The Right Images
Posted On: 2013-12-26
Over on Porn Resource this week I talked ... as I often do ... about text ... the words we use on our websites to encourage people to buy what we're selling and I asked if we're using the right words to get people in the mood to buy. Here today I want to ask the question ... are we using the right images or video clips to make a sale?
Some years ago when I first got into this side of the industry one of the leading lights suggested that if we really wanted people to buy what we're selling then we should use slightly blurry images and tell the surfers that the quality of images was far better over on our sponsors' sites.
It's an interesting thought and it may well have worked back then but these days I doubt that you would get your free site or gallery listed on any traffic source if the images were blurry and you're main pitch was that if the surfer wanted better then he had better pull out the plastic.
Size was another issue too and beginners were advised to use small images and let the sponsor give the surfer big images when he signed up. Once again, these days you may struggle to get your sites and galleries listed anywhere if you only use small images.
So with size and quality out of the way what more can we do with images other than to throw them up and let all the freeloaders rip through them and tear up our bandwidth?
Well we can think about our images in the context of them being a sales tool and not being entertainment. If we were providing entertainment for our surfers then we'd be delivering huge images that show absolutely everything but we're not doing that ... we're trying to persuade them to buy a membership in our sponsor's site so that they can be entertained.
So what does that mean when it comes to the images that we display on our sites? Once again we're going to be limited by what rules our traffic sources have put in place because if we don't, we don't get any traffic and we don't get any sales and we're screwed.
That means that there are some images that we must use. If a TGP demands that we show the money shot then we just have to do it but what about the other images ... what should we use for those other images?
Well these days the experts say that making sales is all about persuasion. We can't force people to buy what we're selling ... we have to persuade them to buy. In mainstream we need to show people why they need the product we're selling and show them how much better their life would be if they bought that product.
While that principle still applies over here in adult we also need to do something else. The sites and galleries we build need to help fire up our surfers' fantasies ... our sites and galleries need to encourage our surfers to put themselves right there in the middle of all the action ... and if we choose the right images we can do that.
Maybe because I'm a woman I see things a little differently but then I've met guys who look at things in the same way I do. A lot of close up shots of cocks in pussies don't do much for me at all ... unless of course the cock is covered in pussy juice and then that tells me that the girl is really getting off on having that cock inside her.
What does do it for me are photos that show the start of the action ... maybe even with the participants still fully clothed and from there on photos that show the action starting. If you've got a photo of the couple kissing and establishing eye contact with each other then be sure to put that in too because those photos show real intimacy and that's important for a fantasy.
And the killer shot for fantasies isn't the money shot ... it's the shot that some photographers can get of the girl looking into the camera. She may not even be seeing the camera but she's sure showing that the action is blowing her away.
Those are the shots that persuade by appealing to the fantasies of your surfer. When you have a choice of images that you can use those ones are the photos that will make money and if you can ditch the money shot then do so.