 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 | |  | |
| Web Overdrive Newsletter Issue 199 |  |
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
|
Free Site School: Part 4 of 7
In free site school we've been looking at making a free site from the base up. We've
already looked at some ideas for the index page at http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/index.html
and then we went on to check out the full page ad in http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/lesbian-lovers.html
and today it's time to move on to the MAIN page - the one that will
link to the galleries.
General notes...
Well, the surfer has broken through our defenses. Despite our best
efforts Joe Surfer, in his (or her) quest for the free pics, has made
in through the front door. They're now on their way to the content.
But all is not lost! The main page - usually main.html is still a
major place where you can wow the surfers and get them off to a sponsor.
Play the same games that you did on the previous 2 pages and remember
that things like speed, originality and boldness are real important.
Plan your strategy very carefully here... Let's look at:
Some common mistakes to look out for...
Don't put HUGE gallery links on here.
Try to avoid putting the gallery links in the first viewable screen.
Why not use something other than "gallery 1" etc?
Don't forget about the ads, just because we're on the 'content'
page.
Don't put the thumbs on this page - make them leap through more
hoops!
Don't use the SAME ads as the previous page(s) - make these different.
Don't get lazy on the search engine optimization. Title, H1, and
body text minimum...
If you're using recip links - remember that ADS should take center
stage. Not them.
CHEAT, CHEAT!!!
I want to share a little tip with you here that I think you might
just love! Did you know that you can use FULL page ads to BUILD sites?
Ah - these things have many uses... FPAs are incredible things you
know! I'm feeling fresh out of ideas this morning, and the last thing
I want to do is get into some serious designing. So, I cheated and
started stealing parts from my sponsor's full page ads. Check out
these 3 VERY sexy lesbian FPAs:
http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/main1.htm
http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/main2.htm
http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/main3.htm
... some really nice work there. So all I did was download these ads,
and then put them all on one page. Hehehe. Here's the result, after
a little tweaking:
http://www.classy-boobs.com/lesbian-love/main.html
WARNING!!!
I've decided to get dirty with the surfers here. You'll find that
the content links on this page are VERY hard to find - ad are labeled
'softcore'. While I could have got a lot more dirty with this page,
I've held back. Hehehe! But a page like this would have NO chance
of getting a listing at Dmoz, or a listing over at one of the link
lists - there's too many 'misleading' links and blind links. But what
you do to your surfers is between you and your conscience. Well -
that and watching to make sure your ratios are OK too... But this
page is starting to look OK...
You'll notice with this site that I'm hardly using ANY graphics that
I create myself. And why should I? I've got a team of full-time graphic
designers working for my sponsors, and they're my partners! Why not
utilize some of the premade work they've done on the FPAs and other
ad graphics. Combining those with my own text and layouts can yield
some great results. Making custom ads doesn't mean being a graphics
genius - free sites are all about what you're saying - not how pretty
stuff looks!!!
No link lists???
Well don't forget that there are many places that I can get traffic
to this site from:
From clean sites listed in the link lists.
From my own private 'fake' link lists.
Links from my other sites.
From my TGP / TGP2 galleries / some other 'fast traffic'.
From the search engines only.
That's quite a collection - and there are others! But from those sources
alone - there'll be more than enough traffic to this site. AND, I've
not had to worry too much about keeping things clean. Ah - it's nice
to cut loose once in a while!
Aren't those graphics HUGE?
They are indeed! But you'll also notice that there's a HELL of a lot
of text on this page too. Always try to get your page to work OK without
any graphics at all. Use plenty of HUGE text links and little graphics
that will load up quickly. Speed is so important, but at the same
time - if the surfer is going to spend some time on this page, I don't
have a problem with loading a HUGE set of graphics towards the end
of the page. They might as well be downloading something - and it
might just make me more $$. Don't forget that the surfer is likely
to revisit your main page several times too.
Get the surfer to make a choice between something average that's free,
and something INCREDIBLE that might involve a fee. An example is my
links where I put "SOFTCORE AREA" next to prominent links offering
the very hardest of lesbian action. This is just one more game you
can play with the surfers when you're trying to get them off your
darn site and onto a sponsors.
OK, that's about it for today. Tomorrow - we'll be going on to the
gallery pages and thinking what they mean, and how we can STILL make
money if they break past the defenses we've put up on the main page...
GOOD LUCK and happy building...
TOM ^"^
|
|
Barter Beware!
This lady who was living in New York City had to get back to her old country but she was broke.
One day she wandered down to the docks and spotted a worker getting ready to load supplies onto a boat. "Please I need to get back to England" she pleaded. "If you sneak me onboard tonight I'll give you sexual favors all the way across the ocean."
Well needless to say later that night he put her in a duffel bag and carried her onboard. Down in the hold where she was hidden he said, "When I bring you some food, twice a day, I'll collect." And being true to her word she agreed.
