New site, which way to go?

I am the owner of a new site at www.russianuniformguyz.com. I have been reading this forum for some time now, while we have been setting up the site, so I know that some of you will see the word 'Russian' and think "pirate, cheat, content thief ..." so I'd better say that I am an Englishman, living in Russia, with a boyfriend who is an officer cadet. We play by the rules, meaning that the models are really 18, that we photo them with their passports or military passes, and they sign a model release. Most of the content is our own (not difficult to find sailors and soldiers willing to model), and where it is not we say so.

We have not yet promoted the site as such, except for the usual registration with Google etc. We have an affiliate program with Verotel. The site is not yet complete, but I expect that it will be in about a week. My 'philosophy' is that we want to make our visitors feel that they have entered a site more like a community than just the usual military, hence things like Out and About, Stories, Military and Naval Academies ...

I know that what we have is of interest, from the percentage of rebills we have have been getting. My question to you all is WHICH WAY TO GO? Do we buy traffic to build up the number of visitors (we have already made galleries for TGPs but not yet posted them), or do we look for affiliate partners who can help us to build the business? All advice (and criticism as well) is welcome. Thanks.

First, I wouldn't buy traffic. Would you be selling off the traffic from your site that is buying memberships? I think most traffic brokers are probably just selling a lot of useless traffic that ins't going to get you much. I think if your resources are tight, here are some thoughts that might be more economical and help you.

- Webmasters are always looking for fresh new sites to promote. Yours looks great. It looks authentic. It doesn't look like other Russian military sites I've seen where the webmaster has just purchased a bunch of content with porn stars wearing uniforms. Your site should be an easy sell. I run two uncut EURO sites, let me sell this for you.

Read the comments from webmasters in this thread, it applies to you to. It shows you the power of the webmaster community. http://forums.gaywidewebmasters.com/...&threadid=6157

- I'm not sure about your first page. I'm almost be tempted to dump it and move the second page to that position. This page: http://www.russianuniformguyz.com/main.php Maybe someone else has a better idea. I just found that I was wanting to see some skin right off the bat. Plus your first page is the most important page for search engines, and yours is bascially two big images, nothing for a search engine to index.

- Your preview pics are a little soft core. If I'm spending $20 for a membership, I want to know I'm going to see some cock. Right now, I'm not sure. I think I will, but ...

- You have two billing companies right now. If you get an affiliate program and I promote you with my Verotel code, am I losing a commission if a surfer signs up with Norchio.

- Are you not going to do rebilling? It's a good way to make money and attract webmasters. If you are, then I think your price structure is a little off. Maybe someone else can speak to that.

- Your tour isn't bad, but the pictures are optimized a bit too much and there's no cock. Both of these things are going to hurt you. Don't be stingy. Show good quality pics upfront and show some cock. Yes, you'll use more bandwidth, but bandwidth is cheap.

Good luck. You've got a great site. I think it'll do well, you just need to tweak it a bit. If you launch an affiliate program, please let me know.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

nice site dude, those are some hot "parenui" :)

one thing i probably would have done different is to keep the look of the front page throughtout the whole site.

front needs a logo

it looks a little like the design a blog site would have rather than porn site, with some nice fonts it would look cool


what Dzinerbear said

just don't show too much cock, enough to get them to join

also make sure you have password protection program you would be getting hacked left and right if you dont from all the peeps onthe password trading forums

Quote:

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Originally posted by Albion
(not difficult to find sailors and soldiers willing to model)

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well i guess we know where i'm moving...

nice site dood

i agree with dzinerbear & jigg

Quote:

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Originally posted by Dawgy
well i guess we know where i'm moving...

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you need someone who knows russian? take me with you :P

i'm not sure I agree with showing more cock. I have always been an advocate of not revealing too much or your surfer will pop and then you've lost them before they sign up.

I've never been a fan of purchased traffic. It's good to boost trades but that's all I would ever count on with bought traffic. Find other sites and linklists to get your link on. That will help your PR and gain you some targeted traffic.

Make your members area as interactive as possible. Give your members ways to exchange emails, messages or something else and that way your surfers can fulfill their fantasies.

