Networking – Not Just For Computers

Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: General, Promotion | Response: 0

Networking – Not Just For Computers.

“Networking” is a buzz word today. Everybody talks about it. Everybody hears about it. Everybody wants to do it more effectively. But why? Why do people network, and what do they hope to accomplish?

Primarily, networking is the process of meeting new people, either through a contact that you initiate, or through an introduction by a third party.

Networking allows you to meet, and establish a relationship with, people who may not have heard of you and your business through any other method.

For most professionals, networking is done to increase revenues. Sometimes new clients are found, sometimes suppliers and, sometimes new ways of doing things that increase your bottom line are found through networking.

When networking you should work towards these common goals:

To exchange business ideas.
To get better service.
To develop your business skills.
To potentially increase your revenues.
To establish long term friendships.

This means that networking is an essential part of building up strong business relationships. We need each other to buy from us, sell to us and, brainstorm with us in order to progress in our fields. In order for us to do these things we must give something back in return, its all about give and take.

we must be willing to hone our relationship building skills. We must be great listeners. We must be willing to give before we receive. We must get into networking mode in our own minds before we ask the same of others. This must be constant.

Through consistent contact with others, you will, instinctively start to put 2 and 2 together. When you begin speaking with someone your mind will automatically start searching the inner most recesses of your brain to remember people, places, even products, that will assist the person you are networking for and, at the same time, you will also be thinking of what they can do for you in return.

This Is Networking.

This is the state of mind you should be in whenever you are talking to someone in your industry, to get your mind in this state takes a while but, once you have focus and determination, you will immediately see how you can help others and, how they can benefit you in return whilst listening to them. this is the first step in getting them to help you.

Networking, as its name would suggest is WORK, hard work, the process is also a learned skill, its not something that we are all born with or, can all do. It can often be frustrating when you have a goal in mind but, your networking functions are not achieving that goal. All in all, networking is the building block of many a business venture, it can make and it can break you. Take some time to consider this fact the next time you are posting on a board or go to one of the tradeshows, you might just come away with more than you hoped for.

Article Written By Lee

Gay Online Dating – Offering Your Surfers An Alternative

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: General | Response: 0

Whilst adult websites remain the most highly concentrated method of making money for affiliate programs we have slowly started to see a trend over the past few months of affiliate programs adding a new kind of site to their regular lineup, online dating sites however, as webmasters working in the adult industry how can we successfully market these sites on our existing traffic base? This is what we are going to look at in this article.

Gay Online Dating – Some Facts And Figures.

As mentioned above many affiliate programs now offer some form of online dating site whether it is for gay men and women or for their straight counterparts there is very little mentioned about the target audience these types of site attract so, with that said lets look at some figures from a recent Nielsen report in respect of online dating sites.

The online dating market is expected to grow to become an estimated $642 Million dollar industry by 2008.

On average, a user on a dating site will spend 1hour 45 minutes on the dating network itself.

The highest ranked age group (27.64%) for online dating sites is between the ages of 35 and 44 years old.

Men are more likely to a) Browse online dating profiles, b) Post a profile on a dating site, c) Respond to a dating profile and, d) Pay for access to a dating site than women.

So what does this mean for us marketing our sites to gay men and women well, straight off the bat you can see that there is going to be a considerable boom in the online dating world and, with that boom will come a rather satisfying chunk of change also, the age group that spends most time on a dating site as mentioned above is also within the demographical group for the ages of gay online surfers. In addition, males as mentioned, are also more likely to respond to, post, browse or, more importantly here, pay for access to an online dating site making this an ideal opportunity for those of us who actively promote a gay site lineup to start supplementing our income by offering our surfers access to dating sites too.

Gay Adult Dating – Affiliate Programs.

So now we have the figures where do we go to find a gay adult dating affiliate program? Well, there are a couple of options for us, there is the highly recognized outpersonals.com as well as the gay.com dating area however, surprisingly enough, the more ‘mainstream’ dating sites such as date.com, match.com and even adultfriendfinder.com all have sections within their sites for gay men and women as well as gay specific tour pages and promotional materials.

