Many of you are familiar with Cyndalie and her accomplishments as a Webmaster and Internet marketing professional. This is one woman who it never seems stops working. Having been in the business since 1998, she has the valuable experience of trial and error behind her, which has led to her many current successes.Many of you are familiar with Cyndalie and her accomplishments as a Webmaster and Internet marketing professional. This is one woman who it never seems stops working. Having been in the business since 1998, she has the valuable experience of trial and error behind her, which has led to her many current successes. She has now developed a fantastic resource board, www.Industryelite.com, and she and her husband can be heard on their own Thursday radio show Fusion, which airs weekly on YNOT Radio.

YNOT: Cyndalie, recently it seems that more and more adult Webmasters are appearing on the adult scene either hoping to make a quick buck or packing the mistaken impression that this industry is “easy” and all play with no work. What kind of person does it take to succeed as an adult Webmaster?

CYN: The more new Webmasters, the better. People drop in and out of adult Webmastery all the time. But on the whole, revenue needs to maintain or grow on an even scale. The saying “it takes money to make money” used to be true for this business, as it is for most others, but the reality is the adult industry will take your money and thank you with a smile. It is easier to spend ten bucks to make one dollar these days than it is to spend one dollar to make ten. And this symptom alone is an indication of just how tough it is to experience even minor success in these times. It is interesting that for some, there may be more money to be made teaching people how to become adult Webmasters and promoting within the industry over actually doing porn site Webmastery itself. This sign of the times, such as the increase in the number of Webmaster resource centers and message boards, indicates that there may be more interest in getting involved in the industry than actually making a living off of adult site profits. As more and more Webmasters enter the industry and competition rises, [and] many are having a hard time maintaining status as full time Webmasters. A successful adult Webmaster is open to the knowledge available to them, which is abundant in this industry, pursues it continually, and is willing to go through the trial and error and maintain the dedication required to outlive startup costs and growing pains in order to succeed. Ultimately, successful adult Webmasters require the knowledge of running and maintaining a Web site, the legal responsibilities for publishing adult content online, and he or she must be a marketing machine, never letting up on the daily marketing efforts required to experience sustainable revenue.

YNOT: There is so much free adult content out there, what does it take to attract someone to a pay site as opposed to the consumer just getting the free porn? What are the most common mistakes now being made by Webmasters who are trying to market to the general adult consumer?

CYN: First understand the demographics of your target market for an adult site (over 18 with a credit card) and understand their needs are as immediate and flighty as a teenage girl at an “all boys” school. Searching through free porn takes time weeding through endless pop-ups and link lists; understanding this and communicating to your users that, “time is money, spend less time surfing and more time enjoying your favorite porn at xxx.com for just a few dollars a day” can speak directly to them. Also understand that most free content are photos and video clips, understand the evolution of the adult site and content, break the mold of most pay site tours or sponsor promotions by placing emphasis on video and live content included with memberships, which will work to convince visitors that your site offers something they won’t find for free, or that it is of much higher quality or at faster speeds than anything they may find for free. Direct niche content marketing will also help attract those search engine sifters who are looking for something specific. If your site specializes in double penetration videos, create content specific keyword pages in your SEO efforts to attract those surfers with content such as “DPXXX.com offers over 100 videos of double penetration sex acts! This includes vaginal/anal double penetration, girl/girl DP, double anal and finger cuffs!” Be as specific as possible offering “screen shots” of video content they can access with a membership and drop/tease them using specific examples. I also think that the adult pay site tour and free site mold is not broken up often enough; providing examples of screenshots of what the members area looks like or even a free minimized or “limited preview” of what they will get for their dollar is not practiced enough. Adult surfers have lost confidence in quality and deliverance from many pay sites, so they feel searching for it for free, although more time consuming, is worth more than the frustration of searching, buying and not receiving what they wanted to begin with anyway. So the regulars at my local dive bar tell me. We as Webmasters must earn this confidence back by generating more interest in paysites and their high quality/video/niche content deliverance.

YNOT: What should Webmasters be focusing on? Should they have their sites target a certain genre or fetish and stick with it? What are other top marketing strategies you can give them?

CYN: “Generalized” adult site marketing in the search engines can be more difficult to market and drive traffic to over niche sites. You should always try to stick to marketing what you know most about or have the most experience in marketing. Find a niche and stick to it. From there you can delve into sub-niches; for example, if you run a free BDSM site stick to promoting sponsors with fetish related sites which may coincide with industry trends like reality porn. If you have a free site such as just described, promoting a reality based site involving BDSM is recommended along with fetish toys like XXXPressToys Adult Toy Chest store. A free site Webmaster should focus on delivering teaser content designed to promote sponsors. A pay site owner should focus on delivering site updates (front end and members area) to keep people interested and involved – such as adding chat events or “Fetish of the Month” promotions with related content. Regardless of what genre, niche, fetish, etc. you focus on, it really shouldn’t matter which one, sticking to it and keeping it interesting and consistent will win the repeat visitors your site needs.

