An AVS Site

Steve

A Hooker's Free Porn

A lot of new webmasters are challenged by the thought of producing an AVS site. They stress about how such a site should look and think that their lack of graphical skills is some sort of impediment to turning out a good AVS site.

Hopefully this week's review will go some way to dispel that notion. Certainly some AVS sites have splash pages and graphics that look almost as good as a pay site but they are usually at the higher end of the AVS spectrum and fit into the AC Gold and CA platinum categories. Sites in those categories contain a large amount of content and so the use of a graphical tour is entirely appropriate.

However, there are lower levels of AVS sites that many people build for. The site under review is one such site and it contains just 30 images. You can find the site here:

With any AVS site you really need to check the rules of AVS that you are using. Some allow advertising on the outside pages and some do not so be sure that you understand the relevant rules before construction begins.

Of course that also raises another point about AVS sites. What is your aim in building the site? Are you trying to sell passes to the AVS, are you trying to sell your sponsor or is it a combination of both?

If you are building to sell the surfer on the AVS and then upsell the surfer to your sponsor in the protected area then sponsor advertising on the entrance pages should be avoided. If you are building to sell your sponsor then include as much advertising on the entrance pages as you can. If you are having a bet each way then do as this site does and include some limited sponsor advertising on your entrance pages.

On a basic AVS site you don't need to include any fancy graphics but it is certainly not something that you must avoid. With an AVS site you want to encourage the surfer to realise that it is a cut above the average free site and some graphics can go a long way to subtly suggesting that to the surfer.

You don't need to be a graphic artist with access to high-end graphic programs to achieve that either. The main graphic on the index page is just 14kb and was made using a standard filter in Paint Shop Pro. It also gives a clear indication of what the surfer is likely to find within the site.

The layout of the index page is somewhat different to what I would use but it does have some advantages. I would normally put the recip links much lower down the page but up where they are on this site they meet the link lists rules and at the same time are probably not going to be readily seen by the surfer.

Most surfers hit an index page looking for the enter link so putting the recips way up there will mean that the surfer will probably roll straight over them without actually seeing them.

There is very little text on that index page for a search engine spider to get its teeth into and those links do contain some important key words. Speaking of key words, if you will look into the source code you will see that the webmaster has failed to use any commas to separate the keywords in the relevant meta tag.

Just lately there are some people who have been suggesting that the use of commas is no-longer necessary in that tag but personally I think that is a mistake. The keyword meta tag still needs commas.

Moving on from the index page you will find that there are no free samples on the tour. Now some link lists expect an AVS site to provide free samples for the surfer but I rarely do. If my tours contain images they are usually not much more than a very big thumbnail and the webmaster who built this site has used a similar approach.

If you are desperate for traffic from the lists that demand free samples then I guess you need to include them but there are many high traffic lists that will accept a site like the one under review so why give anything away when you don't have to.

Personally I think the site is a little light on text. The webmaster who built this site is very talented when it comes to the use of text so I am a bit surprised that so little was used on this site.

On the other hand the tour is very tight and the surfer either ends up at the join page or at a sponsor. Unfortunately, as I write this, the join page has one glaring omission, that I expect will be soon corrected. At the moment when the surfer arrives at the join page he has only one option. He can join the AVS or he can …

Always provide the surfer with an option. He may not want to join the AVS so put a link well down the page that offers the surfer something else. Send him off to a hub, send him of to a full page ad, send him off to somewhere that has the potential to make you money but don't just leave him hanging there with no-where to go.

If the surfer does join what does he find inside the site? On a basic AVS site such as this one the layout of the protected area is very simple. It's basically a free site minus the index page. The protected pages must comply with the AVS's rules on sponsor links and some limit the size of the banners and text links and some impose a ratio of sponsor links to images but that is all.

Producing AVS sites is not some arcane or black art. They are almost as simple as a basic free site and they are a good way of making money in this industry.

To submit a site for review:

Send an email to Steve and put 'site review' in the subject