New Escort Website

[Guest ript4hire]

Hey guys - I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about how escorts are

really lacking a great site to advertise on. I mean there are tons of

options out there, but they are all somewhat missing the mark in my

opinion - hard to navigate, covered in banner ads, or fronts to make you

pay to see pics. So I am getting together with a buddy of mine to work

on a new project - I am supplying the escort "know how" and he's

handling the web tech stuff.

 

I thought hitting you boys up for some market research would be a great

first step. He and I have put together a short list of questions to get

a better idea on your thoughts and feelings on the subject - should only

take a few minutes to fill out:

 

http://www.escorteric.com/questions.php

 

Thanks to everyone who decides to help out! :9

 

Eric

[Kevin Slater]

I notice the page doesn't seem to solicit input from other escorts. I filled in the applicable fields regardless.

 

For the sake of discussion, here's what I said I like about rentboy:

Lets you advertise as 'available now', charges the escort and not the client, lets you post many pics which it does not crop, allows you to post a direct link to your personal website, approves your ad very quickly, has a physical presence in NYC, alternates 'rentboy of the day', doesn't edit your text, allows you to pay for premium placement, billing is straight-forward, keeps a copy of original emails sent to you on their server, allows you to set up a completely separate ad when you travel, and frankly it's where the business is.

 

And what I dislike about men4rentnow:

By default returns guys who aren't actually in the city you're looking for, heavily edits the text of your ad without clearing it by you, doesn't allow a link to your personal site, seems to be run out of a data center in India, billing through a third party is a nightmare, has a very limited text field, has a disingenuous escort review capacity, leaves ads up for escorts no longer in the biz, doesn't allow the client to send a useful email in his initial contact (severely limits his text field), and for some reason generates a disproportional amount of fake/ spam responses. On the upside, it does offer a 'stud list' which rentboy should adopt.

 

Good luck with your site.

 

Kevin Slater

[JT Brooklyn]

Eric..I answered your Survey..Now it's Time for you..To Answer My Prayer's Once Again! LOL ;-)

[Guest ript4hire]

Thanks Kevin - we are definitely going to be asking escort some similar

questions, but that is stage #2. Right now we are working on the site

from the client's perspective - we want to ensure that they have the

best possible user experience, thus ensuring they continue to use the

site ... after all, that is ultimately what will make it the best for

the escorts as well!

 

Once we have a handle on that, we will be asking the working boys for

additional input ...

 

Eric

[Yeswell]

I answered your survey. I hope my answers will be helpful. No doubt I've already won the free date. I agree with that nice man with the large penis who said that the best thing on men4rentnow is the stud list--they really should have that on rentboy.

[+ Axiom2001]

>I answered your survey. I hope my answers will be helpful.

>No doubt I've already won the free date. I agree with that

>nice man with the large penis who said that the best thing on

>men4rentnow is the stud list--they really should have that on

>rentboy.

 

 

 

> ...ditto the above! :-)

[best hotel]

...i answered as well....and missed the part about the free date ....how about a second prize for free second hour?

[Rick Munroe]

>And what I dislike about men4rentnow:

heavily edits the text of your ad without

>clearing it by you

 

That's been the most frustrating for me. As you say, it seems to be based in India, which explains why their customer service people have limited English capability. They constantly edit our ad, seemingly at random, and when asked why, the answer is always, "Dear Sir, explicit or suggestive content will be edited." Recently, they edited our sentence which said, "We always make you the center of attention, unless you just want to watch" and changed it to, "We always make you the center of attention, unless." When I wrote to ask why they did that, the response was "Dear Sir, explicit or suggestive content will be edited." When I wrote back to ask what was explicit about the words "you just want to watch," I got the same "Dear Sir" reply again.

 

Last week, I updated some pics on our ad, and when they approved the pic change, they randomly edited the text again (even though I hadn't changed the text). What they changed this time was: "We are both truly versatile, whether you are top or bottom" became "We are both truly versatile, top or bottom." Yes, they removed "whether you are" and when I asked why the words "whether you are" were considered "explicit or suggestive" but not the words "top or bottom," I got the same robot-like "Dear Sir" reply. And you never know they've edited your ad unless you regularly check it. Quite frustrating "customer service," especially when we're paying $80 a month for the ad.

[Guest zipperzone]

Rick - just curious.... does the ad pull in enough business to justify the frustration with the admin?

 

I am SO against dealing with any company that outsources their business off-shore, especially when they don't have sufficient command of English. But it is becoming almost impossible to avoid.

[Kevin Slater]

>does the ad pull in enough business

>to justify the frustration with the admin?

 

Unfortunately it's my second biggest lead generator (after rentboy) or else I wouldn't put up with it.

 

Kevin Slater

[Rick Munroe]

>Rick - just curious.... does the ad pull in enough business

>to justify the frustration with the admin?

