Sex Toy Affiliate Programs

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Sponsors | Response: 0

For the past year I’ve been playing with sex toys AND I’ve been selling them too!

Over the last couple of articles I have tried to enlighten you on secondary and third level sponsors, to supplement your site income. Another successful addition is sex toys – which are a hit in the gay market. Personally, I sell toys and videos in the secondary spots simply because the payouts are typically lower than most sponsors are – but my motto is money is money!

The basic reaction by most straight webmasters has been, I didn’t realize gay men liked sex toys, too. Well we do.

While there are a number of great toy sponsors out there, not many cater directly to gay men. That’s why I worked a deal on Gay Adult Shopping (http://store.gayadultshopping.com/partners/). I have joined others, but typically, they sell to a straight clientele. When I say market to straight, I’m referring to the packaging of their inventory. This is not a judgment call but a plain fact; I’d rather buy something that has an image of guy on it rather than a woman.

Now mind you, BOTH markets favor many of the products sold. I know if a straight female friend and I went into an adult store, we would look at the same dildo; and, perhaps even buy the same item regardless of the package. But when you’re surfing the net from home, it’s no holds barred. The surfer is no longer locked into the inventory of a shop on the street. He’s going to look for what HE wants. It is all perception. And, knowing that is half the battle.

Ok on to selling! I have taken three approaches in my experimenting – free sites, TGPs and memberships sites. Within a paysite, I typically didn’t SELL the store as much as I told the surfer it is there if he wants it. The real work in selling came with the free sites and galleries.

I’m a text man. I love writing copy and seeing how it works. However with the toys, I used a graphic and embellished it with text. For my free sites, I found direct eye contact shots (Images where the model is “looking out”, presumable at the surfer) were more effective than a pic of a guy playing with toys. Along with the pic, I used text like “My boyfriend and I can not get enough of them…” and “I get off watching him play…” or “The one with the most toys… Gets Off!” Other places on my free sites, I just dropped in the text link. Either worked well. I added both sets of ad links to my basic main pages. The results were good – even though I kept them to a minimum not to out sell my sponsor sites.

My TGP experiment was WORK! After my first try I found out that text alone doesn’t work well. This is definitely an approach that requires imagery. On my first pass, I offered pics and a paragraph that that sold all the things I could think of… dongs, dildos, videos and ejaculating butt plugs -You name I tried to sell it. Out of 2000 hits on that one page, I had 60 clicks into the toy store. Even though I had a sale, it wasn’t going to break the bank. But it SOLD, so I decided to try more. This time I hunted through my content for pics with toys in them and eye contact. I added banners and toned down the text somewhat. Instead of listing an inventory, I stayed in line with the text I mentioned above. I gave an overall feel of what the store had (toys, videos, lube, etc.) Then I ended it with a little tease of what delightful experiences were in store when their package arrived.

This time, it worked! On that first day, out of the 2000 hits it received, 500 clicks went into the store. I have never had that kind of click ratio off of a TGP. I was amazed. Most of the sales were for smaller priced items ($10-$20), but I had two orders that totaled over $200 dollars each. Was this a fluke? I wasn’t sure, so I tried it again. With the next few submissions the click rates were smaller, and I don’t know why. It could be that I used the same ads or something too similar to the first. BUT the click to sales ratio was about the same as my first attempt. Needless to say this has now become part of my weekly regiment.

So what did this prove? Sex toys DO sell well in the gay market even under the hard to convert traffic scenarios. I guess we like our toys just as much as anyone else =)

Selling adult products, whether on a free site, a TGP or a pay site, will bring in a few extra dollars that many webmasters didn’t even know was out there.

Article written by Gary-Alan

Thinking Of Starting An Adult Website In The UK?

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: General | Response: 0

We all know that there are many foreign / international adult webmasters and there are some very well known ones based in England however, before you start building your online empire what are the legalities regarding the type of content you can and cant use on your adult pornographic sites?

To be honest with you, there are no ‘defined’ laws in England (At the time of writing this article) regarding the use of online media to promote adult activities however, it is a commonly held belief that as long as you stay to the same standard as what most ‘top shelf magazines’ or ‘R18 Videos’ have in them you shouldn’t go far wrong.

So what are these standards? That’s the information that I am about to give you.

Content that IS NOT acceptable.

1) Any material which is in breach of the criminal law.

2) Material (including dialogue) likely to encourage an interest in abusive sexual activity (e.g., pedophilia, incest) which may include depictions involving adults role-playing as non-adults.

3) The portrayal of any sexual activity, whether real or simulated, which involves lack of consent.

