Nude Model / Cam WorkWritten by Anna I run nerdpr0n.com, which is a I have the unique experience of being both a webmaster and a model, and also of having been utterly inexperienced in all things porny, so I had to start from square one. A lot of adult site advice forums and websites have good material provided you're not a complete and utter rookie. They tend to overlook the obvious, when the obvious might give us all a step up. So, without any further ado, I shall present my experiences as “the obvious”, split up for webmasters and for models. For WebmastersSo, you've decided, for whatever reason, to start running an adult site. The internet is brimming with porn and you want a slice of the pussy pie. My experiences may or may not be of use to you, because my site is a small, independent, mainly softcore, alternative porn (alt-porn) site. If you're part of a larger adult site network, you probably don't need to read this, but if you'd like to start an alternative adult site, this may be of some use. This is going to be a short list of things I wish I'd known when I started running a site. If you want to run a more “conventional” site, here is a
list of links that may be able to better help you. These links are at
least marginally useful to any webmaster, but particularly more “conventional”
ones. Alt-porn webmasters, like me, may not find that this is First and foremost - there are a TON of adult websites out there. TONS.
The Internet's adult empire grows every day. In order for any new site
to succeed, it needs to stand out somehow. It needs to either be bigger,
cheaper, better, badder, or newer. It is unlikely you will be able to
launch an independent site that is bigger. Since free porn is the next
big moneymaking model (income is from advertising and affiliate revenue),
cheaper is out. Badder holds some possibilities if you plan on running
a fetish or BDSM oriented site, but the fetish website contingent is enormous
and every day it gets a little less likely that A still better bet is to produce something unique that the porn world might never have seen before, or better yet, a combination of some or all of these. This might seem like a stretch since there is so much porn out there, but there's a lot that actually hasn't been done, or done in a particular way. For instance, http://www.eroticred.com features menstruation porn, and this is so revolutionary a concept that the website still hasn't been able to get off the ground because billing companies are unwilling to process payments for it. When SuicideGirls hit the market, it was an instant hit because it provided hot punk softcore. Basically, it was Playboy with tattoos. Now there are dozens (maybe even hundreds?) f sites that feature goth, punk, tattooed, pierced chicks. My own site serves as a pretty good example: I use the fact that I, the model, am running it myself to my advantage. I emphasize that I am a sexy GEEK, and that I have lots of softcore NERDY porn. This has been done (http://www.nakkidnerds.com) but I think my site is unique in that I try to provide a level of nerdy authenticity and personalized service. I try to make it obvious that the woman behind all the stylesheets and HTML is the one and same hot chick getting naked for the world to see. You don't just see a nerd; you see her work as well. Also, spend time surfing adult sites. Figure out what you like and don't
like. Notice the little patterns and standards that are prevalent throughout
the sites, like help pages. Spend extra time focusing on adult sites that
provide similar things that you hope to, and figure out what they do and
how they do it. Don't copy them, but learn from them and perhaps improve
on it. Some things you might want to look out for is to see how much they
charge, how much content they actually offer, how they market their site.
Almost every site has a list of links; mine it. Apply to the review sites
they applied to. Look at the affiliate DO not accept paypal. It is against their terms of service, which is unfortunate because everyone trusts paypal, but you can't even kind of sort of offer adult services through paypal. They are fastidious about this and you WILL get busted, and when you do, your account WILL be frozen, you could potentially lose all the money in the account, and you and your clients could all be fined $500. I know this from experience...I accepted paypal payments and got my account frozen. Unfortunately, startup costs for non-paypal options are pretty steep ever since VISA upped the price. This is NOT legal advice, but as far as I can tell, VISA requires that high-risk (including adult) businesses pitch in an initial $750 to open a merchant account and a recurring yearly cost of $350. Third-party payment solutions can manage this for you, even though they won't be any cheaper than that. A good way to take the edge off of the costs is to find someone with a website who might be willing to go in on costs with you; as far as I know, the vast majority of these third-party billers allow the creation of sub-accounts for free, so two websites could both run off of one account. There is more informed information over at cozyfrog.com. My big headache, and as far as I can tell, the adult industry's current big headache is a piece of legalese recently drafted into law: Title 18, Section 2257. This is where the disclaimer comes in. I am not giving legal advice regarding anything, especially 2257. I am just giving my own personal experiences in dealing with it, and what I have seen, and should not be taken in any way to construe legal advice. That's why I'm going to let this page advise you instead (GO READ IT! It's very useful!), and the actual letter of the law can be found here. I will limit the scope of my discussion to my own experiences. Advertising alone makes your site successful. Unfortunately, a bitch and I still haven't mastered it. You need to lure traffic in somehow, and then you need to get people to sign up (usually by providing a “tour” or “preview” page that is very well done and representative of the site). As far as I can tell, it is helpful to have:
http://www.suicidegirls.com
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