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Domain Name Extensions + SEO
With a slew of new TLD (Top Level Domain) extensions being launched in the first quarter of 2004 in addition to the hundreds already available how many of us actually take time to consider that when we register a .com, .net or, .org domain how will these sites help or hinder us with our search engine work? This is what we will take a closer look at in this article.
Domain Name Extensions – What Are They?
First of all, before we look at how the extensions of our domain names can assist us in running our search engine optimization methods we need to understand what the TLD’s themselves are actually for. Domain name extensions are essentially a way to recognize specific locales via the usage of domain names so for example, the domain name extension .com were primarily set up as commercial domain names however, with the commercial use of this extension it has also become, without a doubt the most popular extension for individuals or companies registering new domain names. In addition to the TLD extensions there are also a selection of domains extensions ranging from industry specific extensions such as .aero to country specific extensions such as .co.uk.Domain Name Extensions And Search Engines.
Now we understand what the domain name extensions were put in place for we can now start to look at how they may benefit us in terms of SEO (search engine optimization) for example, head across to http://www.google.com and do a search on something such as ‘penis pills’ you can see from the results shown (01/01/04) that the first 10 results are evenly spread across a range of domain name extensions ranging from .com to .net and also some smaller .go.ro domain extensions. This would lead us to assume that at the current time, Google specifically is not paying to much attention to the extensions of the domain names we are using however, given the recent updates of the last month or two across Google this has also cleaned up a lot of the results that were present 2 months prior to this search in which the .biz extension was highly populated in the rankings.Domain Name Extension Abuse + Spam.
With this slew of new domain name extensions being launched what seems like yearly this also opens up a whole lot of new problems for the webmaster primarily that of the domain name spam. Because domain names can be registered for as little as $5 per year many webmasters have taken to purchasing them, using them to spam the search engines and then, once the search engines discover the spam and remove the offending domains, the webmaster then moves on to new domains in effect, making domain names a disposable commodity to them. Whilst this method will certainly garner traffic for the search engine spammer it will also in turn mean that the traffic that honest webmasters receive from the search engines will be lower.Domain Name Extensions And Optimization.
Hopefully this brief article has given you a little insight into how domain name extensions can both benefit and also detriment your business, by choosing your domain name extensions carefully and, making sure you do your best not to spam the search engines you can make some serious income from pure search engine traffic however, once you start to buy domain names with lesser known extensions to purely spam the search engines you are not only wasting your own money but, are also potentially wasting other hard working webmasters money too.Article written by Lee
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Using Full Page Ad’s
Full page ad’s can be used for more than just ‘adverts’ in fact, there is a wide and varied range of uses for them, below I have detailed some of the uses that I have tried in the past and from my experience, they seem to work well enough.
Creating A ‘Hub’ Site – By interlinking FPA’s together in a range of niches and, offering your surfers a money bar linking to other FPA’s in different niches, you can actually get some good rankings in the SE’s and, if you utilize banner exchanges or counters on your FPA ‘hub’ site you can also ensure you get a fair amount of additional traffic. One thing I like to do with my FPA hub is use it as the ‘exit’ page when a surfer leaves one of my sites. This ensures that I am getting optimum traffic for my time spent a) building sites and B) building my hub.A lot of people I have spoken to about ‘hub’ sites simply forget about them once they have been built, personally, I do not see the point in doing this, if you build something like this why not send your exit, top list, counter, banner exchange traffic to the first page of your ‘hub’?
Doorway Pages.
FPA’s also make exceptional SE doorway pages, by optimizing your image names, meta tags and text on the individual FPA’s you are not only ensuring they WILL get ranked by the SE’s but, if you ‘hub’ them together as explained above you will also get some premium listings from them.
Filter Pages.
What I learnt to do early on is rather than send my surfers directly to the sponsors using the ‘standard’ linking codes is to send them first to an FPA with a money bar (or table ad) on it, this way, if they click the link in error and not realize that they are going to a pay site, you can give them an option, not only to use their ‘back’ button but also, to go to a different niche or, to continue into the sponsors tour. Now that you can link directly to a specific tour page on ARS sites, this method is a good way to give your surfers a ‘fresh’ tour front page.
PPC Listings.
