• JavaScript – Redirecting Foreign Surfers

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Scripts, WebDesign | Response: 0

    At some point or another we are no doubt going to have the need to redirect some or all of our surfers based on the language they speak, this snippet of JavaScript when placed on your page will enable you to do just that without the need for .php or other more complex scripting.

    Here is the coding that you need to place between your <head> and </head> tags:

    <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”JavaScript1.2″>
    <!– Begin
    if (navigator.appName == ‘Netscape’)
    var language = navigator.language;
    else
    var language = navigator.browserLanguage;

    if (language.indexOf(‘en’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘english.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘nl’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘dutch.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘fr’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘french.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘de’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘german.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘ja’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘japanese.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘it’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘italian.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘pt’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘portuguese.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘es’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘Spanish.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘sv’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘swedish.shtml';
    else if (language.indexOf(‘zh’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘chinese.shtml';
    else
    document.location.href = ‘english.shtml';
    // End –>
    </script>

    To add additional language redirects to this JavaScript all you need to do is duplicate the:

    else if (language.indexOf(‘zh’) > -1) document.location.href = ‘chinese.shtml';

    Section of the coding changing the (‘zh’) language code to that of the language you wish to redirect.

    Article written by Lee

  • Whats A Twink

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: General | Response: 0

    I think you would be surprised at the number of times I have been asked, “What’s a Twink?” Or my, personal, favorite “So how do two men have sex?”

    If you know me, you know I am never really bothered by questions – I never mind people’s candor. What does bother me, though, is the bulk of the people who ask are trying to work the gay market. Unsuccessfully, I might add.

    So, let’s expand our webmaster knowledge. Don’t worry, I am not about to explain how two men have sex (that I will save for my story site LOL)

    I have decided, however, to give you a Gay Glossary of sorts. There are many terms that can be included here. But, I thought to start off, we will hit the basics and add to it as time goes on. Keep an eye for future articles and additions on Gay Wide Webmasters.

    Here is a list of the most common terms on the Gay Adult ‘net:

    • Twink – A buff and lean young man; a 20 something. Age and leanness make the guy a twink. The best example is your typical bar room stripper.
    • Teen – This is the same thing as in EVERY market, hot young and under twenty – but LEGAL at 18.
    • Hunk/Stud – Beautiful, built and beefcake. The guys commonly posing for calendars and such.
    • Chubs (or chubby) – Just what it sounds like, a larger man. Not just muscular weight, most often heavy set.
    • Bears – This is a HAIRY man. Not a young guy, most often over thirty, sometimes with a husky build (but not always). You will probably see this niche sold as “Real Men”.
    • Cub – This is a YOUNG hairy guy. Sort of a HAIRY TWINK…
    • Daddies – Daddies are men over thirty, who like younger guys. (Just a side note here to clear up some misconceptions, not all gay men want to do young guys!)
    • Sons – the young male counterparts to Daddies. The young of the two can be a twink, cub or teen – makes no difference. This term is based on the visual couple. For our non-gay friends think of this as an example: the businessman who goes away for the weekend with his NEICE. See the comparison? LOL
    • Transvestite – is a man who dresses as a woman. Whether it is simple underwear or all our female attire. A lot of webmasters confuse this with Transsexual.
    • Transsexual – is a person who has decided to make the complete change and have a sex change.
    • Trans Gender – this is a more general term for people who live life as the opposite sex. They are in the process of, or have completed, a sex change.

    So know go have some fun. Try to classify your friends and lovers in these terms! I enjoy it when a webmistress comes up to me and says, “I heard your interview and I think my husband is a bear. But he’s a little twink-ish. What do you think?” This just makes my day! I have to laugh at the look on their husband’s face when they think I’m going to ask to examine them or something. “Turn you head and cough – OH! You’re a Twink…”

    Along with what works, I have to offer some terms that DO NOT work. If used incorrectly or out of context, then your attempt at marketing to gay men can be dreadful.

    • Faggot – I hate this word, personally. This is a word that is as derogatory to the Gay Community as other words are to a race.
    • Nancy boy – a typically non-US term that basically is used as a derogatory manner.
    • Lil Boys – a derogatory term used primarily in the Southern and Mid-Western US. It’s derived from the negative connotation that gay men are pedophiles.
    • Gay Owned and Operated. Allow me to be blunt – If it is not true, do not say it. This is probably the most OVER used phrase in the gay adult market. So much so, it is relatively meaningless today.

    We all need to remember from time to time, the key to success in any business is knowledge. Whether you are up selling to a sponsor or designing sites, knowing some of the more common terminology in the gay community can only help your ventures in the gay adult market. And remember, do not be afraid to try and NEVER be afraid to ask.

    As always, good luck!

    Article written by Gary-Alan

  • Building A Surfer Trap – Stage 2

    Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Traffic | Response: 0

    In the last tutorial we hopefully got the foundations of our surfer trap laid and in this stage, we will start to put this thing together.

    Ok the first step of stage two of building your surfer trap is to start linking each of the individual FPA’s to your Multi-Site FPA.

    The easiest way that I have found to do this is to give each FPA its own sub directory on your server and have the html page named index for each of the single site FPA’s.

    So for instance, if you have the site All Petite on your Multi-Site FPA you would link it to:

    mydomain.com/all-petite/

    Or whatever you called the sub directory for the All Petite single FPA.