4) The infliction of pain or physical harm, real or (in a sexual context) simulated. Some allowance may be made for mild consensual activity.

5) Any sexual threats or humiliation which do not form part of a clearly consenting role-playing game.

6) The use of any form of physical restraint which prevents participants from withdrawing consent, for example, ball gags.

7) Penetration by any object likely to cause actual harm or associated with violence.

8) Activity which is degrading or dehumanizing (examples include the portrayal of bestiality, necrophilia, defecation, urolagnia).

As you can see from the above, there ARE very specific guidelines regarding water sports, animality and, some of the more ‘out there’ fetishes.

Now you know what you cant use on your adult sites, lets take a look at the list of sexual activities that you can use. Its no surprise that the list of what you can use is considerably shorter.

Content that MAY BE acceptable.

1) Aroused genitalia.

2) Masturbation.

3) Oral-genital contact including kissing, licking and sucking.

4) Penetration by finger, penis, tongue, vibrator or dildo.

5) Non-harmful fetish material.

6) Group sexual activity.

7) Ejaculation and semen.

It also worth noting that the above guidelines are not distinguished between heterosexual or homosexual activities.

So, that’s the low down on what the current status of affairs are with regards to the use of adult content on websites in England and Wales. Actually, that’s not to bad just ensure that you stay within these guidelines and, more importantly, that you do consult a solicitor before commencing any form of adult business after all, that’s what they are there for, to give you SOUND legal advice instead of basic ‘guidelines’.

Article written by Lee

Content – Keeping your members coming back for more

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Content | Response: 0

We know that the first battle for pay site owners is getting the traffic and the signups. But, sometimes this becomes such a focus that we forget the other battle: keeping members interested once you have them. When people pay for a membership to a site they are expecting to get their money’s worth. In return for their monthly fee they are looking for a site that encompasses quality, variety and originality.

As the web grows, so does the online entertainment industry. Four or five years ago there was only a handful of pay sites around compared to the thousands and thousands that are on the net today. Back then, you could literally put any kind of content on your sites and you would have membership, there just was not much choice out there for the connoisseur of porn. Now, potential members are more informed, they know what is out there, they know what they like, and they know what they want to see.

What has to be done to cater to these more discriminating porn shoppers? You have to give them what they want. Here are some useful tips for choosing a content provider and/or content for your pay sites that will keep the members coming back for more:

Go for the exclusive content.

You want to be able to provide your members with something that is fairly fresh and that is not pasted on every pay site on the Internet. The last thing a potential buyer wants to see is a site that is a carbon copy of half the sites out there.

Choose leased content.

Choosing leased content over buying CD’s is a good way to keep your site fresh. Most leased content providers will update their content on a bi-monthly or monthly basis. As well, with leased content, it is just a matter of adding the feed into your site. This alleviates the need for extensive extra graphic design work.

Have a wide variety of content.

Make sure that your site has a little bit of everything a potential member could want: pictures, videos, live feeds, etc. The more you have the better. Many content providers have great package deals available that will include all of these things all set up and ready to put on a site.

Choose a reputable content provider.

You want to make sure that when you choose a content provider that you do not just go for the best deal out there. You want to also look at things like: how much bandwidth they provide, what their technical support is like and last but not least, do they have good customer service.

These are just but a few helpful suggestions to follow when choosing content for your pay site. There are certainly many ways to achieve a high rate of member retention. One thing that many of our customers tell us is that they find that having a least one voyeur feed on their site great for keeping the members coming back for more. Laura’s Condo, one of our voyeur feeds, has one of the best member retention rates around. Visitors get attached to the girls, develop a rapport with them and they do not want to lose that. Hence, they will keep renewing to be able to keep their relationship going with their favorite girl.

The number one thing that pay site owners must remember is that members equal money and in order to keep the cash flow rolling in they must keep the members interested and give them what they want. By spending a little extra money to get high quality exclusive content, you will actually be putting more money in recurring memberships back in your pocket at the end of the day.

Article written by Meredith Murray

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

Building A Surfer Trap – Stage 4

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Traffic | Response: 0

Building A Surfer Trap – Stage 4.

Here we go with stage 4 in our surfer trap.

We should now have a pretty basic surfer trap set up with consoles on all of the FPA’s all of the links on all of the FPA’s (Excluding the FPA graphics) should go to either another FPA or, the a POTD Program.

As mentioned in the last stage we are going to start building up some traffic to our surfer trap even though, we are not finished yet.

The first place where you can get some good free traffic would be from a toplist counter.

