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Klixxx Magazine Archive - Web Content |
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How Good Are You Really?: The Importance of Quality Content in the 1% Age
by Kath Blackwell
As affiliate program owners scramble to lower their charge back ratios to 1% or under as a result of the new Visa regulations that are to take effect on October 1st, 2003, new focus is finally placed upon quality-versus-quantity with regard to membership site content.
So here's the million-dollar question - how good is YOUR content - really? Let's be honest... do you fill your site with content that will keep your members happy and recurring for months to come - or do you just slap together whatever you can find "for cheap," and hope that they won't notice? Do you fill your members' area with 500,000+ photos from the 80's; one or two video feeds from an over-used content dealer, and throw in a few badly written erotic stories for good measure? Some companies do - and have done so for many years - but things are about to change. As the value of the member - and more specifically the highly prized recurring member - continues to increase, more companies will recognize the power of quality content and put these behind-the-times companies with old, out-dated and over-used content- out of business.
Site owners must become much more content savvy and aware of the needs and desires of his customers - especially after the Visa changes and regulations that have caused the "trickle down" effect upon the industry as a whole. But don't just be concerned with the quality of the content - also pay great attention to targeting the niche content effectively, in order to satisfy your customers.
In light of all these changes to business approach and procedure, today's new industry motto should be "give the customer what he wants" instead of the old "f*** the surfer" mantra that was chanted by webmasters just a few years ago. It's such a basic and fundamental concept - improving the site owner and customer relationship - that it's almost silly. Still it's one that many site owners just don't "get." Giving your members the content that you promised during the tour, fresh content on a regular basis, exclusive content whenever possible - plus featured events and other must-see content, will help your member retention and increase your overall profits. It's really - honestly - just as simple as that!
THE 1% CHARGE BACK REQUIREMENTS
When Visa announced that it was going to lower it's domestic charge-back ratio from 2.5% to 1% and its foreign ratio from 2.5% to 2.0% effective this October, it caused a major panic within the industry. As a result of the new regulations, many webmaster affiliate programs scrambled to find new ways to cut their current ratios closer to the new figure in order to reach compliance in time. Webmasters with higher-than-average charge-back ratio accounts were given notice to improve - some were just dropped altogether. Webmaster payouts dropped on average about $10 per sign-up across the board - and monthly membership fees for surfers also dropped on average, about $10 per month.
However, is dropping the monthly membership rate and dropping webmasters with poor charge-back records the whole answer - or just part of what's needed to find a solution? When you drop the monthly membership rates to try and cut back on monthly charge-backs - and you cut the opportunity for cross-sells and other "unsavory" means of income generation from certain Web sites - you finish up at the end of the day making $10 less per sale (or more). Multiply that $10 per customer, times the number of total customers within your membership database, and that adds up to quite a lot!
How can you find new and creative ways to make back that ten bucks, without increasing your charge-back ratio, and do it honestly? Quality is the answer. Building a quality site filled with quality content increases your chances for a recurring membership.
PART TWO: The Recurring Scenario
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