Hi there … I can help you out with your gay traffic needs by sending you gay traffic directly from us via www.gay.sex.com!

We have Russian IP traffic as well!

Also, I can get you started under a one time promotion to help you with your budget… Email or ICQ me for more info…thanks,

Joshua

(jaltman@sex.com)
__________________
GeoIP keyword targeted traffic converts!

ICQ #281-748-807
AOL IM “JoshuaSevilla”

I would have to say that more cock is a good thing. Take a look at all the successful gay porn mags and video companies. They are selling hardcore porn and just one glance at the cover will give you everything you need to know. Obviously if you are selling softcore, then a more subtle teaser approach would go over better.

Giving them a litte excitement down there with softcore is good but showing some serious hardcore they want to see will make them drop those jeans and fumble around to get that card out ;)

If a surfer is at your x-rated site, it's just makes sense to show them that kind of content in your preview.

Very nice site... great content. I don't think I can add any suggestions that haven't already been said in this thread.

Oh... broken link...
http://www.russianuniformguyz.com./russian%20beauty.htm

Um... that site looks hot.

One thing I did notice that annoyed me early on was how a lot of the "back to" links that I was hoping would send me to

http://www.russianuniformguyz.com./main.php

sent me to

http://www.russianuniformguyz.com/

that's kinda frustrating when you're already in the site and have already entered and are now checking out various features and the tour.

Still a couple dead links here and there (preview images) and what not.

Pointing out and making it plainly apparent, even reminding the surfer, that you actually shoot all the content yourself and that it's not recycled and purchased content is always a good idea, especially given the huge number of Russian sites out there. What'd make me a little shifty on signing up if I was a surfer is not knowing if what I'm going to find on your site is the same stuff or different than the stuff I can find on all those other Russsian sites out there.

Plus, I'm left worrying "Uh oh... what if there's just one or two hardcore flicks and everything else is solo photosets?"

I definitely think you should go with a recurring membership model. It'll make your site more appealing to webmasters to have the potential to generate recurring commissions. As well as making one of the processors, such as Verotel, more prominent and just having the other as a backup as Dzinerbear mentioned.

I'd definitely be interested in promoting your site, though, and suspect I could send you large volumes of high-converting traffic through your Verotel affiliate program.

Welcome to the board, btw, and glad to see you posting.

Again, your site really looks hot and I'd totally be up for giving it a try with promoting you through some of my sites. Float me an email if ya feel like it :)

I dont really have anything else to add in addition to what has already been mentioned above other than the models look good and, like you said, the site itself isnt the 'usual' standard for one from Russia :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee

I want to say a BIG THANK YOU to everybody who wrote in with their comments and advice about the new site at www.russianuniformguyz.com

I am going to reply to everybody in turn, but wanted to say firstly that more than anything, what has been the nicest for me and the designer Maxim, is the care and the detail that you have given to all of your replies.

Thanks and Regards

Albion

- I'm not sure about your first page. I'm almost be tempted to dump it and move the second page to that position. This page: http://www.russianuniformguyz.com/main.php Maybe someone else has a better idea. I just found that I was wanting to see some skin right off the bat. Plus your first page is the most important page for search engines, and yours is bascially two big images, nothing for a search engine to index.

I LIKE THE IDEA. WE’RE GOING TO GIVE IT A TRY. DESIGNER WILL BE HERE TOMORROW, SO YOUR TIME TOMORROW EVENING SHOULD BE DONE.

- Your preview pics are a little soft core. If I'm spending $20 for a membership, I want to know I'm going to see some cock. Right now, I'm not sure. I think I will, but ...

WILL DO. WILL ALSO GIVE COUPLE OF MINUTES PREVIEW OF EACH VIDEO.

- You have two billing companies right now. If you get an affiliate program and I promote you with my Verotel code, am I losing a commission if a surfer signs up with Norchio.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM WITH VEROTEL IS SET UP; WE WILL ADD A ‘WEBMASTERS’ BUTTON TO NEW FRONT PAGE, BUT IN MEANTIME YOU CAN CLICK ON FREE TOUR, THEN AT TOP OF THAT PAGE IS MENU WITH ‘WEBMASTERS,’ HOPEFULLY THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED?