An FPA is an ideal way to get sites listed in the PPC engines, not only do you show the surfers EXACTLY what is in the site they have just clicked on but, you also have the added option of being able to utilize blur consoles and exit consoles on them.
One other thing that I will mention, is that often, you will find that FPA’s that you have made yourself, no matter how ‘amateur’ looking they are will work better than the ‘pretty’ sponsor built FPA’s.
Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas on how you can better utilize FPA’s and not just use them in the same manner as every other adult site on the internet. If you have some good results from using FPA’s in this manner feel free to post about it on the ARSR Support forums and likewise, if you can think of any additional uses that have not been mentioned here let us know on the forums.
Article written by Lee
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Online Dating Programs – Working The Adult Angle
As the industry starts to feel the effects over the coming months from the whole Visa situation the one thing that, at present seems to be true of the adult industry is that more and more webmaster/companies are looking to increase their revenues by utilizing mainstream sponsors on their sites. However in addition to this, the adult dating program appears to have been overlooked at least up until now.
Online Dating Sites – The Options.
There are actually a few good online personals sites available for adult webmasters to promote ranging from Love At First Click through the Advertising Revenue Service program to specific dating sites such as Match.com and Date.com. One thing is overwhelmingly consistent however regardless of which sponsor you use for your dating traffic, they all have a relatively low payout when compared to the ‘norm’ in adult sites with payouts ranging from $1 to $5 per signup.Marketing Dating Sites.
So how should webmasters market dating sites in conjunction with their current streams of traffic, this is actually a lot easier than you may think for example, almost everyone has an exit link on their free sites, you could utilize this exit link to send traffic to a dating affiliate program in fact, you could also utilize a dating affiliate program on your exit consoles or even on TGP galleries instead of pay sites. The opportunities for you to make money by placing dating affiliate program banners on your web pages are virtually endless.Online Personals – Sales Techniques.
When selling online dating sites there are, in addition to the abundant methods of generating the traffic, many different methods of generating your marketing speech to the surfers, you should ideally try a selection of methods on your sites to find out exactly which method works best for you. As an example of this, if you are using a dating program on a softcore site, you might want to try a hardcore approach to selling your dating sponsor in much the same way as you would sell a hardcore pay site except not as highly graphic. In comparison, if you have a TGP gallery you may like to tell your surfer that rather than looking at sex, they might actually be able to get sex for a change. The ways in which you can entice your surfers to your dating affiliate program are virtually limitless.Marketing Dating Sites – An Overview.
Whether you are already using or are planning to use dating sites, the one thing you must do is ensure that you choose wisely not only the words for selling the site to your surfer but also the placement of the promotional material, a well placed text link can have a higher impact on your overall sales than a badly placed banner and well, the same is true in reverse, find out where you are missing out on opportunities to upsell your surfers to an online dating site.Article written by Lee
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Quick Loading Pages Plus Saving Bandwidth
Have you noticed how many of the sites out there are trying to make themselves look better than they actually are by using heavy graphics and media files? The fact of the matter is this, most surfers who visit your we pages are viewing them on a screen that is between 15 and 19 inches wide, can only see 216 colors and, are on a connection of 33.6 kb per second (If they are lucky).
What Does All This Mean?
What does this mean to you as a webmaster? Simple, try this test.Connect to the internet on a 33.6 connection, type in your url and, hold your breath. Does the page load before you need to start gasping for air? If so then you are designing your sites correctly, if not, your pages are far to big in file size.
I’m pretty sure that some of you can hold your breath for a long period of time so, here is a basic rule of web design. Your pages should, be no larger in file size than 50k in fact, I would even go so far as to say try getting your pages under 30k in size.
How Can I Get It Under 50K? 30K?
First, all your graphic images should be as small as possible. Try to get them smaller than 4k. Going up to 6k is reasonable. When designing a graphic for the web site keep in mind the number of colors being used.I know, from designing banners myself, it was hard for me to go from millions of color to only 216. Yes, 216 is the number of colors you have on a web safe color pallet.
Use solid colors when designing your image. PhotoShop has made the gradient such a popular tool. It looks good to fade things in and out. I always see a background border made up of this gradient. I always right click on that image to see the size. The 8k-12k is not worth the space. The problem with the gradient is it uses many colors and dithering. Both take up big time K. The more color you have in an image the bigger it’s going to be.
