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| Web Overdrive Newsletter Issue 194 |  |
Important
Note: The WebOverdrive Weekly newsletter is considering
additional column writers. If you have ink for blood, an idea/topic you'd like to share,
and are willing to write a weekly/bi-weekly column (your name, email and url will
be displayed in each column) please shoot us an email at support@weboverdrive.com
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TGP Gallery Bloopers
This morning I decided to roll up my sleeves and head over to the TGPs for a spot of research. I do this from time to time because there's a lot you can learn just by surfing. You can learn things from what the competition is doing right, and what they're getting wrong too. With TGPs (or any kind of traffic-sender in this business) pretty much anyone can get listed. The tricky bit is making money with your gallery (or free site). Here's some bloopers I spotted this morning.
Case 1: A great 'call to action', but no reason to click!
This one is on the flip side of another common mistake: a great sales pitch, then not asking the surfer to click on the link. At one mature porn gallery I visited, there was an interesting set of pictures, and the gallery was listed under a good description. There was one advert which read "CLICK HERE TO SEE IT ALL NOW!". The link was great: a large font size, perfect contrasting colors - but the gallery designer didn't give me any reason to click on the link.
What I learned: It would have been better if the gallery had talked about the model in the pics, and told me what I could see her do if I visited this other site, and THEN had the big text link.
Case 2: Wrong description blooper
With some TGPs you can't choose your own description. The TGP owner / gallery reviewer will look at your gallery and then decide what title it should be listed under. There was one gallery which had a girl smoking in every picture. She was an Asian girl and the ads were for an Asian porn site. The problem was that the TGP gallery reviewer looked at the content, and then decided the gallery title should be "Smoking woman". This gallery is going to attract surfers who want to see smoking girls but there were no ads on the site for a smoking sponsor.
What I learned: Your gallery title / description at the TGP will determine what kind of audience you get. Sometimes the content will choose the description for you.
It's surprising how many galleries had this problem.
Case 3: Wrong girl blooper
There was an amateur TGP gallery which had a great listing on a major TGP. It was a well made gallery and had a unique look to it. But the girl in the pictures was labelled as 'Angel', and there were ads on the site for a completely different girl called 'Amy'. Now maybe the surfers WOULD find Amy attractive, and visit the sponsor anyway, but it seemed like a bit of a wasted opportunity.
What I learned: With a bit of extra work the gallery builder here could have made their page all about one girl, had ads to show where I could have seen more of that girl, then linked to that girl's Paysite.
Case 4: 'We sell everything' blooper
Another gallery description promised 'oral action', but the gallery didn't have a single ad for oral action. It was another case where the TGP reviewer had written a 100% fair description of the content, but the ads did not match the content. The major problem here though was with the ads. It was a good-looking gallery but the ads had "women from 18 - 70+", "Slender and plump", "amateurs and pornstars" and some other contradictions. So not only were surfers arriving here looking for oral pics, they were getting ads for everything but that.
What I learned: If they'd used their gallery building skills (and it was a really good-looking gallery) and focused on ONE of the things they were trying to sell - AND matched up the content carefully, I think this gallery builder would have had a winner on their hands.
Case 5: Bandwidth and speed blooper
One gallery I visited had decided to write all of the text for the site in graphics, as opposed to plain old webpage text. Webpage text loads instantly and it can look absolutely great with a little work. And the weird thing on this gallery was that the text didn't do anything different to webpage text at all. In fact, it must have taken a lot of work to type it into a graphics editor and then add it to the gallery. The 'text' on this gallery totalled 27kb which was unnecessary.
What I learned: Graphics have their use. And not all graphics are eye-grabbing. The graphics here were small, all the same font, and I fell asleep before I'd finished reading the first advert.
Case 6: DOA gallery blooper
I visited one gallery which promised me some amateur pics of a babe posing in her kitchen. And that's what I got. The trouble lay with the adverts. They consisted of a 120 x 60 button at the base of the page, and 7 words (two of which were linked) at the top of the page. The default font had not even been changed. The Paysite was a different story. It was an amateur site which had a lot of content. But that wasn't coming across on this gallery. It was almost like they were ashamed of the ads. They were using 5% of the ad space available - which didn't make sense. This gallery sent me to sleep before I'd clicked the first thumb.
