April's Coming!
  Written By Raven

I have a great deal of admiration for newbies. Back in the day, when I first started, I would not have shown my work to anyone. I was well insulated. The small circle of people who saw my worked laughed. Loudly, at times. Considering what my initial sites looked like, who can blame them?

The one constant thing I had going for me was encouragement to make the site go live, no matter how unmarketable it was. My mentors knew, with certainty, that my site was terrible. My images were at least 50k or larger. They were blurry and out of proportion. My text was huge. I used colour combinations guaranteed to make the surfer go blind, not buy.

I never went to message boards. I was told they weren't important. I didn't attend webmaster conferences. I was told they were a waste of time. For three years, I sat at my desk, well protected and losing out. I would have benefited greatly, had I put my site up on a board. I'm quite sure my ego would have taken a beating. The sting of a veteran's comments can be very hard to swallow.

Over the years, I've become part of the online webmaster community. It's never too late to join. I've learned so much by reading the articles, attending the chats, going to conferences. In Vegas, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine from the boards. I wasn't looking to learn anything. Not really. It was so cool meeting him. I was just enjoying the repartee, putting a face to the name. Even still, over coffee, he said something that made me sit up and listen. I learned something that was missing from my education. Another friend of mine in Chicago said something about traffic that has stuck with me. That's how I gain experience. By doing and by listening to little snippets of information that are priceless. Especially if you learn to read between the lines. I make it a point to visit the boards and read articles. There is always something to learn, as the Internet changes with scary frequency.

When a webmaster posts a site to be looked at, there will surely be comments made about how terrible it is. This is as it should be. I've not seen any 'first' site that was marketable for the adult industry. Folks who have been in mainstream marketing have found this out the hard way. The rules are bent for adult. Nothing is carved in stone, although there are some basics to learn. We all came from various walks of life. Most of us were not used car sales people. I came from a medical background. It took a while for me to figure out that selling someone on the concept of emotional health is not very different than marketing porn. I call it positive manipulation. It's a way of convincing someone to need and want that which you're selling, thereby getting them to part with money. They get something. I get something. Everyone's satisfied.

Here's the deal. When I'm helping a newbie, I don't want to give it all away. Not because I'm keeping this deep, dark secret. Not because I'm afraid the new webmaster is going to steal my site, my traffic, my hard earned knowledge. I want the new webmaster to read and think. It's not that I'm holding back because I'm afraid the new webmaster is going to take away from me. There's plenty of room for all of us. We are all in business for ourselves. We are our own competition. This is one of the very few industries where we help others get started. Every new webmaster entering this business today wants a piece of the pie. My pie. I have no problem giving out information that may help a rookie get started on the journey of making money. If I tell it all, no one learns anything. Giving advice is one thing. Doing is the only way. The burnt hand teaches best.

There are so many ways to earn money on the Internet. My way is not the highway. I've seen sites do well that break every marketing 'rule' in the book. Conversely, there are sites I think should have kicked ass that didn't. No one really knows what the surfer wants. The surfer doesn't know. It's our job to make him want what we're selling. Just like the car with the sexy girl. We're marketing a fantasy. It's not as if the buyer is really going to get the car AND the girl. It's the notion, that if he buys this car, he MIGHT get the girl. It puts an idea into his head of a possibility that didn't exist before he owned that particular car. Learning how to manipulate a surfer's head is a hard job. For some, it's impossible.

Over the years, I've begun to realise a few things. I do no one any favours by coddling their egos. While it is awesome that you tackled FTP and Photo Shop and Dream Weaver, if your site sucks, it sucks. The opinions of others might burn for a little while. In the end, the truth about why your site sucks is more conducive to your success than salving your pride.

Telling someone to start out with free hosting and free content, in my opinion, is not correct. I won't insult anyone's intelligence by suggesting or supporting a newbie's desire to enter this industry without spending a dime. It sets up a dangerous mind set, in my opinion. Without a certain amount of risk, there is no motivation to succeed. Many of the newbies I meet are people who want to leave their mainstream jobs and do this full time. Others are one step away from the streets.

The cost of hosting, domains and content is a small cost, as an initiation to something that can be built into an empire and a full time career. Everyone's heard the old adage that you have to spend money to make money. It's true. No one ever got rich taking no risks. When I hear someone saying they're going to start out with sponsor content and free hosts, I know they've just made the battle that much harder for themselves. With a little bit of investment, the time spent learning has greater value. That first sale becomes more significant because now you're in business. You've put money out to make money back. It's an incentive to invest more to make more.

What you give up on a free host is valuable advertising space. Your site has no flow, no balance, and less marketability. Your free host has already set the design and the flavour of your web site. The header and footer of a free host clash with whatever design you try. It stands out like a sore thumb, as it is meant to do. Traffic generated is likely to click on the free host's banners. When you use sponsor content, you're taking time to build a feeder or gallery, using content that is saturated before the ink dries on your site. Link lists and TGP's will only accept a certain amount of sponsor content. Unless you know the reviewer's habits personally, you don't know where you are on the list. Once the reviewer hits the cut off, that's it. All that time you've spent building your site and it's getting rejected. This is not to say there aren't other reasons for being rejected; but, why give the reviewer another reason to reject.

It is here I have to say, that, I am not against free hosts and sponsor content. I think, for the experienced webmaster, they are fantastic. Experience teaches us how to utilise free stuff; but, only after we've learned how to market, how to sell, how to make money. There is enough to learn about selling, without handicapping your chances by making money for someone else.

I have nothing much to say to the hobbyists who are doing this for beer and cigs. Since they aren't seriously looking for a full time job in this industry, I see them as the 'clutterers'. The Internet is filled with people who throw sites into the mix with no thought of making serious money. I'm sure these people have their place in the Universal sense of things; but, my time is devoted to those who really want to stay home to make a living, live in their jammies and be independent.

When offering up a first site, it seems like a white knuckle ride in a turbulent storm. Awaiting the comments from those who have passed this way before must be nerve grating. Knowing the comments are not going to be filled with accolades fills the newbie with a fearful pain in the gut. Yet, I watch those who want to wear the webmaster title, upload a link to their brand new site, with all of its flaws. And, I'm filled with admiration.