    Now, once you have linked these single FPA’s to your Multi-Site FPA we need to start ‘playing’ with them once again.

    You should now have copy’s of your single site FPA’s and Multi-Site FPA on both your server and Hard Drive.

    Take the copy’s you have on your hard drive and add a small NICHE pop up console to each of the single site FPA’s AND the Multi-Site FPA.

    I would suggest making 6 NICHE consoles.

    These consoles should be pure text and nothing else.

    Each of the links on this small console should link to a different niche of your single site FPA’s I usually go with one link for each of the following niches…

    Gay
    Mature
    Teen
    Fetish
    Hardcore
    Asian

    Plus, I usually add a link at the bottom of my console which goes to the POTD program.

    Once you have these consoles built you should upload them to their OWN sub directory on your server, I would suggest calling this directory ‘consoles’ and calling each of the niche consoles the name of the NICHE they represent.

    So, you should now have the following on your HD and on your server:

    1 Multi-Site FPA
    50 or so Single Site FPA’s (All Linked From The Multi-Site FPA)
    6 Small Pop-Up Consoles (Popping Only One On The Multi-Site FPA and The Single Site FPA’s, each different niche Single Site FPA pops a different niche console however.)

    You now have to check that your surfer trap is working so far.

    Article written by Lee.

  • Adult Hosting Glossary

    Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Hosting | Response: 0

    Adult Hosting Glossary.

    With so many adult hosting companies looking for our business all of them telling us we need a variety of applications and software packages to run our sites, just how do you know what you do need and, more importantly, what you don’t?

    Below you will find a list of a variety of common terms used in relation to hosting your website and, hopefully, you will in turn, discover what your requirements are when looking for a new or alternate hosting company.

    Alias
    A name that points to another name. Aliases are used to make the original name easier to remember or to protect the site’s identity.

    Applet
    An applet is an embedded program on a web site. Applets are usually written in the coding language called Java. They are normally used for creating a virtual object that may move or interact with the web site. An applet is like a small piece of executable code that needs a full application to run it.

    Active Server Pages (ASP)
    Active Server Pages allow web developers to make their sites dynamic with database driven content. The code is mainly written in VB Script, and it is produced on the server of the web site instead of the browser of your web site visitors. The server reads the ASP code and then translates it to HTML.

    Audio Streaming
    The process of providing audio content on a web site. This takes up a large amount of bandwidth, especially if you get a lot of visitors at your site. Some hosts do not allow audio or video streaming because of this.

    Auto Responder
    An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received. Once you configure your auto responder, it sends e-mail with no further action required on your part, making your web site interactive around the clock. Most hosting companies let you set this up through their control panel.

    Availability (Uptime)
    Refers to the amount of time within a 24 hour period a system is active or available for servicing requests. For example, if a hosting company says it is available 99.9% of the time, they are claiming that your web site will up all the time except for about 8 seconds each day. Over the course of a year, in this example, the hosting company is claiming that your site will only be unavailable (couldn’t surf to it) for 48 hours.

    Backbone
    A high-speed line or series of connections that forms a major pathway within a network. The term is relative as a backbone in a small network will likely be much smaller than many non-backbone lines in a large network. In general, the better the backbone of the hosting company, the better the availability of the web sites that run on their computers.

    Backups
    Web hosts back up data on their servers. Many host packages offer backups every 24 hours. This is supposed to prevent the loss of data should something happen to the server. . If you think you may need to restore old data in case of a disaster, it may make sense to choose a hosting company that performs regular backups.

    Browser
    This is the client software that displays (interprets) the HTML code it receives from the server. All browsers work slightly different and one may not display the pages correctly if the code was developed exclusively for another browser. Today the two main browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape.

    C +/++
    C+ and C++ are programming languages. Some hosting companies provide access to C+ and C++ class libraries if your web site contains these types of program modules. Once your web site has been constructed, you will know whether access to C+ or C++ will be required.

    CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
    A CGI is a program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (called a script). This allows HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts make web pages interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers permit user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made script on the web site. Not all servers allow user-defined (custom) scripts for security reasons. Almost all hosting companies offer CGI today. If you think you will need forms on your web site, CGI could be a key requirement.

    Chat Server / Software
    Some hosting companies allow you to develop a chat room or other type of chat service for your visitors. Be sure to check with the web host company about the details of the chat services offered. Some servers permit you to configure the service, and others pre-configure everything for you while others do not allow chat rooms at all.

    Click Through
    This term is used to describe the ratio of clicks to impressions on an advertisement, usually a banner ad. If a banner has been shown 100 times and 3 people click on it, it will have a 3% click through ratio.

    ColdFusion
    An application which simplifies database queries by allowing for a simpler programming language to handle functions between the user’s browser, the server, and the database. After you have developed your web site, you will know whether ColdFusion is a requirement. If you have not used ColdFusion to develop your site, you should ignore this feature.

    Co-Location
    Co-location means housing a web server that you own in the facilities of a hosting provider. This option is perfect if you want to own your own server, but do not want the hassle or security risk of maintaining that server.

    Control Panel
    An online package of tools permitting easy site management and editing. Almost all hosting companies provide this option today. It is a very important feature to have. By having your own control panel, you can maintain basic information about your site, mail boxes, etc. without having to send emails to the hosting company or call them on the phone.

