LAID - But not in the good way!

[gnarxy]

I just got laid off from my current place of employment and have been up all night worrying about what to do. I wanted to come to GFY and ask people who I know have their shit together some questions.

It is obvious many of you make a living in this industry and that tells me that there are some very intelligent people on GFY. For every one person who makes a living off of porn there are probably a thousand who have failed.
I myself, have not closed any doors to the possibility that the sky is the limit but I am a realist and this is probably the toughest time in history to secure yourself in the industry. I am however, anticipating and looking ahead and I know for certain I am going to need supplemental income in the near future if I am going to make ends meet.
My initial goal would be to earn $500/month to feel a little bit of a safety net and to have confidence that this industry is a viable way to earn extra money. As of right now I just have two dinky sites that I mainly used as a hobby and to better learn CSS/HTML.

So my question for you Go Fuck Yourselfers; is my goal of $500/month a reasonable one and what do you feel the overhead cost would be on an initial investment? I just wish to run websites and use affiliate programs rather than shoot content or be shot. To keep the cost down I would rather start my own site(s) instead of purchasing existing ones but I am open to feedback on this and have a little bit of savings that I could maybe invest (would be very unnerving).

I guess I will wrap it up for now and look forward to some encouraging words. If you would rather email me I can be reached at: webmaster[at]afdnetwork[dot]com - or leave your ICQ and I can message you. Thanks guys.

[purecharlie]

Originally Posted by gnarxy

For every one person who makes a living off of porn there are probably a thousand who have failed.

Correct

I am a realist and this is probably the toughest time in history to secure yourself in the industry. .

Correct again

is my goal of $500/month a reasonable one.

Yes very reasonable but still not easy. But if you work hard it is certainly achievable.

what do you feel the overhead cost would be on an initial investment?

That's a bit harder to answer as you haven't really said what you are going to be doing. I know you said you didn't want to be spending out too much and if it is a difficult time for you then I wouldn't advise you to spend much either. Making money as an affiliate isn't easy but you could get started nice and cheaply with a few blogs. If you make them good quality, in hot niches and well run, promoting good sponsors then you should do OK for very little outlay.
You would be advised to become a traffic expert very quickly if you want to go the affiliate route. Read and research everything you can about how to generate traffic, how to manage it, how to monetize it and also find out everything you can about SEO. An affiliate who knows nothing about traffic is certainly the one in line at the soup kitchen - so don't be that guy

Good luck my friend!

[Sosa]

$500 a month is very doable. If you want to start up some new sites, I can give you some free hosting for free sites or blogs etc as long as you push our content on the sites. Let me know and we can start getting you setup. If you want to work hard, the money will be there. Let myself and TushyCash help you out!

ICQ - 63877860
E-mail - sosa at tushycash dot com

[gnarxy]

Let's be honest what I really need is money. So should I start my own blogs or should I try and find a paying gig with someone who needs help. I know there is a closed mouth policy in the business to not just lay out the frame work for a successful venture and I understand why.

But, would you recommend I start my own sites or try to find work updating/submitting/cropping thumbs/writing descriptions or any other odds and end jobs that someone might hire me for.

I also considered seeing if anyone could help me one-on-one and kind of act as my coach and mentor to getting me started. I would even offer up half the profits that I made towards a thank you for the tutoring. If anyone thinks that would be fun or something you would like to do that would be amazing.

[purecharlie]

You've got to remember that being successful in this business is the same as any other industry. You wouldn't walk into a courtroom and say "hi, I am a lawyer". You would go through years of studying and exams, then do internships at companies so you could learn the ropes. This business is the same. If you don't know how to to do what you want to, then research it thoroughly and yes, certainly, take jobs doing stuff within the industry which teaches you the ropes. Even basic stuff like cropping thumbnails can teach you stuff like what size thumbnails should be, what they should show, etc . . so yes, getting work from people within the industry is definitely a good idea - might be easier said than done though, but good luck

Definitely start a blog as well though - it doesn't take long and will teach you the basic about links, traffic, content, etc . .

[Lassitor]

There are two types of adult webmasters/adult sites in my humble opinion:
1. Affiliate marketers
2. Content owners

The affiliate marketer does not own any content but rather markets the content for a sales commission. Porn Blogs/reviews and Adult directories tend to dominate in this area as with direct email marketing.

The content owner tries to present a site that is attractive to the visitor to get them excited about wanting to be a member or pay a viewing fee for the content. The owner also wants the affiliate marketers to pick them up to drive traffic to them. The content owner has to present a very well put together website and have content that the visitor really wants to see.

In my humble opinion the real money is in the content owning. But it is not as easy as to find some girl just post photos/video of her on a website. If it was like that, we all be millionaires, right? So you have to have your niche, your angle and your style all worked out...and that takes time and experience....and financial investment. Your girls have to look good and your site has to be attractive; this is something that will cost you some money to get going.

