• Building A Surfer Trap – Stage 8 – Final Stage

    Date: 2011.02.21 | Category: Traffic | Response: 0

    Ok people we have hit the final stage in our surfer trap, Stage 8.

    All we are really going to do in this stage is a brief recap over what we have done so far along with checking that our trap is working properly.

    In order for us to check our trap is working properly we need to upload it to our server if we haven’t already done so, therefore, you should do this now.

    Once the surfer trap has been uploaded we now need to go to the first page, the Multi-Site FPA.

    Depending on how you set up your Multi-Site FPA you should either get a pop up or not.

    You should also have a counter AND a banner exchange code loading at the bottom of the page below your ‘no thanks’ link.

    If this works how you want it to then this stage is working ok.

    The next thing we need to check is that ALL of the links off this Multi-Site FPA are working so expect to get a lot of pop-ups while we check this.

    You should click on each of the Single-Site FPA’s in turn ensuring that for every one you have a pop-up console appear.

    In addition to checking the Single-Site FPA links you should now click on the ‘no thanks’ link along with the counter code and the banner exchange code on your Multi-Site and Single-Site FPA’s.

    If these all load fine then this stage of the checking is complete.

    Next, we need to close down any and all of the FPA’s we may have open including the Multi-Site FPA.

    You should now be left with a couple of consoles, again, follow the links on your consoles including any to the counter you chose along with any banner exchange code you utilized on your consoles.

    Again if these work how you expected them to, this section of the checking process is now complete.

    For the next step, you need to log into your counter AND banner exchange account, you want to make sure that you have gained additional impressions and rankings from your banner and counter impressions and clicks.

    Be aware however, that some counters and banner exchanges will not count multiple views and click from the same IP address so you may only show one or two additional clicks, impressions, or rankings. This is perfectly normal.

    If your accounts have gained additional ranks, impressions, and clicks then this stage is completed.

    Close down your consoles, you should now get the blur consoles that you created (if you used them) again, as before, check that all of the links from this consoles work.

    If they do then you now have a fully complete Surfer Trap to use.

    So, what next? Well there are a couple of options, you can mirror this surfer trap to experiment with your sponsors different tour pages, link your first mirror to the second tour page, your third to console free tour pages, etc.

    Another good thing that you can do is to create additional Multi-Site FPA’s however, this time, create them by niche so where we have a general Multi-Site FPA at the moment you could use this same method for a Gay, Asian, Teen, etc Multi-Site FPA using the same methods we did when we created this trap.

    You should always sign up for a new counter and banner exchange code for each variation of your surfer trap. This way, you get to see performance based on a new working model enabling you to decide which version of the trap works best for you.

    I hope this tutorial has given you some insight into how we can generate, filter and trade traffic whilst marketing our sites effectively and, that it has given you some ideas on how you can implement even the simplest item provided to you by your sponsor to generate sales.

    For those of you who have been following this tutorial I would like to thank you and wish you all the best with your new found marketing skills.

    If you have any questions as always, feel free to post on the forums and we will endeavor to help you out.

    Article written by Lee.

  • The Curse Of The Broken Image

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: WebDesign | Response: 0

    At one time or another we have all done it, uploaded a new site only to find out that when we view the page in our browser one of the images are broken because we either didn’t link it properly or the filename wasn’t named correctly on our server.

    We may think that this is a bad thing however, recent experimentation on my part has found quite the opposite.

    We all search for new ways of getting the surfer to visit our sponsors in order to have them buy a membership and earn us a nice little slice of $$$ in the process but, what methods could we use that quite simply are overlooked?

    One such method is that of utilizing broken images, lets be honest here, no-one wants broken image son their site, it makes the site look unprofessional but, lets think about this, on a page full of banners and graphics all nested together neatly on an FPA (Full Page Ad) what’s more likely to grab the surfers attention, a completely loaded heavy bandwidth graphic or a single solitary broken image placed in a such a spot the surfer actually notices it?

    Makes you think doesn’t it. Our recent testing of this method has actually shown that our CTR (Click Through Ratio) rose slightly on a couple of sponsors we used this method on all of the sites in question had nice looking text and banners with corresponding thumbnails leading tot he full size image but, upon deliberately leaving an image off the server thus resulting in the ‘appearance’ of an erroneous broken graphic the spot where that image should have been was were a great deal of our click throughs came from.

    I am not saying you should immediately go and delete all graphics from you pages but, a single, well placed broken image on a free site can work wonders in getting traffic off your site and to your sponsors pay site tour which ultimately, is what we want to happen at the EARLIEST possible time.