    Cookie
    A message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file called cookie.txt. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server. The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web site using cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use. The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

    Credit Card Billing
    What is a merchant account? Why do I need one? A merchant account gives a business the ability to accept credit cards as payment for the company’s goods and services. It provides your customers with an extremely popular payment option, beyond cash and checks. This is usually done via a 3rd party provider such as Ibill.

    CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
    Used to add more functionality to simple HTML pages. Internet Explorer 3.0 and up support a good portion of CSS, while Netscape 4.0 and up supports a small amount of CSS – a fully compliant browser does not exist yet.

    Database Support
    If your web site will leverage a database to store information, database support by the hosting company will be required. After you have developed your web site, you will know which database will be required. Some commonly used database programs are SQL Server, MySQL, Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. Databases can be difficult to configure properly. Before you sign up with a web host, first inquire if the host can support your database needs.

    Data Transfer
    This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as visitors view the pages of the web site. If you have a web site with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per day, you would have to make sure that you choose a host that will allow large amounts of data to be transferred. If you choose a host that only allows 200 MB of data transfer per month, and your site transferred 500 MB per month, then the host may stop half of your visitors from viewing your site and you could lose potential customers. Your best bet is to try to find a host that offers unlimited data transfer or at least a Gig of transfer. A gig is more than enough for most web sites. As a general rule, 500 MB of data transfer is equivalent to 20,000 page views.

    Dedicated Server
    A more expensive type of account in which the web hosting company provides you with an entire hosting setup including your own server hardware that only you can use. This usually means a much faster loading time for your site because the entire computer is “dedicated” to running the server software. This is different from most other hosting accounts in which your web site will share space on a server with many other web sites, called a virtual server. A dedicated server makes sense for web sites that require higher availability and higher data transfer rates.

    Disk Space
    This indicates the amount of disk space that will be available to you on the hosts server to hold your web site files. Normally because HTML files are small, a web site (unless it has extensive graphics or database functionality) will be small, as low as 1 or 2 MB in most cases.

    Domain Parking
    Many hosting companies give you the option to ‘park’ your domain name without actually having your web site up and running. This is a nice option if you want to acquire a domain name for your web site well ahead of having the web site itself designed and constructed.

    Domain Name
    The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general (adult-hosting-companies.com). Technically, the domain name is a name that identifies an IP address. To most of us, it simply means www.yourname.com. Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, web servers depend on a Domain Name System (DNS) to translate domain names into IP addresses. Simply stated, domain names allow people to find your web site by name rather than by its numerical (IP) address.

    Domain Name Registration
    Often a hosting company will offer to register your domain name at the time you sign up for a hosting plan. This normally incurs an additional charge but may be cheaper and more convenient than using a separate domain name registration service. We recommend that you go ahead and register your domain name as soon as possible, especially if you think it will take some time to develop the site itself.

    Domain Name System (DNS)
    A model for tracking other machines (that contain web sites) and their numeric IP addresses. Translates domain names (for example, www.adult-hosting-companies.com into a numerical IP address). When a computer is referred to by name, a domain name server puts that name into the numeric IP address assigned to that computer. So when you buy a domain, say www.yourname.com, it does not become accessible until it gets assigned an IP address from a hosting company. Once the IP address is assigned, a cross-reference record (DNS record) is created that points your domain name to the numeric IP address.

    Email POP Account
    POP (Post Office Protocol) is an actual e-mail account on your web host’s e-mail server. Think of each POP account as a unique email address (lee@adult-hosting-companies.com, advertising@adult-hosting-companies.com, etc.) Before you choose a specific hosting plan, you should know exactly how many email accounts are required to meet your specific needs.

    FrontPage (Microsoft)
    Front Page is an HTML editor made by Microsoft. It is commonly used to create web sites

    Frontpage Extensions
    Frontpage extensions can be thought of as “mini programs” that allow features of a web site created with MS Front Page to operate smoothly. It is possible to use MS Front Page to create a web site and host that site on a server that doesn’t offer FP extensions, however some of the powerful features of the program cannot be used in these web sites. See Microsoft’s Front Page site for more information. After you design your web site, you will know whether FrontPage extensions will be a requirement.

    File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
    A way of transferring files (uploading and downloading) across the Internet. Most web sites are uploaded to the Internet by means of an FTP program. This is how the web site you create on your computer at home is transferred (uploaded) to the Internet. Some software, such as Microsoft Front Page, does not require use of an FTP program but the use of most any other HTML editor requites the use of and FTP Program. There is a free FTP program called WS_FTP and you can download it at download.com. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous FTP servers.

    Host (Name Server)
    When you hear the term “host” in the Internet world, it is referring to an Internet company that has the required servers and software to connect domain names to (IP) Internet Protocol numbers so that your site can be viewed by the public when they type your domain in their browser window. Basically this is where you house your site, and you usually have to pay a monthly or annual fee for this service.

    Host Country
    Specifies which country the hosting company resides. The internet is a very complex web of server computers connected through telecommunications devices. In general, it is best to host your web site in a location closest to the users that access it. For example, if you plan to deploy a web site that will attract mostly German visitors, it may makes sense to choose a hosting company located in Germany.

