educational

Adult Webmastering Basics: Part 7: Content

Surfers don't drop by your web site to admire the masterful design or the skillful placement of your sponsored banner ads. They come for your content, and stay for the updates. The challenge of content lies in striking a balance between quality, freshness, and an capital outlay. Several methods of procuring this material provide adult webmasters with the ability to find a mix they're comfortable with.

Sponsor Programs ("Free Content")
The least expensive and possibly quickest method of populating a site with content is by taking advantage of a sponsor program's offerings. This type of material is generally given without charge to webmasters choosing to promote a specific program. In exchange for this content, the webmaster places a banner ad or text link back to the sponsor's pages in the hopes that this will generate a paying user. These sign ups also provide revenue to the webmaster in the form of commission checks.

If grabbing free content from sponsor programs is so easy, everyone would do it, right? That's the problem. The pictures, videos, stories and sound files these programs distribute are so widely utilized, surfers are exposed to the same tired offerings on every site they visit. With a little bit of work, however, webmasters can keep their sites from getting stale by continually searching out new programs and fresh content from existing sponsors. It's a daily battle, but winning it rewards the webmaster with free, fresh, and quality content.

Bundled Packages
In an effort to monetize sets which are either growing old or haven't sold well in the past, content providers offer package deals on a large number of pictures for a low price. These deals allow a webmaster to populate a sizeable member's section with relatively small expenses. When choosing a package deal, look for bundles that include a narrow scope of sets specific to your niche. If you're running an Asian site, 100 sets won't do you any good if 80 of them don't include Asian models.

Content a la Carte
Most content providers will sell a single set (or even single pictures) for a fixed licensing price. This method of purchase allows the webmaster to focus on exactly what is needed, instead of being saddled with a wide variety of sets that will sit unused on a CD-ROM. This type of sale includes anything from pre-shot sets of specific models and themes to custom content produced specifically for you and your audience. Custom content is the priciest option, but provides the advantage of unique offerings. This exclusivity is especially important if other webmasters are promoting your sites as well.

Staying Out of Jail
In the U.S. especially, Federal, State, and local laws are a confusing mess of twisted statutes and subjective interpretations. Complying with these regulations can mean the difference between running an adult enterprise from your home or running a cigarette smuggling operation from cellblock 6. Your chief concerns should be complying with 2257 requirements and keeping minors out of your explicit areas. Consulting a legal expert is the only safe method of ensuring your compliance in these areas, but many XBiz articles and sources on Google can give you a step or two in the right direction. At the very least, your content provider should be handing you documents that allow you to meet the current legal standards. If they aren't, you would do well to shop elsewhere.

Keeping Things Fresh
If, week after week, you saw the same programs on your television, how long would you keep paying for cable service? Your users are going to feel the same way if you don't bother to keep your member's section updated with new content. This means constantly planning ahead to provide quality offerings in a timely manner. Common sense goes a long way in this area, as does looking at your site from a member's perspective. If you're planning on a month-long vacation, make sure someone is updating the content. If your users signed up for video, don't expect them to be happy with picture updates. Put yourself in their shoes, and make your decisions from that vantage point.

Plug-ins provide an easy method of keeping sites updated. These services deliver a constant update of pictures, videos, or any other type of content you require. Typically, a user is passed from your site to a server residing on the plug-in company's network. The surfer is then provided with fresh content, and you are billed monthly for access plus a usage charge per gigabyte. This method may be more expensive in the short term, but the ease of keeping your members happy pays off over time.

Picasso, Move Over!
Next week, we’ll look at the layout and design of a successful adult site, and the options available for getting it implemented. We will explore the “do it yourself” approach of getting out a graphics program and an HTML editor, as opposed to hiring a design specialist to complete your layout.

Stay tuned for more!

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