Gay Online Dating – Where To Market Our Sponsor.

As with any type of new affiliate program the best way to start marketing them is to place a link on a less prominent page of your site so as to not send your high converting traffic off to a sponsor that may not work for you however, if you have a good network of sites then you might like to try adding your newly found dating affiliate program on your sites ‘exit’ links or even create a TGP gallery specifically for your dating sponsor utilizing softcore content. Also, one thing that I have personally found is that using text links always garners more clicks thru to the dating site than a regular button or banner so again, this may be something you would like to try. In essence though, first test your gay dating sponsor on a minimal traffic source to see what effect it has on your overall site then, once you have ran a test period you can adjust your marketing efforts appropriately.

Gay Adult Dating – Recap.

As we have seen above the marketplace for online dating is going to grow to a multimillion dollar industry and, whilst we already know that gay surfers are more affluent and willing to spend money if we can match our sponsors to the type of site they are looking for, why not also offer them an alternative to porn? Many webmasters often overlook the basic principles of marketing that is to say, don’t just give a potential buyer one option but rather, give them several options, by utilizing dating affiliate programs on our sites we are not only giving the surfer an option but, are also giving us a potential opportunity to make more money.

Article written by Le

Everybody’s Going Gay

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: General | Response: 0

The past few months in the online adult industry have seen some rather dramatic changes happen from Visa charging additional fees to accept their credit cards online, Paypal no longer processing adult and, several large companies going out of business. However, one thing that also seems to be changing for the better is the amount of webmasters looking at new niches to promote. Surprisingly, the one niche that many webmasters are looking at is that of the gay niche.

Where The Money’s At.

For years, the adult webmaster community has been split amongst themselves, those that are only focused on straight niches and, those that focus on gay niches however. As of late, more and more of those webmasters from the first group are looking to make additional income from the gay niche. With this inevitable surge in gay adult sites coming online, there are bound to be some knock-on effects, and those webmasters just starting to look at the gay niche, will return to what they know. However, for most, i think this is going to be a fruitful encounter with one of the industry less socially accepted markets. Many of the webmasters who have been concentrating solely on the straight market for their income are going to realize just how much money they have been losing out on for all these years. And with this realization, comes its own set of problems for the industry as a whole.

The Gay Market.

Whether you are a straight webmaster or a gay webmaster the one thing that will become apparent is that your sites are going to reflect you in both, how they look and, the marketing techniques you use. More importantly, the attitude you have towards your gay surfers will in fact show through. Many of the straight webmasters whom, perhaps are not as tolerant towards this niche will, almost certainly fail before they can really get going. Marketing gay adult sites is far different than marketing straight adult sites. You have to know the surfer, understand what they want and, more importantly, know the terminology in the gay market. Many times a post can be seen on various message boards belittling those webmasters who are openly gay – often accompanied by terms such as ‘fag’, ‘queer’, ‘homo’, etc along with with images being posted that, quite frankly, would turn most people’s stomach.

The gay niche is much more than just a single online market, it is a whole lifestyle unto itself. While this lifestyle is affluent (having an abundance of readily available money to spend) it will take a lot of work and perseverance to ensure you get your share of this market.

Starting Points.

As I mentioned above, the main thing many webmasters are going to have to learn are the terms of the gay market, what is a twink? A bear? A cub? What products work well on gay sites? Despite what most people think, you cant just throw up some banners with naked men on them and turn a profit. Match your content to a niche and then, match your advertising to your content, what use is it having bears on a site if, the paysite you are promoting features Teens ‘n’ Twinks?

Similarly, your text links, ‘Click Here For Hot Gay Action’ might get you a few clicks but, by targeting your surfers even more, you will see how some of the gay niches can really turn a profit. The trick is this, get the surfer to your site and actually give them something that you think will suit their desires. This may mean making a 10% commission on a sex toy sale as oppose to a $35 commission on a pay site membership. And so be it. Those 10%’ers start to add up after a few sales.