I HAVE NO PROBLEM ABOUT PAYING A COMMISSION EVEN IF A CUSTOMER DECIDES TO GO WITH NORCHIO, BUT HOW TO WORK IT?

I SHOULD EXPLAIN THAT WE HAVE TWO PAYMENT SYSTEMS BECAUSE I AM NERVOUS ABOUT PUTTING ALL MY EGGS IN ONE BASKET; WHAT WITH IBILL NOT PAYING PEOPLE, I THINK THAT WE NEED TO HAVE A BACK UP PAYMENT PROCESSOR. WHAT WE COULD DO IS PUT VEROTEL AS FIRST CHOICE, AND THEN IF FOR WHATEVER REASON CUSTOMER CAN’T OR WON’T USE THEM, HE/SHE CAN GO TO NEXT PAGE WITH NORCHIO.

- Are you not going to do rebilling? It's a good way to make money and attract webmasters. If you are, then I think your price structure is a little off. Maybe someone else can speak to that.

WE HAVE REBILLING WITH VEROTEL. CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHY YOU THINK PRICING STRUCTURE IS A LITTLE OFF? TOO CHEAP, TOO EXPENSIVE ...?

Your tour isn't bad, but the pictures are optimized a bit too much and there's no cock. Both of these things are going to hurt you. Don't be stingy. Show good quality pics upfront and show some cock. Yes, you'll use more bandwidth, but bandwidth is cheap.

CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEAN BY “Optimized too much”?

WE WILL PUT MORE COCK IN THE TOUR.


Good luck. You've got a great site. I think it'll do well, you just need to tweak it a bit. If you launch an affiliate program, please let me know.

I WOULD BE VERY WILLING TO HEAR FROM YOU! PLEASE WRITE TO ME AT: ALBION@RUSSIANUNIFORMGUYZ.COM

PS I wrote this last night Russian time, but couldn't get it to post. Since then we have updated the Join page. Other revisions in process ...

Excellent. Glad to see the new join page. Have you fixed the problem with Verotel, last night they were giving a message saying you weren't set up to take resellers.

Just curious as to why people in Russia can't view the site. Is this to encourage Russian guys to take their clothes off thinking no one at home will ever see them?

Thanks
Dzinerbear

nice site dude, those are some hot "parenui"

one thing i probably would have done different is to keep the look of the front page throughtout the whole site.

I AGREE, WHICH IS ONE REASON WHY WE ARE GOING WITH DZINERBEAR’S SUGGESTION ABOUT MAKING PAGE 2 THE NEW FRONT PAGE, WHICH WILL MAKE IT LOOK MORE TOGETHER.

AN ALTERNATIVE IS TO HAVE AN ABSOLUTELY MINIMAL FRONT PAGE (MOST SEXY MODEL WE HAVE, IN MOST PROVOCATIVE POSE, BUT WHICH WILL STILL PASS THE GOD SQUAD) WHICH WILL MAKE IT OBVIOUS WHAT WE ARE ABOUT, AND HOPEFULLY BE ENOUGH TO WANT A VISITOR TO CARRY ON.

front needs a logo

IF YOU CLINK ON ONE OF THE PHOTOS IN THE PREVIEWS, YOU WILL SEE THAT WE HAVE A LOGO THAT WE USE AS A COPYRIGHT STAMP; PERHAPS WE CAN PLACE IT SOMEWHERE ON THE NEW FRONT PAGE?

it looks a little like the design a blog site would have rather than porn site, with some nice fonts it would look cool

I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO USE FONTS THAT MORE RESEMBLE CYRILLIC, BUT OUR DESIGNER IS WORRIED THAT THEY WILL NOT BE READABLE? HOW DOES ONE KNOW IF A FONT CAN BE READ BY SOMEBODY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, OR LEAST HAS A GOOD CHANCEOF BEING READ.
what Dzinerbear said

just don't show too much cock, enough to get them to join

YES, I AM GOING TO SHOW ONE COCK AND ONE ASS SHOT IN EACH SET OF PREVIEWS.

also make sure you have password protection program you would be getting hacked left and right if you dont from all the peeps onthe password trading forums

AS I UNDERSTAND IT OUR SERVER (IN THE USA, AND A BIG ADULT INDUSTRY HOSTING COMPANY) INCLUDES PASSWORD PROTECTION, BUT DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT WE ADD FURTHER PROTECTION?

