Adult Employment Vacancies

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Employment | Response: 0

For some the prospect of being able to work for another company online is something that they may ultimately want to pursue however, just how do you go about finding work for one of the many adult companies and, more importantly, how can you ensure that you have a better chance of being hired for the job once you find the position you would like to have at the company?

Online Adult Employment – Job Types.

Working in the adult industry can take many forms however, the most commonly perceived adult industry job is that of a model but, what about other online job vacancies such as graphics designer, marketing manager, sales director, and webmaster support representative, just how do you find out what companies are hiring and more importantly, what adult employment vacancies they have.

Adult Employment Agencies.

For many webmasters the chances of finding employment in the adult industry at a ‘regular’ online employment agency such as monster.com may seem impossible however, that said, many of the larger companies have realized the value of the mainstream employment agencies and, as such are now advertising on these sites for their staff but where else can you look? Well there are actually several adult industry employment sites that adult webmasters can look at to find their ideal job for example Adult Staffing, Sexy Jobs and, Adult Help Wanted in addition to several smaller sites operated by companies such as Cybererotica.

Improving Your Employment Chances.

So now you know where to look for adult employment opportunities what can you do to ensure you have a greater chance of being hired? Well as with the mainstream bricks and mortar job market having a good curriculum vitae (CV) can be a good start, ensure you keep your CV regularly updated and that it contains pertinent information for the type of job vacancy you are looking for in addition, often the first method of contact you will make with these potential employers will be via email or cover letter, make sure that you spend some time to write a letter that is not only noticeable but, interesting and, more importantly, grammatically correct. Demonstrate in this first stage of contact with your potential future adult employer that you take pride in your work and, you might just get bumped to the top of the ‘must see’ applicants.

Adult Jobs – Overview.

Many webmasters forget that there is more to the online adult industry than being able to party with the best of us and, whilst this does form a chunk of the industry overall it is not conducive of you further enhancing your online career, take the time to investigate all of the avenues available to you and, most importantly, make sure you choose a job that you not only want to do but one that you will enjoy, your reputation is the one thing that a potential adult employer will take into consideration, if you have had several previous jobs all lasting for short periods of time, it wont look as good to them as if you have only had a couple of jobs for a lengthier time frame. Most of all remember that whenever you contact a company looking for employers, make sure you are prepared and professional even if it is just sending them a quick email asking for further information.

Article written by Lee.

Outsourcing – Becoming More Profitable Online

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Employment | Response: 0

As webmasters we already do a lot of outsourcing from hosting our sites to design and marketing to getting traffic which we send to our sponsors. However, many of us are missing out on opportunities to outsource even more of our work and, by missing these opportunities, we are losing money.

Outsourcing work can consist of anything from translations, design, scripting, marketing, seo, site submissions and pretty much anything and everything in between.

However, before we outsource some work to others there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration these are what will be addressed in this article.

Cost.

Ensuring we work ‘cost-effectively’ is one thing we all want to do, we need to make a profit whilst still being able to develop our business further. One good way to find out if the costs of outsourcing outweighs the cost of keeping the work in house to make a simple list of both the time and financial involvements both in and out of house. For example, in house you may have employees that need paying to do the work, you will almost certainly need to spend a lot of your own time on the project and, more likely than not you will need to research the work you want to undertake, all of this can become costly when looked at in detail a good reason to outsource your work to another company or individual.

Benefits.

How will outsourcing benefit you and your business? As with the cost example above make a list of things that will benefit you from the time saved on the project to the monetary benefits of outsourcing the work and the completion times often, by outsourcing your work you can have it done in much less time than if you handled it yourself ‘in-house’ so to speak.

Flexibility.

What are the indirect benefits of you outsourcing your work? Not necessarily the money saved but more along the lines of time management. if you give a designer a list of ideas and suggestions you WANT your work to have, chances are, they will get it right the first time whereas, if you amble along experimenting with what you actually create you may, in effect, take much longer to complete the task in hand. By saving yourself time what else can you get done, whether it is building more sites or marketing your existing sites further the indirect benefits all weigh up more often than not, these benefits will be favorable to outsourcing the work.