Lastly, I think the biggest and most important part is that YOU personally have to be excited about what you are doing. If you are just doing this for the money then it will show and your sites will be trite and revenue small. You need to have passion for the content and for the direction you are going. As an affiliate, find a partner who you really have passion for, check my sig to see who I have passion for and stick with them.

[gnarxy]

To try and maximize a site with the little money I have to invest into this can you guys give me some feedback with: http://afdnetwork.com

I created that landing page and each one shoots off into its own blog. Do you feel this is a good idea and will work decently if I keep at it and get to creating more posts/categories with rich keyword texts.

[gnarxy]

Originally Posted by Lassitor

The affiliate marketer does not own any content but rather markets the content for a sales commission. Porn Blogs/reviews and Adult directories tend to dominate in this area as with direct email marketing.

Can you explain more about the direct email marketing? Do you get people to sign up for a newsletter or something and then what? Also, what could I use to handle sending out newsletters is phplist the best?

[purecharlie]

Probably not the best but PHPList certainly does the job and is fairly cheap. The issue with direct e-mail marketing is that you have to make sure you manage your lists correctly. Start sending mail out to someone who didn't request it and you will get in hot water very quickly.
"Double opt-in" lists are the best (where the surfer signs up and is then asked to confirm via a link sent to his e-mail). You then also have to give them an easy way to unsubscribe at any time. Done properly you can earn good money at it, but done wrong your ISP will probably terminate your internet connection - lol!

[purecharlie]

Originally Posted by gnarxy

To try and maximize a site with the little money I have to invest into this can you guys give me some feedback with: http://afdnetwork.com

I created that landing page and each one shoots off into its own blog. Do you feel this is a good idea and will work decently if I keep at it and get to creating more posts/categories with rich keyword texts.

I think the blogs are a good idea but not so sure about the landing page. As you said yourself, you are going to be updating the blogs with new posts regularly, but how will the landing page change? It will end up as a fairly static page with little text on it. I couldn't see the purpose of it when all the niches you were promoting were different anyway.
I would concentrate on the blogs themselves - get some better themes for the blogs (there are loads of free ones around) and make them more attractive for the surfer. Pack them out with lots more posts and make it clear the blog updates regularly. To achieve this, look into combining some syndicated RSS feeds with your own hand-written posts to keep the content changing regularly. RSS feeds can be set to automatically update your blog with content from your sponsors - yes search engines don't rank RSS-fed blogs as highly as hand-written blogs, which is why you don't use them exclusively, but rather combine them with your own hand-written posts. Get the feeds to update the blog four times a week and write three posts a week yourself - and voila! - You are updating daily!
Then also work on making the blogs more attractive to the search engines (add the Google Sitemap Generator plugin for example as this is a great SEO tool and submits your changes to Google every time your blog changes). There are also other really useful plugins you can get (such as the Google Analytics or Whassup plugins which will give you great stats on where your surfers come from, what they look at on your blog, etc . . - which in turn will let you know what to concentrate on).
Keep going my friend - you have come a long way since we first spoke on this thread (oh my god, I sound like Yoda! )

[gnarxy]

wow purecharlie you are the best!

What kind of landing page should I have, I never thought of a static one being as bad as you explained it. I am going to google around and try to find a "Double opt-in" mailer that can work in wordpress. I just got the sitemap generator and made one for all of the blogs, thanks for that tip! I also saw other 'essential plugins' and got the SEO one and the Super Cache which will probably be good b/c I am on 10 bucks a month hosting

[purecharlie]

Originally Posted by gnarxy

wow purecharlie you are the best!

Yeah I know - lol!

Why do you need a landing page at all? We are talking about blogs here remember so let the blogs do their thing and don't dilute them with some unnecessary static HTML landing page. Glad you got the plugins installed ok, they should help you a lot. Don't forget the Google Analytics and Wassup plugins as they will give you valuable information as you go forward as to where your visitors come from (in terms of referring sites) and what they look at while they are on your site (i.e. which sort of posts are popular and which are not).
How are you planning on getting traffic to your blogs now they are up and running?

Oh, and one other good tip - make sure you get a decent webcam site and dating site advert on your blogs as they can make you good money.
I promote AWE as my cam site of choice - they are well known, reliable and, most importantly, convert well and pay on time. Check out their affiliate program by clicking here. They have lots of good promo tools which you can put on your blogs too.

[gnarxy]

I just meant if I don't have that landing page what would be right at http://afdnetwork.com since I have just all those sub blogs.. It seems like it would be weird to have it be a blog.. what niche would it be and why wouldn't those posts just be in the sub blog.. thats the only reason i had that landing page.

[purecharlie]

Who says you need anything at http://afdnetwork.com? It's not exactly a fantastic domain name anyway. However, you've already got it set up so just leave it as it is - just promote the blogs rather than the landing page.

[a4ever]

Great Thread!

[gnarxy]

Do you think people will not trade links with me b/c the blogs are not on the main domain? but are like: http://afdnetwork.com/teens/

How does this affect SEO?