 

Unfortunately, yes. It's a very useful site, especially when we travel (I think NYC is more of a rentboy kind of town, at least for D & me). I really don't understand their policies at all; very explicit photos of hardons and spread holes can be posted, but random innocent-sounding words ("watch"??) are deemed too racy. I wonder what "watch" means in Hindi.

 

>I am SO against dealing with any company that outsources their

>business off-shore

 

I thought of that, too, but is it actually outsourcing if they're based in India to begin with? (Sorry, I meant, "with which to begin"!). I wonder if it ever was a U.S. company...

[Bart]

I think it is important to have a bit open discussion regarding the various sites for escorts to advertise on. I like what Eric is proposing but I think some open discussion here might broaden the discussion.

 

First from an escorts perspective he can hear what clients like about certain websites and the types of ads posted. Maybe some escorts would improve their ads.

 

One thing I would like to know is how much prompting is made by the site when posting an ad. For the experienced vetran and well versed in English the ads are somewhat complete whereas for others the ad tells the client nothing and seems a waste. Would it not make sense for a website to do all it can, so its subscribers can take the most advantage of all it has to offer.

 

Also hearing from escorts can help other escorts as to problems they may be having with a site. Rick's comment that you need to check you ad regularly to make sure nothing changed or ad disappeared. I have heard each time you go to make any change on Rentboy certain buttons return to a default in the Stats like "Safe Sex" answer becomes "prefer not to say" . If that is the case I would find that as a significant and annoying problem that any good web designer should be able to handle.

 

Second the client can hear from the escort why maybe they do not advertise on some websites as opposed to others. I find it amazing that websites are very city orientated. A city like NY rentboy is king yet a city like Chicago I think men4rent does better. I would think a guy looking to hire would use a google search and the same results would come up. Maybe similar to the old Yellow Book dilemma where you try to be first so the number of companies with A is disproportional to anyother letter in the phone book.

 

Anyway good luck Eric with your search, development and willingness to look at the big picture. I actually think this is a huge undertaking. By the way please ad a spell check feature for the email piece. Majority of clients and escorts do not like to come off like we never went to school. We would all look a smarter. Sorry I sucked in both English and spelling. So I am always missing or misusing words.

[Guest ript4hire]

Thanks guys - I have been getting a TON of great feedback both on here

and through the questionnaire I listed in the original post, and my

web guy and I look forward to implementing as many of your suggestions

as possible!

 

Of course, some ideas (while great) just won't work in a business

model where the escorts are eventually going to be paying for their

profiles. For example many people have suggested having a fleshed out

review portion of the site - however I don't really believe that an

"ad site" and a "review site" should be one and the same. As a

working boy myself, I know I would be hesitant to pay for advertising

space on a site that had unkind posts about me ... and if you can't

have positive and negative reviews, then there really isn't any point!

 

Others have suggested mandating that all escorts fill out every single

field or stat - again, as the escorts will be the ones paying for the

profile, it will be theirs to do with as they please (to an extent).

 

But keep the ideas coming! Something we are extremely interested in

is ideas on how to get the word out. We know we can design and

program a superior product, but that won't mean anything if we don't

have visitors. So far almost every person who has contacted me has

stated that they find out about new sites from this forum - I guess

that is natural, as I am asking for opinions FROM this forum. But let

me know what you all think would be the best way to increase

visibility - web advertising, print publications, etc.

 

Thanks guys! Very excited about this project ..

 

Eric

[Kevin Slater]

>Of course, some ideas (while great) just won't work in a

>business

>model where the escorts are eventually going to be paying for

>their

>profiles. For example many people have suggested having a

>fleshed out

>review portion of the site - however I don't really believe

>that an

>"ad site" and a "review site" should be

>one and the same. As a

>working boy myself, I know I would be hesitant to pay for

>advertising

>space on a site that had unkind posts about me ... and if you

>can't

>have positive and negative reviews, then there really isn't

>any point!

 

I agree 100%. I've tried to express this idea to rentboy (which has been trying to push the 'rentboy reviews' for years). I don't see how that fits their revenue model and like you say, I think it's inappropriate for one site to offer both advertising and critical review. Out of curiosity, does Consumer Reports take outside advertising?

 

Kevin Slater

[Guest josephga]

I agree about not having reviews on sites that you are paying too post on.

[Kevin Slater]

>One thing I would like to know is how much prompting is made

>by the site when posting an ad. For the experienced vetran and

>well versed in English the ads are somewhat complete whereas

>for others the ad tells the client nothing and seems a waste.

>Would it not make sense for a website to do all it can, so its

>subscribers can take the most advantage of all it has to

>offer.

