Moderator Quentin Boyer of XBIZ led the panel, which featured participants John Mauser from online store operator Effex Media, Colin Rowntree from content provider Wasteland, Rainey Stricklin from online advertising agency Traffic Dude, Kristin Wynters from video-on-demand provider Yappo and "Adult Broker" Lori Z.
When the discussion turned to branding, Lori Z. stressed the importance of consistency and continuity in graphic design, Rowntree concurred that graphic consistency was "absolutely critical." and Wynters suggested that a person should be the human face of a brand, the person that affiliates can turn to to get things done.
Rowntree mentioned that URLs should be looked at by a number of people, to make sure that a site's name isn't inadvertently offensive. He mentioned the "Fetish Hits" website: "You read it 'Fetish Shit.'" He also suggested that the youngest, newest designers, who grew up reading contemporary graphics, are the best for contemporary design.
"They've had viral [Nike] swoosh marketing shoved down their throats since they were three years old. They don't think like we do."
The large number of "-cash," "-bucks" and "-dollars" websites was noted, although it was pointed out that those names usually mean affiliate programs.
Rowntree pointed out the importance of customer service. "You need to project to affiliates that they're going to have an affiliate manager who's going to take care of them, who's going to give them exclusive content, somebody who's going to look at their stuff and say 'You can do this better.' The end user has to feel that they have all the tools that they need if they want to contact you, if they have a movie that won't play on their computer. You need a good working customer service department, both to service the affiliates and the end users."
Wynters said that Web 2.0 features like RSS feeds and forums can help build a community feeling among webmasters and end users by letting them interact with and learn from each other.
Wynters also suggested that price points that are set at unlikely numbers like $4.83, $8.11 and $12.52 can get better results than standard prices like $9.99, which led to a lively discussion about testing prices and getting consumer feedback.
Stricklin said that a flat $20 fee — "Like an ATM withdrawal" — can often get good results.
Rowntree said that when setting up radio buttons for a week trial, a month, and three months, "Set the default for one month. We did that and one-month sales quintupled."
He also pointed out that perception of value "is critical. One colleague said we weren't charging enough. We raised the price, and sales tripled. Don't underprice yourself by thinking you're undercutting the competition. Once you get it too low, people will think it's just cheap junk."
"Being a content producer, I have to just hold my breath and give away a lot of free content," Rowntree said. "The affiliates eat it up — look at all the free galleries — and all of that has to be produced. When you think about it, it feels like you're giving away content, but you aren't. You're giving away advertising tools. You've got to give away content to get a return."
Panelists suggested that market research was a good way to find what users wanted, and recommended Survey Monkey as a tool to build surveys.
Other forms of market research that were suggested was going to other sites and checking in, looking for ideas, and looking on mainstream discussion boards and discreetly plugging your own sites.
"For the do-it-yourselfer, set aside $100 a week for Google Ad Words," Rowntree said. "Start buying key word combinations. If you tie it in with Google Analytics to show page performance as they come to your site, you can get an extremely good idea of what key word combinations are going to get the highest click-through rates. If you have an affiliate program, you can start writing text descriptions that incorporate those key word combinations, and you know they work."
Lori Z. suggested that websites offer free-sample subscriptions of new sites to get feedback, and also suggested that free subscriptions to affiliated sites be offered to people canceling their subscriptions, to keep them in the system.
The XBIZ '08 Hollywood Conference continues through Friday at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, Calif.