Ok, so I took *your* advice

[WildHoney]

and have been reading, looking, seeing, vascilating between not understanding at all, to understanding a l'il and have come to this conclusion. My itty bitty site isn't going to be making me much more'n the penny a day I've accrued at Blackstone. Ya'll have pussies, dicks, hot jizz running in rivulets and I don't even have a naked picture. *deep sigh*

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where I would go for support for my site? I'm not even sure it would be considered *adult*, after my go 'round of these message boards, LOL

Anyone?

~signed~
Ok, so I thought I was on to something and I was wrong in Florida

[WildHoney]

P.S. Where might I find free *erotic* black and white images to add to my site? Does anyone know?

[Useless]

Originally Posted by WildHoney

and have been reading, looking, seeing, vascilating...

That would have been very impressive word usage had it been spelled correctly. (I only know that it's incorrect because it couldn't be found when I did a right-click dictionary search.)

I'm not really certain as to what you're asking? Support?

You have a link to GG&Jim on your front page. As sweet as that is, if your site is targeting surfers, I'd suggest putting that link on a webmaster page. On intro.html, move those crappy counters to the bottom of the page. They are traffic leaks and ugly. Also, you shouldn't be able to see SexTracker's line, "DONE WITH SEXTRACKER CLIT CODE -- HAVE A NICE DAY" - so something is amiss with the code.

I navigated to another one of your pages which, annoyingly, opened in a new window. Then some type of ad page faded in to its place. I literally said, "fuck you," out load and closed your site.

[justbondage]

http://www.simplytied.com - This is an artistic bondage website I run, totally non-nude and tasteful, I could get you a mixed gallery of that for your site if you like?

I would have to agree with Useless Warrior, there are lots of changes to be made on your site, best of luck with it though.

[WildHoney]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

That would have been very impressive word usage had it been spelled correctly. (I only know that it's incorrect because it couldn't be found when I did a right-click dictionary search.)

*tosses out the extra l that got missed in the first go 'round* (right-click dictionay search? I don't have that, where'd you get it from?)

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

I'm not really certain as to what you're asking? Support?

Support. I came here, for "support", to learn about adult websites and how to make money off off them, how to improve them, etc. and I seem to be in the wrong place as my site doesn't, indeed, seem to be *adult*. Is there an erotic (if that is what my site is, at this point, I am not even sure) web site Board? (reputable)

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

You have a link to GG&Jim on your front page. As sweet as that is, if your site is targeting surfers, I'd suggest putting that link on a webmaster page.

Have I mentioned I'm seriously new? What's a webmaster page? *starts laughing at my naivety* My site is targeting, hmmm, readers? Faithful readers?

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

On intro.html, move those crappy counters to the bottom of the page. They are traffic leaks and ugly. Also, you shouldn't be able to see SexTracker's line, "DONE WITH SEXTRACKER CLIT CODE -- HAVE A NICE DAY" - so something is amiss with the code.

I've looked and looked and cannot see that line you mention. I can get rid of it, period. If I could access my web sites stats, I wouldn't have added a counter. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

I navigated to another one of your pages which, annoyingly, opened in a new window. Then some type of ad page faded in to its place. I literally said, "fuck you," out load and closed your site.

Yeah. I hate that, too. Another thing I will get rid of as I'm only making a penny a day, using these ads.

So, then, my next question would be. How in the heck do you all make money, as it doesn't seem to be by using advertisers, like I have done.

[justbondage]

How much traffic do you get to your site a day?

[WildHoney]

Originally Posted by justbondage

http://www.simplytied.com - This is an artistic bondage website I run, totally non-nude and tasteful, I could get you a mixed gallery of that for your site if you like?

Thank you, justbondage. I will keep your offer in mind just as soon as I clean up this mess I have made. I'm going off to make some changes now. *S*

[LD]

That's an interesting concept you've got going there, I think. I'm still learning myself, but it seems to me you've got the makings of a pretty good micro-niche blog. Have you looked at blogging?

