1st post – Balance of 6 months newbie work

bert2000pt · 2004-01-17, 09:34 AM

Greetings everybody

After six months of hard work, It’s time to share some thoughts with you.

Having retired from regular jobs and in order to keep brain busy, I thought I would give it a try in the adult web industry. Although I’m not a professional computer expert, I do have good skills and can learn easily,

So, for a couple of months I just visited this forum and a couple similar ones, studied as many tutorials as I could find until I was finally ready to start building sites.

As I was (and still am) in a trial and error state, I decided not to invest any money right now, so I tried with free hosting and free content.

Trying to concentrate on a niche I understand (femdom fetish), I choose a couple of content sponsors for different sites, got some pictures of my own, and built a huge free site, with separate sections for each type of fetish and sponsor. This went up in late October and, so far, made me $35 USD, from some guy joining a sponsor.

Then I moved into the AVS systems.

My idea was to have a main site, with my own content, so opted for CyberAge Platinum program, having at this moment more than 500 exclusive pictures.

Following what I learned from the tutorials, I also tried to make as many other smaller sites as possible and even built a “hub”, so that I could keep the surfers inside my own “network” for as long as possible.

My 6 CA sites made me $76 in November, $4 in December and $51 in the first January period. Quite brilliant, wouldn’t you say?

Naturally, I invested a lot of time building the sites, making banners, editing my pictures, creating and submitting TGPs, and promoting my sites in top and link lists, directories, pic posts, and even to search engines, although I haven’t seen any results yet, even if I don’t really expect to, since according to last posts in the forum, it’s getting harder to have sites listed in any SE.

My last move was to build some free sites with attractive (selling) text and content, pointing them to the CA sites.

I even tried some “shy” newsgroups spam, posting an occasional message pointing to one of these free sites, but with no visible results.

Also tried some banner exchange program, which gives me a visitor once in a while.

My conclusions at this moment are:

TGPs traffic sucks
In the last 24 hours I got more than1700 hits on my last gallery, 17 cared to visit the site, only 3 reached the upsell page, none went to the main CA site.

Top and link list traffic is a lie
I submitted 3 free sites to almost 90 lists and traffic is in the two digits figures.
Same goes for Pic Posts and directories.

I think I am in a point where I reached the top of my current skills and that is why I am posting this text, hoping to get some valuable input from the more experienced webmasters out there.

For your reference, I am including here some urls you could visit and I do hope to get some comments.

My last (state of my art) TGP
http://femdomfetish.hostmachine.com/00-sg-61.htm

My last (state of my art) free site
http://madamescorpio.hostmachine.com/sdfs01i.htm

My “hub”
http://femdomfetish.hostmachine.com

My main CA site
http://www.cybersexnetworksites.com/amateurdomme

All input will be of great value to me,

Thanking you all in advance

Bert

MrMaryLou · 2004-01-17, 09:38 AM

Well looks to me like you need to do two things buy a domain an get some hosting

I am not sure where your reading about getting started but with out those two things your not gonna go far at all

Cleo · 2004-01-17, 09:42 AM

Hi bert2000pt, welcome to the board.

Most places will not list you if you are using a free host and many places are no longer accepting CyberAge sites.

vangend · 2004-01-17, 09:59 AM

Yes, get hosting and a domain. To get sales to your AVS site build more regular and preffered sites that upsell to your platinum site.
Mirrior your avs sites and submit it to other avs systems.
Do free sites that upsell to your avs site and sponsors. If you get your free site listed on the major link lists you will get a few thousand hits for the first few days, it will become less after you are of the new page on the list, but you will still get traffic.

Jaden · 2004-01-17, 10:22 AM

Besides the free hosting and domain and Cyberage issues for the freesite.....

I just took a quick look and couldn't find anywhere where I would or could go to sign up for anything even if I wanted to. Your join page pops up for me and closes into a small window on my taskbar, so people probably never even see it. Click on a banner and it takes you to somewhere else where you need to click on something which takes you to a page you can't even read because of the colors....It's like the design is just one big circle where the surfer has to read tons of stuff to get somewhere else. So I can kinda see why thats not really working for ya.

You might want to try making everything easier to find....and more surfer friendly and sales oriented. Also, alot of places won't list you because you only have 15 pics divided between 3 galleries, with one gallery only containing 3 pics. You are using the same banner for everything, might wanna think about switching it out with some different ones and using some good sales text to link to as well....

In my experience, surfers are willing to spend, but its not something most of them are willing to work overly hard to do.

grzepa · 2004-01-17, 11:51 AM

Well, you cant really say that link list traffic is a lie, since I got lot of traffic 99 % from the link lists and Im quite happy with the conversions.

Without a domain and a paid host you will not get listed on the biggest link lists out there so the traffic you're getting cant really be called link list traffic....