A good counter that I would recommend would be one of the following:

Outster http://www.outster.com (A Gay Specific Counter)
SexTracker http://www.sextracker.com (A General Adult Counter)

You need to sign up to ONE of the above counters and only ONE.

Usually a counter will ask you for some details when signing up for them these will usually include:

Email Address.
Site Url
Name

For the email address, enter a REAL email.
For Your Name, Enter a name you wish to be known by to the counter owners.

However, for the URL (The one to SEND traffic to FROM the counter) you should enter the index.html page of your surfer trap (The Multi-Site FPA).

You will now be given some coding once you complete the counter sign up process. This counter code you now need to place on EVERY page of your surfer trap.

Place the counter towards the bottom of your FPA’s (Including the Multi-Site FPA) this way, they will load after the rest of the graphics or at least, they should in theory.

Basically what you are doing by implementing this counter is as follows:

For each time the counter is displayed or clicked on your site (Depending on the counter you choose) you will earn one credit on the respective counters toplist.

Each credit you earn on the toplist will move you higher up the list.

Now, the higher up the list you get, the more visitors to the counter site that you are going to get visiting your surfer trap by clicking your link on the toplist.

In return, by clicking on your surfer trap link from the toplist, they are ‘registering’ another impression of your counter hence, getting you one more ‘credit’ on the counter toplist hence, moving you higher in the listings.

See where we are going with this?

The more clicks you get from the counter to your hub, the higher you will get on the toplist in the process earning you more and more traffic to filter through your surfer trap.

Adding these counter codes to your FPA’s as they stand at present should take you an hour or so to do so, for now this is where I will leave the traffic generation section of this tutorial.

Article written by Lee

Organizing Your Hard Drive And Server

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Hosting | Response: 0

We have probably all done it at some point, we get in such a hurry to upload our new site that we have just spent the last 20 minutes building that we don’t think about maintaining the site at a future date or, worse still, we need to change a site we built 6-8 months ago and can not remember where we uploaded it to.

By organizing your server from day one of your steps into becoming a webmaster you will, inevitably, save yourselves a lot of time in the long term future of our business model.

Lets take a look at how we can accomplish this ‘organization’ though.

On your hard drive you need to have a ‘central’ location for all of your online files and folders, what better place to keep this than in a folder named ‘Online’ of course, this is just an example but it will son become apparent to you that this is probably the most logical folder name to use.

Now, within this folder you are also going to need to have a few sub folders, i would suggest using a folder for each of the domains that you own so for example, for your first domain, you would name it myfirstdomain.com, your second would be named myseconddomain.com etc.

Within these domain folders you will also need to have a selection of sub folders again, I would suggest names for these folders such as /html/, /scripts/, /articles/, you are now well on the way to organizing your server.

In addition to these sub folders you will also need to create sub folders for your images that you will be using on your sites, I would suggest using the names /banners/ and of course, /images/ for these two folders, you now know that the /banners/ folder contains all of the buttons and banners you will use on your sites and the /images/ folder contains all of the .jpg and .gifs you will use. Inside the /images/ folder, it might also be advisable to create a sub folder called /thumbnails/ which, you can store your thumb nailed pictures in if required.

One other advantage to organizing your folders and sites in this manner is that over time, it will assist you when it comes to dealing with hot linkers. Instead of having to find the paths to all of your individual image directory, you know instantly where you put them, without the need of logging onto your server.

Ok so you now have a semi-organized folder structure on your HD, so far we hopefully have a folder structure that looks somewhat like this:

C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/

C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/html/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/scripts/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/articles/

C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/html/Banners/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/html/Images/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/scripts/Banners/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/scripts/Images/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/articles/Banners/
C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/articles/Images/

So, hypothetically, if you created a article called ‘Article One’ you would find this in the following place on your HD:

C:/online/myfirstdomain.com/articles/articleone.html

See how easy that was to find on your hard drive?

Of course, on your server the folder structure will be no different so, your structure will be mirrored EXACTLY from your HD to your SERVER I.E.:

/usr/www/sites/myfirstdomain.com/articles/articleone.html

Not only will you make your server layout a lot easier to navigate but, it should, in theory, save you time when submitting your sites to the search engines, free for all’s etc as, in your head, you will already know the location to any single page.

Try this as an example…

You have created an article site called ‘Online Marketing’ on your third domain, where is it located?

That’s right, you will find it at http://www.mythirddomain.com/articles/onlinemarketing.html

How much time would you have usually spent logging into your server trying to find this page?

One other MAJOR advantage to keeping your server and HD structure the same is backing up your data now becomes easy as pie. you simply have to download your folders into the /online/ directory on your HD, then simply burn that entire directory to Cdrom.

