I say that pretty often. But, what do I mean? I mean, don’t be a sheep. Don’t do what others are doing. Come up with your own ideas, your own take on things.

Look at the sites in your niche of choice. If you’ve listened to me and done your homework, you know what surfers are looking for. Is it out there for your niche? If not, can you do it? Can you find the content or create it? Can you offer the surfers something no one else or few else do?

I put up my first blog in April, 2004. The blog craze took off last year, no? I thought outside the box, created a blog (not a splog) and to this day I still post in it. It’s part personal, part business as I talk about the sites I’ve updated. A few thousand people a day visit the site where I promote all my own projects. It has good search engine rankings, too. But I did something very few were doing and where did I get the idea? Hell, it wasn’t original, but I saw a few people doing Live Journal web logs and thought it would be cool to have one where I could update my surfers on what was going on.

Tube sites are all the rage, whether they are legal or not. Do I have one? Hell no. A few years ago I put up sites where I give away free movies but they aren’t full movies, they are from the sponsors. It’s not a new idea. MGPs have been around forever! But now they have become interactive, people can upload, and now they call them tube sites. I certainly would never, ever allow anyone to upload something to MY servers! Are you wacko??? People will upload viruses, trojans, exploits, root kits, copyrighted content, child pr0n and more.

Everyone is pushing adult dating sites but I push a lot of my own mainstream dating sites. One gets signups every day and has more than 3,200 active members. I’m an affiliate but make 55% of each sale. The search engines seem to love several of the sites. I also am able to create an entrance page where I can put Google Ad Sense ads and it’s allowed by their terms, since there is absolutely nothing sexual on the page at all! This way I get income from both the signups as well as Google.

Review sites were big last year. Mine went up in April, 2003. I didn’t jump on the bandwagon when everyone else began doing them last year. Of course, most dropped the idea once they realized you needed a good strong custom-coded script with frequent updates, plus you had to pay a reviewer to write for you or you’d burn out quickly. Review sites are simply another form of marketing. I now have many of them and am always adding new ones.

This can be controversial but I’m not known for not giving my opinions!

Some will tell you to get a free webhost. First, nothing in this life is free. If you use a free host for galleries, they will generally add a banner at the top — and sometimes bottom — of the pages you submit. So, you are in effect giving away your traffic as surfers do tend to click on the first thing they see at the top of the page.

If you use a free host for blogs, there is generally a link at the top of the page to a dating or cam site. Again, you are giving away your traffic.

Webhosts are not expensive these days. You don’t need a dedicated server when you first begin. You can get something simple like a shared virtual account at A1 Web Solutions for under $7 a month (I am not being paid to mention these hosts). C’mon, seven bucks a month — you probably spend that in a day or two at McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts.

My theory is it takes money to make money. Invest a little and you can make a lot. Go the free route and you can make very little.

What you need to remember when seeking a webhost is to do your research. Read the various adult forums and the webhosting forums and see what is said. I’m sure there are hosts that charge less than seven bucks a month, but you get what you pay for.

Your web host is the one who keeps your website online. Don’t you want your site up 24/7? Don’t you want a host who monitors your server, upgrades the software that runs the host, etc? Don’t you want a host who knows about server load?

Let’s say a host has 100 webmaster accounts on one box. And, one of those has a huge site. Using all that bandwidth and resources will slow down YOUR sites. A proper host will see that and move the big user to another box so as to not affect his other customers.

Back in 1996 I was co-locating and the fee was $1,000 a month plus $12.50 a gig of bandwidth. I heard of a “free” host so asked about it. My current host gave me advice that was just SO correct — something to the effect of, “Pam, yes, you get free bandwidth, but here is how it works. It’s like showing you a one-million gallon tank of gas and telling you that you can have all you want. The only issue is you have to remove it with a cocktail straw.”

In other words, the ‘free’ host will have people abusing the system, using massive amounts of bandwidth, leaving your site to load slowly if it loads at all, Apache (software that runs servers) locking up due to overload, etc.

If you want to use a free webhost for your first blogs, should you decide to work in the splog realm, that’s fine, but just remember you are giving away that precious traffic and sales. For $7 or less a month you can find a decent host and not give away anything.