What I learned: Maybe gallery builders need to put as much thought into a TGP gallery as someone would when designing on a tour. That doesn't mean 'flashy graphics' - it means thought: getting the message across.
Conclusion:
I've picked out only the bloopers here today. I have to say that around 30% of the galleries I saw today blew me away. Some guys (or GIRLS!) are not just making good galleries, they're making an art form out of it. There's enormous value in regularly visiting the big TGPs out there and just cruising through their listings. After a while it's pretty easy to spot the gallery builders that have been doing it for a while. You should find that their ads are very hard to miss, 100% targeted, match the content 100%, and they really do make you want to visit the sponsor. Further more, the good ones also tend to use webpage TEXT a lot too - and their ads will load very quickly.
TOM ^"^
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Then and Now
This PornGopher just got back from a break from the internet for a few days in time to watch the coverage of the WWII memorial in Washington and a made for TV movie about the politics and personal agendas behind the D Day invasion. One of the first articles to hit my eyes today was "CEO of Bank of Ireland Resigns After Viewing Adult Websites". Now normally I would have chuckled a bit at this, read the article and moved on. But somethings that I heard yesterday about the sacrifices made to "free Europe" and bring democracy, peace and brotherhood to a world gone mad just made this headline stick in my mind.
If we did truly free the world why are we still persecuting people for looking at naked women or men? Why did this CEO have to resign his job? "The chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Michael Soden, resigned after admitting looking at Internet Web Sites containing "adult material" on his personal computer." What sort of adult material and why was it grounds for dismissal if it was on his own computer?
In WWII Betty Grable, Lana Turner and Marlene Dietrich adorned soldier's lockers and wallets. True they were not in their birthday suits but the poses were suggestive, they exuded sexuality and there is NO doubt that hundreds of thousands of GI's jacked off to these pics while freeing the world from prejudicial tyrants.
Yet a large part of the world still wants to inflict Victorian morality on everyone. Pornmongers are bad people. Sex is something that should only happen between two heterosexual people who are married to each other with the lights off twice a week and only using the missionary position. Surf to an online adult site and lose your job. Look at porn in a magazine, online, or watch a video and you're a pervert. Rent the wrong vids and your name joins a government list as a potential sex offender. Same sex relations? You're damned for eternity.
We have made the world safe for many things, but personal sexual freedom is certainly not one of them. We changed the world and fought for equality for women, blacks, religious groups, and countless other groups but most towns would be less than pleased to see a fetish club on Main Street. Deep Throat is still not allowed to be played in many area and one state has made it a crime to even possess much less use common sex toys.
We may be free to do many things but we are not free to explore our own sexuality, or openly practice many things that don't meet the Victorian standards. What is the difference between those glamour shots of movie stars in suggestive poses and bathing suits back in the 40's and Terra Patrick on an adult web site? Hardcore movies and pics have been around since pictures were taken and movies were made. Isn't it about time we stopped persecuting people for looking at them?
OK that's my rant for this week. Let's keep that porn peddling and give our surfers our version of the WWII pinup girls.
Read more about these issues, share your thoughts and comments, or just browse the resources at Webmaster RoundTable.com.
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Success Leaves Bad Taste in Your Mouth...
A man was walking along the street when he saw a ladder going into the clouds. As any of us would do, he climbed the ladder. He reached a cloud, upon which was sat a rather plump and very ugly woman. "Screw me or climb the ladder to success" she said.
No contest, thought the man, so he climbed the ladder to the next cloud. On this cloud was a slightly thinner woman, who was slightly easier on the eye. "Screw me or climb the ladder to success" she said. "Well", thought the man, "might as well carry on.
On the next cloud was an even more attractive lady who, this time, was quite attractive. "Screw me now or climb the ladder to success" she uttered.
As he turned her down and went on up the ladder, the man thought to himself that this was getting better the further he went.