Use design more, graphics less. For a web page to be successful it needs to download quickly and look good.
Here is the dilemma download quick or look good? Instead of designing graphics and taking pictures and turning them into jpgs to make your web page look good, try using color schemes. Use cell colors to make borders. Use the negative space on your web site. What is not there is just as important as what is there.
Remember sometimes less is more. When in doubt think of a typical visitor coming to your web page. Would that extra graphic sell them or keep them coming back again and again. If the answer is yes, by all means keep it. If the answer is “well maybe” or “it just looks good there”, yank it.
Your surfers will appreciate not waiting more then they have to. The web is here to make our life easier not to sit in front of a screen waiting for heavy web pages to download.
Article written by Lee
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Converting Italian Adult Traffic – The Niche Paysites That Work
Continuing with our article series of country specific traffic and which niches work for the various global markets in this article we will take a look at some of the most complicated traffic to ‘work’ Italian Adult Surfers. The reason I say most complicated is for the simple reason that, to date there are very few Italian paysites this makes it harder for us as webmasters to tap into these markets especially if we ourselves, do not know what the Italian surfer is after. That said, lets get on with the article.
Italian Traffic – Quick Analysis.
As already mentioned surfers from Italy are hard to pre-qualify given that there are very few sites catering to this European market at the present time, this means that there are no sources of background information to look at or, statistical analysis’s available from other paysites.Italian Adult Surfers – The Niches.
For one of the most affluent international markets going it comes as a surprise to see that there are almost no localized pay sites for the Italian market this made our initial filtering of the Italian traffic much harder opting for translated free sites over paysite tour pages to send the traffic to itself then, once they hit the free sites either choosing to send them back into our central hub or, to the US version pay site of the niche free site they were visiting. That said here are the results from the previous 3 (three) months of traffic that we observed.Ebony.
The Ebony niche would appear to be the most consistent converting niche on Italian traffic however, given that almost all of the niches we used on the Italian surfers were quite evenly spread for sales (Ebony was only 5 sales in front) this, I am sure is not a good indicator and, likewise with the Japanese and Chinese traffic, this is an area of international adult marketing that should ideally be re-visited at a later day.For Women.
Even more surprising than the fact there are very few localized paysites for Italy was the fact that the ‘For Women’ niche converted just as well as the other niches we used for our Italian traffic, of course, this at first would seem to indicate that the vast majority of surfers we had on our sites from Italy were female however, as we all know, the Straight male niche is big in gay so, there is a chance the sales we got from our Italian traffic to the For Women niche paysites we used were equally male and female.Softcore General.
(Softcore Adult Tours) The other strange thing we noticed was that paysites we offered to our Italian surfers that were Hardcore in nature didn’t convert as well as the paysites that had softcore tours, this would lend itself to the fact that Italian porn surfers are not looking for hardcore – quite different to most other country traffic sources.Tranny.
The transsexual niche paysites that we offered to the Italian surfers also had some good results again, this is strange given that almost every other countries surfer we sent to a tranny site didn’t convert. One other thing that comes up with this and, given the fact that the for women niche paysites we used had good results would be that perhaps the Italian surfers are interested in the more obscure niches available on the adult internet.Italian Adult Traffic – An Overview.
All in all, as stated at the beginning of this article the Italian surfers would certainly appear at first glance to be more varied and obscure in their sexual preferences than other countries whom appear to have clear cut, well defined ‘types’ of site that interest them.I think as mentioned above Italian traffic needs to be looked at in more depth in a future article as, to my surprise the traffic didn’t work on the niches that previously converted well for the same amounts and quality of traffic.
Article written by Lee
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How To Choose A Legal Content Provider
How To Choose A Legal Content Provider.
If you spend anytime in this business no matter in what capacity, you are going to hear about how important using legal content is. Legal content is content that you have specific permission or license to use on your sites. Permission can come from your sponsor who offers you free content to promote their site, as long as certain criteria is followed. It can come from the producer of the images if he/she is a friend of yours, though I would still advise you obtain a license from them anyway. And the third way of course is to purchase content from one of the myriad of content providers out there. It is the third way I am going to discuss in this article.