 

I disagree. From my perspective I want the site to take my ad with a minimum of interference; I don't want some outside source encouraging me on which message to send in my advertising. (See the complaints about men4rentnow.) If I were to hire, I'd want to see how the guy comes across naturally; if he can't present himself in his advertising I think that tells me a bit of what to expect in person. The free market is a wonderful thing, and a guy who's ad is sub par should get that message very quickly. I suspect I'm more persnickety about branding and syntax than the average fellow and I'm happy to see whom I'd actually be hiring as I look through the ads.

 

>By the way please ad a spell check

>feature for the email piece. Majority of clients and escorts

>do not like to come off like we never went to school. We would

>all look a smarter. Sorry I sucked in both English and

>spelling. So I am always missing or misusing words.

 

I use Firefox as my browser and it has a wonderful spell-check feature built in. (It's caught five or six words in this post alone.) I suspect other browsers offer the same; you might want to give that a try. Off course, the reel beef with any spell-checker is that it doz nothing to keep ewe from misusing words.

 

Kevin Slater

[Rick Munroe]

>I suspect I'm more

>persnickety about branding and syntax than the average fellow

 

That may be true, because I don't think the average fellow even says "persnickety."

[Andre]

I love the business that rentboy pulls in. However, they have strange policies. When I tried to renew my Ad yesterday and It would not take my credit card. I called the office and they said I need to mail them the credit card authorization form that is located on the website. I had to do the same thing the first time I advertised with them two years ago and I would think that one time is enough. They said is not because I’m using a different card.

 

On a different note, I think that the people that work at the NY office are rude and have no customer service skills.

 

Other than that, the ad is worth every penny and it pays for its self

[Guest zipperzone]

>I love the business that rentboy pulls in. However, they have

>strange policies.

 

You can say that again!

 

A policy they have that drives me nuts is that they disallow a "right click" so you can't save an escort's picture.

 

Why would this be? The pictures are not theirs. They are provided by the escort and presumably belong to him. I can agree with a policy that allows the escort to say whether he wants viewers to have the ability to save his pics or not. But it should not automatically be the decision of Rentboy.

 

Am I alone in this viewpoint? Or perhaps wrong? (Perish the thought :-) )

[sfonewbie]

>A policy they have that drives me nuts is that they disallow a

>"right click" so you can't save an escort's

>picture.

 

In Firefox:

Go to Preferences.

Click Content tab.

Next to Enable JavaScript, click Advanced.

Un-check Disable or Replace Context Menus.

Click OK.

Close Preferences.

 

You'll still get the annoying message, but after that you'll get the context menu so you can save the pic.

 

If you don't want to use Firefox, you could empty the browser cache just before you visit the site, then search the browser cache for the pic and save it from there. This strikes me as being a pain, however, so my rec is to use Firefox.

[Kevin Slater]

>>A policy they have that drives me nuts is that they

>disallow a

>>"right click" so you can't save an escort's

>>picture.

>

>In Firefox:

>Go to Preferences.

>Click Content tab.

>Next to Enable JavaScript, click Advanced.

>Un-check Disable or Replace Context Menus.

>Click OK.

>Close Preferences.

>

>You'll still get the annoying message, but after that you'll

>get the context menu so you can save the pic.

 

Wow, neat concept but I can't get it to work for me. I unchecked said box, but when I right-click on the image I still get the pop-up box (like you said I would) and can do nothing more until I click 'ok'. After thatI don't get any context menu; it's just back to the regular page. If I right-click again, I just get the same pop-up box which freezes my browser until I click 'ok'. I restarted Firefox just in case that was the problem; still doesn't work.

 

Kevin Slater

[ted]

to save pics from Rentboy using internet explorer

 

go to the second page - the page that comes up when you click more pictures

under "File" click "save as" default file name is rentboy v4_0

in "save as type" block choose "web page complete,(*.htm,*.html)

save it to wherever you want it it defaults as Rentboy v4_0 in "My Docs" typically

open the Rentboy v4_0 folder

open the "getrb files" folder

the pics will be in the folder and you can now save them wherever you want

I usually go back and delete the rentboy v4 folder once I've copied the goodies but you don't have too

[+ deej]

Try a fast double right-click on the image.

 

The first fires their dialog, but when you click the OK button you'll get the context menu.

[Guest zipperzone]

Ted: Thanks for the tip. Works like a charm. :-)

 

I still think they should leave it up to the escort who is paying the bill as to whether he wants viewers to be able to save his pics directly from the screen. But it's good to know there is a way around that.

[best hotel]

...i don't think i was clear enough about this in my response to the survey....i would suggest one ad per escort....one guy currently has 13 ads on the first 5 pages on rentboy in nyc....it is really disappointing to find out that a given new escort with great pics and a porn star body is actually the same guy with another fake ad and stolen pics (from a porn star)...and the phone numbers, descriptions, and fees are different...i don't know how this can be prevented, but i hope you smart guys figure it out...now do i win the free date?