In Summary.

To summarize, the gay niche will make you money however, to make money you will need to invest something that, perhaps isn’t for everyone – a lot of time and understanding. Marketing the gay niche isn’t for everyone, we have seen this too many times. However for those who are, spending time adding a gay market portfolio to there straight, with a little time increase your overall income significantly.

Article written by Le

There’s Face Value And Then There Is Real Value

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: General | Response: 0

How often do we sign up to affiliate programs based on their standard terms of service for example, Sponsor A will pay you $35 for every signup you send to them and they tell you they convert at roughly 1:200 whilst Sponsor B will pay you $30 per signup and they convert at roughly 1:200 also, which of these scenarios straight off the bat will make you the most money? Think about your answer first then read on.

Negotiate The Figures.

Most, if not all of us would have immediately chosen Sponsor A for the pure fact that they pay you $5 more per signup and they convert at the same rate as Sponsor B however, how many of us would have written or icq’d Sponsor B and asked them to raise their payout? Not many of us I would guess. With that said, what is to stop you from emailing a certain ‘Sponsor B’ if you are able to convert consistently at their published 1:200 and asking for a higher pay rate to continue sending your traffic to them? Nothing at all and, surprisingly enough, I would guess that for most programs, they would actually increase your payout if you have a history with them.

Haggling The Costs.

The example above used a sponsor as the main focus however, how many times have you spent money at a content provider? A hosting company? A traffic broker? Have you actually taken a moment to ask these companies if they would give you a lower rate on the services they are providing you with? Again, I bet not many of us have I know it was only recently when I started asking for long term customer discounts and the likes. In fact, from the first point of contact you have with any company online, be they an adult web host, adult traffic broker, content provider or, in fact, an affiliate program, spend an extra few seconds when you first sign up and see how they can improve their service for YOU. To your surprise they might just cut you a deal that is unmatched anywhere else!

Don’t Undersell Their Products.

With the above said, one thing that you need to be aware of is that if you start making absurd price cuts from these companies you will probably be told to politely take a running jump however, lets say you were going to be charged $50 for something, ask them if you can get the same service at a 10% discounted rate if you use them again, perhaps not even on the first purchase but on the second, the third, etc.

By contacting these companies directly and not just going on ‘face value’ even if you only save yourself one or two dollars per purchase over a year those odds and ends soon add up to a nice saving.

Saving Money – Recap.

In essence many of us take things at face value whether we are talking to friends and peers or whether we are paying for goods and services but, by at least in asking for a discount on our purchase the worst thing that will happen is that you get told ‘no’ however, on the flipside of the proverbial coin, you might just find yourself a better bargain than you had already found in the first place and that’s some food for thought.

Article written by Lee

Getting Webmaster Traffic To Your Design Site

Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: General, Promotion | Response: 0

Just starting in the design biz? Well you’re going to need some traffic to your design work. You need to get your name out to as many people as humanly possible. If you don’t have the contacts, then you don’t have the work. Network, communicate, and setup your portfolio. These are the 3 most important steps when starting your design company, preceding these three steps are advertising and demonstrating.

When I first started designing, I had no clue what I was doing except for designing websites. I knew I needed clients, but had no idea where to start. I met up with a ouple of other webmasters one night. I told them I had just started and was looking for some work. They took me in and taught me the trade. They showed me a few tricks in how to design things much quicker, and also subconsciously taught me to make sure as many people as possible see my work, and that they know who its from.

I worked with my friends for a few months when things started to get slow, so I took it upon myself to start my own company. I still got outsourced work from them, but now was taking on my own clients, but I had forgotten one important step. Advertising, the biggest step to forget. So I started posting on message boards to get my name in the dirt. I received a few clients, but nothing large. Then one day out of the blue a man came to me and wanted 4 pay sites designed. Wow, a real client at last. He said he saw my posts on a resource forum and decided to use me for his work.