Being the intelligent Webmaster you are, you have decided to purchase some legal, fresh content for your sites. Makes no difference what type of site(s) you run, free sites, TGP’s, pay sites etc. fresh, unique content is always a plus. So you begin your search for the content you are in need of. You are going to find that in most all cases you are going to find a LOT of content providers that offer what you are after. You can go to any resource board and get a list of providers that covers page after page, some more detailed in information than others. Some names you will have heard of before and some you will have never heard of, so how do you choose? Here are some of the basic questions you should ask yourself:
Do they carry the type of content I need. Seems simple enough, but if you are looking for Asian lesbian images, no sense wasting your time on a provider that specializes in Gay content. The provider’s site should be laid out that you can easily assess what they offer with the first 2 pages of their site.
What am I using the content for? This becomes very important when selecting what image packages you buy. If you are going to use the content for free sites or TGP’s where the main goal is to get them off your site and on to your sponsor, then quality is not going to be as important as price. If you plan to utilize them in a pay situation, such as AVS or members site, quality should be your first consideration.
What price am I willing to pay? By knowing what you are using the images for, you have a fair idea of what they are worth to you. Do not be fooled into thinking that buying a MEGA disc for .10 an image is a killer deal. It could be, but if the image CD only contains 100 images that you can utilize and the rest are trash, what is the point? Much better to pay a higher price per image to get exactly the kind and quality you want. Shop around of course; per image prices can vary greatly per provider.
How do I know these guys are legit? Excellent question! J More than ever these days you cannot swing a cat and not hit 100 content providers. Every college guy and his brother with a digital camera and a girlfriend think they can make a quick buck in the Adult market. I could very easily list over a dozen so called content providers right now, that have come on with incredible deals only to be gone in less than 3 months. Then the Webmaster finds out the license he has for the images are not worth the paper they printed them on. This is one of the easiest areas for a Webmaster to get ripped off in. So what to do? Research my friends, research!
a. Ask the provider for copies of the 2257’s they are required by law to have on premises. Any reputable provider will supply these to you; many include them with the license even if you don’t ask for them. Any provider that bulks at doing so upon request should be taken off your shopping list.
b. Read over the license agreement very carefully, before you buy. Not every license is the same, some allow you a certain percent of images for promotional use, such as creating banners etc. some prohibit it. How many sites and domains you can use the images on vary, as does the price they charge to add or transfer a domain or license. Remember the license is a legal document and should be treated as such.
c. Ask around! Reputation is so very important in this business and the good providers know it. Don’t be shy about asking the provider directly for references, emailing fellow Webmaster’s and even posting for comments on the boards. Make sure you get a good cross span of answers from all sources, so you can quickly weed out anyone that is deliberately trying to make a provider look bad. This could be their competition or a Webmaster that tried to use the content illegally and got busted. So make sure you ask people your respect and trust. Find out not only about how they’re prices stack up, but also about their customer service after the deal is done. And NEVER assume just because a provider is listed on your favorite resource board that they are legit. Though most resources will try and screen people they list, there is no guarantee. There is no substitute for researching it for yourself.
Following these simple guidelines will save you a lot of grief in the long run. It may take a day or two for you to get the feedback you need, but it could save you from taking down hundreds of galleries later on. Or worse, paying for a product you never receive. And trust me, that happens.
Article written by Bestat.
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The Adult Internet – More Than Just Porn
So you have several adult websites up and running and, if you are one of the lucky few in this day and age you have already started to make money from your adult sponsor programs however, there are so many other ways that webmasters can make money in the adult industry in addition to their regular ‘porn site’ sponsors yet, many webmasters do not realize there are vast opportunities awaiting them.
Lets spend a few moments to look at the alternative sources of income that we can use in the adult industry and also take a look at the basics of each type of affiliate system.
Email Collection.
Opt in email is big business, there is no denying this fact so why not jump on the opt in email collecting bandwagon? Most email collection sponsors will offer you anywhere from $0.50 per email collected to $2.00 per email collected and, better still, to start making money from your existing traffic base all you need to do is include a small email collection box.Software Programs.
Many of the larger adult affiliate programs now offer their webmasters a range of software products to generate additional income, many of these products are good for use not only in adult but, also in mainstream. For instance, Anonymous browsing software, history deletion software, IE Toolbars and even submission programs are all good ways to generate additional income either on a per download or, per sale basis. Best of all, you only need to add a new banner to the sites you currently have in order to get a share of this lucrative market.Herbal Products.
