Protecting The Kids – Europe’s Role

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: 2257 | Response: 0

As adult webmasters we have certain obligations we must fulfill daily whether these be, legal or moral.

One issue that is constantly cropping up in our industry is that of minors (Children) accessing adult websites and, more importantly, the ease of which they can do.

Recent figures released by one of Europe’s top internet analysis companies show that children in Europe and, specifically within the United Kingdom are more likely to visit a website and that, ‘showing that around one in five Internet kids (290,000) check out the sex sites’.

These figures are certainly alarming to say the least, bearing in mind they are specifically talking about the United Kingdom, that leaves a vast majority of Europe, as yet, un-analyzed.

We should all adapt to new methods in order to protect minors from accessing our site whether that includes placing your sites behind AVS systems which, in my opinion is one of the best ways and, most profitable of protecting minors or, utilizing ‘web safe’ software packages that are available to block access to adult sites completely we all need to adopt these practices.

The fact of the matter remains that, in this day and age, no matter what precautions we take in order to prevent access there will, undoubtedly, be a majority of children who can and will, get access to adult sites.

Does that mean we should compromise on the quality of our sites? No
Does that mean we need to think harder about how we develop our sites? Yes

It takes very little effort to subscribe to the services to block access and, you can get a single line of code to place within your html from ICRA which will at least, deter underage surfers from accessing your sites.

In addition to the above mentioned service, you can also place a link on your warning page/s to the following services for parents to block access from children to our sites, SAFESURF, CYBERPATROL, NETNANNY and, SURFWATCH amongst others. Its not just about utilizing software and ratings on our sites though, we can go much further than that and, for instance, using nothing but softcore content on our sites will protect to some extent the materials available to children but, in addition you will also notice your conversion ratios will go up! I have and, I’m sure you have, heard it time and time again.. Make them ‘Pay for pink’ and, by using softcore images on your sites that’s exactly what you are doing.

I for one certainly hope that you take heed at this article, protecting our children is paramount if, we are to succeed in the business, it is getting harder and harder to control who accesses our site but, we can at least take a step in the right direction.

Article written by Lee

Adult Webmaster Conventions

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: General | Response: 0

Networking Overload

Using Full Page Ad’s

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Promotion, Traffic | Response: 0

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

Domain Name Registrars – Saving Your Business

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

The one thing that all webmasters rely on to make their money is something that all of us have, a domain name however, what would or should happen to your domain names when and if, your registrar files for bankruptcy or just disappears, surprisingly enough i do not recall this ever happening in the industry to date however, being prepared for the worst case scenario is always a good thing.

Prevention Is Better Than A Cure.

As the age old adage goes.

The first thing that you should do before even registering a domain name is to check out the background of the company you are considering using, you need to ask yourself a variety of questions about this company including the following:

1) Is the registrar ICANN accredited?

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is a non profit corporation which was formed to assume the responsibility over the IP and entire domain name structure as we know it. This in essence means that if your registrar is ICANN accredited then you at least know your domain name registration will be handled professionally and, should be reasonably secure so far as your registrar going out of business.

2) What are you paying for?

Many of the domain name registration companies packages vary greatly, with some companies you register a domain yourself, some companies register it on your behalf and, others will register your domain including some form of hosting etc, check with the company you are using to see what added services and support features they offer.

3) What is their transfer policy?

Some domain name registration companies have specific policies so far as transferring domains to other companies, registrars and, individuals go. Check with your registrar before you buy your domain to see what this process involves and, as always, check with one of the other registrars to see which registration company offers the best ‘bang for your buck’.

Saving Your Name – Help And Advice.

First and foremost, if you discover your domain name registrar has closed its doors you should immediately send an email to them and ensure you keep a copy of this email for your own records, ask them what is happening and, more importantly, what controls / access you still have available (if any) to manage your currently registered domains.

Usually, you will receive some form of communication within a few days from your registration company letting you know what is happening and how you can continue to use your domain name.

In most cases, when a domain name registrar company closes what you will find is that they will already be in the process of transferring the management of your domain to another registration company.

If however, you are still able to control the domain yourself then you should immediately seek out a new registrar with whom you can manage the domain / domains that you own. At this point you should contact them and ask if they have any fast track solution to transferring your domain to their company.

If All Else Fails.

If after everything else you are still at a loss as to how your domain name transfer or registration is being handled then you should contact ICANN ( http://www.icann.org ) directly. Ultimately it is their responsibility to ensure that once you have registered a domain name, you are able to access it as you would like, in most cases however, contacting ICANN is always the last move you should make and, only use this form of information should you exhaust all other methods mentioned above.

Article written by Lee

Search Engine Themes!

