1st Pay Site Launch!

[Jake]

Hello everyone!

It’s been a number of months since I last posted but I’ve been extremely busy getting our 1st site ready for launch. As I’m sure many of you already know, it was wayyyyy more work than ever anticipated! We finally incorporated our company in the middle of December after months and months going back and forth with the corporate lawyer. We also got everything worked out with our entertainment lawyer regarding contracts, 2257, etc. He’s now about to give our website its final audit before we open the doors to the public. We shot our 1st video at the end of December and finished our last shoot about 3 weeks ago. The venture will be almost 2 years in the making!

I’ve learned so much in every aspect of production, web design (what the heck is css anyway), server maintenance, legal b.s., etc. Now comes the hard work :s Building traffic! I pretty much have no clue what I’m doing but that’s never stopped me before. I’ve purchased Blogs Organizer and registered a number of domains that I’m going to start building blogs for. I’m also going to find a good generic domain which I can have many, many sub domains on each with their own unique blog/angle.

I’m inviting everyone to have a look and if you can spare a moment, respond with your feedback. Good, bad, questions, I would be grateful for anything. This is my 1st serious web design (I’ve made probably 4 or 5 in my lifetime) and there are number of aspects I had (have) no clue how to do. The site was designed mostly in Dreamweaver with a little bit of hand coding. I installed Wowza flash streaming server and I’m currently using JW Player. I’m in talks with another webmaster to purchase his technology which would replace the JW Player with a custom one. This custom player displays the user’s name and pass discreetly superimposed over the video. That way if someone tries to do a screen capture to grab the videos and upload them to tube sites, the geo-ip tracking will shut down that user/pass.

I’m using Matrox’s Axio-HD running Adobe Premiere cs3 for my editing and encoding. I’m encoding in flash’s flv since I found it had more options then h264 which Wowza could also just as easily stream. The resolution is 1/2 1920/1080 at 1250mbit/s. Played full screen, I think it looks pretty darn good! I am worried however, if a surfer doesn’t have a good internet connection there could be a problem. If we find there are numerous problems, we may have to lower the resolution and bit rate. We’re not going to worry about servicing the dial up people.

Finally, I know I’m late to the game. I hope with perseverance, I can make up for lost time.

So…without further delay…I present to you…

www.straightfraternityguys.com
user= gwwguest
pass= gwwisgreat

Please note, the site is not open to the public yet and I have not yet purchased the unlimited license for the streaming server so I’m limited to 10 streams. I’m hoping to get that wrapped up next week. We also have an additional 11 videos in the can to be added every other week and more shoots lined up in the coming weeks. The user/pass will be active for probably the next week or so. Please ignore the ‘date added’ on the videos. That is just a place holder until we know our official opening date.

Thanks to everyone whose posts have helped me along the way! I may not post but I visit almost every day without exception and read what everyone else is saying.

Best Regards,
Jake

[hotdudesnude]

I like it, it looks great,
The videos played choppy for me, but most (not all tho) flash videos run choppy for me, and I have a cable internet connection. I really don't like flv videos.
Good luck.

[LiveTwinksCam]

Looks good!

[Jake]

Thanks for the replies!

I use a 5+ year old laptop with a G wireless connection as my minimum tester. It has a celeronM processor running at 1.4MHz with 1200 meg of memory. It also doesn't use a dedicated video card but instead (as most lower and mid priced laptops do) uses an on-board card with shared memory. I have a few programs loaded but for the most part it's very clean.

I'm worried that the average surfers will have (unknowingly) a lot of unnecessary processes running that interfere with the streaming of the videos. I realize I can be right as rain but at the end of the day, it doesn't mean a thing if the user experience is less than expected.

By the way, the entire site is open...meaning you can click on the MEMBERS button and see the full length videos.