Risk.

This is probably THE most important thing to take into account when considering outsourcing your work, what happens if, you pay for the outsourcing and, overnight the company who is doing the work for you goes out of business? What happens if someone you have in your employ decides that they would rather be doing the work rather than you outsourcing it? Financially can you afford to outsource the work? All of these factors need to be considered before undertaking any form of outsourcing.

Basically, what I am trying to tell you is that, if you spend a few moments actually running the numbers as oppose to the ideas you have in respect of your workload you will see that outsourcing can be come a valuable asset to your business and, more importantly, your bottom line profits.

Article written by Lee

Adult Webmaster Conventions – Remember When?

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: General | Response: 0

Most webmasters who have been working in the adult industry for a year or two have attended an adult webmaster convention of some sort and, those of us who had the privilege of attending our first webmaster show three to four years ago will know one thing that many others don’t, there used to be a time when you could attend a webmaster show for example, the one held at Disney World (how many of you remember that?) when apart from being relaxing, you would also get a lot of business done alas, times have changed.

Fighting, Drug Taking, Getting Drunk, Rape Accusations, Theft and Criminal damage would be the headline in the national press should one of these reporters attend today’s webmaster convention, instead of a relaxing atmosphere in which you can get business done you find a slew of webmasters who, well, lets be honest here, are only attending these shows for one reason, to get drunk (for free) and to have a laugh.

Of late there seems to have been an influx of people (notice I used the word people and not ‘adult webmasters’) joining the adult industry who would appear to think that our business model is one of all night partying, sordid sex sessions and drug taking, whilst, I will be the first to admit this has gone on in the past it would certainly seem that the last 2-3 years has seen more than its fair share of the negative events happening at these conventions.

Take for example the recent Hollywood Internext Expo show, one incident that comes to mind was the fool who decided it would be a good idea to smash the mezzanine canopy above the hotel lobby, to my knowledge the culprit was never found however, I am sure there are those out there who knows who it was and well, lets be honest, they quite possibly you could be reading this article.

So what happened? How did these shows change so drastically? Quite simply I think it was the sudden onslaught of press coverage about how the adult industry makes so much money for everyone and, whilst there is a lot of money to be made in the industry, it takes a lot of work to achieve making the reported figures by the press.

To many people are entering the adult industry thinking that the ‘norm’ is that of what you can find on your average day of visiting GFY and whist, this is perhaps true for the circle of webmasters who do frequent boards such as GFY for the vast majority of hard working webmasters in the industry, the behavior of those webmasters couldn’t be further from the truth.

So where is all the business being done at the shows? It would appear that event after event the open invite list of parties are being cut down to be taken over by more intimate and sociable private parties in fact, as a company we our ourselves holding several smaller invite only parties for those people that we actually want to do business with on both a personal and a professional level.

So what does the future have in hold for the adult industry events, in all honesty I do not know however, one thing is for certain, if things continue on their current route, things are going to become a whole lot worse before they get any better.

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

How To Use ALT Tags On Your Sites

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

One simple technique can improve your search engine rank, make site navigation easier, and increase the accessibility of your site to disabled visitors. Yet, as many as 78% of sites don’t use it! Boost your site’s profile with human visitors and search engine spiders with the <ALT> tag.

Inserting ALT Text

Adding <ALT> descriptions to your <IMG> tags is quick and easy. You don’t have to do any complex HTML coding. If you can describe your image or link, then you can add ALT tags to your code.

We’ve used some examples below:

<img src="thumbnails/porn.jpg" 
  width="100" height="78" ALT="Explicit Teenage Sex Pictures">

You can also include an ALT tag when your image is a link:

<a href="porn.html"> 
<img src="thumbnails/porn.jpg" 
width="100" height="78" ALT="Explicit Teenage Sex Pictures"></a>

Ideally, your ALT text descriptions should be complete sentences, rather than a list of keywords or obscure phrase like “company logo small 2.” Remember that all visitors are likely to see (or hear) some version of your ALT text so be sure that it’s meaningful.

