Tour Introduction Pages (TIPs)

[Head Boy]

Being involved in the portal project planning has made me think about a few things, and one of them is the use of galleries. It seems a lot of people are churning out galleries to traditional formats, and they aren't really thinking about the reasons for using them. I took a step back, and looked at the aims that we have as affiliates. Our job is to find and warm up surfers, and then persuade them to take a tour for a paysite, we hope that the paysite will close the sale, and that we will get the credit for introducing that sale.

Once you accept that your job is to get the surfer hot and taking the tour, then you can start to think of ways to do this, and galleries are just one of the methods you can use. I've started to think of building tour introduction pages which I'm going to call TIPs. TIPs can be a sequence, and they should be a flow forward to the signup page, you don't want the surfer reversing if you can help it in case you lose him. If you want to convert a basic gallery into a TIPs format, then you should stop using a simple jpeg for the big picture, and you should use an html page with the jpeg embedded into it - include some sales text to try to carry the surfer forward onto the tour. Another alternative is my fours up clusters, these allow surfers to move through a small collection of pre-sales pictures, and there is always an attempt to lead him onto the tour. Yet another approach is a story, and make sure you include "calls to action" in the text. If you add a few thumbnails with links to larger pictures, then make sure that the surfer loads an html page with more sales text on it.

Mini-reviews and video pages are further options, but make sure you design a forward flow for the surfer onto the paysite tour.

Now who doesn't agree with me?

[Head Boy]

Fuck me, this is like pulling teeth. So is this too trivial for you guys, or is it that you don't understand what I'm saying. Or maybe you don't give a fuck, and just want to carry on doing the old 1990s stuff.

Maybe I should give up posting my thoughts.

[Gasta]

Excellent post !!!
TIP is a great concept to have in mind when willing to build pages that convert.

Thanks Head Boy for sharing us your great knowledge

[Carl0s2]

Originally Posted by Head Boy

Fuck me, this is like pulling teeth. So is this too trivial for you guys, or is it that you don't understand what I'm saying. Or maybe you don't give a fuck, and just want to carry on doing the old 1990s stuff.

Maybe I should give up posting my thoughts.

Hi HB, I read your post and thought it was a good idea. I didn't post straight away 'cos I'm fairly new and I didn't want to make an ass of myself so I thought I'd see what others had to say.

I'm not sure who would make these TIP's. Sponsors who make FHG's? Probably not people who make galleries for TGP's since most TGP's say you have to link thumbs directly to images - or am I wrong? What type of site do you see linking to TIP's?

[theNewGuy]

i tried a lil something like that last year a twist maybe on the fours up concept. A grouping of 2-3 pages with about 4-5 pics of different women from one site with banners and text links to the site on every page.

Also the option of checking out "the blonde mature" or the "redhead mature" etc... and of course the 'get them all now for $" option on every page.

Did not do great did not do too bad. But had to put it on the back burner. Please keep stating your ideas.

[fsudirectory]

Makes complete sense, it just sucks when sponsors dont have "direct to join" options and then the surfer needs to go through a bunch more free porn to possibly signup, but jerk off and dont pay before they do.

[papagmp]

Originally Posted by fsudirectory

Makes complete sense, it just sucks when sponsors dont have "direct to join" options and then the surfer needs to go through a bunch more free porn to possibly signup, but jerk off and dont pay before they do.

If it's a cc-bill sponsor that uses the standard cc-bill linking codes, you can always change the url directly to the signup or join page by replacing the url after the &html=

I also use my BYOT tool to build short - focused mini-tours

[hardcoreblogger]

i agree with you headboy, i use variations of what you call TIPs too. they work best when combined with a mini review, but i guess that's not what you wanna hear so let's replace "mini-review" by "excellent sales text"

[Big-D]

Good Post HB!

I more or less had the same sort of thought process go on this week regarding using html pages. Modifying the existing galleries I have to open to html pages is more time consuming than anything else but I have already begun working on some of that. Now those galleries arent for submission, but for my use on other sites. Anyways, I find it interesting that you had this same thought in about the same timeframe. LOL.


Big D

[ScreaM]

Awesome post Head Boy.

[RageCash-Ben]

Well said. The most you can filter your traffic the better your sales will be.

[_LB_]

I just dont see how this is any different from making a gallery but with pics on html. Been done before, and although you wont get listed by any tgps I am assuming its not for tgp use. Putting images on html pages has been around since the days of picposts and is a good way to generate more clicks.

[Head Boy]

I wouldn't dream of suggesting it's a new idea. It's an attempt to free webmasters from the constraints of solution based problem solving, and to try to get them to think of function based problem solving. TGP2 galleries have been around for ages, and they are an improvement on the standard tgp galleries. They are a solution based development that failed because they made sales rather than amplified traffic imho. They should be one of the things considered for your TIPs implementation, but then you should consider stories, single picture promotions, fours up clusters, and a number of other options in your quest to imprive sales.

[apcwebmaster]

Some people are just too stuck in thier ways to change, atleast before they thought they knew what they were doing but I think it's great your so generous with your ideas HB

There was something you said in the China traffic experiment thread that(coincidentally) lead me to think about this exact same slideshow type thing you're talking about here. If you use it don't forget to allow the surfer a way to get to the sponsor on every page and make it really easy to navigate. Maybe someone has an estimate of what would be(roughly) the optimal amount of slides using this format? I'd guess in the range of 3 to 7 would be good depending on the material