Penis Pills, Breast Enlargement, Vitamin Supplements, you name it you can sell it on adult traffic. Whether you run a TGP, Link List or your own collection of free sites, these herbal products can often sell much better than ‘porn sites’ and, for the most part, the payout levels are the same, if not higher than what your regular ‘porn site’ trial will make you. Again to get started with this type of sales all you need to do is add a text link or banner to your existing sites.Casino Sites.
Gambling makes BIG money, just look at Vegas for the example, millions of people a year visit Nevada to gamble and millions more simply can’t get there for a range of reasons however, almost every home in the United States has a computer and internet connection so why not start using this to your advantage? Many of the larger casino affiliate programs will pay based on the amount of funds credited to a new users account and, to get started making money from casino sites it is quite literally as easy as adding a banner or text link to your existing sites again.Pre Paid Services.
Such as Credit Cards and the likes, selling these types of products to your adult surfers not only offers then ‘anonymity’ on the web when they do make online purchases but at the same time when your surfers sign up or one of these pre-paid credit cards you will be making some money in the process. Often however you will find that these types of affiliate program do not payout as much ‘long term’ as they are pretty much a first time deal as far as, once the surfer spends money to initially ‘charge’ their pre paid card with funds, that is when you will make money and not again. Still, even if you can make $50 by selling one of these cards, its still an additional $50 you wouldn’t have made otherwise.Adding To Your Profits.
As you can see from the above, there are a wide range of products and services you can offer your surfers and, as we all know, the more things we can offer our ‘customers’ the more chance we have at one of them buying something. Of course, as with anything, the more effort we put into marketing these products and services the more chance e have at making a sale however, unless we try to sell the surfer something other than porn, how will we know whether they will buy or not?Article written by Lee
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Undeveloped Domains – Put Them To Use
Often when searching for new domain names, i come across what should, in theory be a golden opportunity only to find, the domain itself has already been registered and, whilst this in itself is annoying, what is even more annoying is that the domain 404’s when typed into the browser window.
The mere fact that someone else, a webmaster no less, has thought about purchasing the same domain as what you may have means there is already value in that domain and, more importantly, you have potentially lost a sale.
So how can we capitalize on this potential lost traffic from the off-set? That is what we will look at in this brief article.
The first thing we need to do in order to start making some additional potential profit from our domain is to create a ‘generic’ holding page until such time that we have the time or, funding, to develop the site we had intended to place on our new domain name.
This holding page can take many forms depending on the type of traffic you are hoping to target with the domain itself. Ideally, you will want to have as much choice for the surfer (or webmaster) on this holding page as you can so, you need to assess the nest types of sites to use, the best use of the traffic no matter how small it could be and, more importantly, the best way to maximize your sales potential.
One good way of doing this is to split the page into three sections, two equal sized sections at the top portion of the page and, one smaller portion towards the very base of the page designed, almost like a footer.
In the two top portions you should equally distribute both surfer orientated and, webmaster orientated links both of which need to be clearly separated.
For example, the left side of the page take all of your top converting paysites and list them by niche, they don’t have to have fancy or heavy graphics, text links will suffice for now as this is only a ‘temporary’ page.
On the right hand side of the page place some of your webmaster referral linking codes with a brief description, remembering that not only surfers could hit this page but webmasters themselves.
On the ‘footer’ portion of the page, the most important section, you should put your contact details, ideally an email address and, if the domain warrants, details of how you can be reached by instant messenger. The reason for the email and instant messenger details is a simple one, if a webmaster REALLY wants the domain that you have, he, or she, might just make you an offer on it and, if they have no way to get in touch with you then, you have just lost an offer on a domain that you might not get around to using for months.
of course, in addition to utilizing the traffic you have on the domain you can also use this holding page to generate more traffic, for example, placing a banner or button exchange code on the site or, perhaps a counter. The possibilities to generate traffic to these pages are limitless depending on how you use the holding page itself.
Well, that’s the basics of domain holding pages explained and, hopefully you will have realized that no matter what you plan on doing with your new domains, after your host has added them to your server, the next thing you should do is to create a generic holding page that you can upload into the rot of the domain name and, who knows, you might end up making some money a little sooner from that unused domain name.