Optimize ALT Descriptions For Search Engines

Besides helping human visitors, ALT descriptions help you rank higher in some search engines. AltaVista and Google are two of the search engines that use ALT descriptive text when they rank Web sites. The growth of search engine/directory partnerships means that a high rank in one engine can often translate into an improved rank on its partner sites.

Search engine algorithms calculate the number of times keywords are repeated and give higher rank to pages that use them often. Keywords in the ALT descriptive text help you increase their frequency on the page. Search engines assume the terms are more relevant and important if they’re used in the page content, not just listed in the META tag.

For instance, the descriptive text in the example code uses keywords and keyword phrases from the META keyword tag: Explicit Teenage Sex Pictures. Since these are relevant to the site’s content, they’re easy to include as descriptive text.

If you’re having problems choosing relevant, targeted keywords, refer to this article, How To Pick Your Keywords. It provides helpful tips about selecting keywords and using them to improve your search engine ranking.

Make Your Web Site Sticky

ALT tags help you promote your site in another way too: they help make it “sticky.” Sticky means that visitors stay at your site longer so they see your advertising and purchase your memberships. Visitors who feel comfortable at a site will stay longer – and hopefully return more often to make further purchases.

Disabled visitors who use text-only or spoken word browsers rely on the ALT text for clues about the image’s content and function. This can be a lucrative audience: they represent a worldwide audience of 750 million and spend twice as much time online as the average user. But it isn’t just a disability issue: ALT tags make your site more accessible to everyone.

Visitors see your ALT text while the images are downloading or when they mouse over images. The descriptive text helps them decide if they want to wait for an image to download or move on to a different page. If your image is also a link, then visitors can read the explanatory text and quickly jump to the section they want.

Site navigation is easier, so impatient visitors are less likely to leave the site.

Don’t Follow The Crowd

ALT tags are a small addition to your HTML code that can make a big impact on your site. Since many of your competitors don’t use them, give your site and edge and include them on all images.

Article Written By Lee

Marketing Anime Sites

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Anime and the various styles associated with it, such as Hentai, Manga, Comics and Toons is one of the hottest niches on the net.  It is presently experiencing a huge growth, with many of the larger companies launching sites dedicated to the genre.

When someone unfamiliar with Adult Anime and Hentai hears the word Anime, they tend to think in terms of Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, Pokemon or Speed Racer (if they are of my generation.) Make no mistake; what we are discussing today is NOT for children.  Adult Anime and Hentai are as different from the example above as Disney Movies are from HomeGrown Video.

Targeting and marketing to the anime surfer is not that much different from any other niche, with a few notable exceptions.  Taking the time to learn a little about the subject matter will make a difference in your profit margin. Even though you are still selling “sex”, or more accurately “hentai” (more on that later), with anime the “sell” is more in the fantasy aspects than reality. Anime characters can perform any way and do anything that the surfer wants, even the impossible. So you must use more creative text links and graphics to create the right feel for the surfer and lure him in, and not treat the art as if it were just mere cartoons.

True anime fans do not consider anime to be cartoons. You will get fans that like it for its sexual aspects and yet others who have a love of the art form itself.  If you make light of the art or fail to create the fantasy for them, you may lose surfers. Anime is truly an art form; each picture is unique in its beauty and in its style.  Each artist will render a vision of his or her own, and the variety is as wide and varied as one’s imagination.  This is the appeal of anime, that and the fact that in Anime a surfer can have a character created to fulfill his fantasy, no matter how outrageous.

