Yes, we know it’s been a while since we last spoke or as it is called today made a status update. We’ve stopped posting to our Digital Mints Pattaya, Official Facebook Page because we’ve been having an ongoing issue. The exact issue… all our photographs of the ladies are being reported and deemed too sexy for facebook; now we’re not too sure whether to be upset or take it as a compliment?
Regardless, this has not helped us. Our page has been censored and suppressed by facebook, our last post was September 12th nearly two months ago. Many of our followers know why we went dark and this blog post is to get our story out and reveal what our plans are to get us back online.
The reason for the new website is we want to take back the control of the content we create and publish online. Yes a lot of people will say, ‘websites are dead and everyone just uses facebook’. Well thank you for your infinite wisdom and those who are of this mindset are the same people who will never venture further than the Shire.
Having our own website frees us from the nipple of facebook and its censorship but most importantly it puts the control back in our hands. This makes our brand and business stronger, relevant and fresh in the eyes of readers and the overall market. Creating your own content is a challenge and takes some serious dedication and creativity. Being dependent on Facebook’s daily little posting box dumbs down the possibility of expanding your content into more creative avenues.
CREATING OUR OWN CONTENT
Being able to create our own content in a market that is lacking quality or doesn’t have anyone really covering it is a great opportunity. An opportunity to become the leader in the field; this just is another way to strengthen our brand and business. One thing we know for sure is that people love Pattaya and they love devouring content on Pattaya. People save up all year to come here for 2 weeks, a month or more to blow their minds out then go back home and hangout online counting down the days until their next visit. When back home they will be on dedicated private chat forums / websites or secretly follow / subscribe to a facebook group, all to find out what’s happening in Pattaya. Mostly, to keep up with tabs on their favorite Pattaya bar girl or the party scene and what’s new in the Extreme City.
If we can create the content and provide the information and have our website become that source for them – then by all means why not do it? Digital Mints is Pattaya’s dedicated Bar Girl and GoGo Girl photographer / videographer so we have direct access to the product and now it’s our chance to supply it to the users.
This was one of the photos that Facebook claimed violated their community standards and melted down the platform triggering people into a deep rage.
The difference between doing editorial as opposed to a YouTube channel is that Pattaya YouTuber’s are more geared towards documenting daily/ weekly updates about living in Pattaya on the cheap or traveling around Thailand. They have to be very careful at how they divulge / present information online – especially when it comes to video.
It also depends on how the person or company providing the content wants to expose it, oftentimes they’re taking chances pushing the boundaries in this overly PC climate.
Editorials are a little bit more safer and discreet. Whereas in videos what happens or goes on in certain aspects of the nightlife here it will more than likely get you in hot water and you have to be extremely careful of pointing the camera at the wrong face as there are a lot of people in Pattaya that value privacy. People are more sensitive as there are some who don’t want their misses back home to find out they were in Pattaya.
Creating Our Own Galleries
Digital Mints has been photographing in Pattaya since 2018 and we have acquired and built up quite the archive with an impressive batch of galleries that contain almost 10,000+ photos. Though we won’t be publishing all 10k photos – we have obviously curated these down to only the best. If we didn’t curate or delete rejected photos our archive could easily blow past 25k photos.
The one thing you are going to notice immediately and come to appreciate is how we have constructed our Galleries. They are much more detailed and easy to navigate and also very user friendly. It doesn’t function in a clunky or unthought of way as if it was just thrown together, uploaded without thinking of the user just to get click’s.
THE “GALLERIES” tab
This as you ‘now’ know is obviously our main feature for the site. The nice thing about the Galleries tab is that it will be compatible on the majority of all devices and function as an app. Think of it as iTunes meets Bar Girls.
► When clicked on it will take you to the page containing all the galleries of the bars we have photographed.
► In the middle of the page there will be a “Show All” menu populated with the names of all the establishments. Here you can select the Bar or AGo Go of your choice.