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Search Engine Optimization | Response: 0

It’s safe to say that the ‘pay-per-inclusion’ model is rapidly catching on with today’s search engines and directories as they are forced to become profitable in a hurry. But there’s also another trend that’s come to the fore.

‘Theme indexing’ is a process used by search engines to determine an entire site’s primary theme. In other words, your complete set of Web pages is indexed as one, and defined as one.

This is why sites with multiple product lines and subject content often get poor rankings today. To learn how to combat this, let’s first look at the theme indexing process from the search engine’s point of view.

According to Search Engine World, the theme indexing search engine follows this basic 5-step progression as it ‘weighs’ what a particular site is about:

1. Page Titles
2. Meta Tags
3. Page Headings
4. Page Content
5. Links

This is a general overview of the approach – each search engine is unique, and no one has the ultimate read on every search site. But to date this has proven to be true of AltaVista, Google, Excite, Lycos and WebCrawler.

All of these belong on the ‘Who’s Who’ list of major search sites today. If it’s important that your Web business be found among them, today you must write your site with theme indexing in mind. Here’s how:

The concept itself is simple. Focus your entire site like a laser beam on a single, potent theme.

The process is ruthless. Get rid of the deadwood. Set up additional sites as needed for each individual product and service ‘family’.

In the same way that you must now invest to get indexed on Yahoo, LookSmart, Inktomi and other top directories, you need to invest in separating your activities by theme into multiple Web sites. Kick out unrelated content, links and affiliate programs that don’t relate to your market niche. Build new sites as needed, with each focusing on its own unique selling proposition. This is the first step to take in the optimization copywriting process.

Having done this, here’s how to write each site to get the best possible positioning on theme indexing search engines.

Focus Your Key Phrase.

Determine what key phrase your entire site is about – a key phrase people use often on the search engines. To pick heavily searched, popular key phrases, try Word Tracker: http://www.wordtracker.com/.

Write Your Copy. Throughout your site play variations on your key phrase theme. Every element counts: page titles, meta tags, page headings, page content, links. Remember to write for people first. Search engines are robotic, but people always want to know what’s in your site for them. Tell them what qualifies you to help, and what you have to offer. Balance using your key phrase with the benefits you deliver.

Once you’ve written your copy, search your text for generic phrases like ‘our product’ and substitute your key phrase. Use long copy where you can. Not only does it outsell shorter copy – it also makes it easier for you to write keyword-rich text.

Format Your Text.

Use key phrase bullets. They break up text copy and serve you as mini headlines with an entirely different look and feel.

Use multiple headlines to create immediate context when a visitor explores your site. Make these headlines specific by using your key phrase. Tag headlines in your source code – <H1>, <H2> or <H3> – to highlight your theme.

Write your links as mini-headlines. Often people scan pages by jumping from one link to another. Link words look very much like headlines, or highlighted words, and should deliver your primary message and key phrase.

Measure and Test.

Conventional wisdom tells us that the ideal keyword density is somewhere between 3-7%. To check this before you submit, try the free Keyword Density Analyzer: http://www.keyworddensity.com/. For a more accurate read on individual search engines, do a search under your key phrase, then take the top 3 returns, enter their URLs and try to match their percentages before you submit. Track your placement and adjust accordingly.

This is the initial approach to optimization copywriting for theme indexing search engines. Keep it simple: start here.

Article written by Lee

Adult Search Engine Optimization

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Promotion, Search Engine Optimization | Response: 0

Gone are the days when adult webmasters could Spam the search engines and get highly trafficked sites within a month of the search engines updating many of the search engines caught onto the adult industry very early on and started changing the way in which they indexed sites they went from meta tag optimized listings to theme indexing to almost every type of search engine optimization method in between.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques.

It would seem with the changing times of search engine optimization that there is no longer a single solitary way to get your adult sites listed highly in the search engines but rather a mixture of different adult seo methods being used on a single site ranging from increasing your pagerank, including relevant meta tags and page content to standard adult search engine optimization methods such as getting other popular websites linking to yours but with this comes a new challenge of its own webmasters need to get back to the basics to figure out what worked then and, what will work now so far as adult search engine optimization goes.

Adult Search Engine Optimization Companies.

There are many companies currently online that can offer adult webmasters their search engine optimization services however, how do you choose an SEO company that will not only work for you but, is cost effective for your needs, the simple answer is to ask around, there are sites online presently that offer monthly memberships to gain access to their adult seo techniques in the form of articles and tutorials just as their are sites that offer no information whatsoever or, information that, while it worked three years ago, it no longer works in today’s adult seo marketplace. You need to ask for advice from customers who have used adult optimization companies in the past and see how their results improved as well as making sure that what you are actually purchasing is a service that doesn’t just guarantee you improved site rankings but actually guarantees you will see a profit from the money you spent on the optimization services.

Adult SEO Breakdown.