Article written by Lee
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Hard Hitting – In Your Face – This Is Reality
It started on terrestrial television some 5 years ago with the first episode of Big Brother, then it went from a house of captive stars to talent scouts looking to create a new pop sensation. From there we saw a variety of television series with ‘reality’ as the main focus.
It only follows suit that this popular marketing machine should hit the adult internet; and, it hit in a major way. And now, almost every major adult sponsor has one common type of site in their portfolio – a reality site.
However, one thing that many in the adult industry are not aware of is that the ‘reality’ type adult sites have been around for longer than what most realize. Before the live sex up-sells and chat rooms, Brandon Marley, a gay website owner, has had a site catering towards the gay reality niche – the premise of his site, as a gay male on the prowl, he goes to the street looking for straight guys to use as content; once he has them in the studio, he lets them work their magic and, inevitably, gets down to business, sometimes persuading the guys to have sex, sometimes, grossing them out whilst they up and flee the studio, all of this is caught on tape and published online.
Next is the web cam phenomenon. Reality at it’s utmost, watching live guys talk, strip, jerk off and discuss the most intimate desires in a chat room. The gay market flocks to reality like a moth to a flame. And surprisingly, much of the focus of ‘reality’ has been pointed to the straight adult audience, with a limited amount of gay orientated reality sites being launched.
That is until now, more and more programs and providers are coming up with reality to the gay market. The key to the on going success and growth of these sites is the, always allusive, original idea.
From M.I.L.F To D.I.L.F.
One of the popular types of reality site we saw explode was MILF (Moms I Like To Fuck). Spurred not only by the popular teenage movie American Pie, this type of reality hits a spot of desire within some surfers to days gone by where they had a secret crush on someone’s mom. Well if it’s possible that a straight man could have a crush on a mom, what about the young gay man having a crush on a dad?“Well, if the straight markets can have MILF, why can’t the gay arena have DILF?’ asks Gary-Alan, owner of the new gay reality site DILF.com from http://www.studmoney.com.
The gay markets have been yelling they are looking for something different to sell. So rather than taking DILF to the straight adult reality markets DILF takes it’s unique flavor and gears it toward to gay market.
‘Reality sells! It is one of the freshest and highest converting niches yet. We see this from great sites like Chi Chi La Rue and Brandon Marley – two of my most favorite sites. I have been listening to webmaster for years. They are looking for something different not just in a reality sense but something that features older guys, not your typical young buff stud. I think when the idea to finally launch StudMoney came up, the first thing that was mentioned was DILF. So we’ve brought the two aspects together and given the gay market webmasters the opportunity to promote a reality site that will convert and, convert well on their traffic.” Alan tells us.
So What Are Reality Sites?
Reality sites cater to a specific target audience, those people who don’t want to see the usual porn stars that are found on almost every other site on the web. Instead, these sites offer exclusive real-life models that could next door neighbor’s sister, mother or, in the case of DILF, their father. Reality opens your site offerings, giving you the opportunity to retain surfers with frequent updates and story lines that will peak their interests. You get to set the standard of your entire site to promote not only the content but a familiarity with your core performers.Starting Reality Site.
So how do you go about setting up a reality niche pay site? In all honesty, there is more involved than putting up a cookie-cutter site online.First you need a concept. With as many niches available today you need something fresh. Mind you there are ideas to mimic but new sells. Once the ideas are down then you need to find content. This isn’t as easy as buying a standard CD, it has to be fresh and new so finding a good photographer to shoot exclusive custom content. Even if you decide you will shoot your own content, you will need to be sure to schedule fresh new shoots frequently. This is important with any type of site, but none more than reality.
Once you have the content aspect figured out, you need to work on designing your site. You may think that’s easy, but the regular cookie-cutter designs, that are so often seen across multiple sites, simply do not cut it. You should seriously give your site design as much consideration as you do you concept for the site itself. A unique approach to the overall layout and design the site and it the member’s area has an equal impact on your members retention rates as having unique content.
Reality Niche – Overview.