On the next cloud was an absolute beauty. Slim, attractive, the lot. "Screw me or climb the ladder to success" she flirted.
Unable to imagine what could be waiting, and being a gambling man, he decided to climb again.
When he reached the next cloud, there was a 400 pound ugly man, arm pit hair showing, flies buzzing around his crotch.
"Who are you?" the man asked.
"Hello" said the ugly fat man said, "my name's Cess!"
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Avoiding Small Business Failure
Q: My brother-in-law recently had to close his small business — he just couldn't make ends meet. I have heard that statistic that roughly nine out of ten businesses fail in the first five years. Is that true? If so, why? — Mark H., Harrisburg, PA
A: We have all heard that statistic, but it is probably exaggerated. Depending upon who is doing the surveying, small business failures may be as low as 20%. It is probably safe to say that half of all small businesses fail in the first five years. Those that survive beyond that tend to last a long time.
Which does begs the question: Why do small businesses fail? There are many reasons, but essentially, there are five main reasons a small business might fail:
1. Lack of adequate cash flow. Even the most successful of ventures will fail if it doesn't have a steady stream of cash coming in the door. Many small business owners have a difficult time projecting what will come in every month, and thus, how much should go out. It is vitally important for an entrepreneur to learn some basic accounting and be able to make a cash flow projection that will help you understand how much you can afford to spend every month.
2. Having only a single recipe. I like to say that making money in business requires a good recipe, like a food recipe. Once you learn one that works well for your business (such as a sale that works or an ad that pulls), then you can do it again and again to bring in consistent results. It is a recipe for success.
The problem for many small businesses is that they learn one recipe and never learn another. A stock investor would never have just one stock — he diversifies. Small businesses fail when they never learn any new tricks, fail to diversify, and thus lean on a single recipe that sometimes goes stale.
An adjunct to this is that the entrepreneur must also be flexible. What works today may not work tomorrow. The smart entrepreneur will constantly be on the lookout for the Next Big Idea, and will not be averse to tinkering with his system.
3. Failure to expand the customer base. Customers are not guaranteed. Even the best customer or client can move, change vendors, die, or go out of business. The smart entrepreneur knows that he or she has to always be fishing for new customers to replace the present ones that will inevitably leave some day. Therefore, advertising, marketing, and networking are critical for long-term success.
4. Ignoring the competition. Capitalism is a cutthroat system. Customers are always looking for the best deal, or at least, a better deal. And if the competition offers better products, services, or prices, they will succeed at your expense. So keep an eye on what your competitors are doing.
5. Poor location. The old real estate maxim — location, location, location — may be even truer in the small business world. Even the best-run retail establishment will have a difficult time succeeding if it is in a poor location. I had a friend who had the first café/bookstore in Los Angeles back in the early 80s, long before Barnes & Noble or Borders — a sure winner right? Wrong. His cool concept was in the basement of a mall. He lasted less than two years.
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Ask an Expert appears Mondays in USA Today. Steven D. Strauss is a lawyer, author, and public speaker who specializes in small business and entrepreneurship. His latest book is The Big Idea: How Business Innovators Get Great Ideas to Market. You can sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" at his Web site - www.mrallbiz.com.
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Board Presence?
There’s always a great deal of talk about webmaster message boards and their affect on the adult industry. There are those people who swear that they’re only there for time-wasting, while others find them to be invaluable resources for conversation and business.
I happen to fall into the latter group of people. Without adult webmaster boards, I would never have been able to get as far as I have gotten in my career. There are more than just a few webmasters who will tell you the same thing.
Those of us who are partial to “board whoring” are a relatively well-known lot. It is our posts on the boards that we frequent who identify us to each other, and many of us do a great lot of business each day on webmaster boards.
Aside from the business that we do, we also look upon these boards as a solid resource. We get news, information about webmaster programs, new affiliates, and intelligent advice from our board(s) of choice. It’s also a great way to unwind after a day of hard work.
These boards provide us with an outlet, a place to talk amongst our peers about almost anything, especially things related to our industry, either in part or as a whole. This is the closest thing that some of us get to being able to attend a convention or gathering, and some of us find that our board of choice can be addicting because of the people we get to interact with on a daily basis through our posts.