    Host Platform
    This is the platform of the hosting providers servers. Hosting companies will typically having a hosting platform based upon Windows 2000 (Win2K), Windows NT or Linux. If you have a basic web site that does not make use of server side applications such as a database then you do not need to worry which platform is used.

    Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
    Stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the code that web pages are written in and the browser interprets to turn into the web page you view on the screen.

    Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP)
    The protocol for transferring hypertext files across the Internet. Requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW). You see it every time you type a web site in your browser http://…

    IP Address
    A unique number used to specify hosts and networks. Internet Protocol (IP) numbers are used for identifying machines that are connected to the Internet. They are sometimes called a dotted quad and are unique numbers consisting of 4 parts separated by dots, They would look something like this 111.222.333.444 Every machine that is on the Internet has a unique IP number – if a machine does not have an IP number, it is not really on the Internet. Most machines also have one or more Domain Names that are easier for people to remember.

    Internet Service Provider (ISP)
    A company or institution that provides access to the Internet in some form, usually for money. They will usually allow users to dial up through a modem, DSL, or cable connection to view the information on the Internet Access is via SLIP, PPP, or TCP/IP. Picking your ISP is an important decision but has more to do with how you access the Internet rather than which host you choose.

    JavaScript
    A scripting language which enables web designers to add dynamic, interactive elements to a web site.

    Java Servlets
    A servlet is an application or a script that is written in Java and executed on a server, as opposed to on a client. It is analogous to CGI, although servlets are more than simply CGI scripts written in Java.

    Mailing List Software
    A mailing list is a discussion group based on the e-mail system. You may want to set one up – they’re very useful promotional tools. Even if you don’t want to host a discussion group, you can use a mailing-list program to distribute a newsletter similar to http://www.adultwebmasternewsletter.com. Many companies have mailing-list software available for their clients to use — if so, ask whether there’s an additional cost, how many mailing lists you are allowed to have, and how many members per list

    ODBC Sources
    Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) is a generic way for applications to speak to a database. ODBC acts as an interpreter between an application (say a Cold Fusion or ASP application) and a database (like Microsoft Access). By using ODBC, a connector can be created that will allow a web application that you create to read data from and insert data into an Access database that you’ve created. An ODBC source is a directory entry that specifies database information. This ODBC source (or DSN Source) allows your site to point to the correct database located on the web server.

    It is possible to connect to a db without ODBC, but it is a safe bet to assume you need 1 ODBC connection per individual database you will have.

    Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)
    Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It’s also a good language for many system management tasks.

    PHP
    PHP is another scripting language. Like ASP, it’s commands are embedded within the HTML of a web page. The commands are executed on the web server, making it browser independent. The web browser only sees the resulting HTML output of the PHP code.

    Post Office Protocol (POP)
    This is a method of retrieving e-mail from an e-mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). There are two versions of POP. The first, called POP2, became a standard in the mid-80’s and requires SMTP to send messages. The newer version, POP3, can be used with or without SMTP. The newest and most widely used version of POP email is POP3 email. You will see the term POP3 in most of the web hosting plans available today.

    Price
    The monthly amount that you will have to pay a hosting company to provide the hosting services requested. Paying monthly is normally perfectly acceptable, but discounts may be available by paying quarterly or annually.

    Reseller Plans
    Many hosting providers allow you to be a reseller of hosting space earning a commission off of each sale. If you intend to be a provider of hosting services, you should investigate this option as you decide where to host your web site. Many hosting companies offer discounts (in addition to revenue opportunities) to companies that wish to remarket their web hosting services.

    Root Server
    A machine that has the software and data needed to locate name servers that contain authoritative data for the top-level domains.

    Setup Fee
    Some hosting companies charge a one time setup fee to set up your hosting account. It is worth to also take this into account when looking at the monthly fee.

    Server
    A computer, or software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW or HTTP server, or to the machine on which the software is running. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages and shares network resources.

    Shell Account
    Something experienced computer users often request. Permits you to edit your files online in real-time, rather than making changes to your site offline and then uploading the changes. Unless you intend to manage the web server your site runs on, a shell account should not be needed.

    Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
    The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet. Most Internet email is sent and received using SMTP. SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.

    Server Side Includes (SSI)
    Commands that can be included in web pages that are processed by the web server when a user requests a file. The command takes the form <!–#include virtual=”/path/to/file”–>. A common use for SSI commands is to insert a universal menu into all of the pages of the web site so that the menu only has to be changed once and inserted with SSI instead of changing the menu on every page.

    Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
    A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet. It is used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s that begin with “https” indicate that an SSL connection will be used. SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity. In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient can decrypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered with.

    Shopping Cart Software
    A software program which acts as a “virtual store front”. Such software typically allows a web site user to create and manage a virtual shopping cart to which items can be added or removed. Once a customer is ready to “check out”, this same Shopping Cart Software typically includes interfaces to allow customers to pay with their credit card directly on the site. Shopping Cart Software is critical for those web sites that intend to sell products and services directly over the Internet without human intervention.

    Statistics
    Many hosting companies run software on their web servers that collect usage information about your web site and compile it in a user-friendly, easy-to-read format for you to analyze trends about your web site. Having access to statistics is critical if you need to know how many visitors are coming to your site, which web pages receive the most attention, and how much time people actually spend browsing your site.