Adult search engine optimization companies have only really become apparent in the adult industry over the last 6-12 months however, many well known and respected webmasters have been working on optimizing their adult sites for years and, whilst doing so, they have also achieved a vast knowledge base on how to optimize your adult sites for the search engines, again, ask around on the message forums to find the solution that will best suit your needs and budget and you wont go far wrong, the adult search engine optimization business model is one that in all actuality should change on a regular basis however, as mentioned above some companies are still using the same optimization methods they used three or four years ago, make sure you do your background checks before parting with any money and, most importantly, use the search engines to find their sites in search terms where, if they were any good at all, they would already have first page listings.

Article written by Lee.

Gay Industry Networking – The Gay Boards

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Gay Industry Networking – The Gay Boards.

With so many ways for webmasters marketing straight sites in the adult industry to network I started to look at the various alternatives available to those webmasters who market gay sites to network and, although there are a few different ones about, they still seem to be few and far between.

So What Boards Are There For Gay Webmasters?

Presently, to my knowledge there are four dedicated gay boards that webmasters can utilize for networking purposes in the adult industry with several straight orientated resource sites having a gay board also these are as follows:

The Gay Boards:

Rock Me Hard
Triple X Gay
Gay Webmaster Chat
Gay Wide Webmasters

The Straight Sites With Gay Boards:

Ynot Gay Board
Xbiz Gay Board

Obviously my favorite is The Gay Board at Gay Wide Webmasters but i am slightly biased towards that seeing as its one that we own privately however, the other boards are almost certainly worth a visit in addition to the GWW community forums.

So what do these gay boards offer those marketing to the gay surfer that the straight boards cant? Simply put, it can offer you a place to network without fear of ridicule from your colleagues and peers in addition you will find that a lot of these gay boards have a wealth of information about the gay market being posted on them on an almost daily basis.

It is also worth mentioning however that just with the numerous straight orientated message boards, the gay boards do have their own individual feel to them, for example, Rock Me Hard is what I would personally classify as a ‘fun’ board and Shelmal does a great job keeping the spirit of the board going likewise, Gay Webmaster Chat is more a board geared towards webmasters who operate traffic sites such as TGP’s and Link Lists which becomes apparent after reading a few threads. Gay Wide Webmasters is more a board with a wide reach but, primarily, it is a business orientated gay webmaster community and Triple X Gay, because it is fairly new is still, imho, trying to identify the direction it wants to take but non the less, a lot of the forum members posting there also post on GWW.

The Gay Board – An Overview.

When all is said and done, no matter whether you are gay, straight, black, white or any other demographic, focusing your attention to one type of board can become counter productive after a while, I mean how often can you hear from the same people over and over again before being given the same information again and again? Diversify your posting activities to include some of the gay market community forums and at the same time, you will also diversify your business knowledge which, im sure you will agree, is good for everyone, especially you and your bank account.

Article written by Lee

Niche Marketing – What Is A Niche?

Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

The first step as webmasters we must take to become successful is to discover what our niche specialty is however, many webmasters still do not realize exactly what a niche is.

In fact, from the webmasters I have spoken to it would seem that a ‘niche’ is just another word for the main topics of pornography, Teen, Asian, Fetish, Gay, Straight, the list goes on and, whilst this list is never ending they are all niches in themselves however, you need to look beyond the top level niche and start to develop a feel, a stance of your own as to what niche you will work on for example, Asian Midgets, you probably cant get more niche than that in this day and age however, realistically, the chances of you a) being able to find the content for this niche and b) Being able to find a sponsor are remarkably thin.

That said, if you can find a niche that you like personally, whether that be she-male, midgets, straight or, gay, this will give you a solid foundation to market your sites on especially if you build on your already vast knowledge of what turns you on.

Now, onto breaking down the niche you are comfortable working in..

Lets say for arguments sake that you have chosen to concentrate on the ‘Gay’ market,, within this market (as with any other) there is a remarkable amount of ‘sub-niches’ and, these are what you need to build your business around whether you want to or not, the ‘sub-niches’ of any given adult market is where the $$$ can be earned.

Now using the gay market as an example the first few niches that come to mind are:

Twink’s – Young looking hairless 18 – 20 year olds.
Bear’s – Hairy men over the age of 20.
Hunk’s – Muscular looking guys in the age group of 20 – 30 .
Straight Guys – Yes, that’s right, gay men get off on looking at straight guys.

As you can see from the above four examples we can now start targeting our market audience a lot better.

The next thing we need to do now that we have found the niche and the sub-niche we will be working is to look for a sponsor that complements the niche of our choice, this is the hard part. Many webmasters will go directly to the highest paying sponsor and throw links up to their ‘sub-niche’ pay site not even looking at the sites tour or members area. This is a huge mistake, the first thing you NEED to do is to look over the sponsors paysites and, more importantly, the sponsors site tour AND members area. What point is there sending your surfers who are after Twink’s if, your sponsors tour has images of a load of guys over the Twink age bracket?