[WildHoney]

Originally Posted by LusciousDelight

That's an interesting concept you've got going there, I think. I'm still learning myself, but it seems to me you've got the makings of a pretty good micro-niche blog. Have you looked at blogging?

Thank you, LusciousDelight. I had a message board for several years, with these sorts of scenes posted on them, as the folks who visit my chat room like to read them, masturbate to them. The message board, set up by my old chat room partner, was deleted a couple of months ago (I was devestated. Years of scenes gone!) due to the board not allowing the sort of content posted. I set up my own board, through my web host, however, decided to put the scenes on my web site, in case I missed something in the fine print. So, the long answer to your question, is no. I've not looked into blogging, as the blogs I have seen, are owned by *others* such as a company called WordPress and my fear is, I will lose years of scenes again.

[Bill]

You just have to study more.

Most of the people here started out making mistakes. My first site made so little money I never cashed the check.

You've made a few basic mistakes on this first site - but there are ways to repair them, and start making more income.

Will you make a ton of money? Well, thats WAY harder than it used to be. Wether or not you make enough money to be happy depends a lot on your life situation.

Erotic story sites are a challenging niche - but it's also a slightly rare niche, and picking a rare niche and really becoming an expert in it is one of the ways of making a living in this biz.

Just keep studying, keep asking questions, try some experiments, develop your pool of knowledge and experience.

Probably the easiest way to get "free" legal content would be to sign up for a sponsor that provides free content that fits your niche - then use that content to illustrate your stories - and have the content linked with the sales code to your sponsor.

The blog idea is probably a good one.

[T Pat]

I took a quick look at your site and think you would be better off with putting your stories on a blog with a link to your message board.

[walrus]

Originally Posted by T Pat

I took a quick look at your site and think you would be better off with putting your stories on a blog with a link to your message board.

What he said. If your going to be doing erotic stories a blog would be an ideal way to promote it.

As far as monitizing (is that a fucking word?) the site I would think that things like cams, dating, fetish wear, toys might work. (Then again with the way my conversions are I probably shouldn't give any advice)

For content (pictures) you might want to look at sites like Nina Blue. While they are nudes they are done quite tastefully and would fit in an erotic niche. (and as an affiliate you can make more money)

Oh and with Wordpress, you can download a free copy of the script and run it on your own server.

[Pagan]

I am going to echo the nudges towards blogging and story sites. You can use your main site as you have it now -- a hub, and direct people to it via links. My story site has been doing that for years, thanks to links from sites like Persian Kitty.

Blogging has an advantage in that you can use images from various paysite programs to illustrate your stories. You also have the power through software like Wordpress for RSS feeds. People subscribe to these feeds and get notified every time you update. Keeps them coming back for more.

WordPress isn't that hard to learn to use, and has a ton of features for you. You can easily add hard links back to your message board and other areas of your main website.

Will you ever get rich with this stuff? Probably not. Consider it art, and a happy day when it pays all its expenses and then some. Do not ever get discouraged! Whatever direction you go, build clean so that everyone can find your goodies. One small idea would be to turn the background on your link table black so that the text stands out more. Make sure your text is balanced - centered nicely in the cells.

All in all, a lovely unique site, and one that I will be anxious to watch grow.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Bill

...picking a rare niche and really becoming an expert in it is one of the ways of making a living in this biz.

[Ms Naughty]

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I made this site while I was learning about how to make free sites for linklists:
www.beginners.grandmascrotum.com/

It's hideously out of date and perhaps a bit too simplistic for you but it may be vaguely useful.

A few other thoughts:

The whole thing looks really 1999 If you want to have a graphic background, I think it always helps to have a solid, pale colour for your tables where the text is going to be. It just makes it easier for the user to read. And if things are easy, they will stick around and maybe buy. Also, add some margins to your tables. And use any font other than Times New Roman. Blergh.

You need to decide what your site actually is. Is it a health and information site? Or is it an erotic story site? Tailor things to your surfer. Separate out the erotic stories into a proper adult site.

Get rid of those fucking ADBRITE ads. Adbrite have been screwing over adult webmasters for years. You're better off using that space to advertise sponsors.