Bear in mind while designing, targeting and eventually linking your anime site, that this particular genre covers all age groups and appeals almost equally to woman as to men. It is also a niche that will attract surfers from many countries. It is extremely popular with your North American surfers, but a great deal of the anime surfers come from Australia, Europe and Japan, for some reason these country’s surfers love their anime!  So make sure to expand the scope of the Search Engines you normally submit to, if you are not already submitting to Japanese, Australian, and other foreign SE’s. A great place to find a list of these SE’s is http://www.beaucoup.com/1geoasia.html.  Don’t forget to look at alternative link lists as well, though many of the “big” list have anime and toon sections, you will definitely want to get listed on lists that are targeted to the niche, some examples would be:

http://www.toonplaces.com
http://www.hentaikitty.com
http://www.hentaiseeker.com

To help you understand a bit more about the Anime niche I have listed some descriptions of common anime terms:

Anime: In the US and many other western nations, it is limited to meaning Japanese animation (AKA Japanimation, although a lot of people don’t like that term). Characteristic features would be large eyes, funky hair colors, and often, er, accentuated physiology. In Japan, anime means animation in general, Warner Brothers, Disney as well as Macross and El Hazard.

The modern-day anime style is an adaptation of Disney style (introduced to the Japanese after WWII, by the American occupation), most notably the large eyes. However, unlike animation in America, animation or “anime” in Japan is not just for kids and the subject matter can range from deep, action packed science fiction stories to slapstick humor to even soap-opera-ish romance. In short, the only real difference between anime and other television shows and movies is that they are animated. While it’s true that in recent years there have been several American animated shows that have been aimed at a broader audience than your Saturday morning cartoon crowd, such as Titan AE, and the soon to be released Final Fantasy, the Japanese have actually been doing this for quite some time.

Japanese law formerly banned the depiction of genitals or pubic hair in art; as a result, most of the true Japanese images you’ll see distributed in Hentai Anime circles have either been censored by the Japanese government prior to distribution or auto censored by the artists themselves in compliance with the law. Underground artists have been known to produce full, all out, no holds barred uncensored works and of course not all Hentai Anime comes from Japan. Artists who were not Japanese citizens were not bound by Japanese law so uncensored Hentai Anime usually came from those countries.. The law has since been repealed. (See the book Dreamland Japan by Frederick Schott for more information on this law.)

Although the law has changed, people’s attitudes are slow to change with it and many Japanese artists continue the practice of censoring or avoiding depictions of the genitals or pubic hair. However, now that it has become legal, such depictions are sure to become more common. Sometimes, net artists will take it upon themselves to uncensor mosaic images, however, it isn’t easy to find someone who does this arduous job well, so even these are uncommon.

Hentai: The classical meaning is “metamorphosis, transformation.” It later came to mean “abnormality,” and in modern colloquial Japanese is used almost exclusively to mean “pervert” or “perversion.” When a woman insults a man in anime, she generally uses on of three terms: hentai, sukebe, and ecchi. Sukebe implies “oversexed” rather than “deviant.” Ecchi can be quite mild in some contexts, comparable to “lewd” or “Fresh!” These three terms are often used interchangeably, especially when someone is stringing together insults.  In adult anime, hentai normally would lend itself to what we consider hardcore images, such as the very popular bondage anime images.  In the Adult market Anime has come to signify more softcore images and Hentai hardcore.

Manga:  This is what comics are called in Japan. The artist Hokusai coined the word manga in 1815, usually translated to mean “irresponsible pictures.”  Traditionally drawn in black and white, sometimes with blue inks mixed in, Manga can be action comics, love stories or even hardcore fantasy.

Doujinshi: Amateur/underground Manga that often parody existing Anime or Manga.  Usually done in small print runs and often Hentai in nature. They are frequently “proving grounds” for aspiring “professional” Manga artists.

Yaoi: Male homosexual relationships, or Anime or Manga stories about relationships between “beautiful boys” (bishounen). Comes from “YA-ma-nashi O-chi-nashi I-mi-nashi” (No climax, no punchline, no meaning)

Shoujo: Shoujo anime is anime originally aimed at young girls. “Shoujo” literally means “little girl”. Shoujo anime includes such series as Sailor Moon and Magic Knights       Rayearth.  Also referred to as Bishoujo, “Beautiful Girl”

Shounen: Shounen anime is anime originally aimed at young boys. “Shounen” literally means “Little Boy”. Shounen anime includes such series as Pokemon, Speed Racer and DragonBall Z.  Also referred to as Bishonen, “Beautiful Boy”.