    Support
    Telephone or e-mail technical support provided to a web hosting company’s customers. When there’s a problem with your site or your e-mail, you want to be able to get an answer promptly by e-mail or on the phone. Some hosting companies offer email only support, telephone support, or a combination of both. Some hosting companies provide 24hr 7 days a week support (24/7). This is important if your site is an e-commerce site with a lot of daily visitors.

    TCP/IP
    This is a set of communications protocols to connect hosts on the Internet.

    Unix
    A computer operating system designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.

    Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
    The standard way to give the address of any resource on the Internet that is part of the World Wide Web (WWW). www.adult-hosting-companies.com is an example URL.

    Unique IP Address
    In many hosting plans, you share an IP address and you will be able to view your site through your domain name only. Obtaining a unique IP address (see IP Address) provides a one-to-one relationship between your domain name (www.yourname.com) and an IP address.

    Video Streaming
    The process of providing video data or content via a web page.

    Virtual Server
    A web server which shares its resources with multiple users. It’s another way of saying that multiple web sites share the resources of one server. If you do not need your own web server (i.e. your own server class computer), you will use a virtual server to host your web site.

    Article Written By Lee.

  • AVS Changes – Is The Proverbial Sky Falling?

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

    With the announcement yesterday from several of the large AVS systems, Free Age Card, Sex Key and, Gay Passport (also speculation on and off the forums state that Mass Pass were aware of this happening) that they will no longer allow webmasters to use the terms; AVS, Adult Verification Service, AGE Verification Service and, Access to thousands of other sites what does this hold in store long term for AVS webmasters?

    Quite simply, it looks at first glance as if these changes have something to do with the speculation surrounding VISA and AVS systems from a few months ago.

    In fact, these changes have been on the horizon for some time now however, until yesterday webmasters seemed to be unsure as to what, if anything will be changing. Even though the speculation has been circulating for some time, one of the first AVS systems to envoke these new rules, Sex key, came out with the following statement; ‘While we knew changes were coming, we just now found out what we believe are the new requirements. With this new information, we are trying to comply as quickly as humanly possible.’ quickly followed by; ‘We felt it was better to give people a chance to modify their sites this weekend rather than to not be in compliance Monday.’- Craig Tant.

    One thing is certain, come Monday, there WILL be a lot of unhappy webmasters

    So apart from the added workload for webmasters what other issues is this likely to bring up in the immediate future, well, again, based on the rumors and, i should stress that is all they are up to this point in time, from a few months ago we could expect one or more of the following items to happen to the AVS model as we know it.

    1) Visa starts to charge the AVS companies the $750 fee just to process memberships.
    2) Visa starts to charge individual webmasters the $750 fee to use an AVS service.
    3) AVS Systems cease to exist.

    So, lets break each of the above items down and see how it will have a long term effect on both AVS webmasters and, the adult industry as a whole.

    AVS Companies Charged $750 Visa Fee’s.

    In itself this isn’t a big issue that we should be immediately worried about, after all the AVS company will be the one footing this bill and, with the amount of traffic and sales that these programs get $750 is a relatively small pebble at the foot of a mountain. That said however, some of the smaller AVS systems might end up having to close because they cant afford the fees in much the same way that some Amateur paysite owners had to close their aff programs.

    Webmasters Charged $750 Visa Fee’s.

    This is the option that i am most concerned with, after all, with thousands of AVS sites being built each day and being submitted to literally hundreds of AVS companies the potential cost of this could run into thousands for individual webmasters.

    Of course, with this expense there also comes some benefits. The immediate benefit that comes to mind is that a lot of the dishonest webmasters will refuse to or, be unable to pay this fee that in itself will lighten the strain for the rest of the industry.

    There is also the possibility that webmaster may need to pay this fee for each and every AVS that they submit to which, in itself will not only harm the individual webmasters but, it will also see the rise and, dare i say it, fall of some of the smaller or less profitable (from a webmasters point of view) AVS companies. No doubt if this did ever happen the likes of Cyberage, UGAS, Global Male Pass et al will be unaffected as, they have enough of a webmaster following and traffic base to ride this potential storm out.

    AVS Systems Cease To Exist.

    This is potentially the worst case scenario and, whilst i will be the first to admit that this is VERY unlikely to happen, the possibility needs to be looked at.

    What happens to all of your sites you have in the AVS systems? What happens to all of your potential rebills? What happens to all of that AVS traffic?

    Well i would say for the most part, changing your sites from AVS to the free model wont be such a big deal for webmasters however, the financial losses to individual webmasters and companies could run into hundreds of thousands a month. With these financial losses will more webmasters leave the industry or, will more of the AVS webmasters start running TGP’s and dilute the traffic quality even further?

    Speaking of traffic, we all know by now that AVS traffic is qualified potent traffic but, what will happen when this traffic, should the AVS be closed down, hit the adult web again? Quite simply long term the effects of such a force could have positive and negative effects ranging from paysite memberships sales rising to the onslaught and proliferation of free porn being searched for again – good news for TGP owners.

    As you can see from the above, all of the speculation, rumors and, facts speak for themselves in so much as, if you are an AVS webmaster, you NEED to start diversifying your business model to ensure that even if the worst doesn’t happen, you are still able to be profitable online.