Need sponsors? I would suggest scrolling up to the top of the GG&J banner, clicking on "Resources" and perusing the list of available sponsors.

Stop your pages from opening in new windows, as Useless said. This means removing target="blank" from your code.

If you want to make a story site you can easily target female surfers and (cue spam) promote ForTheGirls.com. You can then submit the site to 4women linklists like MsNaughty and Karas Links.

With regards to pictures, you can use free content provided by sponsors or you can buy it from content providers. If you just want clipart or illustrative pics you can either search on "free clipart" and perhaps lose half a day or you can visit the Wikipedia Commons and find some public domain pics (usually very old pics).

[Ms Naughty]

I've just had another look at my Beginners site, which I think I last updated in 2004. A lot of things have changed in four years LOL. Plenty of sponsors, content providers, linklists and hosts gone. I've still got links to counters... will have to get rid of that (counters = lost traffic). And I use the plural "search engines" when discussing traffic, as opposed to "Google."

The other thing is, it was heaps easier to be a newbie in 2004. Today... it's uphill work.

[Scroto]

Originally Posted by grandmascrotum

....

cool name man!

[secretagentwilly]

I concur with T Pat...you need a blog or you need to seriously bone up on design...that white lettering on that background is too much for the eyes. You also need a wrapper about your site set to about 800px...I've got a 22 in monitor and it goes the whole length...I just looked at your code and you you've got to many inline styles...you should have one stylesheet and import that into all your pages...it'll be a lot easier to maintain down the road. That's just my opinion. Best of luck to you...give that wordpress a try, there's tons of free plugins and themes for you to start with and build off of.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Scroto

cool name man!

Woman. She's a she. Hence, grandma.

I also agree -- a blogging platform would make your publishing life much easier and make the site simple to navigate for your visitors.

[WildHoney]

Thank you for all the feedback. It's given me a few things to think about (like my lack of skills; margins, hub, balanced?). I need to do more reading on what all these words mean, and sheesh, CSS? I'm not sure how to begin that one. Most of you mention blogging. Is there a blog place that accepts adult content, that *you* would recommend? Again, that's for the input. *S*

[Lemmy]

Originally Posted by WildHoney

Is there a blog place that accepts adult content, that *you* would recommend?

Sure, it's called your own server. Don't rely on free blogging services. There's always a catch. Install WP on your own server, that way you're the boss and you don't have to answer to anyone.

[Useless]

Go to http://opensourcecms.com/ and play with the blog software demos. Most, not all, can be installed without any sort of scripting knowledge. You may need to understand chmod (file permissions) and you will need to know how to add a database on your hosting account.

CSS is one of those things that looks difficult but, once you've learned a little, you wonder why you haven't been using it all along. It really simplifies building and tweaking.

[virgohippy]

I second UW's advice. All of it. Especially about finding an alternative to Wordpress:

http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=48099

[walrus]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

I second UW's advice. All of it. Especially about finding an alternative to Wordpress:

http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=48099

While I'm no longer a fan of WP, I would still recommend a newbie start on that platform. If for no other reason than if they need support (and they will need support) odds are you can find your answers right here on this board.

I started blogging on a different platform and a year and a half later, because the owner of the script and his developmental crew couldn't play nice together, my blogs database got blew to shit because of exploits that were known but had no one to resolve them.

Wordpress has it's problems but it also has a very large following and as a newbie that must be something you consider.

[Ms Naughty]

I'm not sure if jumping straight into a blog is a good idea if you're still not sure how to do margins on tables. I think it does help to be acquainted with the basics of html first, just so it's not completely confusing.

Still, a blog can make things easy. You might want to find a host who can set the whole thing up for you, database and all, so the only things you need to do is decide how to make it look nice.

Another alternative is to signup for one of the free adult blogging services and just start up a separate blog site as an experiment, to get an idea of how the whole thing works. You could try Thumblogger, Sensual Writer, Smut.com blogs by ARS... can't think of others off the top of my head. Don't make it your main site, do it as a throwaway thing so if the service does go bellyup as mentioned above, it won't really matter.