For those of you who have been with TrailerAddict since our birth back in 2008, or those who follow us on Facebook Page or Twitter Page, let me start by saying "Thank You."
My name is Ryan Parsons, and I am one of two (co-) founders of TrailerAddict; the other being Shawn Lewis. Sometimes as a founder you are presented with tough decisions on how to grow your brand in ways that are best for the brand and, more importantly, best for the user. But to mention growth we first need to go back to the beginning.
TrailerAddict was launched with the simple idea of allowing users to watch video content without the hassle of pre-rolls. As an added bonus, the video was supplied in both 480p and 720p. During our launch, TrailerAddict was one of the first video services to offer resolutions surpassing 480p. Nowadays everybody is doing high resolutions. While we have lost that edge, we have tried to remain vigilant in sticking with our motto: "Where pre-rolls go to die." Which brings me to the point.
We here at TrailerAddict have listened to your feedback, suggestions and, of course, complaints on how to make the site better. Yes, we know it's cluttered. We have a lot of information and we can't help but to show it all off... at once. And we know our video resolutions aren't the industry leader anymore, but that is definitley fixable. So, with that being said, what's next?
The (Dirty) Proposition
TrailerAddict is looking to go under a site redesign, ranging from the webpages all the way down to the player. Less clutter will be our primary aim, while also improving a user's ability to navigate the site. The player not only will be bigger, but will be available in both flash, as it is now, and HTML5. To further improve user experience we plan on removing all banner ads from content pages. Awesome, right? Well, here's the catch...
We are considering running pre-rolls.
Wowza! We are struggling with the notion too, but here is what can be gained from pre-rolls.
First, there will be none of the noisy banners that have been an issue of late to interfere with your video. The video page will be without banners, period. By not having banners, the player will be able to take up the entire width of the page. Also, TrailerAddict will begin offering resolutions of 1080p/720p for those videophiles who demand such. By adopting pre-rolls, TrailerAddict pages will open quicker, be able to provide more information without the clutter, and, in short, be less annoying. Yeah, I know, I said it.
But, we're not going to do a thing before we get feedback from our visitors. So, feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook Page or Twitter Page, or you can email us directly.
Is a site update long overdue? Or should we not change a thing? Does swapping banners for pre-rolls sound like a good idea, or a horrible one?
We look forward to hearing for you and thanks again!