Hopefully this article has given you some insight into how proper organization can be of use to you on your HD and on your server. If you are just starting out in the adult industry hopefully you will see that spending a little time to make a structuring system such as this can save you a lot of time long term.

One last question for you however, where would you find your article called ‘Marketing Shoes’ on your 56th domain name?

Article written by Lee

The Gay Opinion – Obscenity Laws and the Gay Market

Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: General | Response: 0

Let me begin by saying this is not a legal dissertation, but a collection of opinions on the recent comments and events inside the industry.

Obscenity Laws have always been the “fly in the ointment” for adult. Not knowing when, if or how the government will act toward webmasters or companies.

So what do I think? Every indicator out there says something or someone is coming. Big Brother is on the prowl. But, how will webmasters in the gay market act to ward off the evil?

While discussing this with a number of webmasters, I found that the gay opinion is spread as wide as a gigolo’s legs on payday. The thoughts that have been shared vary from ultra conservative to down right militant. And once again, I find myself stuck dead in the middle.

Here is a sampling of the opinions at large:

I’ve heard from some webmasters who have a “come and get me attitude”. Their approach is the government has done enough damage to the gay community over time.

Their attempts to sanction the gay adult industry will be simply another shot at taking us down – and that attempt will garner a public/media fight of the government acting as a bully. Now does this have anything to do with adult? No matter how I look at it, the one subject isn’t related to the other. Personally, the government’s reaction/treatment to the gay community has little to do with the government’s action towards adult. Yes, I can totally see how they got there, but it’s not enough for me.

There is the “what else is new” set. This is a group of webmasters who own pay and/or free sites, have been doing this for a long time and they have adapted their companies and their marketing to sell memberships to the surfers. They use softcore and stories already on their feeder sites, have webmaster programs and they are happy with the results and will not change a thing. Their methods work – methods are not blatantly sexual but more sensual and the conversions are a testament to that. By the way, this is where I stand (right in the middle). The general thought is nothing has happened yet. Work smart and don’t panic.

The other side of this is the “oh shit’ers”. These webmasters are re working their entire networks of gay porn to follow a well-established method of softcore only. Make them Pay for the Meat! They are reacting by taking down all hardcore images from their sites in order NOT to stir up any government dirt. Well as far as I’m concerned, they should have been doing this to begin with… sell the hardcore to members don’t give it away on a free site. For this, group the panic is on.

Finally I spoke with the “fuck ’ems”. Now their idea isn’t that the government is suppressing the gay community. They look at this totally as a first amendment issue of freedom speech and expression. They use both hardcore and softcore to resell for webmaster programs and frankly, they feel that they will prevail over any government attack simply by way of Bill of Rights. They’re making money and they don’t care who knows about it.

What does this all mean? Well here’s my take…

First, it’s apparent that the opinions are just as varied as webmasters working the straight market.

There is a general feel of, don’t panic – more than I have seen with straight market webmasters. I honestly, think this comes from our years of battle against the government on many other issues. Until the rumors become fact we will move as we always have – then deal with what is concrete rather than the abstract.

Overall, the most resolute business people I have heard from, all said the same thing. If you use common sense, use methods that work and that do not go overboard there will be no need to panic. The hobbyist who is trying to make a million will leave out of fear, the “over the top” websites will be the target and those businesses run with common sense will continue with no major issues. I think my favorite statement to come out of these conversations is, “The government will bite, if you give them the bone. Don’t feed them and they go hungry.”

I see the same “proceed as usual” attitude out there, as I have always seen in the gay community. Deal with the facts and only and not rumors.

Once again, this is totally based on opinion and by no means a legal stance. If you have any doubts, concerns or questions about obscenity laws in your area or in general, please consult your attorney.

Article written by Gary-Alan

Promo Material – Make The Most Of Your Marketing

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Marketing to Foreign Surfers

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Marketing to Foreign Surfers.

What would you do if I told you that there are 3 million plus new surfers last year that you did not market too? You probably marketed your product or adult site to those that could read English well enough to be searching with English terms. How about the growing numbers of surfers with English as their second language?

According to Nielsen/Net Ratings, from September 2000 to 2001, Italy’s online population grew by 3,540,970 users: about one new user every ten seconds. Italy is just one of the non-English speaking countries that is coming online at lightening fast speed.

Are you relying on these surfers searching for your English keywords? Are you thinking that every language uses the words “porn and hardcore” and what about the finer niches like “bisexual and titties”? The best conversion is with newbie surfers just online for the first time and wanting to see adult sites and products. Those that have been around a while find out about the plethora of free porn. This means that websites do their best marketing with search engine placements of their main sites or feeder sites. If you are on your money, you are trying to work every engine for every related keyword. Now think of the keywords that you could be going for in all the worlds’ languages!