It is important that you educate yourself on the difference in definitions for the various styles of art.  Using the wrong phrases could attract children to your site and responsible use of terms is extremely important.

As with any Website, knowing your subject matter and the surfers that view it is essential.  This niche is growing more popular everyday.  Many sponsors are realizing it’s potential and adding it to their sites as well as building sites specifically for this traffic.  There are TGP’s and link lists dedicated solely to these sites, and legal content is available. The Anime/Cartoon surfer is an extremely loyal breed; once they discover quality sources they keep coming back.  I hope this   sheds some light on this highly unique niche and that the information will help webmasters market their sites to higher profits.

Article written by Bestat

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

Payment Processors – Advice And Information

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Billing Solutions | Response: 0

For many, the first step in launching a successful pay site is to find a billing processor that can adequately and efficiently handle all levels of the membership payment process. The processor must also have the technical savvy to grow with your site.

One such payment processor, iBill, is currently the premier provider of such solutions worldwide. They handle the payments in real time and all of the back-end services that enable you to run your business.

Of course, there are many issues to consider when deciding on a payment processor apart from their commission rates on your sales, including the following:

How do they handle the billing itself? Is it processed in real time? If your customers do not have immediate access to your site, they may decide not to join.

How do they supply your account reports? You may want to know at 3 a.m. the number of members you have and how they are rebilling. iBill allows you to access detailed, real-time reporting 24 hours a day, so you know exactly who is a member of your site and, more importantly, what their username and passwords are. No one wants to find a member has posted a username and password on a trading site. If this occurs, iBill’s real-time reporting tools give you the ability to stop this immediately.

How comprehensive are the payment options? Do you want to use credit cards, or do dialers or check transactions suit you more? The best way to maximize sales is to accept a full array of payment options. The more options you offer your members, the better the chance you’ll keep them rebilling month after month.

How good is customer service? Does your payment processor offer access to live representatives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? If so, you’ll resolve customer issues quickly and effectively, which reflects well on you and encourages loyalty from your members.

How good is the fraud protection? Internet fraud is a constant threat. Your payment processor should have state-of-the-art fraud protection systems to guarantee the integrity of every transaction.

Are there multilingual features for international members? Due to the global reach of the Internet, you must find solutions for foreign customers. Ideally, your payment processor’s website should be multilingual and easy to navigate in several key languages, such as German, Spanish, French, and Japanese.

Choosing the right payment processor is a long, arduous task that, if done right, will result in a long-lasting working relationship. In turn, your members will feel confident in your site and stay with it. We hope this article has given you insight into finding the right billing party for your membership or online store. If you need any further assistance please feel free to contact us directly using the form on our site (URL below).

Article provided by Internet Billing Company

Typography Know How

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Writing | Response: 0

Our web sites are nothing without content, and most content is comprised of simple text. Many web designers neglect to pay attention to their typography, and it shows. Proper typography varies based on where the text is and what purpose it serves. Although there are no rules etched in stone, there are a few general techniques that should be followed. Although some of these tips may seem elementary, many of them are not followed.

Headings.

Clearly, headings should be larger, by 1 or 2 font sizes, than your body text. You may consider bold, but be cognizant of the letter width. Arial Black, for example, may create letters too fat for your taste. When using colors, be sure the colors contrast well with the background color of your site. Black and dark gray do not contrast well, while black and white (or light gray) work quite well. Sometimes, even a simple color change can create useful headings.

Also be sure to cascade your headings. A main heading, for example, would be larger than subheadings. This effect creates a sense of emphasis and flow to the information.

Do not italicize your headings. Italics are meant to underscore particular content, but since the text is a heading and of larger size anyway, italics are redundant and often make the text difficult to read.

Fonts.