Get a domain and a host !

soggy · 2004-01-17, 12:29 PM

Your sites are kinda bland... no offense. When I get in a design slump I go buy a Playboy and a Cosmo and study the covers and inside marketing. The covers of the Playboys will give you ideas. I like text but too much is not good. Hope this has helped.

Also I do free sites and submit to LL. I love the traffic and can move it to where I want it to go. Hosting and Domain names are cheap! This is not an overnite get rich business. It takes alot of time and effort and is very very flexible.

Good Luck,

soggy

teamperfecto · 2004-01-17, 12:34 PM

Welcome.

bert2000pt · 2004-01-17, 02:46 PM

Hi folks and thank you very much for your comments.

I Know I need to go on a paid host and get my own domain but, right now, my biggest problem is to get the surfers to visit my main site.

Actually, the site converison is quite good, less than 1:50. provided people do get in there.

Anyway, your comments helped a lot and will work to make my promoting sites better and easier to navigate.

Once again, thanks everybody

Bert

DangerDave · 2004-01-17, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bert2000pt
I Know I need to go on a paid host and get my own domain but, right now, my biggest problem is to get the surfers to visit my main site.

No it's not Bert... your biggest problem is the free host...

You lose surfers to the host
You dont get listed because its free-hosted
..and you could lose the lot if the free host goes "pop".

IMO your only priority should be getting a proper host.

The rest design-wise is fixable, but need to be done when you have a solid home.

DD

Nickname · 2004-01-17, 08:11 PM

Dito on what Dangerdave said, get a domain ($8) get a host($20/m) and then start thinking on building more sites, no need to put in any effort at all on a free host.......the only thing I could ever think to use a free host for now is some auto tgp gallery posting script....but then who am i kidding, you dont need a free host for that either when BW is so ass cheap!!!

Sodo · 2004-01-18, 04:13 AM

Dear Newbie,

I would suggest you join flashcash they'll help you out! They have a guy called Netpiddler who can really learn you you need to learn and their sites are selling quite well for me and they offer free trials!

it's http://www.flashcash.com

Kind regards
Sodo

Northeu · 2004-01-18, 08:43 AM

Hi Bert
I have to agree with the others. You NEED a paid host.
At Your latest gallery You said You had 1700 visitors in 24 hours - thats nothing. TGP traffic is poor and You will go no where with this small traffic.
So go get a paid host. Then look at the TGP's and link lists to see how the sites are designed. Then You''ll get and idea. NEVER copy but get ideas.

About You avs site:
You say Your ratio is 1:50 - I dont understand that. Is the ratio from the visitor on Your front page to signup or is it from the Cyberage stats? Because You entrance page is a bit hard to find and You should put up links on each page to Your entrance page like somebody here said. Also You should try and push the avs more like tell short and with thumbs about all the cool feeds inside. That improved my ratio (not selling cyberage though)

Good luck

bert2000pt · 2004-01-19, 10:34 AM

Hello folks

First, I would like to say that I never expected to receive so many replies and, most of all, that much good and valuable.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't think the free / paid hosting was such a big issue and I thought the free I'm using was rather unobstructive, since it only add one line of text in top of the page. However, some replies made me realize how much distracting that line of text is, making surfers click on it and leaving my sites.

So, what are my plans now? Will I give up?

Of course not !

I will continue reading this and other similar forums, study any tutorial I can find, and make my sites look as appealing as possible.

I particulary enjoyed Marie's excellent series about freesites on PornResource.com and think that is a way to go.

From my limited experience and the replies I received I now know I have to do the following:

1 - get a paid host and private domain

2 - Build free sites (a lot of them) linked to my AVS sites or to the sponsors

3 - submit them to link and top list, directories, etc

4 - Build TGPs linking to my AVS sites

Hope this will help to increase my conversions and, naturally, give me some money.

So, back to the drawing board, for I do have much work to to.

Thanks everybody for the extremely valuable input.

Will keep posting my results, should anyone be interested

Bert

Nickname · 2004-01-19, 08:03 PM

The important part about getting a paid host and a domain is not by far that the free host takes 20-30% of the traffic it is that you maybe loose 1000% more traffic in no listings cause your on a free host.....

also I can give 1 more advice when it comes to tgp gallerys, get partner submit accounts with the tgp's dude, its all about partner accounts......|rasta|