Do a bit of research in some of the common languages. If I was Italian and new to the net, the first place I would be searching is in an Italian search engine. Go to http://arianna.iol.it/ and search using the word porn and you will find 10 listings come up all in Italian. Not one is English. Even http://it.yahoo.com/ Yahoo Italia does NOT serve up your English porn site in its results.

So how do you get a piece of this pizza pie? You need at least a doorway written in Italian. You need to visit a site like http://www.adult-site-translation.com/ and find out how affordable it is for a doorway page that is put together by a foreign translator. Not only is the text for your doorway sites or even complete tours with the proper keywords but the graphics are redone where necessary. You really cannot rely on a text translator. We all have been on a site where it was obvious that the webmasters first language was NOT English and felt bad for their awkward use of words. This is not how to make a sale.

You need to be careful that you choose a professional service for your translating needs. You need to know that the translators are top notch and can not only translate your existing page/site keeping your marketing angles but they can also advise you on such things as proper wording and what a surfer from that culture would find erotic. Languages do not translate word for word. A service like Adult Site Translation has hired translators who also know how to market adult sites. They will tell you the search terms your page should be listed under and can assist you with foreign search engine optimization.

Remember the days where you were the only site in a category or niche? It was like being a pioneer and it was very lucrative. Do you want to be first to market to these growing pockets of millions of new surfers? There are new frontiers out there and finally sites like Adult Site Translation can assist you to conquer them successfully!

Article written by Susanna

Marketing to European Surfers

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

Marketing to European Surfers.

Today we’ll try to answer couple of questions regarding dialers and how to market them to European traffic.

How to get traffic to your European market targeted site?

Pretty much the same way as for all the other sites, lets German market for example (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) use SE’s, German link-lists, TGPs,… feed site with your own traffic, and don’t forget to use exit-consoles.

Is your site translated into specific language?

Yes, of course you won’t get far using English template on German/Spanish.. sites… You can always contact Adult Site Translation if you need help with translations.

What sponsor should you use?

That is pretty hard to say. Practically since almost every European based sponsor offers dialers so it doesn’t really matter which one you choose. It’s the same with per sign-up sponsors: It depends how good you are in sending traffic to them. And as always try couple of them and see which one works best for you. Most of the sponsors will offer to your surfers to pay by CC, bank account and dialers.

Me personally, I don’t really advertise dialers. I go for sign-ups because most if not all European sponsors are recurring and it brings more money in the long run. But if a surfer wants to pay the (admittedly) high phone bills – that’s fine with me In fact, sometimes I get more money from a 0190-number (dialer number in Germany starts with 0190) than I’d get if the surfer would sign-up with his CC and would cancel his membership after the first payment.

Why are dialers so successful in the German/European market?
Well, I can think of 3 reasons for this:

1.) 0190-numbers are very common in Germany. Many support-hotlines use them, you can download logos for your cell phone via 0190, you can get health-tips via 0190, fax-numbers, etc… Germans see those numbers everywhere and get used to them. Of course they know that they are expensive but I think they tend to forget this because they are so common.

2.) Much of my income from dialers is from Swiss and Austrian people. Especially surfers from Switzerland LOVE dialers (Some of them spend hours/nights with dialers and in the end if i get 50% of that for me is not bad, isn’t it? I think they love dialers because they hesitate to give out the information on their CC (if they have any) and they can’t/don’t like to transfer their money via bank transfers. So dialers are actually their only way to get into the members-area.

3.) Credit cards are not very common in Germany. I would guess only some 30% have one and many who have one don’t believe that CC transactions on the internet are secure. So most of the surfers have only 2 options left: Paying by bank account or using a dialer. The bank account has 2 disadvantages in the eyes of the surfers: 1st “The sponsor knows my name, my account number, where I live and that I’m a greasy little wanker who pays for porn. -Maybe this sponsor is going to tell my neighbors about it-” 2nd “How can I explain this to my wife?” On the other hand the dialer has advantages: 1st It is anonymous. Nobody knows who and where the surfer is. 2nd The dialer is faster than typing all the necessary information needed for a bank transaction. A few seconds for a 35kb download and the surfer is ready to go. 3rd You can always find a reason why there’s this 0190-number on the phone-bill. “Well darling, you know, I had problems with my new graphic card and I had to contact the customer-support. Those damn bastards are on a 0190-number what what can I do?”

Article written by Lee