A little discouraged but still have the desire

[maxx68]

Okay...this is for anyone who cares to answer.

I have to admit that after reading some of the replies to some of my questions, I'm feeling a bit discouraged and somewhat depressed. Without going into a long drawn-out dramatic explanation, I'll just say that I REALLY want and NEED to be successful at being a webmaster, that being said I would like to ask the following:

As a newbie, what would you suggest I do to get myself into the biz and start making some money?

I'm currently with GayPornAccess and in the process of building a site which I hope will be placed within their line-up.

What should I do to promote my site should it meet their approval?

Would it be in my best interest to create my own TGPs & MGPs, link lists, banner farms, etc...to promote my site on GPA or what? If most TGPs & MGPs are keeping everything in house as it were, what's the best way to promote my site?

I wish someone would write a book (with pictures, I'm a visual type of guy, ) explaining everything.

I just don't understand why sponsors have affiliate programs if in the long run, the sponsors control most of the best ways to promote sites and are keeping everything to themselves.

Thanks

[HunkyLuke]

do you have any blogs?

[maxx68]

HunkMoney...

I had a blog but after 3 months of virtually zero traffic I decided to try something else. I guess I should build another one and just keep it up for awhile longer.

I also had a site at ning promoting another sponsor, but there content was, um, a little out-dated and overused, soooo....

[basschick]

blogs are definitely without any doubt the way to go. it's the easiest, the fastest and the cheapest way to get started. if your blog got NO traffic and no sales, that means you need some help. well, here we are, ready and able to help

why not show us your blog if it's still up. if not, tell us about it so we can tell you what went wrong or what else you needed to do.

[Lee]

No need to feel discouraged, we have all been where you are now, it just takes a little patience and willingness to ask for and accept the help you get given which it seems you have

As already mentioned, blogs right now are probably one of the hottest things going and if you do it right, you'll be getting a lot of traffic in a short space of time, with rss feeds being offered by so many sponsors too, there really isnt much work to be done on your part.

Also, one thing that is also working for a lot of people right now are 1 page sites, a few pictures, a bunch of text and some banners going to your sponsor sites, easy to build en mass and if you build them to specific niches, very quick to get listed in the SE's.

Is Gay Porn Access your only sponsor? If so, how much traffic have you sent their way? If you are sending them clicks but those clicks arent converting in to sales for you, try another affiliate program.

Dont forget, the sponsors main goal is to make money from their sites, because of this a lot of affiliate programs have their own internal traffic sources they use so that they dont have to pay affiliates for every sale to their sites, it only makes sense these days for affiliate programs to have internal traffic flowing otherwise, as soon as a 'new' program came up, they would lose all their affiliate traffic and sales.

Stick in there, it will take you a while to get things going but it really does sound like you are willing to ask the right questions and learn from the replies you get.

Regards,

Lee

[maxx68]

Whoaaaa...

Lots of great info guys! Thanks!

It's ironic some of the suggestions that were made cause to tell ya the truth, I had started tons of blogs and was really interested in the whole one page website deal (I was gonna pay $300 for a one page site, long time ago, when I was stupider than I am now)and I got so overwhelmed and at times underwhelmed, I scraped the idea. I am a artist and I do best with visual stuff and creating websites is quite enjoyable to me so...

I am going to get my hosting and start looking into the best possible sponsors. Then get my ass in gear with creating a shit load of one page sites.

Now here's a question or two...well maybe more, LOL!

I currently own the domain: gaycliptube.com, okay, well if I set this up and bar folks from uploading vids and use it to promote my sponsors, do you think the whole barring of uploading will be a turn-off to my visitors?

Second, when I start the whole one page site thing, this is what I am thinking: registrar a domain name and then create sub domains for each of the one page sites. Thoughts?

Also do any of you guys who have affiliate programs supply movie clips to your affiliates and if so do you allow said affiliates to edit them into say 20 second teasers?

God my head is spinning, I don't think i have been this excited since I got my FLESHLIGHT!LOLOLOL!!! :bunny:

[Bill]

I beg to differ.

Blogs are a terrible place for a newbie to start.

Is there a good place for a newbie to start anymore? Well, thats harder to answer.

However, there are really only about a half dozen venues in which to start, so if you know what those venues are, and what the cost-of-entry and potential return-on-investment is for each, a logical order appears.

Personally I think telling a newbie to start with blogs borders on the cruel.

... as a side note, the autolink plugin puts the link on the keyword blogs, not I.

[HunkyLuke]

I have to weigh in and say that blogs are totally the way to start these days. And you can do it for free too, there are tons of places that have free blog hosting, add that to sponsor content and a good quality script like this one and you can easily get 1 new blog setup a week, in a year you will have a network of over 50 blogs and you WILL get sales from them.

[basschick]

rushing things is probably why you didn't do too well before. start ONE blog for now - just one. it should have its own domain. the blog will not be one page - each blog will have its own page, each month will have its own page, and if you go for categories, they will each have a page.

BEFORE you choose a domain, choose the niche or theme of your blog. make sure it's one that is either a microniche with 7 sponsors for or a strong niche or theme with at least 14 quality sponsors. each of the sponsors will need to supply blog content.

once you've thought of a niche and domain, come back here before signing up for anything and run it by us.

btw, you can see a LOT of blogs, both good and not so good, by checking the listings at bestmaleblogs.com

Whoaaaa...

Lots of great info guys! Thanks!

It's ironic some of the suggestions that were made cause to tell ya the truth, I had started tons of blogs and was really interested in the whole one page website deal (I was gonna pay $300 for a one page site, long time ago, when I was stupider than I am now)and I got so overwhelmed and at times underwhelmed, I scraped the idea. I am a artist and I do best with visual stuff and creating websites is quite enjoyable to me so...