    Article written by Lee

  • Straight From The Horses Mouth – Get Googlized

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

    Many webmasters wonder how to ensure their sites will be included in Google’s index of web sites. Although Google crawls more than a billion pages, it’s inevitable some sites will be missed. When Google does miss a site, it’s frequently for one of these reasons:

    * The site is not well connected through multiple links to others on the web.
    * The site launched after Google’s last crawl was completed.
    * The design of the site makes it difficult for Google to effectively crawl its content (excessive frames, tables, etc).

    Google’s intent is to represent the content of the Internet fairly and accurately. To help make that goal a reality, we offer this guide to building a “crawler-friendly” site. There are no guarantees a site will be found by our crawler, but following these guidelines should increase the probability that your site will show up in Google search results.

    Do…
    Provide high-quality content on your page – especially your home page.
    If you follow only one tip from this page, this should be it. Our crawler indexes web pages by analyzing the content of the pages themselves. Google will index your site better if your pages contain useful information. Plus, your site has a better chance of becoming a favorite among web surfers and being linked to by others if the information it contains is relevant and useful.

    Submit your site to the appropriate category in a web directory.
    Listing your site in the Open Directory Project http://www.dmoz.org/ or Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com/ increases the likelihood it will be seen by robot crawlers and web surfers.

    Pay attention to HTML conventions.

    Make sure that your <TITLE> and <ALT> tags are accurate and descriptive. Also, check your <A HREF> tags for errors since broken or improperly formatted links can prevent Google from indexing your page.

    Make use of the robots.txt file on your web server.
    This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled. Make sure it’s current for your site so that you don’t accidentally block our crawler. Visit: http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html for a FAQ answering questions regarding robots and how to control them once they visit your site.

    Ensure that your site is accessible through HTML hyperlinks.
    Generally, your site is crawlable if the pages are connected to each other with ordinary HTML links. If certain areas are not linked, you may be excluding older browsers, differently-abled users, and Google. Google can crawl content from a database or other dynamically generated content as long as it can be found by following links. If you have many unlinked pages, you may want to create a jump page from which the crawler can find all of your pages.

    Build your site with a logical link structure.
    A hierarchical link structure is not only beneficial to you, but also to Google. More of your site can be crawled if it is laid out in with a clear architecture.

    Don’t…
    Fill your page with lists of keywords, attempt to “cloak” pages, or put up “crawler only” pages.
    If your site contains pages, links or text that you do not intend visitors to see, Google considers them deceptive and may ignore your site.

    Feel obligated to purchase a search optimization service.
    Some companies “guarantee” your site a place near the top of a results page. While legitimate consulting firms can improve your site’s flow and content, others employ deceptive tactics to try and fool search engines. Be careful – if your domain is affiliated with one of these services, it could be permanently banned from our index, we have found search engine optimization software like Web Position Gold works best but, again use it in moderation.

    Use images to display important names, content or links.
    Our crawler does not recognize text contained in graphics.
    Use ALT tags if the main content and key words on your page cannot be formatted in regular HTML.

    Provide multiple copies of a page under different URLs
    Many sites offer text-only or printer-friendly versions of pages that contain the same content as the graphic-enriched version of the page. While Google crawls these pages, duplicates are removed from our index. In order to ensure that we have the desired version of your page, place the other versions in separate directories and use the robots.txt file to block our crawler.

    Article written by a Google employee

  • 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

  • Marketing Sites With Slogans

    Date: 2011.02.22 | Category: Promotion | Response: 0

    With the constant changes happening in the adult industry webmaster need to look towards alternative ways of marketing not only their own sites but the sites of their sponsors. This is where something that we have all seen daily can come in handy, what is this marketing tool? Simple, Slogans.

    Slogans – What Are They?

    A slogan is a short, memorable advertising phrase for example, ‘Just Do it’ – Nike. By utilizing a slogan on your site you are not only giving your surfers something other by which they can remember your site by but, you are actively building up your brand which, in turn, can mean more repeat traffic and ultimately, more sales.

    How To Make A Slogan.

    So now you know what a slogan is how do you go about creating one? Simple, you should think of something short, usually three to four word slogans work the best again, as with the Nike example above ‘Just Do it’ its short, sweet and memorable, try to make your own slogan fit within this guideline and you are half way done. Another thing that you may like to consider is making your slogan practical or humorous, something witty can often stay in a persons mind a lot longer than something serious, play on peoples memory and ensure they remember your brand.

    Where To Use Your Slogan.

    Now that you have thought up a slogan which you feel will work on your traffic and sites you need to consider the places where you can use it for maximum impact, the most obvious place to use your slogan is on your site design, either at the top or the bottom of your pages, make it clear and more importantly, make it stand out. In addition, if you have any banners or buttons created, ensure you utilize the slogan on those creatives, the goal is to have your slogan seen by as many people, as quickly as possible.