Best Regards,
Jake

[HunkyLuke]

i really like the layout and design, clean and effective. But there are a few technical issues. I am sure these are only because you are still in the testing phase, but I thought I would mention them anyway to help. The site is very slow. Your flash "join today" button in the left column does not link to a join page. You should put up more join links too, like all over the front page and on the video preview pages. Your help page pops a new window (annoying), the banner on that help page is really nice, you should use it elsewhere too!

Once you get these small details sorted, it should be a winner site. Congrats!

[Jake]

Thanks again for all your comments.

Regarding the Join Today flash banner...it's funny you mention it. That's next on my list to re-do. My background is in video production and motion graphic (specifically After Effects) and Fireworks. All my flash elements were first designed in After Effects and exported as a flv file. As such, that banner ad is almost 1 meg! The 'Click Here to Enter the FratHouse' was actually my 1st ever built interactive flash file. It started out as an animated gif at 160k. It's now 4.19k! The flash file in the side bar was 975k...it's now 110k!

I'm not sure why the site is slow. I hope it's not like that all the time. The server is based in Prague with exMasters. The testing I've done so far didn't reveal any real slowdown.

I never thought about adding 'JOIN' buttons to the preview pages. Duh! My thinking all along was not to be like some of those loud in your face sites. To be honest, I've only personally had a couple of memberships in my lifetime and they were not at one of sites I just described. However, adding JOIN buttons to the preview pages is an excellent idea!

The HELP along withe all my other 'info' pages (ToS, Privacy Policy, 2257, etc.) all open in a new window because they don't contain any navigation buttons on the side. If someone clicks on the 'Support' button on the front page and is presented with nav buttons, they could enter the site without agreeing to the ToS and PP as stated on the front page. Not sure of a way around that but i'm open to suggestions.

The banner on the HELP page is also on all of the above stated 'info' pages. This was so the surfer could see what was inside even without clicking on the 'Enter' button. This banner will change somewhat regular along the with Join Today banner.

I'm still deciding between CC Billing and Zombaio for my cc processing. I know all the pro's and con's but it's hard to pass up zero$ signup fee and 4.9% processing even if they do charge for chargebacks. 750 divided by 12.50 plus the difference between 14% and 4.9% can add up to a lot of charge backs that hopefully won't happen with their systems they have in place.

Thanks again and keep the comments coming!

[Rich]

it looks good

[HunkyLuke]

is Zombaio a trusted processor now? I know when they first came out there were a lot of questions, but i never followed it to see what happened.

IMHO, trusting your processor is MAJORLY important, these are the guys that are handling your money after all.....and I have been burned by so many of them in the past (probilling, psw, acpay, etc...)

[Jake]

is Zombaio a trusted processor now? I know when they first came out there were a lot of questions, but i never followed it to see what happened.

IMHO, trusting your processor is MAJORLY important, these are the guys that are handling your money after all.....and I have been burned by so many of them in the past (probilling, psw, acpay, etc...)

Well I made my decision last night and signed up with CC Billing. In the end I agree you have to trust and have faith your billing processor will be there now and down the road...but damn...their rates hurt the bottom line!

[Lee]

It looks good its just a shame that there is nothing to really differentiate your site from the others that have the same niche of content on them.

Regards,

Lee

[Jake]

It looks good its just a shame that there is nothing to really differentiate your site from the others that have the same niche of content on them.Lee

I completely agree. Our number one goal at this point was to get our site open and start building content. This has been 1 1/2 years in the making and we're happy to finally be where we are...which btw, is now officially on-line...yeah!

Olde man winter is just leaving the great white north and we're planning on producing some lifestyle content. My business partner and I both agree that even though our site at this point is not unique, we agree that a lot of potential members join because of one or two 'models.' We're refining our recruiting methods and believe the caliber of our content will only get better.

I'm not trying to defend myself because we acknowledge the non-uniqueness of our site right now. Were going to do our best to not fit into this already crowded niche.

Thanks to everyone for your valued and respected input.