Be sure to check your host’s 404* pages. I signed up with a host one time and even with a dedicated server, they would hijack all my 404 pages with their own pages, which was a 14-page popup chain. They are, in effect, stealing your traffic that way.

Once you have a lot of websites and/or a lot of traffic, you may want to consider going to a managed dedicated server. I use Phatservers and have been with them for a few years and am very, very happy. Managed is important, unless you are intimately familiar with upgrading and updating software like *nix, Apache, PHP, SendMail, DNS, etc. I went with an unmanaged server once and had to hire a friend to help me with issues. He installed the firewall for me which is pretty much standard with a managed server. He upgraded my software and monitored the server for me. In the end it cost just as much.

If you plan to skimp to save money in this business, then you probably should not be in the business, but of all the things where you can save a buck or two, hosting should be the last thing you consider skimping on.

*404 is the http response number when a webpage can not be found.

I certainly am asked this question a lot. PPS (pay per sale) or rev share — which is best?

For me, it’s dependent on the sponsor and their site. I look at the site with a very critical eye as a horny surfer. What does the tour promise? When I go to join, are there pre-checked cross sales*? When I look at the members’ area, is there enough content to justify the monthly cost? Will they update often? Is the content exclusive or oversaturated? Are there too many upsells?

Let’s face it, some sites positively suck! The content is poor, not often updated, oversaturated or off-niche. The odds are people will sign up and not return. In cases like that, I want PPS only.

When a site is on target for the niche, updates often and is done right, I go for rev share.

One example of a sponsor that will make you a whole lot of money is ATK. I promote the ATK NATURAL & HAIRY site but they also offer ATK Exotics, ATK Galleria and ATK Premium.

Now, what that shows is some of my rebills have gone on past 4 years with ATK. So, from each signup I’ve made well in excess of $700 and it just keeps going.

My top 3 hairy/hirsute sponsors are all rev share, and it’s not by choice — it’s all they offer — FORTUNATELY! As a newbie I may have chosen pay per sale without thinking!

* More on that in another article soon.

Search engines are your friend. Do as many searches as you can for surfer forums, chat forums, discussion forums, discussion boards — whatever words you want — in the niche you want to promote.

There are a lot of sponsors who promote their own crap this way, so try to avoid and ignore their posts. Look at what the surfers say about galleries and photos. I can’t stress this enough.

I have one customer who calls me just about every month, and has for 10 years. Back about 10 years ago he bought my video and when he called to tell me he loved it, he said, “for your next video, how about white panties with dark hair poking out of the sides.” I filed his comment away and when it was time to produce my next video, made sure I included that in several parts of the movie. I can not tell you how many people emailed or called to tell me how much they loved THAT particular part!! If I had not listened to this guy and incorporated his fantasy into my video, I’d never have known it. Now, if he said he liked 4 midgets fisting a hairy ass, I’d have passed, thank you.

READ what surfers say. They will often make “spot on” suggestions, as the British would say. They tell you how they’d like to see a model posed, or in what outfit, etc. If you don’t do your own content, try to find a set with that type of photo, or find a photographer who will shoot a few sets focusing on what YOU want.

Give the surfers what they want. READ what they say on surfer forums. If you allow posts on your blogs, READ what the surfers say. Many may make stupid comments but there will often be a real gem hidden in there.

Lastly, go to the large TGPs and study. The top spots on most are paid spots. People pay in excess of a thousand dollars for some spots. Obviously they are making that back and then some if they can continually buy those spots. Some are sponsor spots but click the links and look at the galleries. Check the photos and READ the text they use.

You can keep building and adding more blogs/splogs, but if you suck at promotion and don’t have a clue on how to market your niche, you’ll just end up back at Netpond, complaining that you put all this work into your blogs and keep adding more, and are making enough for a Happy Meal each week.

Do one site and do it extremely well. LEARN the niche. Get the traffic built up, the SERPS up there, and the sales going. Then it’s time to replicate that success on more sites.

Once you learn it and it works, don’t stop.

Often, people don’t know what niche to promote, and I always say promote the one you know best and/or turns you on as you’ll do best at that one.