Regards

Albion

I have written to merchant support at Verotel to ask them what is situation with our affiliate programme; we have the necessary page on the site itself, which says to me that we did register with them, but as you say it doesn’t work; will let you know as soon as they come back to me.

Ref Russians not being able to see the site; yes, the reason is that the career-conscious, I-have-a-girlfriend, future admirals and generals who take their clothes off for us, can do so with a clean conscience ...

Albion you have a PM

Quote:

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Originally posted by Albion ...
I HAVE NO PROBLEM ABOUT PAYING A COMMISSION EVEN IF A CUSTOMER DECIDES TO GO WITH NORCHIO, BUT HOW TO WORK IT?

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My novice opinion: You're not really set up to make affiliate payments yourself. So your record keeping would be all by hand, plus you'd be paying the Norchio commissions out of one of your own checking accounts; the amounts would be small; affiliates may incur bank transaction fees when cashing these checks if they are on a foreign account. This does not sound like a good option.

I suggest you measure what % of revenue is generated thru Norchio, then just up the Vertotel rev share % accordingly. (And tell your affiliates this!)

Um... that site looks hot.
One thing I did notice that annoyed me early on was how a lot of the "back to" links that I was hoping would send me to

http://www.russianuniformguyz.com./main.php

sent me to

http://www.russianuniformguyz.com/

that's kinda frustrating when you're already in the site and have already entered and are now checking out various features and the tour.

WE ARE DOING AS YOU SUGGEST, AND ALSO GIVING THEM OPTION TO JOIN.

Still a couple dead links here and there (preview images) and what not.

WE’RE PLOUGHING OUR WAY THROUGH THEM NOW!

Pointing out and making it plainly apparent, even reminding the surfer, that you actually shoot all the content yourself and that it's not recycled and purchased content is always a good idea, especially given the huge number of Russian sites out there. What'd make me a little shifty on signing up if I was a surfer is not knowing if what I'm going to find on your site is the same stuff or different than the stuff I can find on all those other Russsian sites out there.

WE HAVE RE-DESIGNED THE FRONT PAGE, AND TOMORROW WILL BE A NEW TEXT WHICH MAKES IT CLEAR THAT WE SHOOT MOST OF THE PICS.

Plus, I'm left worrying "Uh oh... what if there's just one or two hardcore flicks and everything else is solo photosets?"

PERHAPS WE SHOULD TELL THEM EXACTLY WHAT WE HAVE? AND NOT EXAGGERATE, IE SAY WE HAVE SO MANY HOURS OF VIDEOS, MODELS ETC? IT’S A NEW SITE, SO WE CAN’T HOPE TO COMPETE WITH WILLIAMS HIGGINS SAY, BUT I THINK THAT WE HAVE SOMETHING A BIT DIFFERENT ...

I definitely think you should go with a recurring membership model. It'll make your site more appealing to webmasters to have the potential to generate recurring commissions. As well as making one of the processors, such as Verotel, more prominent and just having the other as a backup as Dzinerbear mentioned.

I’VE BEEN TALKING WITH VEROTEL FOR LAST COUPLE OF DAYS, AND HOPE THAT NOW RESELLERS PROGRAMME IS UP AND RUNNING.

I'd definitely be interested in promoting your site, though, and suspect I could send you large volumes of high-converting traffic through your Verotel affiliate program.

Welcome to the board, btw, and glad to see you posting.

Again, your site really looks hot and I'd totally be up for giving it a try with promoting you through some of my sites. Float me an email if ya feel like it

I WOULD BE VERY HAPPY! MY EMAIL IS ALBION@RUSSIANUNIFORMGUYZ.COM

I WILL WRITE TO YOU.

REGARDS

ALBION