What it all comes down to is reality is here, and here to stay. From market to market, niche to niche the one thing we have seen on and offline is that audiences around the world are looking to satisfy the voyeur, the deviant or the simple curiosity that lurks just beneath the skin. So the next time your driving past the mini-mart or peak inside the dressing room at the department store, remember you’re not only in public places – you are probably walking through the next set for an upcoming reality site.Article written by Lee
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The Ins and Outs of European Domain Name Registration
A domain name is more than just your online adult business address; it’s a crucial aspect of your online adult business. It is closely linked to the way a surfer thinks of and, more importantly, remembers your site. In many European countries, domain names that end with a country code carry more weight with the Internet-surfing public than dot.com domain names. So, if you want to have of a chance of selling to a foreign adult surfer in a European country you might consider registering a European country code top-level domain name (ccTLD) for your site.
Obtaining a ccTLD could potentially:
- Increase your chance of getting listed on a national search engine. Many national search engines require a company to be local, however that may be defined, to be listed with them.
- Get you a higher ranking with a local search engine.
- Make your business more accessible to customers and vendors in a specific country.
- Make your business seem more local and thus help overcome any fear local customers might have of buying from a non-European outfit.
What Is a ccTLD, Anyway?
Generic top-level domains (TLDs) are not linked to any geographic area. They include the well-known and familiar .com, .org, and .net domain names. In contrast to these generic TLDs, there are ccTLDs: Each country and territory in the world has its own TLD. They include, for example, .at for Austria, .be for Belgium, and so on.
Essentially the domain name policies regulate who can register what type of a domain. In principle, nearly anyone can register a generic TLD.
It is important to keep in mind that you might lose a domain name you recently registered in Europe if another company can prove in court that the name is rightfully theirs. If the court decides that the plaintiff has a right to it, you will lose that domain name however, I am assuming that nobody reading this is going to be considering registering ccTLD’s for the purpose of cyber squatting.
Each country or region has its own rules, policies, and regulations about who can register a ccTLD, and how. Common restrictions include the requirement to be a local registered company or to have registered the company and/or company name as a national trademark in a specific country. However, some countries are less strict about who can register. As always, it depends on the country and its particular rules.
The table below is meant to give you easy access to the information you will need when you are ready to register a European domain name for your site.
Here is an explanation of the categories used in the domain registration table:
- Country: Name of the country you might want to obtain a domain name for your business in.
- Name of domain: The ccTLD (a two-letter abbreviation).
- Must be local: This can mean that your business presence, your company’s physical presence, or your trademarks must be local.
- More domains possible: Some countries limit the number of domains that you can register.
- Same name as owner: Some countries require that the registered name be the same name as the owner’s company name or trademark.
- Signed contract: Some domain name registration agencies demand a written, signed declaration or contract to be sent in. If in doubt, read up on specific rules relative to the specific domain name registrars you will be using.
Country Name of Domain Must be local More domains possible Same name as owner Signed contract Austria .at No Yes No No Belgium .be Yes Yes No Yes Denmark .dk No Yes No No Finland .fi Yes No Yes No France .fr Yes Yes No No Germany .de Yes Yes Yes No Greece .gr Yes No No No Iceland .is Yes No Yes Yes Ireland .ie No Yes No No Italy .it No Yes No Yes Luxembourg .lu No Yes No No Netherlands .nl Yes Yes No Yes Norway .no Yes No Yes Yes Portugal .pt Yes Yes No No Spain .es Yes No No No Sweden .se Yes No Yes Yes United Kingdom .uk No Yes No No Now you can see the possibilities available in respect of registering more than just dot.com addresses perhaps you might like to find a country you would want to gain some extra traffic from and see about registering a ccTLD and developing it.
Also, you could improve your chances of gaining additional traffic to your new ccTLD domain by having some country specific language on that domain, again, how your site comes across to the surfer is just as important than the domain and, there are plenty of Adult Site Translation companies out there who can assist you with this part of the ccTLD development.
There are, of course, other ways to gain additional foreign surfers other than just registering a ccTLD for example, on European Webmasters we have a domain name registration section that will allow you to translate specific text in order to gain type in foreign traffic on dot.com TLDs perhaps, if you don’t want to or, cant register a ccTLD in the country of your choice you might like to take this approach at gaining additional foreign traffic to your sites.
I hope this article has given you a little insight into the varieties of domain names available in and around Europe and that you might just register a domain and see for yourself how profitable the European markets are.
Article written by Lee
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