YNOT: It seems that there are tons of content providers and affiliate programs available out there. On the note of affiliate and resell programs, what advice do you have for the newbie? What is an example of a good affiliate versus a bad one?

CYN: Luckily for newbie’s, in 2004 more and more sponsor programs are providing hosted galleries, hosted movies, and overall, hosted content. This take less work on the part of a new Webmaster to promote the program from their site and provide updates to newly available content; it also takes more of the legalities off the hands of the newbie (as the content is hosted on the program’s servers) and especially lowers overall bandwidth bills for newbie’s and affiliates who no longer have to host all the content which they use for promotions. My advice when choosing a program is to first look for the sponsor program which provides the largest number of niche/related sites in which you can promote. All too often newbies make their first and much of the time their ONLY sale with each program they have joined only to find out that they need 2-3 more sales each or more in order to receive a commission payment. Watch out for the minimum payment amount each program will payout and ask yourself, I’m a newbie, do I have the resource it takes to generate 5-6 sales for this program to reach the minimum payment amount of $100 before I receive a check? A newbie without traffic is like a bird with his/her wings clipped – and we all start in the nest. Understand that it may take 1000-3000 clicks to generate one sale. If your site only has 500 clicks a day and of that 200 go to a sponsor program, if the minimum payout amount is $50 paying $25 per sale, it may take a month to earn $50 and 45 days to receive a check. Promote as many sites under each program you join as possible and select a lower payout amount per check if you can. If you are just starting out you may want to avoid programs with a minimum of $100 per payout or you could end up earning $75 across 3 different programs and never receive your earnings. Most of the programs are good, but it never hurts to ask around, check sites like AIStats.com and read the fine print for each program. A “good” affiliate program maintains a higher customer retention rate, competitive payouts and payment options complete and updated promotional material, and they payout reliably. Simply put, a “bad” program does not.

YNOT: How should Webmasters focus on marketing their content to other Webmasters?

CYN: When doing business with other Webmasters in the adult industry, regardless of what type of program, service, or content you offer, it is important to remain informed about the adult industry and what’s going on, involved as much as possible so that other Webmasters know they can find you if or when they need you, and that you are doing business honestly and ethically. Everyone goes through rough patches and learning phases, however learning from your mistakes and not repeating them will win the confidence of many to do business with you. Whether it’s a link trade or a large scale transaction, keeping your word is very important in this business. Make yourself available and keep the door open to new business – let Webmasters know who you are and where to find you if they need what you offer. In many cases, people simply want to know who they are doing business with and build relationships on it, so networking online and off and building great products are keys to marketing to other Webmasters.

YNOT: You now have a resource center called www.industryelite.com; what is the purpose of this portal and what advantages will it provide to the adult Webmaster?

CYN: IndustryElite.com is currently in its infant stages and gearing up to take the full form of an industry resource which pulls together the headlines, articles, press releases, and resource from around the Web, as well as provide an even ground for newbie’s to ask mentors for advice, search through hundreds of articles by keyword or category, find services and programs via the Open Resource Exchange, and much more. Currently there is no board since there are so many out there now – however viewers are encouraged to register and interact with the site, submitting any relevant news or headlines they’d like to see posted. Link trades and advertising is also available. Keep an eye out for an upcoming supplemental site called IndustryExtra which will work with IndustryElite to create a total “resource for Webmaster resources”. In essence, we are building a time saving daily and weekly guide for Webmasters who simply do not have the time to search through hundreds of Webmaster resource centers; we’re pulling the best of them together in one place with the help of some top industry communities and news sources, such as and including YnotMasters.com.

YNOT: You and your husband are hosting a radio show on Thursdays on YNOT Radio; what type of show is this, and what is its primary focus?

CYN: Fusion, Thursdays at 2:00 EST on YnotRadio.com, is focused on topics related to Web site usability. The fusion of marketing and design is an imperative concept for Web site usability. You must have both working effectively for the user in order to create a successful Web site. The site can look beautiful, but if it is not marketable there is a chance no one will find it and it may fail. If the site is findable and generates visitors but does not maintain a look and feel users feel comfortable making a purchase at, it may also not succeed. These two elements must work together and it is the goal of Brian and me to educate Webmasters on the relationship between the two and the options therein.

YNOT: A lot of newbies read my column; what do you have to say to those who are just now researching getting in to the adult Internet business?

CYN: Become a marketing machine. Regardless of your niche, Web design and development skills, or type of site, the key is being able to drive traffic and generate revenue. Whether it’s TGP, link list, search engine, newsletter, newsgroup or traffic trading, become an expert at your traffic and stats and find ways to drive traffic that converts! Your bottom line depends on it.

YNOT: I want to thank Cyndalie for taking time out of her hectic schedule in order to conduct this interview. For those of you who want to learn more from this industry veteran, please be sure to tune in to her show on Thursdays on YNOT Radio. And don’t forget to check out IndustryElite.com as well!

Jennifer Leigh is a regular columnist for TheAdultWebmaster.com, an online magazine geared towards helping adult Webmasters make more money.