool to asses and improve your websites. Users are more likely to be open and post their true opinions on the review sites than on your members' area forums and polls. The user opinions combined with the official reviews will give you an overall independent view of how your site is perceived in the marketplace.
--Vegas Ken is the director of marketing and public relations for The Best Porn.
This article originally appeared in the December issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe.