From this point on and, after you have chosen a suitable tour to send your traffic to you need to build up a flow of ‘niche’ traffic the chances are, if you submit your TGP gallery to an ‘all gay’ TGP that you will receive a substantial amount of unfiltered traffic making your hard work in choosing your sponsors tour worthless.

So how do you choose a traffic source that is right for you? Simple, you need to experiment, start of with your niche TGP’s, Top Lists, Links Lists etc and see what happens, how much traffic are you being sent from your chosen traffic source and, more importantly, how much of this traffic is actually clicking through to your sponsors tour. Once you can get an idea of what traffic you are being sent from what traffic source you have won more than half of the battle already.

Record EVERY possible detail about your traffic sources that you can, how much traffic they send a day, how many visits your sponsor gets, how many sales you made, what content you were using etc, etc.

Once you have a working list of data to use you can start to abuse and filter your traffic like you would have not thought imaginable, if one of your sponsors has a higher payout on Bear traffic, then you instantly know what traffic source gives you traffic for that niche and, you can utilize that information to your benefit.

The most important thing to remember however when marketing a niche is that you need to have patience, you need to use a process of trial and error and, more importantly, you need to experiment, just because TGP A sends you 100,000 hits of Twink traffic one day, it doesn’t mean you will get the same quantity of niche traffic the next.

Article written by Le

European Surfers – Porn High On The List!

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: General | Response: 0

Adult web sites were visited by 3.8 million home Internet users in the UK in June 2001, according to Internet monitoring company Net Value. This accounts for more than a quarter of the entire UK home Internet population.

UK visitors to adult websites spent more than 45 minutes on these sites each in June. Adult sites make up 41.2 per cent of all the sites visited in the UK with a significant audience. Students (23.2 per cent), manual workers (15 per cent), and professionals (12.8 per cent) are the largest groups of UK visitors to adult sites.

However Germany has the largest audience for online porn in Europe with more than 5.3 million Germans visiting an adult site in June. They also spent more time on these type of sites than any other nationality – each German visitor spent almost an hour on adult sites in June. Net Value data also showed that more than half (52.3 per cent) the websites visited in June by a significant number of German users were of an adult orientated nature.

Spain has the greatest proportion of visitors to pornographic sites – 40 per cent of Spanish home Internet users visiting a pornography site in June 2001.

“Pornography has become a lucrative online business, with many companies now recognizing it as a valuable additional revenue stream,” Net Value’s Alki Manias said. “And this would seem to be a stable business area – the popularity of online pornography continues unchecked.”

Adult sites are also popular amongst the earliest adopters of the Internet. People who first got online at home before 1997 account for 18.5 per cent of visitors to adult sites, though they only make up 14.1 per cent of the whole UK online population.

In the UK, Lastminute.com has just introduced an auction for adult toys and aids, whilst in Germany, Freenet.de and T-Online are also moving into the adult business.

The following charts detail various demographics relating to European surfers usage of adult sites:

Number of adult websites visited, June 2001

* Sites with a significant reach

UK visitors to adult websites by occupation, June 2001

As you can now see, we, as adult webmasters, have a considerable chunk of the online adult industry sitting in our laps and, we should concentrate on tapping into this market as more and more American companies are realizing the importance of these figures we will inevitably reach a stage where the European market will be passed across to our US counterparts.

The Negative Marketing Technique

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Negative marketing is a wonderful thing in its own right however, negative marketing can, surprisingly enough have a NEGATIVE effect on your sales.

How many times have you seen a site that has, about half way down the page some text telling the surfer no to click on anything because ‘these are only counters’?

Counters in themselves can be VERY useful tools to the adult webmaster however, counters are given to us for free because of one simple reason, the graphics used on them are made in such a way that they will actually draw clicks from your traffic.

Most of the time however, these counters that take your hits are helping you much more than you know, from giving you addition traffic, valuable surfer stats and many other things.

Now, the same is also true for banner exchanges as is for counters, they are a useful addition to the variety of tools available for adult webmasters however, many webmasters, as mentioned above tell the surfer NOT to click on them, something i just never seemed to be able to get my head around. As you reading this post kind of proves, tell someone not to do something and you can guarantee they WILL do it

However, as i started off this quick article saying, Negative marketing is a good thing, after all, you have now got the proof to tell you that it works why not put this to use on your site?

For example, rather than telling a surfer…

‘Click Here For The Hottest Porn Site On The Web’

Tell them…

‘DO NOT CLICK HERE’

Wonder what they will do

Article written by Lee