Let me go a few steps further. Know what your SURFERS want. Learn all you can about the niche and why people like it. How? Well, you can do online research. Visit porn sites dedicated to the niche you’re interested in. Find surfer forums (this is the best way to learn) and read what people say. Obviously not every surfer likes the same thing for the same reasons, but you can learn a lot.

Now, let me give you an example. Say you decide to promote BBWs, since you yourself like fat chicks. Start going to the various groups (Yahoo, Google, MySpace, AFF) and read what people say. Create a bogus persona and ask why they like fat chicks. Interact as if you’re just a horny surfer. Most likely, you’ll hear that they like BBWs as they generally have bigger boobs, there is more to love, they like the way they jiggle, they like something to hang onto, or they just find them beautiful. The latter is important. Why?

HOW you promote your site and how you refer to the women is what sells the site. If you refer to the women in a degrading manner and do the same for the men, chances are you won’t be making much cash.

“We have the fattest whales you’ll ever see.” “These fat c*nts are disgusting to look at but love to fuck.” “Like to fuck an elephant?” “Look at these desperate men fucking these pigs.”

You probably laughed when reading that, but if you loved fat chicks since to YOU they were beautiful, would YOU want to join a site that called you desperate, referred to them as animals (a little too bestial for some men), or degraded them so severely?

If you wouldn’t, why would your surfers?

You won’t learn everything overnight. Research can take months. But in the end, it’s well worth it.

Disclaimer: What works for me may not work for you. Also, VOD is for long-term income. If you want instant cash from sales, don’t bother reading this. If you have a very very low traffic site, this may not be for you at this time.

I’m going to show you how to earn long-term income with AEBN. VOD (Video On Demand) is hugely popular. It’s a way to get surfers to come to your site to see movies and not go to torrents and tube sites.

Now, let’s talk about stats.

In the first month of advertising, my stats were

03/2003 9
this means I had 9 members sign up

I now have 8,000+ members.

That first month I made $26.92. I make a minimum of 4 figures a month now and each month that increases. I expect to be in the five figure range within a year or so.

What I first do, for blogs, is offer a free movie of the day. I put this at the top of my sidebar. AEBN has this for niches and fetishes, and it costs you nothing. Make sure you have a big bookmark tag on your site so people can return each day to watch the movie and look at your website.

Then, depending on my site and niche, I offer a freebie.

Looking at my stats, for one website

587 587 18 $329.51

587 people clicked on the link and got a link for their freebie and 587 (all of them) got their freebie. Of those, 18 people bought more time and so far this month it has earned me $329.51 from this single site. I did nothing but put up the link.You can offer them many freebies, from

Pay-per-view Minutes
10 Minutes
15 Minutes
30 Minutes

Streaming Rental
1 Free Rental

Download
1 Download
1 Download To Own

My text usually says something like “AS A THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY SITE, YOU CAN GET 15 FREE MINUTES OF (niche) MOVIE VIEWING AT NO COST. NO obligation at all, I promise. Just click the link, enter your email address and you will receive 15 free minutes of movie viewing. You can watch a movie in any niche you want, too! What are you waiting for?”

I mix this up and change it out from the free 15-minute promo to a free download — “for today only you can download ONE FREE MOVIE at no cost!”

Ok, so now you give them free time and a free movie viewing, but you check your stats and see you made $12. Do you give up? NO NO NO. VOD is long-term, meaning this month you make $12 but in a year you could be earning 10 times that. Every member you sign up theoretically will return to buy time and see more movies.

Niche traffic works best for this, of course. Customize your text to your traffic, since you know your traffic.

I also have a theatre that’s been up since 2003. I had a design made that beats every design I have ever seen. I have links out there for my theatre but I honestly don’t push it much. SE traffic helps a lot, links on blogs, etc. I have a dozen theatres but this one does the best for me.

Theatres are available at no cost and you can brand them with your own
logo at the top.

Again, this is long-term income. You won’t make $35 per member for each signup like you do short term. Long term, however, you can and will make much, much more. As one webmaster said, he still gets checks every month from links he put up 3-4 years ago and forgot about.

My referral code is in this post. Sign up under me. I will not know who has signed up under me or how much you make, however. With some sponsors I can see your name and how much you earn if I refer you but AEBN does not show that. I will see a total $ amount for all referrals, so your info is safe.

Try it and give it a few months. What do you have to lose?