The default is Times New Roman, which works fine, but many think it is boring. I have experimented with Arial, Georgia and Verdana, and have found Verdana the most readable font face available. This is a personal preference, but fonts should be restricted to the above four to ensure compatibility between all users of your web site. If your user’s browser does not support your font choice, their browser will revert to its default. Since browsers have increased support for CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, whenever possible, use CSS to define your fonts, rather than HTML’s <font> tag. Also, be sure to keep your font sizes large enough for visitors of all ages and eyesight’s.

Stress Styles.

Avoid using all capital letters within your text, as it makes it difficult to read and implies you are shouting at the reader.

To stress words within your body text, decide on a format and stick with it. Some choose bold, while others choose italics or underline. My personal favorite is italics, but any of these can work well. Be careful when using underline, however, as it can be mistaken for a link. In addition, do not overuse these stress styles.

Entire body text should not be bold. Bold, like italics, is used to emphasis words, and usually an entire body of copy should speak for itself in regularly styled text. I like to use CSS to space my body text out a little to increase readability.

Article written by Lee

Records Keeping Compliance Checklist for European Content Providers

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: 2257 | Response: 0

More and more European Content Producers are choosing to do business with American. webmasters. While citizens of foreign countries cannot be compelled to comply with United States’ restrictions on the creation of adult material, business realities are forcing foreign content producers to consider voluntary compliance. American webmasters, painfully cognizant of the increasing need to focus on legal compliance, consistently reject foreign content that is not produced in compliance with 18 U.S.C. §2257.  Non-compliant content not only increases the risk that an underage model could slip through, but failure to strictly comply is itself a federal felony, exposing those involved to a 2-year prison term.  Given the substantial compliance motivations involved, foreign content producers are expected to adopt the U.S. requirements as the global standard for creation of sexually explicit imagery.  The following constitutes a bare minimum checklist for compliance with the requirements of Section 2257:

1) Assume that all erotic images require Section 2257 compliance:  While the law only applies to actual “sexually explicit activity,” it is ill-advised for the content producer or the webmaster to attempt to guess which images require compliance, and which can be safely distributed without compliance. Since child pornography does not require the depiction of sexual activity to meet the federal definition, such distinctions can be risky business. And, in any event, a release given by a minor normally is not enforceable.

2) Obtain a signed compliance form created by a competent attorney:  Section 2257 requires that certain records be created containing certain information. The right form is the best place to start.

3) Obtain, at a minimum, the following information from each model:

a.     Date Of Birth

b.     Legal Name

c.     All other names, aliases, nick names, stage names, and maiden names

d.     Social Security Number

e.     Copy of Government-Issued Identification containing a picture; preferably 2 pieces of identification. Note the requirement that the producer actually examine the identification document, not just the copies.

f.       Address, phone and other contact information

g.      The model’s signature

4) Require the model to execute a binding model release prepared by a competent attorney.  The images are only as legal as the model release backing them up.  If all relevant rights have not been transferred and released by a valid model release, both the webmaster and the content producer are subject to claims once the content is displayed on a Web site.

5) Maintain the records so that they are cross-indexed by the models’ legal names and stage names and by web page. Alternatively, provide copies of all records to the webmaster if the webmaster will act as Records Custodian. You need to discuss the particulars of this with an attorney, because each circumstance may be unique.

6) The Records Custodian should maintain an off-site backup copy of the records: What happens if there is a fire or a government seizure?

7) Include a conspicuous records custodian disclosure on all CD’s / DVD’s containing erotic imagery, including the full legal name of the custodian and physical address where the records are kept.  The disclosure should also certify that all models are over the age of 18, and include the date when the content was first created, published or republished.  Placement of the disclosure on the product should be reviewed by an attorney.

Only through strict compliance with the mandates of Section 2257 will American webmasters fully embrace content produced overseas.  The right compliance procedure will open profitable markets for foreign content producers, and result in a wider variety of adult content for both webmasters and consumers.

Article written by Lawrence Walters