I worked for this client for about 2 months, and more and more people were coming to me. I had been doing something good, but work started to slow and finally I realized I had been working for the same few clients and had not been getting anyone else in the door. Maybe board posting wasn’t enough? Exactly, its not, I asked around to see what I could do I had gotten a few suggestions like banner trades, recip’s, work for advertising. So I did them all. And soon enough I had more clients than I could shake a stick at.

Network.

Talk to people, people that are in the biz. Webmasters and designers. Talk to anyone you possibly can that could further spread your name of even bring work to you. If you do not network, then don’t plan on anything coming your way.

Communicate.

Get on boards, ICQ, AIM, MSN, whatever. Just make sure that people see you and know you are there. Send them emails with different offers, not spam, but personal emails. Take it upon yourself to try and get your name into the field.

Portfolio.

If you do not have one of these, then you might as well try to sell a spider to an arachnophobe. Design some fakes sites if you don’t have anything to show. Do some banners, tours, anything that shows the potential of your work. Make sure you present it as efficiently as possible. People do not want to root around not knowing what they are looking at.

Advertise.

Make banners, buttons, links, ads, and anything that you can stick your name on. Get listed on any and all Webmaster resource sites, and design sites. This will help you establish a name base and let people know you are around.

Demonstrate.

Write articles for resource sites, create different tutorials also, this will let people know you know what your doing. The more people that like your ideas, the more they will like you. Therefore the more likely you will get work.

Follow these steps as I did and you will be on your way to having clients beating down your door. Also, make sure you really have something to offer before trying to sell your work. Be unique in what you design and how you present it. Clients love it when their sites are different from others, obviously.

Article written by John

International Billing Alternatives – Online Check Payments

Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Billing Solutions | Response: 0

In my previous article i discussed the value involved with Premium Rate Phone billing as an option for your adult surfers and, staying on the topic of payment processing this article will take a closer look at the Online Check payment method or, ACH as it is commonly referred to.

ACH (Online Check Payments) – What Is It?

An online check payment is a method of allowing your customers to pay for their goods using their check’s online, in order for your customer to pay via a check they need to have available certain items these are, a current checking account, a valid routing number (found on the check) and, an account number. Funds paid via online checks are automatically debited from the customers bank account.

Online Check Billing – How It Works.

Online check payments are processed in real-time, surfers are automatically accepted and authenticated via their current billing address, social security or, driving license number, once they have been authenticated their payment details are then sent to the ACH (Automated Clearing House) system where this information is automatically accepted as long as the details provided are verified as correct.

Online Check Payments – What Are The Costs?

Utilizing the online check method of billing your customers is actually just as, if not more, cost effective as using online credit or debit cards, in effect, you are guaranteed the funds of the check once they clear as, in all reality, the surfer will not have such an easy time declaring the purchase as a ‘charge back’ because the information needed to pay via an online check is information that in reality, only they have access too.

So, as with our previous articles, lets say your paysite membership fee for one month is US$35, a surfer signs up to your site using an online check, you make, approximately, US$33 from this membership for each and every month the customer (or surfer) chooses to renew their membership.

The one main advantage with online checks however is that, surfers will often feel more ‘secure’ in using them to pay for 3 or 6 month memberships and, as long as their check clears your account, you are almost certainly guaranteed the funds.

Online Check Billing – The Main Benefits.

As mentioned above already, the primary benefit of the ACH payment method is that the customer will almost certainly have funds available in their online checking account to be able to meet the cost of the paysite membership, after all, they wouldn’t give out their banking details if they were not sure the payment would go through. In addition to this advantage there are also several other advantages to using Online Checks as a payment method for example:

Increased Sales.
Reduced Order + Billing Costs.
Faster Payment.
Reduced Credit Card Charge Backs.

ACH Check Payments – Overview.

Whilst ACH check payments are a good alternative for US surfers the one major drawback is that, in today’s global market place they are not a method of payment for international surfers unfortunately, at this time, there are no companies who can offer this service to my knowledge to the ever growing global population.