This went on for about a week when by accident the captain found her.
"Please don't get angry," she started to say and explained the story to the captain who busted up laughing.
"Why are you laughing?" she demanded.
He said, "Because you're on the Statten Island Ferry."
|
|
High Court Strikes Down Child Online Protection Act
The United States Supreme Court today decided one of the last controversial cases left this term: Ashcroft v. ACLU, Case # 03-218, involving the issue of online age verification. In a stunning victory for Free Speech advocates, the High Court, in a 5/4 decision, upheld the preliminary injunction against the law that was entered by the Third Circuit Court of Appeal.
The Court found several potential problems with enforcement of COPA. First, the government is required to use the least restrictive means in regulating speech-related activities. Filters are less restrictive than age verification requirements. Moreover, filters may be more effective, since COPA does nothing to block adult content coming from overseas. The Court recognized that 40% of ‘harmful’ materials originate from overseas, and will thus not be impacted by enforcement of COPA. While the Court did not require filters, it strongly suggested that they may be a better alternative. The Court also noted that minors can readily circumvent credit card-based age verification requirements by gaining access to credit card numbers themselves. The Government will now need to address the question, at trial, of why filters are not a less restrictive alternative than age verification. The Court also expressed concern over the significant chilling effect that COPA had on free expression. Given the harsh penalties imposed for violating the law, the Court determined that upholding the injunction against enforcement served the interests of freedom of speech.
Another point identified by the court is the rapidly-changing nature of Internet technology. Much has changed online since the law was first enacted 5 years ago. Allowing the parties to brief the impacts of new Internet technologies at the trial court made more sense than making a decision on a record that was 5 years old, which is a lifetime in Internet time. Also important to the Court’s decision is the fact that Congress has passed two laws since COPA was enacted: The Truth in Domain Names Act, and the statute creating a Dot Kids Domain. These alternative means of protecting children from inappropriate online speech may have changed the legal and constitutional landscape, which is something the lower courts had not considered yet. This case is destined to come back to the Supreme Court, after a final decision has been rendered by the trial court. Since the opinion was a 5/4 decision, one change in the makeup of the court could result in a dramatically different result next time.
The most troubling part of the Opinion is the suggestion that in the interim, while the courts are continuing to evaluate COPA, the Government can enforce obscenity laws already on the books. That suggestion is consistent with Justice O’Connor’s comments during Oral Argument, where she questioned why the Justice Department is not prosecuting the many adult websites that appear to be in violation of the obscenity laws. This suggestion has added more fuel for the fire in the anticipated crackdown on adult websites using federal obscenity laws. For now, anyway, adult webmasters have one less law to worry about, since the Court maintained the injunction against COPA which has been in place since its adoption. This is not the end of the story, however, since the case will now go back to the District Court in Pennsylvania which will conduct a trial on whether COPA meets constitutional muster. We could be in for another several years of hearings, rulings and appeals, while the courts sort this mess out.
This author has always recommended that adult websites comply with COPA, regardless of the legal rulings, however. The government often likes to mix the issues of children and adult materials, when prosecuting obscenity offenses. Obscenity cases are harder to defend if the materials are being made available to children. When the issues involve adult materials created by adults, for adults, the First Amendment arguments tend to work better. However, when the Government can throw in the issue of access by children, juries tend to turn against the webmaster. Therefore, all free sites, and free tours, should contain some form of age verification.
The historical difficulty with online age verification has been the inability to see the customer, and visually evaluate their age, unlike the retail sales of adult materials at an adult video store. Most webmasters want to comply with the law, and keep erotic materials away from minors, but many sites offer free materials, or do not require that credit cards be presented before gaining access to sexually explicit content. That concern motivated this author to create the Birth Date Verifier™, a patent-pending age verification device that does not rely on credit cards or password identification for age verification. The idea is simple: the user completes an online form, under the penalties of perjury, using the E-Sign (“Electronic Signatures”) Act. By electronically signing the document under oath, the user submits the equivalent of an electronic affidavit, swearing to his/her date of birth. The device then checks that date of birth against the current date on the server, to determine whether the user seeking access to the age restricted materials is actually over the age of eighteen, on that date. If so, the user is permitted entrance; if not, the user is sent elsewhere. Any minor attempting to gain access to adult materials, through this system, would be committing a federal felony by doing so.
Today marks a great victory for Free Speech online. However, webmasters should not loose sight of the fact that protecting minors from accessing adult materials is in the best interests of both children, and themselves.