I am going to get my hosting and start looking into the best possible sponsors. Then get my ass in gear with creating a shit load of one page sites.

Now here's a question or two...well maybe more, LOL!

I currently own the domain: gaycliptube.com, okay, well if I set this up and bar folks from uploading vids and use it to promote my sponsors, do you think the whole barring of uploading will be a turn-off to my visitors?

Second, when I start the whole one page site thing, this is what I am thinking: registrar a domain name and then create sub domains for each of the one page sites. Thoughts?

Also do any of you guys who have affiliate programs supply movie clips to your affiliates and if so do you allow said affiliates to edit them into say 20 second teasers?

God my head is spinning, I don't think i have been this excited since I got my FLESHLIGHT!LOLOLOL!!! :bunny:

[Bec]

Blogs may not be the ideal begginer project, but it's definately one you can do with absolutely no expense on your part. You'll not even pay for any hosting, or content for that matter, if you don't want to. Hit my www.adultblogbuilder.com and you'll find a big list of adult blogger freehosts in posts and down the right column of the site. You merely create an account (tip: use something you want for a niche, like "Fratboy Initiations" or "The Sperm Exchange" for the account name, otherwise your first blog is YOUR name or screen handle name).

Now register with one or two sponsors that have the content for the niche blog you just created. Ideally, find at least one with available sponsored RSS feeds and/or hosted video clips and they provide an embed code for you to use, and start posting. Get a good week or two of posts onboard and then get your blog submitted to link lists and directories. Keep up a submission schedule, do 1 or so a day for a couple weeks, then 2-3 per week after that. Once you get the hang of what you're doing and get some income happening, you can add more blogs to the initial account you make at each of the free hosts. Make sure to link back out to your other blogs on your first blogs. Repeat the submission routine.

If you find you do need a small virtual account to house a couple domains, and probably some content you'll use on the various blogs ... while National Net is indeed a good choice when you're ready for a server, there are adult hosts out there that can setup a virtual account for you at a reasonable rate. Try www.global2000hosting.com or http://nakedhosting.com/affiliates/i...ate.php?id=490

[basschick]

i think if you are truly serious about making it as a webmaster, paid hosting would be a must. there are plenty of good quality adult hosts offering accounts for $15 month or less.

[Bill]

I think it's rather humbling to see all the suggestions about blogging.

What that says about the difficulty for a beginner to profit from the "traditional" traffic sources, or to enter those systems, is a reminder of how this biz is changing.

And I still think it's crazy to tell a beginner, who probably doesn't have the link partners or link juice to drag him/her/self into the SE's, probably doesn't understand the longtail and keyword positioning, and may or may not be a prolific and strategic writer, to focus on blogs.

Yes, they aren't difficult, entry is not expensive, and they have a certain glamour. They're just not reliable in producing cashflow for people who aren't already skilled in SE writing and strategy.

And, like I said at the beginning, the fact that you're all suggesting them, rather than freesites or galleries, says something hard about entry into the biz.

[Lee]

What that says about the difficulty for a beginner to profit from the "traditional" traffic sources, or to enter those systems, is a reminder of how this biz is changing.

I agree, was talking to Bec about this earlier this afternoon in fact.

Its a shame that webmasters want to be paid for doing very little work these days, i would much rather pay webmasters for actually doing something other than using all the tools *I* provide them or they can get for *free* unfortunately as you said though, its the state of the business these days

Adult webmasters really have become lazy beyond belief for the most part, thankfully there are some of us left who actually do 'work' for a living though and dont just use the same rss feeds, fhgs, hosted free sites, etc, etc as everyone else does

Regards,

Lee

[Bec]

Two years ago I'd of said try the freesite and gallery route. But now, if he's in the US, he has to worry on the whole ID's and 2257 rigamarole, so using sponsor content gets dicey in that respect. Buying content and just doing a straight up pay per sale, get your cash and run since that guy isn't on the site you're promoting is of course still doable. Now you just need the funds for the bandwidth a good gallery listing will need, bandwidth/disc space for the gallery hosting in general and money to foot buying the legal content. Success also falls to the webmster who's willing to get into a submission routine for these types of sites just as it does for those with blogs.

Getting into "the biz" can run a huge gammut of site types and services. He has to figure out if he really is willing to invest the time (even more so than the money) to make it happen for himself.

[maxx68]

First...Thanks again for all the info

I just got my new check card and I am going to get me some hosting. I think I'm gonna go with a virtual account even though I have always used shared. I think it would be best, since I'm serious about this, to act like a big boy and get a big boy hosting account.

I will be looking into the hosting suggested by Lee and Basschick.

As far as blogging and/or free sites...I think I'm gonna take Lee's advice and go with one page free sites, get situated and then add blogging to my portfolio. the only worry I have is that most blogs are nothing more than repositories for vid clips, I should know, I have a few fav's that I download clips from all the time. The thing is, it is very easy to find a site that has enough clips to get you off, so why goto one of the sponsors and get a membership?

At least with a free site you just giving them a taste of what's to come...at least that's my opinion.

As to affiliates who don't want to work...very true and even some sponsors are the same, I however, am not one of those people. how many folks do you know would put in 7 to 10 hours a day for over three years, only to earn roughly $100 a year and still be adimit about be an adult webmaster.

Hard as try to get away from this industry, something tells me I am supposed to be doing this. I just wish I had found this website sooner.

I will be successful with hard work, determination and the help of the great folks who gather at this site.

Thanks again