    Article written by Lee

  • The Web Safe Color Palette

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

    The “Web Safe” palette is a bit controversial. It is a set of 216 colors that are, supposedly, guaranteed to appear as intended on all graphical displays when used in HTML, CSS, and images embedded in Web pages. Many Web developers believe that sticking to these colors is one of the holiest commandments in the Web design scripture.

    This was mostly a concern when most computers had 8-bit color displays; these days, most people run at 16-bit or 24-bit color. Although these bit-depths render the Web Safe palette pointless, dithering and quantification bugs in browsers and operating systems still cause problems in 16-bit displays (16-bit display, also known as “High Color” mode or “Thousands of Colors,” is generally problematic). Extensive testing has led to a new palette, called “Really Safe,” whose colors are guaranteed to appear correctly on all displays and all browsers.

    If you use different colors than these, you might see images and backgrounds of the same color appear at a slightly different tint, so that a “box” will be visible around them if the background extends beyond the image’s edges.

    Below is the table of ‘Web Safe’ and ‘Really Safe’ colors, you will see some of the color hex codes are in red, these are ‘Really Safe’ colors.

    Code Color Code Color Code Color Code Color Code Color Code Color
    000000 000033 000066 000099 0000cc 0000FF
    003300 003333 003366 003399 0033cc 0033ff
    006600 006633 006666 006699 0066cc 0066ff
    009900 009933 009966 009999 0099cc 0099ff
    00cc00 00cc33 00cc66 00cc99 00cccc 00ccff
    00FF00 00ff33 00FF66 00ff99 00FFCC 00FFFF
    330000 330033 330066 330099 3300cc 3300ff
    333300 333333 333366 333399 3333cc 3333ff
    336600 336633 336666 336699 3366cc 3366ff
    339900 339933 339966 339999 3399cc 3399ff
    33cc00 33cc33 33cc66 33cc99 33cccc 33ccff
    33ff00 33FF33 33FF66 33ff99 33FFCC 33FFFF
    660000 660033 660066 660099 6600cc 6600ff
    663300 663333 663366 663399 6633cc 6633ff
    666600 666633 666666 666699 6666cc 6666ff
    669900 669933 669966 669999 6699cc 6699ff
    66cc00 66cc33 66cc66 66cc99 66cccc 66ccff
    66FF00 66FF33 66ff66 66ff99 66ffcc 66FFFF
    990000 990033 990066 990099 9900cc 9900ff
    993300 993333 993366 993399 9933cc 9933ff
    996600 996633 996666 996699 9966cc 9966ff
    999900 999933 999966 999999 9999cc 9999ff
    99cc00 99cc33 99cc66 99cc99 99cccc 99ccff
    99ff00 99ff33 99ff66 99ff99 99ffcc 99ffff
    cc0000 cc0033 cc0066 cc0099 cc00cc cc00ff
    cc3300 cc3333 cc3366 cc3399 cc33cc cc33ff
    cc6600 cc6633 cc6666 cc6699 cc66cc cc66ff
    cc9900 cc9933 cc9966 cc9999 cc99cc cc99ff
    cccc00 cccc33 cccc66 cccc99 cccccc ccccff
    ccff00 ccff33 CCFF66 ccff99 ccffcc ccffff
    FF0000 FF0033 ff0066 ff0099 ff00cc FF00FF
    ff3300 ff3333 ff3366 ff3399 ff33cc ff33ff
    ff6600 ff6633 ff6666 ff6699 ff66cc ff66ff
    ff9900 ff9933 ff9966 ff9999 ff99cc ff99ff
    ffcc00 ffcc33 ffcc66 ffcc99 ffcccc ffccff
    FFFF00 FFFF33 FFFF66 ffff99 ffffcc FFFFFF

    Hopefully, you will find a use for the two different color palettes that are now available and, you can begin designing for your surfers, regardless of which browser they use.

    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.

  • Censored Gay Adult Pornography

    Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: General | Response: 0

    You’ve heard it said over and over “Make them pay for the pink” or in the case of the gay market “make ’em pay for the MEAT”. But how far can you get without hardcore on a gay site?

    Depending on the method you use to get your traffic softcore verses hardcore can make a big difference. If you’re working the SE’s, you set the tone by way of your descriptions and keywords – and you hope that they get you the rankings and the surfers. On the other side of the fence, when you use link lists and categorized directories, their categories will dictate where your site will go. Thus, you are totally out of the loop when it comes to its placement.

    For the past six months I have been conducting a test. I built ten free sites, all to derive their traffic from link lists. Five were strictly softcore and the others a mix of softcore images and “selective” hardcore images. Each had 40 pics in order to play to the larger LLs and directories.

    Let me give you a little background. The reason I started this test was to track the traffic trends in the gay market as it applied to the notion of “make ’em pay for the meat”. It was something I had done with my straight sites, but something I totally avoided with my gay sites. The reason for that one a statement I made a while back “If I wanted to see softcore I could look in the mirror when I got out of the shower.” While this is a totally narcissistic comment, it does demonstrate my ongoing point about selling to gay men.

    Now don’t get me wrong in the scheme of thing I do like softcore images of the right person, but as a surfer who is looking to get off, I want what I can’t normally have. And that idea is going to send me to a site that will has what I want, OR in the case of this test, THINK that I want.