    Article written by Lee

  • Robots.txt – Control The Robots That Crawl Your Sites

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

    By writing a structured text file you can indicate to robots that certain parts of your server are off-limits to some or all robots. It is best explained with an example:

    # robots.txt file for general use on web servers.

    User-agent: webcrawler
    Disallow:

    User-agent: googlebot
    Disallow: /

    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /cgi-bin
    Disallow: /logs
    The first line, starting with ‘#’, specifies a comment.

    The first paragraph specifies that the robot called ‘webcrawler’ has nothing disallowed: it may go anywhere.

    The second paragraph indicates that the robot called ‘googlebot’ has all relative URLs starting with ‘/’ disallowed. Because all relative URL’s on a server start with ‘/’, this means the entire site is closed off.

    The third paragraph indicates that all other robots should not visit URLs starting with /cgi-bin or /log. Note the ‘*’ is a special token, meaning “any other User-agent”; you cannot use wildcard patterns or regular expressions in either User-agent or Disallow lines.

    Two common errors:

    Wildcards are not supported: instead of ‘Disallow: /tmp/*’ just say ‘Disallow: /tmp’.
    You shouldn’t put more than one path on a Disallow line (this may change in a future version of the spec)
    Ultimately, without the use of robots.txt files on your servers/domains, you are risking a variety of potential problems including, unauthorized access to your cgi directory, unauthorized viewing of your site stats, possible spamming of the search engines by accidental crawling of doorway pages.

    One distinct advantage however of having a robots.txt file on your server is that, quite simply, you will be able to tell when and where your site has been indexed or potentially indexed as, all robots will automatically call for the robots.txt file BEFORE any other page on your server so, as long as you keep an eye open for any calls of this file, you can see who is knocking at your site for indexing purposes.

    Below is a robots.txt example that you can copy and paste into a text document to use on your own server:

    <!–Start Copy Below This Line–>

    User-agent: *
    Disallow: /cgi-bin
    Disallow: /logs

    <!–End Copy Above This Line–>

    The above will allow all spiders to crawl all of your site except the subdirectory’s ‘cgi-bin’ and ‘logs’ which, may be altered to suit any subdirectory’s you do not wish the spiders to crawl on your server.

    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.

  • Online Dating Programs – Working The Adult Angle

    Date: 2011.02.23 | Category: Sponsors | Response: 0

    As the industry starts to feel the effects over the coming months from the whole Visa situation the one thing that, at present seems to be true of the adult industry is that more and more webmaster/companies are looking to increase their revenues by utilizing mainstream sponsors on their sites. However in addition to this, the adult dating program appears to have been overlooked at least up until now.

    Online Dating Sites – The Options.

    There are actually a few good online personals sites available for adult webmasters to promote ranging from Love At First Click through the Advertising Revenue Service program to specific dating sites such as Match.com and Date.com. One thing is overwhelmingly consistent however regardless of which sponsor you use for your dating traffic, they all have a relatively low payout when compared to the ‘norm’ in adult sites with payouts ranging from $1 to $5 per signup.

    Marketing Dating Sites.

    So how should webmasters market dating sites in conjunction with their current streams of traffic, this is actually a lot easier than you may think for example, almost everyone has an exit link on their free sites, you could utilize this exit link to send traffic to a dating affiliate program in fact, you could also utilize a dating affiliate program on your exit consoles or even on TGP galleries instead of pay sites. The opportunities for you to make money by placing dating affiliate program banners on your web pages are virtually endless.

    Online Personals – Sales Techniques.

    When selling online dating sites there are, in addition to the abundant methods of generating the traffic, many different methods of generating your marketing speech to the surfers, you should ideally try a selection of methods on your sites to find out exactly which method works best for you. As an example of this, if you are using a dating program on a softcore site, you might want to try a hardcore approach to selling your dating sponsor in much the same way as you would sell a hardcore pay site except not as highly graphic. In comparison, if you have a TGP gallery you may like to tell your surfer that rather than looking at sex, they might actually be able to get sex for a change. The ways in which you can entice your surfers to your dating affiliate program are virtually limitless.

    Marketing Dating Sites – An Overview.

    Whether you are already using or are planning to use dating sites, the one thing you must do is ensure that you choose wisely not only the words for selling the site to your surfer but also the placement of the promotional material, a well placed text link can have a higher impact on your overall sales than a badly placed banner and well, the same is true in reverse, find out where you are missing out on opportunities to upsell your surfers to an online dating site.

    Article written by Lee

  • Records Keeping Compliance Checklist for European Content Providers

    Date: 2011.02.24 | Category: 2257 | Response: 0

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

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

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

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

    a.     Date Of Birth

    b.     Legal Name

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

    d.     Social Security Number

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

    f.       Address, phone and other contact information

    g.      The model’s signature

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

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

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

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

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

    Article written by Lawrence Walters

  • 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

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