AMATEUR CHATTER

The market for adult entertainment delivered via the Internet is alive, kicking and prospering quite well. There is still a large number of “newbies” entering the industry each year.AMATEUR CHATTER

The market for adult entertainment delivered via the Internet is alive, kicking and prospering quite well. There is still a large number of “newbies” entering the industry each year. Armed with their digital cameras and hand-held camcorders, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, webmasters and models are taking the dive into the online adult market. If you are seeking direction and advice about the amateur niche market, and are just getting started, this article is for you.

It’s Work

The first factor to consider before getting into this business is the amount of work and commitment it takes to actually make money. It seems there was a time, not too long ago, when you could put a site up with a few hundred naked photos and make a substantial amount of money in a short period of time. While that may have been true in 1996, it is certainly not the case now. In today’s saturated adult Internet market, it takes hard work, commitment, patience and resiliency to turn a profit.

It is no coincidence that most amateur sites are run by couples, because running a successful amateur site is more work than one person can handle. Another reason is that with very few exceptions, most new amateur sites do not turn enough of a profit for a web girl to pay a webmaster an hourly wage, or a percentage rate to make either side happy. Rarely does that arrangement work out on a long-term basis.

The amount of time you have to spend on your site is directly related to the amount of money you will make. To have a shot at making it big in this market, be prepared to go at it full-time.

So, How Much Money Will I Make?
(The million-dollar question)

Instead of offering a guess at what everyone is making these days, which, for a single amateur web girl membership site varies from little or no profits to $25K monthly or more, I will spell out the income potential in terms of hits to sales ratios, and also as it relates to pricing.

How much money you make depends solely on the amount of traffic your site receives and how many of those visitors actually make a purchase. A well-designed amateur site that has been on the Internet for at least a year and has established a reputation of high quality, high quantity content can expect to have a conversion ratio of 1 in 400-800. A new amateur site with a lower quantity of content can expect about a 1 in 900-1200 conversion ratio. Don’t be overly concerned with the lack of profits in the first few months. Like any business, it will take time to build your customer base, reputation and content quantity. The main thing to concentrate on in the early part of your adult Internet business venture is building your content. Even if you get a fair amount of sign-ups, those customers won’t stick around for long if there isn’t much to look at. I wouldn’t even consider opening an amateur web girl membership site with anything less than two thousand photos and 40 video clips – and those are very forgiving numbers.

The Host With the Most

Do some research and set up a hosting account with a reputable company. Then purchase your domain at any one of a number of registrars. Changing hosts is not something that you will want to do very often, so find a good one and stick with them. Bandwidth prices are coming down due to competition, so find a good host in the $2.99 to $3.75 / gig range. Make sure they offer good tech support. We pay a slightly higher than normal price for our hosting because we deal with our tech support almost on a daily basis. It’s like having an extra employee, so the excellent service is worth a little bit extra. Beware of discount hosting as they usually have to sacrifice service to offer lower bandwidth prices.

Equip Yourself

Just a quick note on digital imaging equipment – you don’t have to spend a fortune. Most mid-priced ($299 – $699) digital still cameras will take fantastic photos for the web. Even lower priced models will suffice, and in my opinion lower priced models capture the amateur element better than higher priced models do, lending more authenticity to your amateur galleries. Make sure the hand-held video recorder is equipped to download video to your computer. Dazzle has some great USB connectivity products that are great for entry-level video conversion for the web.

You’ll also need some software. Get your hands on a good HTML editor for building your pages. You will also need an image editor to airbrush your cellulite, a bulk image processor to watermark, resize and perform many image editing functions to bulk amounts of images with one click. Find a good video editor to convert and edit your videos to web-ready clips. Also find a good FTP program and gallery maker.

Take the Cow to Market

Once you have mastered HTML page building, photography, video editing and have become proficient in the application of a multiplicity of software programs associated with adult web sites, you can now begin to market the site.

Some questions to consider:

How will surfers find your site?

What would compel a surfer to join your site and not another?

How are you going to manage and track link trades?

Will this be a main source of income?

Marketing is the single most important aspect in the success of your amateur pay site. Spend a fair amount of time researching this area. It is far too large a topic to tackle in this article but the basic strategies include link trades, affiliate programs, search engines, purchased advertising and email marketing. Many “newbies” believe that search engine traffic alone will support a site, but this belief has no basis in fact. Search engine traffic will ultimately make up only a small percentage of your traffic.

Conclusion

It is so hard to summarize, in the nearly 1,200 words that make up this article, what it takes to get an amateur membership site off the ground. There is just too much. I wish things were like they were a few years ago, when the promise of fast and easy money was attainable.

There are risks to consider when operating any adult business: legal as well as emotional. Here are some legal issues you should familiarize yourself with prior to opening your adult site. Will your content violate obscenity laws? Are you familiar with U.S.C. § 2257 labeling laws? Have you consulted an attorney?

The emotional toll can come in many forms. Most couples run into trouble having to work together so much. Other couples experience problems with their sex life, and for some it is a combination of the two.

If you can keep a good head on your shoulders, set your goals, educate yourself about the market and are willing to work hard, then there may just be financial rewards waiting for you in the amateur membership site market.

ChefJeff is the editor of The Amateur Voice, The Industry Voice and host of Amateur Masters Live.

AMATEUR CHATTER

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