    Now back to the test sites. For my softcore sites, I took various images of single men in different phases of undress from stripping to provocative poses. For the hardcore I was much more selective. I used what I call US Cable or Int’l Tele guidelines. What that means is, what do I see if I turn on a cable station or one of the satellite channels from around the world. I found “simulated sex”. Just like an R rated movie, there were scene where two guys are together with no close ups of actual penetration. So, when I went through my web images I looked for similar scenes. The images were sexual but nothing so blatant as up close penetration but suggestive enough to arouse a surfer – the taunt factor I would need to sell my sponsor sites.

    With my distinct sets of sites, I began to submit to the Link Lists. 99% of the sites were accepted for each of there categories (the one that didn’t get accepted had a hardcore description and softcore images – oops). But after making the correction it was accepted.

    The traffic started to come in. In the first day, the difference I anticipated was right there. I decided I wouldn’t effect anymore change in traffic so I didn’t submit to any other link lists. I wanted to test this out. At the end of the month the trends I expected were in fact there. The total of all the traffic generated 10% came in to Softcore sites. The remaining 90% came in through the hardcore sites. So this tells me that most gay surfers are hitting the hardcore categories on the LLs. It confirmed my previous assumptions.

    What’s the sense of doing all of this and not watch all avenues, right? Now having scrutinized where the traffic was coming from and how, I wanted to trace how it was going out.

    I used an older cgi program to track the hits out. It’s one of those standard programs that I learned to use years ago and can’t get rid of. Now remember, all of the sites are pretty much the same with wording, sponsors, color schemes, etc. The only real difference was the pics.

    Based on the numbers collected from the program I found that approximately 75% of all the traffic coming into the softcore sites left on a link to one of the link lists. I had 20% go out on a sponsor’s link and the remaining 5% did not resolve (which in this program I was using tried to count the click but was unsuccessful).

    Now reviewing the information from the hardcore sites, I found a distinct difference. I will not lie to you. I expected a difference. I don’t want you to think I was awestruck LOL. But, I was surprised with what I found. This time the majority went out to my sponsors – 50% went to a sponsor site, 20% went out to the reciprocal links, 19.9% went to a free gay email site (which wasn’t enough to mention on the softcore sites), 5% did not resolved. The remaining 5.1% I have no idea – they probably whacked off and logged off (I hope it was good for them LOL)

    While it is not the point of this article, I will add that the traffic produced reasonable well at the sponsor end.

    Let me say that my “trends in gay adult traffic” research is by no means complete. However, over the period of six month these ten sites were enough to say there is marked difference between softcore and hardcore sites. So does “make ’em pay” work in the gay market? For now, there is a definite factor depending on where you get your traffic. If links lists are your specialty, then the answer is yes.

    My next step in the evolution of this is to submit these sites into the search engines. With all things considered, I’m looking forward in tracking that information. I’m off to submit. I will share the data I collect from that test soon.

    Now, I just hope DMOZ doesn’t give me a hardcore time ; )

    Article written by Gary-Alan.

  • Tips For Submitting To TGP’s

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: TGP | Response: 0

    One of the most popular ways for getting traffic to sites these days is to submit galleries to TGP’s and because it is so popular there is a lot of competition for getting listed. If you like, it is a buyer’s (TGP’s) market, with the supply of galleries exceeding the demand. For example, at Richard’s Realm we only list about 60% of the galleries submitted and that’s after we’ve filtered out unwanted free hosts, free email addresses and submission bots. If we didn’t do that we would be listing about 20%-30% of all submissions.

    Before you begin

    Submitting to TGP’s is a numbers game. It’s all about volume and percentages. The amount of money your gallery generates can be estimated using a formula with 4 elements:

    Total Hits To Gallery X Click Through Ratio X Signup Ratio X $ Per Signup = Total Revenue

    So, for example, 1 in 25 surfers to your gallery clicks on a banner or a link, you use a sponsor paying $30 a signup and you have a 1:400 signup ratio with them from your TGP traffic. The formula then becomes:

    Total Hits To Gallery X 4% X 0.25% X $30 = Total Revenue

    You can see now that the only thing remaining that will affect your Total Revenue is the Total Hits To Gallery. If you increase the Total Hits To Gallery the Total Revenue will also increase.

    Of course, experienced TGP submitters also know that you can work on improving the other elements of the formula to improve Total Revenue. They tweak their galleries and change banner and link placement to maximize the Click Through Ratio. If it is improved and rises from 1 in 25 (4%) to 1 in 20 (5%), their Total Revenue increases overall by 20%.

    Building the gallery

    Examine the formula above and you will see that two elements can be manipulated at the gallery building stage: Click Through Ratio and Signup Ratio.

    It is always said, and surprisingly often overlooked, but select a sponsor for a gallery which complements the gallery’s content. For example, if you build a big tits gallery use a big tits sponsor. With more and more TGP’s becoming categorized people surfing the big tits category will be looking for bit tits and are more likely to be interested in a big tits sponsor!

    In addition, be sure to use sponsors which are not overly-used, sponsors which are little known. If you go through a TGP you will see the same sponsors and banners showing up all the time. If a surfer sees a banner 10 times they are only going to click on it the once. So even if you build the perfect gallery with top notch banner placement and pictures, if the surfer clicked on the same banner on the previous gallery they’re not going to click on yours!

