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Hurdles For The Beginning Webmaster of Today
Posted On 04 Apr 2002
So you’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to start your own adult site? Well, start kicking yourself now, because you should’ve done it five years ago. That’s when the pickings were rich, and the customer unsophisticated.So you’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to start your own adult site? Well, start kicking yourself now, because you should’ve done it five years ago. That’s when the pickings were rich, and the customer unsophisticated. These days, we’re all chasing the same dollar, and it can be a pretty messy affair unless you know what you’re doing or some nice soul decides to give you a few free tips.
The first question you have to ask yourself, is what sort of site do you want to run? Are you going to actually put time and effort into it, or are you hoping for some kind of get rich quick scheme using affiliate memberships and other people’s content? If you’re going for option B, then good luck. You need read no more of this feature. But in six months, when you’ve realised that your golden goose is actually a lemon, you might want to come back and read through the full article! If you’re actually going to make a go of this site nonsense, and put some time, effort and imagination into it, then welcome to the club. You’ve got a long road ahead of you, but at least you’re map reading before you take the first step.
Making money out of adult web sites is not easy. Oh sure, it used to be, that’s why companies who established themselves a few years ago and found their place in the market still thrive today. Just look at the big players and examine their business model. Most of the major companies run scores of individual niche sites that run off an affiliate scheme aimed at bringing in dollars in return for your traffic. Some of them work well, but I can promise you that the only people making serious amounts of green out of the deal are the big boys who run the show. And for every big boy, there are hundreds of small outfits struggling to keep their heads above water.
What sort of style site are you looking for? Can you code it and design it yourself? What sort of agreement do you have with your server administrator? How much bandwidth do you get per month? All of these questions are paramount before you even buy a domain name. Those, and questions like, “How the hell am I going to promote it?” In the old days, the Field of Dreams theory (if you build it, they will come) used to work. The more kinky and unusual the domain and URL, the more chance of obtaining traffic. Search engines were relatively easy to crack, and getting listed in top ten lists was a piece of cake. But in 2002, everyone is sophisticated.
These days, niche is the name of the game, although you’d have been hard pressed to spot that if you’d taken a walk around Internext 2002 in Vegas and checked out what the average content provider was selling. Content providers are following the trend set by the adult video business and heading east, young man. Their books were full of pasty blond Czech, Hungarian and Russian girls of indeterminate teenage years shot in grimy looking rooms or hotels or on simple plain backgrounds. The girls were naked, but it was hardly ground breaking.
Great news, of course, if you happen to own the domain pastyteens.com, but not likely to bring in the traffic over at heftybikerbitches.com. And this is where the new webmasters’ problems really start. It’s all well and good deciding on a niche to aim for, and let’s face it, there are plenty of them out there (pick one: pregnant, lactating, butts, tits, nipples, shavers, lesbians, transsexuals, blah, blah, blah…), but finding images to go with them might be tough… unless you happen to have a really wide circle of swinging friends, of course.
Locating niche content can be harder than finding unicorn crap unless you take a broad search of all the content providers. There are valuable rules that you can follow to ensure you don’t end up with a pile of poor images and an empty membership. Remember that your biggest weapon is perceived value on the part of your members. If you offer them enough unique content and material on your site and update it as frequently as possible, you’ll keep them coming back for more. A sticky site is a profitable site, so long as you’re pitching it at the right market. Don’t be fooled into thinking that cheap content will do the job. Ask yourself why the images you’re buying are so cheap. Is it because they’re, well… crap? Are they old images with Miami Vice fashion sense and Dallas hairstyles? Why would anyone pay to visit your site with content like that?
The idiom ‘you get what you pay for’ cuts both ways with the adult web market. If your site features cheap images, you’ll have to price your membership accordingly. Budget content is cheap because it’s often either old or has low production value or has been seen around the web before. Most content providers either shoot their own material, or buy out old stock from adult magazine photographers, and, since the average set of images shot by an adult photographer can generate revenue from magazines for up to four years before it’s considered ‘spent’, the chances are that the images those photographers sell on to content companies are old news; the teens they shot are probably grandparents by the time their images make it to the web!
Don’t just think in terms of images, either. If you’ve got a decent server, get hold of some video for it too. MPEGs can be great value for the money, particularly if the material you buy fits your niche. There’s no point in buying general hardcore MPEGs for a niche site; that stuff can be downloaded either cheaply or free from too many other places. Look further still. Think about buying in or sourcing erotic fiction, chat room facilities or boards that will give you feedback on your site. Likewise, if you can, branch out into web cam shows that you promote heavily on your site and offer one-night memberships to lure new members in.
Given the current state of the market, it’s important that you don’t just think in terms of your home territory. If you’re based in the USA, take a moment to familiarise yourself with European dialers. They can be an outstanding revenue source, yet few American webmasters seem willing to take them on, preferring to chase the hard-to-come-by dollar instead. It’s easy to forget that the web is a global market, and that you can make just as many pounds and euros as you can dollars if you put your mind to it. And that common European currency makes life a lot easier in terms of banking and currency conversion, too!
The days when you could create a mega site – one that encompasses a huge variety of sexual kinks and interests – are gone. Unless you have an empire with which to back it up – be it publishing or video – then niche is the only way to go. How you identify the niche you choose to pursue is up to you, but keeping an eye on the adult magazine and video market is one way to go about it. The rest is up to you. Good luck!
Cool Piranha Content work with adult photographers from all over Europe, representing them as an agency to ensure we always have the latest adult images. Our photographers’ work has been seen in adult magazines ranging from Hustler, High Society and Club in the USA to Mayfair, Men Only, Knave and Fiesta in the UK. Uniquely, Cool Piranha Content seek out adult industry photographers and sell their latest images for them, rather than buy rights to old stock. Our niche content is therefore exclusive and has never been seen on the Internet.