► From here it will filter out all the other Bars and AGo Go’s populating the page with all the albums of the establishment you selected in chronological order of their upload date.
► When viewing the dedicated album for a selected bar all the photos will be displayed along with other information for the establishment. A sidebar bar on the left hand side of the screen will contain the venue’s branding and logo, followed by a brief description, a link to their full archive including all their social media links. We will also be implementing a google map where it will feature the establishments location.
► There is also a nice little feature on the left hand side of the website where the user can toggle between a visual preference of light or dark mode.
Adapt or Die
We understand there are business owners out there who still think til’ this day that being online is not effective nor does it really work for getting people in their front door or boosting sales. We understand it’s just a fad… it’s been a growing and evolving fad since 2001 when people were saying the internet and social media won’t catch on it’ll die a slow death. We agree with you… totally, 100%. It’s just a fad. Let it pass. You can end reading the blog post here and go back to hanging out on a Farang Yak Yak Blah Blah Visa Forum.
This is probably considered top-notch design and branding in the eyes of some bar owners and managers. This flat, outdated design for a website built in web 1.0 is good enough. How about that enticing crock pot stew in a AGo Go.
Or you could have something nice and flashy with all the bells and whistles give it a ‘slick and sexy’ professional style like the Digital Mints website. But, since you already have the best bar in Pattaya why would you need something like this to represent your business online?
Since, March of 2020 when Thailand went into its first lockdown we used this time to evaluate not only the market but the ONLINE MARKET. COVID 19 really put a dent in western economies and people are going to be financially hurting for a while. This is a serious realization business owners better accept. Saying something like, “Ohh… in a year or two we will be back to normal, don’t worry about it.” People are saying that because they have a lot riding and do not want to accept the reality of the situation we’ve all been dealt.
Searching for quality websites on Google can be a daunting and time consuming task.
What we are in essence doing is taking a part of Pattaya’s online image and modernizing; a taxing and challenging task to execute. We did lots of research on websites out there dedicated to the ‘naughty nightlife’ here in Thailand and visually the majority of these sites were simply outdated and absolutely useless.
One thing for sure is that there will always be a Steve Job’s of Soi 6, wearing a super-tight, stretchy nylon t-shirt plastered with an oversized bar logo, in cargo shorts telling us we’re doing it wrong or we don’t know what we’re doing…
The Digital Mints website can bring a fresh and more vibrant younger feel to the online world of nightlife in Pattaya.
CONSISTENCY ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS
Another key ingredient to keeping our focus tight and branding strong was to keep all our social media platforms looking consistent in style and updated regularly.
The image slider below is our desktop version of all our social media sites for Digital Mints. Consistency is key to keeping a strong online image.
Having the branding consistent across all platforms is what is needed to create a strong and identifiable brand. There are lots of Pattaya businesses that really don’t care about keeping their social media neat and tidy and that is their choice. Making the brand consistent allows your brand image to stand out. The more visually appealing it is with quality work you are letting your audience know you have a professionalism and higher level of standard in your business practices.
CONSISTENCY ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS
We’re fortunate and proud to take this opportunity with our 3 year old Digital Mints website and bring it up to date.
There was plenty of motivation floating around out there during the first lockdown with people proclaiming how now was the time to ‘change’ and update old business models. It’s easy to get motivated and ride that ‘euphoric high’ you get from it for the first few days or even weeks. The voices inside your head tell you what a great idea it is and how now is the time to change – break old habits and start fresh.
One thing for sure is that there will always be a Steve Job’s of Soi 6, wearing a super-tight, stretchy nylon dry-fit t-shirt plastered with an over-sized bar logo, in cargo shorts telling us we’re doing it wrong or we don’t know what we’re doing… and that we really don’t know branding or how Thailand works. This is normal and expected.
At the end of the day we wanted to fight for what we’ve built and adapt it to the changing times and remain relevant in a world where being online is going to become bigger and more important than ever before.
We are in a new era and it’s better to be ahead of the curve then becoming flattened by the curve.
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