    Selecting TGP’s

    There are hundreds of TGP’s you can submit to. It is usually advantageous to select TGP’s that only post your type of gallery, as well as the more generic ones. For example, submit to TGP’s which only list big tit galleries or galleries with one-legged midget lesbians (if that’s your niche). The more targeted traffic will usually result in better click-through ratios and better signups, especially if you’re using a new or little-known sponsor for the particular niche.

    TGP’s with a moderate level of traffic that send a few hundred hits tend to be quite good. Admittedly, to get any real volume you need to submit to quite a few, but consider using TGSW to do the bulk of it. My reasoning for using the smaller TGP’s is that they tend to list fewer pages and the surfers tend to be less “professional” and adept at dodging banners.

    Submitting your gallery

    There are no real tricks to this bit, but it is very important to remember that TGP’s usually get far more submissions than they need or want. You must try your best not to give them a reason to reject your gallery:

    • Read the rules carefully and follow them. The TGP webmaster doesn’t put them there for fun and if you break them it’s possible you will be blacklisted.
    • Look at the galleries already listed on the TGP to get some idea of what the webmaster likes.
    • Don’t try to be smart and use different names and email addresses to avoid the per webmaster submission limits. Although galleries can look very different, reviewers have a good memory and can often recognize designs, layouts and descriptions. If they spot you trying to cheat you’ll probably end up getting blacklisted.
    • Take a look at their TGP and see what kind of description they like, Adult Buffet have very different descriptions to Richards-Realm. This might not determine whether or not you get listed, but it’s a chance to get a good description of your choice and, hopefully, more hits.
    • Select the right category for your gallery. If you submit your gallery to the “Teens” category and it should be in the “Mature Women” category it will get put there or rejected. If you get the gallery listed in the wrong category you may get more hits, but if a surfer is expecting a nice young lady in the pictures he’s just going to hit his back button and look at the next gallery in the list – probably not even giving your banners a chance to load.

    Monitoring your gallery

    Once you’ve submitted your gallery you should keep an eye on how it performs. View the stats to see who listed you, how many hits they sent and how much you made from the gallery. It is even worthwhile to create galleries dedicated to specific TGP’s, so you can monitor their performance even more closely. If a TGP sends lots of hits but no signups it’s probably worth no longer submitting to them or changing the gallery to see if you can improve the click throughs or signups. Compare before and after stats if you make changes in the gallery layout or sponsor to see if they’re working.

    Whatever you do keep tweaking and monitoring your galleries to get the best possible performance for each of the elements in the revenue formula.

    Article written by Richard

  • Favicon.ico – What Does It Do?

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

    Favicon.ico is the name of the graphic Internet Explorer 5+ uses in the address bar and when someone views their favorite bookmarks. There should be one beside the address of this page now if you are using IE5+. If you want to see favicon.ico in action among your favorites bookmark our site now by right clicking and selecting ‘Add to favorites’.

    Internet Explorer looks for this file in the same directory as the HTML page currently being displayed, if it cant find favicon.ico it will then display the default Internet Explorer icon in the address bar. As for viewing of favorites, IE will check its temporary folder to see if favicon.ico is there again, if it is not located it will display the default white background with a blue ‘e’ icon.

    For a webmaster there are three main advantages to using the favicon.ico ‘trick’.

    The first, is that it helps to brand your site with a nice little icon that is easy to recognize.

    The second, is that it makes your website more professional.

    The third, is that your entry will stand out in surfers bookmarks over the others. This is especially good as, if you can get a surfer back to your site then you have another chance at making a sale.

    Many internet users have a multitude of site bookmarks so, you need to use favicon.ico to give you an edge. I highly recommend using it and, now I’m going to tell you how.

    First, you will need to create an icon file which is exactly 16 x 16 pixels. If the icon is larger or smaller IE5+ will just ignore it. As for the colors in it, 16 is standard. You can use more colors if you want but, the more colors you use, the larger the .ico file becomes and, the longer it takes to load.

    You now know the standards the favicon.ico file has to be, now to actually create this file you can take one of two routes.

    The first is to convert and existing 16 x 16 BMP or GIF graphic with 16-32 colors into an .ico file using converter software making sure to save it as favicon.ico.

    You know the standards the favicon.ico file has to be, now to actually create favicon.ico . The easiest way of creating a favicon.ico file is to convert an existing 16 X 16 BMP or GIF graphic with 16 – 32 colors into a .ico file using converter software making sure to save it as favicon.ico.

    Once you have created your favicon.ico file all you need to do is to upload it to any directory on your server that contains html pages. This way, when IE5+ searches for favicon.ico it will be bale to find it regardless of which page you are on.

    That’s nearly all the areas of favicon.ico covers apart from, what if you want different icons for different parts of your website? Can this be done? The answer is yes it can. All you have to do is place the following HTML code between the <head> and </head> tags of your web page.

    <LINK REL=”SHORTCUT ICON” HREF=”differenticon.ico”> (SHORTCUT ICON should be kept in uppercase).

    Now when someone adds a web page with that code to their favorites, IE5+ will not look for favicon.ico but will look for differenticon.ico and if it’s there it will display it, if not the default icon will be displayed.

    Using favicon.ico or the SHORTCUT ICON code is nice way to add a unique touch to your site, and of course will result in more repeat visitors than if you were not using it – which is always good for any webmaster.

    Article Written By Le

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