Lawrence G. Walters, Esquire is a partner with the law firm of Weston, Garrou & DeWitt, with offices in Orlando, Los Angeles and San Diego. Mr. Walters represents clients involved in all aspects of adult media. The firm handles First Amendment cases nationwide, and has been involved in much of the significant Free Speech litigation before the United States Supreme Court over the last 40 years. All statements made in the above article are matters of opinion only, and should not be considered legal advice. Please consult your own attorney on specific legal matters. You can reach Lawrence Walters at Larry@LawrenceWalters.com, www.FirstAmendment.com or AOL Screen Name: “Webattorney.”
|
|
Different Billing
In this article, I’m going to talk about the various forms of billing that I know to exist, and maybe, just maybe, help you to learn more about them and decide for yourself which to use.
First thing: I STRONGLY suggest that you implement at least two types on your site. This gives your potential customers two ways to be billed, so that they feel comfortable with at least one and will use it. Giving a choice often leads to higher sales!
Okay, let’s begin. There are several ways to bill your customers, and since the fall of PayPal’s adult section, we’ve had to compensate. For those who are looking for a good PayPal alternative, there are many companies from which you can choose, including ePassporte, StormPay, and other lesser known companies. At the risk of sounding as though I’m inciting a monopoly, your surfers will be more willing to pay if the company is a well-known one. Keep that in mind when you’re looking at these alternatives.
Another type of billing you may be interested in trying is a full-on credit card processor like CCBill or IBill. For an annual fee of $750, you can accept Visa and MasterCard, (I believe, though by the time I write this, this entire article may be null and void considering how fast times change!), on your site. The processors will take a bit off the top and leave you with a healthy chunk of change in your pocket. This solution is a very popular one, and the surfers who have a credit card just follow instructions and enjoy.
But what to do for surfers without a credit card, or who don’t want to use it over the internet? For a long time, the main solution was either PayPal or the use of dialer software, which would charge the admission/membership cost to the surfer’s phone bill. However, with the massive amounts of unscrupulous webmasters who stuck dialers to auto-download and then run themselves, (considering that a great many customers on these sites weren’t exactly computer-literate and didn’t realize what was happening until it was too late), surfers began to shy away from dialers, hastily exiting a site which had a dialer as a payment option.
Recently, though, I ran across a very interesting concept for an alternative billing solution. This solution, called DuoCash, implements the use of regular, everyday phone cards that can be bought at virtually any store. A person who purchases a phone card can then go to a site which makes use of this solution and use the phone card much like a credit card. The purchase is automatically deducted from the amount of money left on the card, and the surfer goes away happy.
When I heard of this, the first thought that hit my mind was, “Why is this just now happening? This should have been around a long time ago.” Several other webmasters and companies have voiced the same opinion. As an alternative billing option, this has incredible potential not only for the adult industry but also for mainstream clients, such as eBay.
Now before you go hopping off to grab your selected option, remember what I told you at the very beginning of this article. Choose at least two. Stand-alone is not the best way to go these days, simply because of the fears that consumers have about credit fraud or someone finding out about their purchase, etc. I would suggest that you give your surfers not only a credit card option, but also a completely anonymous option such as DuoCash.
Keep in mind, however, that no matter what you choose, there are going to be people who simply don’t want to sign up. That’s fine, too. You’ve been seen, and I bet you’ll be remembered, and eventually, some of those no-signs will turn into recurring members.
Take care of yourselves.
Tala
|
|
A Simple Guide to Getting Started in the Adult Biz
So you've decided you want to give the Adult Business a try and you have no idea where to begin. There are a few simple questions you have to ask yourself and then some basic steps to get a first site up and going.
1 - Do you have the time, willingness, and are you enough of a self-motivator that you can work on your own with some support from outside?
2 - Are you willing to listen and learn from others and to study what works for them and then adapt those ideas to your own way of doing the biz?
3 - Are you willing to be patient while you work to build up your biz and realize that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, you've got a good chance of making a go of it in the biz. It's not easy, it takes work, but the rewards can be well worth every minute you put into it.
How to Begin
The first thing you want to think about is if you want to get your own domain or if you want to go with a free hosting. My own bias is toward your getting your own domain. You can get one for $70 or less, depending on where you register it. You can get hosting for around $50 a month to start.
You might be asking "Why would I want to pay for a domain and hosting when I can get it for free?" The reason is, when you go with a free hosting site you'll be giving some of the best ad spots over to the free host. Many people have done tests to see if it makes a difference. I know from personal experience that it makes a great difference. I had a site on a free host and couldn't make a sale. I moved it to one of my own domains and signups started coming in. There was no difference in the traffic.
Many people start off with a free host, just for a few months to get their feet wet if they have never done site design. But do this with the understanding that it's a learning process. In the meantime, save up enough to get a good host (they can make or break you in this biz) and think up a good domain name. If there's a domain name you want and it's available, there's places you can "park" the domain name where they won't charge you.