That said, there is a place in the industry for check processing for adult payments and, with Visa breathing down our collective necks more and more, now would be an ideal time to take an in-depth look at this processing method.

I hope this article has provided you with some useful information regarding the online check payment method.

Article written by Lee

How To Use ALT Tags On Your Sites

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

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

Inserting ALT Text

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

We’ve used some examples below:

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

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

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

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

Optimize ALT Descriptions For Search Engines

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

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

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

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

Make Your Web Site Sticky

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

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

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

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

Don’t Follow The Crowd

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

Article Written By Lee

Using JavaScript To Auto Scroll Text

Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: Scripts | Response: 0

Using JavaScript To Auto Scroll Text.

There may come a time when you would like to have some text on a page that is simply just to big to fit on a single page. Of course, you could always create a new document for this text but, what if you could make the text actually scroll through the surfers browser?

The following JavaScript will do just that.

Place the following section of JavaScript coding between your <head> and </head> tags:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”JavaScript”>
<!–

function scrollit() {
for (I=1; I<=1200; I++) window.scroll(1,I);
}

// –>
</SCRIPT>

Along with the following JavaScript coding someone in the Body of your page:

<FORM>
<INPUT type=button value=”scroll” onClick=”scrollit()”>
</FORM>

Have a play around with the numbers in the first section of the JavaScript to speed up and slow down the rate of scrolling until you find a speed that is easy on the eye.

Article written by Lee

Protecting Your HTML Code With JavaScript

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

We all know that source code theft is wrong and covered by copyright never the less some webmasters will inevitably try to steal the work that the honest ones amongst us create.

Unfortunately, there is no sure fire way to stop people from stealing our HTML code but, we can make it hard for them.

The following JavaScript coding, when placed in your <body> tag can make it harder for the opportunistic webmaster to steal your coding.

Simply copy and paste everything below into your body tag and change the text in the var message=”” field.

<!–Start Copy–>
<SCRIPT language=”JavaScript”>
<!–
var message=”Copyright 2000 by Your Site. WARNING ! All content contained within this site is protected by copyright laws. Unauthorized use of our material is strictly prohibited.”;
function click(e) {
if (document.all) {
if (event.button==2||event.button==3) {
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
if (document.layers) {
if (e.which == 3) {
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
}
if (document.layers) {
document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
}
document.onmousedown=click;
// –>
</SCRIPT>
<!–End Copy–>

Whilst this is not a sure fire way to stop the occurrence of HTML theft as mentioned already it will deter those webmasters who perhaps were there for the simplistic reason of viewing your source code.

Article written by Lee

Calling Complete JavaScript’s With One Line Of HTML Code

Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

We all know that some JavaScript coding can be excessive and add considerable amounts of additional coding to our pages making them both slower and less search engine friendly however, what if I told you there was a way you could call the EXACT same JavaScript functions you are calling now by using a single line of code and, in the process you would NEVER have to find a specific piece of JavaScript again as you would instantly know where it was saved.

You would probably think the above is in fact very time consuming but, it actually takes no time at all.

The secret is to copy and paste the JavaScript into a plain text file and save that on your server somewhere. However, instead of saving it as a .txt extension save this file as a .js extension and, to make it easier still to find, when you upload this file to your server place it in a directory called /JavaScript/.

That’s pretty much it, easy huh?

Now comes the part of actually getting the JavaScript to work on your web pages, what you need to do instead of using the complete JavaScript coding that you usually would if you wanted to make a pop-up console appear is to use the following coding placed between your <head> and </head> tags:

<script language=”JavaScript” src=”../JavaScript/popup.js”></script>

That will now call the popup.js file or whatever it was you called it from your server and make the JavaScript function work for your surfers with JavaScript enabled in their browser.

As you can see, not only does using this method save you a considerable amount of time but, it will also make your pages more search engine friendly as spiders will not have to work their way through a lot of heavily JavaScript before they get to your SE content.