2004-01-17, 09:34 AM	#1
bert2000pt Are you sure this is the Sci-Fi Convention? It's full of nerds! Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Europe ( so they say ...) Posts: 260	1st post – Balance of 6 months newbie work Greetings everybody After six months of hard work, It’s time to share some thoughts with you. Having retired from regular jobs and in order to keep brain busy, I thought I would give it a try in the adult web industry. Although I’m not a professional computer expert, I do have good skills and can learn easily, So, for a couple of months I just visited this forum and a couple similar ones, studied as many tutorials as I could find until I was finally ready to start building sites. As I was (and still am) in a trial and error state, I decided not to invest any money right now, so I tried with free hosting and free content. Trying to concentrate on a niche I understand (femdom fetish), I choose a couple of content sponsors for different sites, got some pictures of my own, and built a huge free site, with separate sections for each type of fetish and sponsor. This went up in late October and, so far, made me $35 USD, from some guy joining a sponsor. Then I moved into the AVS systems. My idea was to have a main site, with my own content, so opted for CyberAge Platinum program, having at this moment more than 500 exclusive pictures. Following what I learned from the tutorials, I also tried to make as many other smaller sites as possible and even built a “hub”, so that I could keep the surfers inside my own “network” for as long as possible. My 6 CA sites made me $76 in November, $4 in December and $51 in the first January period. Quite brilliant, wouldn’t you say? Naturally, I invested a lot of time building the sites, making banners, editing my pictures, creating and submitting TGPs, and promoting my sites in top and link lists, directories, pic posts, and even to search engines, although I haven’t seen any results yet, even if I don’t really expect to, since according to last posts in the forum, it’s getting harder to have sites listed in any SE. My last move was to build some free sites with attractive (selling) text and content, pointing them to the CA sites. I even tried some “shy” newsgroups spam, posting an occasional message pointing to one of these free sites, but with no visible results. Also tried some banner exchange program, which gives me a visitor once in a while. My conclusions at this moment are: TGPs traffic sucks In the last 24 hours I got more than1700 hits on my last gallery, 17 cared to visit the site, only 3 reached the upsell page, none went to the main CA site. Top and link list traffic is a lie I submitted 3 free sites to almost 90 lists and traffic is in the two digits figures. Same goes for Pic Posts and directories. I think I am in a point where I reached the top of my current skills and that is why I am posting this text, hoping to get some valuable input from the more experienced webmasters out there. For your reference, I am including here some urls you could visit and I do hope to get some comments. My last (state of my art) TGP http://femdomfetish.hostmachine.com/00-sg-61.htm My last (state of my art) free site http://madamescorpio.hostmachine.com/sdfs01i.htm My “hub” http://femdomfetish.hostmachine.com My main CA site http://www.cybersexnetworksites.com/amateurdomme All input will be of great value to me, Thanking you all in advance Bert

2004-01-17, 09:38 AM	#2
MrMaryLou i fucking told i type to fucking fast wtf Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: New York Posts: 11,247	Well looks to me like you need to do two things buy a domain an get some hosting I am not sure where your reading about getting started but with out those two things your not gonna go far at all __________________ <a href="http://www.greenguysboard.com/onthebench/">Join Me For On The Bench </a>

2004-01-17, 09:42 AM	#3
Cleo Subversive filth of the hedonistic decadent West Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Southeast Florida Posts: 27,936	Hi bert2000pt, welcome to the board. Most places will not list you if you are using a free host and many places are no longer accepting CyberAge sites. __________________ Free Rides on Uber and Lyft Uber Car: uberTzTerri Lyft Car: TZ896289

2004-01-17, 11:51 AM	#6
grzepa You can now put whatever you want in this space :) Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 980	Well, you cant really say that link list traffic is a lie, since I got lot of traffic 99 % from the link lists and Im quite happy with the conversions. Without a domain and a paid host you will not get listed on the biggest link lists out there so the traffic you're getting cant really be called link list traffic.... Get a domain and a host ! __________________ RATIOS SUCK ? - TRY REALITYCASH !

2004-01-17, 12:34 PM	#8
teamperfecto Trying is the first step towards failure Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: perfectodollars.com Posts: 120	Welcome. __________________ Please Re-Read The Rules For Sig Files

2004-01-17, 09:59 AM	#4
vangend Heh Heh Heh! Lisa! Vampires are make believe, just like elves and gremlins and eskimos! Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: South Africa Posts: 70	Yes, get hosting and a domain. To get sales to your AVS site build more regular and preffered sites that upsell to your platinum site. Mirrior your avs sites and submit it to other avs systems. Do free sites that upsell to your avs site and sponsors. If you get your free site listed on the major link lists you will get a few thousand hits for the first few days, it will become less after you are of the new page on the list, but you will still get traffic.

2004-01-17, 10:22 AM	#5
Jaden Shut up brain, or I'll stab you with a Q-tip! Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 119	Besides the free hosting and domain and Cyberage issues for the freesite..... I just took a quick look and couldn't find anywhere where I would or could go to sign up for anything even if I wanted to. Your join page pops up for me and closes into a small window on my taskbar, so people probably never even see it. Click on a banner and it takes you to somewhere else where you need to click on something which takes you to a page you can't even read because of the colors....It's like the design is just one big circle where the surfer has to read tons of stuff to get somewhere else. So I can kinda see why thats not really working for ya. You might want to try making everything easier to find....and more surfer friendly and sales oriented. Also, alot of places won't list you because you only have 15 pics divided between 3 galleries, with one gallery only containing 3 pics. You are using the same banner for everything, might wanna think about switching it out with some different ones and using some good sales text to link to as well.... In my experience, surfers are willing to spend, but its not something most of them are willing to work overly hard to do.