Once you decide which way you want to go with your hosting, the next thing is to decide what market you want to go after. My advice is to go for niche market. More and more pay sites are coming online that cater to a certain niche. You can do a site for fat girls, pissing teens, pregnant women, transsexuals, big tits, etc. If you have a personal favorite, that's a good choice to make.
The next step is to find a sponsor to go with the niche... though this and the previous step often go together. You might find a sponsor who has a niche site that interests you and pick the niche that way. Once you find the sponsor take the tour of their site. Write down the things they highlight, or better yet, print out their tour. Study it. They've paid a lot of money to figure out just how to "hook" the surfer.
You may want to bring in one or two other sponsors that cater to the same niche, but the trend lately seems to be one sponsor per sites. The reason is quite simple - if you have three teen sponsors they *all* can't be the best on the net, right?
Now that you have a host, a sponsor, you need content. Most sponsors now offer free content which you can use on your site. This is good for starting your first site or two, but don't rely on sponsor's content too much. You want to get some of your own as soon as you can. Why? Because a lot of the content gets old very fast. A surfer will see the same content over and over again at these niche sites and is going to click out of your site to see if he can find some fresh content. He won't even give you the time to do a sales pitch to him.
Content will probably be your biggest investment. But there are many places coming online where you can get smaller sets of pictures. Check out all the content providers on WebOverdrive for what you'll need.
Now that you've got your host, your niche, and your content, you're ready to begin building your site. That will be next weeks installment.
If you have any questions, stop by Tom's Newbie Booster Board and ask away.
Sandra
|
|
The Struggles of Becoming a Content Provider
Hey this is Mike from Focus Adult. The guys at Max Cash Live asked me to write about my experience becoming an adult content provider; I would like to begin by thanking Sharky and Headless for inviting me to talk about my experiences. Thanks guys!
Anyhow, where to begin... I started a few years ago with the intention to make an adult website, and to produce exclusive content for that site. I had no idea what I was doing, all I had going for me was my filthy mind. So I began a long journey of learning the ins and outs of the adult Internet business. I learned HTML, I bought cameras, I put out ads for models, and I paid lawyers to write long and baffling assorted documents. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I could sell content to webmasters instead of producing it for my own websites; I thought it would be easier. Focus Adult was conceived, and I began another long journey learning the ins and outs of the adult Internet content provider business.
The first thing I realized is that photography is not easy. I began to read about lighting and I began to ask questions on photography boards about how to get clean, well-lit images. I reinvested every cent I made into professional lighting, diffusers, soft-boxes, and other things I had never heard of before. I was scared shitless at the amount of money I was spending, and wondered if I should hang it up and go back to college.
As it turns out, I am stubborn as a damn mule; poverty and fear of failure did not deter me. I guess I have made the right choice because business is slowly getting better as the images get better. I am at a rough growth spot right now, the daily tasks of running the business are getting to big for me to manage, but it is not easy to "let go" and have someone else handle some of the tasks. The business is my "baby", but I am having to learn I cannot "raise it" by myself. Stress has kicked me in the ass from time to time recently, leaving me catatonic, staring at my monitor, accomplishing nothing. You have to get outside and exercise, I tell myself, or else you'll end up like that guy on the Simpson's who sells comic books (what the hell is his name?). I'm right in the middle of this growing pain right now, so if my story seems scatterbrained, that's why!
I have had several meetings with programmers this month in order to help me get better organized, to automate functions on the website. This work is underway. It feels like a large task to me to get this programming done, but I am fortunate to know several talented programmers who assure me this work is a walk in the park. It's nice to know people. I am in the process of hiring someone to edit the images and burn and ship CD's. These things take precious time, which I am quickly losing as I spend more and more time schmoozing, networking, and planning new projects.
I ultimately see myself, once several of my current repetitive time-consuming tasks are either automated or handled by an employee, as the main contact for customers and the creative director of the content production. I like the day-to-day answering of emails and talking to customers online. 99% of the webmasters I have met are nice, intelligent, very cool people, and I consider many of them friends. I especially enjoy meeting people from all over the world. I hear their content needs on a daily basis so I can take their suggestions and turn it into scripts for my productions. I like creating the scripts for the shoots from their suggestions. I also enjoy coming up with my own scripts and directing those (If you want to know what turns mike on, check out my new Beth Foot Fetish set ;)
Now that you know a little bit about Mike, and how Focus Adult got started. I would like to say that I do encourage those of you thinking about producing your own content. You are only limited by the scope of your imagination, and your willingness to work hard. My best advice is to drink coffee and cancel any vacations you have planned for the next year.
Well, I have enjoyed writing this little history about my business, I welcome anyone to ask me any questions, my email address is mike@phoenixcontent.com, and my ICQ # is 89230496.
– Mike, owner of Focus Adult
|
| |
| |  | |  |
|
|
|
 |