Best Regards,
Jake

[msm]

I think you're off to a good start but I would not officially launch it to the public until you have at least a dozen videos up. You should do well... has anyone ever really lost money doing a "straight guy" site?

Having said that, there is another established site called "straight fraternity" that may cause some confusion in your prospective customers. People who forget to type in "guys" in the URL will end up at the SF site and may forget all about yours. I'd actually consider a name change before you officially launch. I think there are still plenty of other catchy names that you can still get that won't confuse you with the original SF. I wonder if the SF site could even lay a claim against yours because of the name similarity?

By the way, the guest pass didn't work for me so I based my comments on your preview.

I had some questions I was wondering if you could answer:

1. Are you based in the USA and if so, why did you decide to host in Prague?

2. What make/model video camera are you using?

3. How are you finding your models and what are you paying?

4. Are you going to offer an affiliate program?

Thanks!

[Jake]

I think you're off to a good start but I would not officially launch it to the public until you have at least a dozen videos up. You should do well... has anyone ever really lost money doing a "straight guy" site?

Having said that, there is another established site called "straight fraternity" that may cause some confusion in your prospective customers. People who forget to type in "guys" in the URL will end up at the SF site and may forget all about yours. I'd actually consider a name change before you officially launch. I think there are still plenty of other catchy names that you can still get that won't confuse you with the original SF. I wonder if the SF site could even lay a claim against yours because of the name similarity?

By the way, the guest pass didn't work for me so I based my comments on your preview.

I had some questions I was wondering if you could answer:

1. Are you based in the USA and if so, why did you decide to host in Prague?

2. What make/model video camera are you using?

3. How are you finding your models and what are you paying?

4. Are you going to offer an affiliate program?

Thanks!

Thanks for the encouragement! We actually have more than 10 videos in the can scheduled for release over the next few months. We don't really anticipate getting sign ups until we have more content but decided a smaller launch with natural growth would be better.

My business partner and I talked about the other fraternity site and decided we wouldn't worry about them. We don't really anticipate any direct type in traffic (I'd be curious in hearing what percentage of other sites get direct type in traffic.) We were also given the go-ahead by our lawyer who researched our name. We did have one hit come up but nothing to worry about. I'm not a lawyer but the words are common words and I doubt they would ever be able to copyright them.

The password expired but If you would like, shoot me an email (you can do that from the site) and I'll make one specifically for you.

To you questions...

1. We're based out of Canada. If you read our 2257 it clearly states that and therefore, we do not fall under the US rules. We make absolutely every effort to comply with the 2257 regulations and probably would pass, but hey, why have to answer to one more person/regulatory body when you don't have to. So...anything we do/touch must have no connection with the US which is why our server is in Prague. We will eventually move our server to Canada but that's in the mid-term plan. Exmasters was highly regarded and I've been very please with their support.

2 I'm shooting with the Canon A1 and a small Canon HV30. I want to get another A1 but again, that's a mid-term plan. I also have a 35mm adapter I want to eventually get into the mix. If you're unfamiliar with them, they allow me to put a Nikon 35mm lens on the end of my Camera for a very shallow depth of field (DOF) which looks really nice. I'm working on a documentary using it. There are a few manufacturers (maybe 3 or 4) but I decided on http://www.cinevate.com/website/index.php It's a lot of work and absolutely no 'auto' anything. I even have to add 4x4 ND filters to my matte box in order to bring the light levels into range.

3 My business partner is in charge of model recruitment. He has many connections and is persistent. We even find models at house parties we go to. One of the models on the site now we recruited at a friends Christmas party. It's actually very funny. We have a lot of hockey and rugby connections and plan on recruiting with in that circle. Our prices are negotiated from model to model and 'act' to 'act.' I'll just leave it at that.

