Words are like bait. Tasty little morsels of bait used to lure surfers in, hook them, and lead them all the way to an open wallet. In order to catch the type of surfer you want, you need to use the right bait.Words are like bait. Tasty little morsels of bait used to lure surfers in, hook them, and lead them all the way to an open wallet. In order to catch the type of surfer you want, you need to use the right bait. Dangle the wrong bait in front of him and the surfer simply won’t bite.

As I mentioned in my article last week, using the right words can make your site more enticing and engaging. But when it comes to targeting a particular audience, market or niche, the word selection takes on a more critical role, and just a few words can ultimately make or break the success of the site.

In the words of Connor Young, editor at YNOT and a man who knows a thing or two about words: “Nothing is more pathetic than a straight man trying to write text for a gay adult site… they almost always screw it up unless they devote a lot of time and energy into getting it right and understanding the subtle differences that words can bring.”

That’s not to say that a straight guy can’t write the text for a gay site, just that as a writer, he needs to know the right words to use to target that particular audience. One of the most fundamental rules of writing is, “Write what you know.” If a straight guy tries to write text for a gay site, he’d better know the difference between a twink and a bear.

On the other hand, there’s no guarantee that a gay man will write better gay site text than a straight man just by virtue of being gay. In any case, straight or gay, it comes down to the amount of effort put into writing that text, and how familiar the writer is with the market, niche, lifestyle and language.

To get a gay man’s perspective on the issue of a straight man writing gay text, I went to my source of gayness in the industry: Darren Austin.

I asked him, Could you tell if a straight guy had written the text for a gay site?

“A straight guy would not use proper terms and it would have the feel of a str8 guy doing it,” he replied. He showed me two examples, the first one written by straight men, the second by gay men.

I studied the first site’s tour critically, trying to find the telltale signs of straightness that Darren so easily spotted. I couldn’t really find any. But I had to admit, the site didn’t do much for me either. The pics on the tour pages were okay, but the only text on the page was the text graphics telling me vaguely what I would find inside: Gay movie clips and pics, high res video, high quality photos, the largest gay collection online…

By contrast, the second example had me salivating by page two. By page four, I was trying to wrangle a username and password out of Darren for my own use!

So what was the difference? The pictures on the second site were provocative and erotic, obviously thoughtfully selected to achieve the desired effect of making me want to see more. But it was the simple paragraph of text on each page of the tour that drew me in, offering me promises and creating expectations of what else I would find inside.

They used words like “the sexiest website” and “dedicated to.. showcasing the hottest new faces and bodies in America.” Each page was better than the last, inviting me in deeper and deeper, offering me more and more, but only a glimpse at a time. By the time I got to “Ladies and gents are you still with us?” on page four, I was hooked.

Obviously this is not only a site that offers content of gorgeous gay men, it’s also a site that understands my appreciation of gorgeous men. Their words convey admiration and respect for their content, not to mention lust! The site owners clearly feel the same way about their content as I do.

I get the sense that this site is about more than just taking some of my money… it’s about satisfying some of those similar cravings, desires or fantasies in a genuine way. The site owners might be out to make a buck – it is a business, after all – but they’ve chosen this content because that’s what they enjoy.

The nichier the niche…

Targeting your words for a market is one thing; targeting a particular niche requires even more precise attention to wording. It’s a lot harder to just wing it, or fake it, if you don’t have a sense of familiarity with the content that you’re writing about.

Emmanuelle of NaughtyNiche.com says, “Research, research, research! Don’t risk offending your potential customer by saddling them with a label that they may not appreciate. Not all balloon fetishists want to be called “looners,” and certainly not “loonies.” If a webmaster has not done their research, then they won’t know that a wammer probably isn’t interested in “giant zucchini penetrations.” Just because a label works in generic T&A sites does not mean it will translate well in the niche arena.”

Surfers of niche content know exactly what they’re looking for, but it takes more than slapping some pics and videos together on a page with the right content to win them over. One of the keys to hooking that choosy surfer is authenticity.

The wrong words, or a lack of proper terminology, will clearly illustrate your lack of involvement with the content – surfers will be scrambling for the exit.

Case in point: I came across a balloon site recently that was able to communicate a sense of absolute authenticity with one simple line of text promising that viewers would be warned “if a gallery or video has popping in it.”

Balloon enthusiasts are divided in two distinct camps on the issue of popping. Some love it, others hate it. The mention of that popping alert shows the surfer that his balloon fetish is taken seriously by the people who run the site and that they understand the intricacies involved. It shows him that they relate to his appreciation of the niche, and they don’t trivialize it or condescend to him for indulging in it.

That surfer needs to feel enthusiastic about joining your site – that’s what motivates him to reach for his wallet and spend that money with you. By using the right bait, and words that appeal to him and are part of his own niche vocabulary, you can make the surfer feel like he’s come to the right place.

SexyScribe is a freelance writer, editor, translator, and enthusiastic purveyor of written smut, as well as erotica publisher at SexyScribe.com. She is a member of the YNOT News writing team, and can be reached at scribe@sexyscribe.com.