[purecharlie]

There are SEO experts on here who know far more than me, but my understanding (and therefore what I have always stuck to) is that you should try to get a new domain name and IP address for each site / blog you have. Please note this does NOT mean you need separate hosting packages for each site - a lot of hosting companies (Phatservers for example) offer separate IP addresses for separate domains within the same hosting package so it won't cost you more than a nominal $1 / month extra for each IP. A domain name is about $10 max to buy so at those prices why would you not have a separate domain and IP for each site? That way you know you are set up correctly and won't have any issues with trading links or SEO.

[gnarxy]

yeah.. it is sad but I can't really drop 50-100 bucks on different domains right now... ugh I hate my situation.. Oh well.. C'est la vie!

[gnarxy]

Sorry, have another question. I love the RSS feed idea you had so I get fresh content.. But what if the format of the RSS doesn't fit my layout? You can't edit how it is displayed can you? Also, you don't get hit with dupe content penalty I assume?

Also... Can you control in Wordpress on which days to post up an RSS post?

Thanks!

[purecharlie]

ah young padawan, so many questions :-)

an RSS feed is basically just a stream of data - it is the software you use to display it which decides how it is laid out. A lot of the time people use Wordpress and there are lots of things you can do to customize the way the feed looks. Once you have the RSS feed syndicated into your blog, go into the Syndication settings for that feed and change what you want.

Make sure you ONLY use morphing RSS feeds - then your posts won't be the same as anyone elses and you won't have to worry about duplicate content penalties.

Again, in the wordpress syndication settings for that particular feed you can set whether to use the original posting date (i.e. when it was posted to the feed by its author) OR if you want to use the syndication date (i.e. the date it goes live on your blog).


?[Luke:] I can?t believe it. [Yoda:] That is why you fail.?

[lost&found]

some good advice here man, pay attention! Learn how to bring in traffic to your sites, and then learn how to bring in 'quality traffic'. These are 2 very different things!

[purecharlie]

very true lost&found - any idiot can generate traffic, but traffic that converts - that's a different matter

[gnarxy]

How do I tell if it is a 'morphing' RSS feed? I am currently looking at the playboy webmasters RSS feed for the first one to get setup but dont' see anything about 'morphing' is there a way to tell by looking at the feed?

[purecharlie]

I am not a Playboy affiliate so can't see inside their webmaster area at how they are doing their feeds - and nothing in their standard pages on the www.playboywebmasters.com site mentioned RSS feeds (I only had a quick look though). I would suggest you contact them and ask them - Playboy's affiliate managers' ICQ details are listed on their contact page. To be honest, for a company like Playboy it would really surprise me if there feeds didn't morph - but just hit up Rene or Brett on ICQ and they will be able to tell you.

[gnarxy]

Does 'morphing RSS' just mean I can edit them?

[fatfoo]

Got laid off from employment. That's unfortunate, gnarxy. This online porn industry is very volatile. I have felt it myself. One day you're making $200/day, another day you're making $1/day.

[purecharlie]

Originally Posted by gnarxy

Does 'morphing RSS' just mean I can edit them?

No it doesn't mean that but yes you can edit the posts - lol! Even more confused now? OK, let me explain . . .
Morphing RSS Feeds are feeds that change depending on the affiliate code entered into the feed address. For example, take a look at my PureCFNM feed here:-
http://purecfnm.com/blog/feed/?id=1728132
If you type that into a web browser you will see the feed. Now change the final 7 digit number to something different and hit refresh - voila, the picture, title and text of all the posts changes (because by changing the number at the end, the feed sees you as a different affiliate and gives you a "morphed" version of all the posts). This way no two affiliates get the same post.
OK, that explains what morphing is, now onto your question about editing them. Firstly, why would you want to edit them? The whole idea of using morphing feeds is that it can automate your blogs with fresh, new content on a regular basis without your input. Having said that, all the feeds are is a way of pulling in content so if you did really want to change the posts you can. All the feed will do is pull in the data and display it according to the settings in your syndicated RSS Feeds set up. You can set it up that none of the posts go live before you approve them, or you can let them go live automatically but you can still go into the posts themselves and edit them at any time. It's very flexible really. Next question padawan?

[Tease4Cash]

Originally Posted by gnarxy

yeah.. it is sad but I can't really drop 50-100 bucks on different domains right now... ugh I hate my situation.. Oh well.. C'est la vie!

if you can't afford spending 50-100 bucks then you should get a job and wait on starting a website because it usualy takes months until you see any penny back ... and you need to spend lots of time and money. What I recommend is looking for a good sponsor, signup as an affiliate and try to promote it. Niches that makes money, good money are smaller ones like fetishes, solo girls sites, non nudes, hairy pussies ... and so on..

[brassmonkey]

ouch that sucks

[nismonotmugen]

yeah i'd try to get a part time. i working one at a retail store and going to school, while trying to start up a site. shits pretty hard when you're trying to learn as you go with no help.