2004-01-17, 12:29 PM	#7
soggy If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Florida Panhandle Posts: 304	Your sites are kinda bland... no offense. When I get in a design slump I go buy a Playboy and a Cosmo and study the covers and inside marketing. The covers of the Playboys will give you ideas. I like text but too much is not good. Hope this has helped. Also I do free sites and submit to LL. I love the traffic and can move it to where I want it to go. Hosting and Domain names are cheap! This is not an overnite get rich business. It takes alot of time and effort and is very very flexible. Good Luck, soggy

2004-01-17, 02:46 PM	#9
bert2000pt Are you sure this is the Sci-Fi Convention? It's full of nerds! Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Europe ( so they say ...) Posts: 260	Hi folks and thank you very much for your comments. I Know I need to go on a paid host and get my own domain but, right now, my biggest problem is to get the surfers to visit my main site. Actually, the site converison is quite good, less than 1:50. provided people do get in there. Anyway, your comments helped a lot and will work to make my promoting sites better and easier to navigate. Once again, thanks everybody Bert

2004-01-17, 08:11 PM	#11
Nickname Stupid risks make life worth living Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 385	Dito on what Dangerdave said, get a domain ($8) get a host($20/m) and then start thinking on building more sites, no need to put in any effort at all on a free host.......the only thing I could ever think to use a free host for now is some auto tgp gallery posting script....but then who am i kidding, you dont need a free host for that either when BW is so ass cheap!!! __________________ bexhag @ gmail.com skype: daniel.berglund1

2004-01-18, 04:13 AM	#12
Sodo Ahhh ... sweet pity. Where would my love life be without it? Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denmark(Europe) Posts: 205	I'd try out flashcash! Dear Newbie, I would suggest you join flashcash they'll help you out! They have a guy called Netpiddler who can really learn you you need to learn and their sites are selling quite well for me and they offer free trials! it's http://www.flashcash.com Kind regards Sodo __________________ - To a new beginning!

2004-01-18, 08:43 AM	#13
Northeu If something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 36	Hi Bert I have to agree with the others. You NEED a paid host. At Your latest gallery You said You had 1700 visitors in 24 hours - thats nothing. TGP traffic is poor and You will go no where with this small traffic. So go get a paid host. Then look at the TGP's and link lists to see how the sites are designed. Then You''ll get and idea. NEVER copy but get ideas. About You avs site: You say Your ratio is 1:50 - I dont understand that. Is the ratio from the visitor on Your front page to signup or is it from the Cyberage stats? Because You entrance page is a bit hard to find and You should put up links on each page to Your entrance page like somebody here said. Also You should try and push the avs more like tell short and with thumbs about all the cool feeds inside. That improved my ratio (not selling cyberage though) Good luck

2004-01-19, 10:34 AM	#14
bert2000pt Are you sure this is the Sci-Fi Convention? It's full of nerds! Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Europe ( so they say ...) Posts: 260	Hello folks First, I would like to say that I never expected to receive so many replies and, most of all, that much good and valuable. To be perfectly honest, I didn't think the free / paid hosting was such a big issue and I thought the free I'm using was rather unobstructive, since it only add one line of text in top of the page. However, some replies made me realize how much distracting that line of text is, making surfers click on it and leaving my sites. So, what are my plans now? Will I give up? Of course not ! I will continue reading this and other similar forums, study any tutorial I can find, and make my sites look as appealing as possible. I particulary enjoyed Marie's excellent series about freesites on PornResource.com and think that is a way to go. From my limited experience and the replies I received I now know I have to do the following: 1 - get a paid host and private domain 2 - Build free sites (a lot of them) linked to my AVS sites or to the sponsors 3 - submit them to link and top list, directories, etc 4 - Build TGPs linking to my AVS sites Hope this will help to increase my conversions and, naturally, give me some money. So, back to the drawing board, for I do have much work to to. Thanks everybody for the extremely valuable input. Will keep posting my results, should anyone be interested Bert

2004-01-19, 08:03 PM	#15
Nickname Stupid risks make life worth living Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Sweden Posts: 385	The important part about getting a paid host and a domain is not by far that the free host takes 20-30% of the traffic it is that you maybe loose 1000% more traffic in no listings cause your on a free host..... also I can give 1 more advice when it comes to tgp gallerys, get partner submit accounts with the tgp's dude, its all about partner accounts......\|rasta\| __________________ bexhag @ gmail.com skype: daniel.berglund1