4 We're just catching our breath from opening the site. We think we want to eventually have affiliates but not at the moment. There is so much I've had to learn from scratch and I don't have a clue what would be required to run an affiliate program. I'm open to guidance if you're interested. I've setup an affiliate application (mini computer program) on my streaming server specifically to host flv for affiliates but that's as much as I've done.

I hope I've answered your questions (I'm known for being long winded and I apologize for that.) Don't hesitate to ask anything else.

Best Regards,
Jake

[msm]

Thanks for the answers Jake. I think that since you went with CCBill it's fairly easy to set-up an affiliate program (I have not done this so I could be wrong... others here can probably address that). You might want to ask your CCBill rep about this.

Once the program is set up you just need to send out email updates to webmasters and bloggers like me, or set up a part of your site where affiliates can download promo content, or just give us guest passes.

My suggestion for promo content is to make sure you take hi-res pics of your models... don't just take screen grabs from the videos. High quality digital still cameras are so cheap now there really is no excuse for not grabbing a dozen or show shots of the model during a shoot, and these always look sharper and clearer than video screen grabs, even from hi-def footage.

It's interesting to hear you are using the HV30. I've heard great things about that camera and for the price, it's probably the best bang for the buck HD camera out there. I assume you are finding the footage comes close or matches your A1?

Also interesting to hear where you find models... I have never heard of house parties as an option. Sounds like a great way to find guys!

[TMM_Vlad]

Thanks for the encouragement! We actually have more than 10 videos in the can scheduled for release over the next few months. We don't really anticipate getting sign ups until we have more content but decided a smaller launch with natural growth would be better.

My business partner and I talked about the other fraternity site and decided we wouldn't worry about them. We don't really anticipate any direct type in traffic (I'd be curious in hearing what percentage of other sites get direct type in traffic.) We were also given the go-ahead by our lawyer who researched our name. We did have one hit come up but nothing to worry about. I'm not a lawyer but the words are common words and I doubt they would ever be able to copyright them.

The password expired but If you would like, shoot me an email (you can do that from the site) and I'll make one specifically for you.

To you questions...

1. We're based out of Canada. If you read our 2257 it clearly states that and therefore, we do not fall under the US rules. We make absolutely every effort to comply with the 2257 regulations and probably would pass, but hey, why have to answer to one more person/regulatory body when you don't have to. So...anything we do/touch must have no connection with the US which is why our server is in Prague. We will eventually move our server to Canada but that's in the mid-term plan. Exmasters was highly regarded and I've been very please with their support.

2 I'm shooting with the Canon A1 and a small Canon HV30. I want to get another A1 but again, that's a mid-term plan. I also have a 35mm adapter I want to eventually get into the mix. If you're unfamiliar with them, they allow me to put a Nikon 35mm lens on the end of my Camera for a very shallow depth of field (DOF) which looks really nice. I'm working on a documentary using it. There are a few manufacturers (maybe 3 or 4) but I decided on http://www.cinevate.com/website/index.php It's a lot of work and absolutely no 'auto' anything. I even have to add 4x4 ND filters to my matte box in order to bring the light levels into range.

3 My business partner is in charge of model recruitment. He has many connections and is persistent. We even find models at house parties we go to. One of the models on the site now we recruited at a friends Christmas party. It's actually very funny. We have a lot of hockey and rugby connections and plan on recruiting with in that circle. Our prices are negotiated from model to model and 'act' to 'act.' I'll just leave it at that.

4 We're just catching our breath from opening the site. We think we want to eventually have affiliates but not at the moment. There is so much I've had to learn from scratch and I don't have a clue what would be required to run an affiliate program. I'm open to guidance if you're interested. I've setup an affiliate application (mini computer program) on my streaming server specifically to host flv for affiliates but that's as much as I've done.

I hope I've answered your questions (I'm known for being long winded and I apologize for that.) Don't hesitate to ask anything else.

Best Regards,
Jake

Jake, How are you? I can help you with some guidance about starting an affiliate program. You can get in touch with me at anytime.