We exchange ideas, advice, humor, and business through these boards. They are incredibly valuable to us. Every day someone does a bit of business on these boards. Sometimes it’s a small exchange and sometimes it’s a rather large bit of money that changes virtual hands.
Could the adult industry survive without these boards? Yes, of course. The adult industry and pornography were around long before the internet came into being. But these boards certainly help pave the way for some incredible business deals to spring into being.
Think of how long it would take for word to spread about upcoming gatherings without access to adult webmaster boards. Granted, there’s always email, but really, how many webmasters are you hitting with email and how many more could you be hitting with a webmaster resource board?
How many of you use a board to hype your service/product? How many of you gain new affiliates through webmaster boards? Most people who use the boards are doing some sort of business on them, and that business is a huge money-maker.
Newbies are always found at webmaster resource sites and on the boards. Those newbies are learning much about the business by reading what others have to say, and these boards, being the interactive learning tool that they are, are a great haven for those who are beginning to take small steps into our industry.
What about your reputation on a webmaster board? Does that make a difference? You bet your laptop. If you have a bad reputation on the message boards, then most people feel that there’s a reason you have that reputation. I have seen businesses fail over words typed out on a board. I have seen businesses take off with flying colors as well; it works both ways.
If you aren’t a current user of webmaster message boards, I would suggest that you at least look into it. There’s a wealth of knowledge to be found, (once you sift through some of the garbage), and if it’s put to good use, your business could very well get a lift. I look forward to seeing some of you!
Take care of yourselves,
Tala
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Making Your Life Easier with Scripts
The first thought you have the first week as a new webmaster goes something like this: "What the &%$# did I get myself into?", the next thought is about how this webmastering is not going to get the better of you. Usually if you are giving webmastering a go then its because you have some natural talents with the computer. Some time has gone by, and now that you have the site making proccess down packed. What's next?
Well now that your mouse is rocking and your computer is filling up with every kind of software that a webmaster can use to shorten the tasks at hand, you can start thinking about automation. You have figured out by now that it is a numbers game. If one site makes me one sale per month then 100 sites make me 100 sales. Then you start to wonder what happens at 1000 sites. This is the point where you better have a game plan.
Usually that game plan starts with ways to build up and use resources such as content and bandwidth wisely. You must also think about your marketing plan and understand the engines and other sources of traffic. The learning curve is so big but luckily it is a "learn at your own pace" environment!
You should think about using scripts to help you to automate your site building. Even the newest of webmasters can understand the power of Server Side Includes (SSI) calls. One advertisement in its entirety placed once on the server and called into the document as it is served up to a surfer. This could cut out coding 10 fold replacing multiple lines with just one line. Surprisingly there are huge numbers of scripts that can automate site building.
Here are some examples of what you can do with a script for your website, you can have a pic of the day script, a banner rotator, automatic news report gathering, gallery rotators and image compression scripts, just to name a few.
There are even scripts out there that you can purchase to make a whole website at the click of a button. These scripts are quite pricey, but well worht the money. They will make you a complete free site to submit to the link lists that is searchy engine friendly. A script like this might be more complicated for you to install yourself, so I would suggest you consider having it installed by the manufacture.
I have to admit that I relied on my techie friends to help me first time around but the instructions that come with scripts are very easy to use. Most scripts require cgi access, perl, and the ability to follow directions. Once I got my first script installed I was on my way. Trust me, its not nearly as difficult as you might think!
The sense I have is that you should dive into working with scripts very early in your game plan. If you wait until you have 500 sites, then you start to use scripts to automate and enhance your sites, you will be kicking yourself in the butt. Once you have the basics of marketing and site building down packed, I would suggest you start down the road to geekdom and join a membership club or start purchasing scripts as you need them.
Automation using scripts will not only enhance your sites but it will enhance your wallet as well. Automation frees up your precious time. Every webmaster I know has said that either they need 70 hour days or they need an assistant. Consider hiring a script today.
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