New Life, Old Board

The first adult webmaster board I joined was AmateurMasters. It was populated by people with business models like my own (or maybe my business model was patterned after those of the people posting there): independent, homemade paysites run by the girls or couples themselves.

Over the years the board has slowed down a lot and had its share of controversies, but I'm still "attached" to it and would love to see it become more active with people who run indie sites and/or understand them. Brett and Sammy are taking steps to revitalize it and I have my first mod job there so I'm excited to see what happens and hope to see more people and posts there soon.

Some Stats

Looks like the new TastyTrixie MILF tour is converting nicely. The ratio for one hosiery site featuring a stockings gallery with a banner sending clicks to the MILF doorway has this ratio: 1:180.3 (those are raw clicks). From what I could tell yesterday we're losing less traffic on the front page with the new tour(s) than with the old tour, so that's good news too.

Delia is performing sweetly through a new review site at 1:175.5, and 1:324 on a larger review site.

I'm not the type of person to spend hours poring over stats (not because I don't think it's important or interesting, but just because I don't have time and there are other things I enjoy doing more, like watching COPS and eating ding dongs), but I'll try to post more on the subject regularly for those of you who like that type of thing.

iProtecting our Affiliates - OOPS!

Woops -- I only set up one username for affiliates to access our promo content and totally forgot that iProtect would block all of us after we all started coming at it from different ip adresses. I just called and wrote to NakedHosting though so it should be accessible to everyone (who has the password) again soon.

Speaking of calling NH, I always feel like a dork when I call. Not because they make me feel like a dork, but because I lack social skills and *hate* talking on the phone, so I completely ignore the fact that I recognize Kacy's voice (and that I've woken her up, it sounds like) and just try to verbalize my problem with absolutely no social niceties offered by me whatsoever. I probably sound like a total asshole because I don't say hi, I just sound like I have a corn cob up my ass as I struggle to get to the point. And the point is always something like, "help me, PLEASE!!" but I try to tone it down a bit so that instead of whining and begging, I sort of sound like I'm stammering in the most casual way I can muster.

I . . . uhhhh . . . set up password protection for our promo content -- err -- well, YOU GUYS set it up for me (hehe) and well I just sent out a big affiliate newsletter but ummm. . . iProtect is blocking all of them from accessing it because we only set up one username so . . .

Yeah. But they never make me feel like an ass, and I love them for it.

I think part of my bizarre phone behavior with them stems from the fact that I'm getting 24/7 customer service so I can call them at this time of night (midnight) and talk to someone. This is very cool. The *strange* part is that it feels sort of invasive because I'm not calling some giant company and I am almost positive that I'm waking someone up (because I live on the west coast and pretty much *always* call late at night when I do call). It feels like I'm doing something naughty for some reason which only makes me act like more of an odd duck.

New Tours

I finally finished a new tour for TastyTrixie.com replacing this old one with this new one, plus a bunch of niche-targeted tours: busty, leggy, panties, and milf-type. I might also add a chubby/curvy tour, a foot tour, and a bitchy/funny tour.

Of course, I'm never satisfied with my tours and kind of hate making them. On the other hand I'm afraid to hire someone else to do them for fear they'll look too corporate or I'll have to do so much of the hard work myself anyway that I may as well just do it myself. It's also a matter of liking the obviousness that I did them myself and they don't look like anyone else's tours, but I guess none of that matters if they don't convert. But the MAIN reason I don't hire people to do design for us is that we just can't afford to right now.

The best (and possibly worst) thing about the new tours are the .mp3 voice introductions; they don't play automatically (I would never bombard our surfers with unsolicited noise) but I think they provide an instant connection with the surfer who does choose to listen to my voice. It establishes the kind of intimacy and authenticity that non-indie sites can rarely successfully fake. Plus I've only once heard this kind of audio on ONE other solo girl site tour (which has since been replaced by an obnoxious voice-free flash tour) -- I have, of course, seen a few stilted video welcomes that always look and sound totally scripted, stiff, and staged; I always feel so awkward watching those.

While I'm on the subject, I felt pretty awkward recording the voice intros and listening to them. I think everyone hates listening to their own voice, and I overestimated my comfort level with it. I enjoy babbling, but I got serious performance anxiety trying to record a vocal "first impression". I didn't want them to sound too "sexy" and fake but I also didn't want them to sound too harsh and nerdy. I've no idea how they will go over with the average joe, but I wanted to try it anyway. I was inspired to add the .mp3's by the podcasting craze along with the knowledge that I don't have enough flattering pics of me smiling to really draw people in when they first arrive at my site. I'm hoping my voice adds the kind of interest and attraction that my photos might not and establishes a connection with the kind of people who really like personality sites.

I know that some affiliates probably cringe when they say I'm HOPING my tours work. I can hear the murmuring now: Haven't you tested your tours to make sure they convert before unveiling them to your affiliates??

Hell no, I haven't tested my tours. If I had that kind of time and traffic to dick around with I might not need affiliates. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why webmasters would prefer to send their traffic to tours with proven conversion ratios. Unfortunately we just don't have the resources (aka money) at this point to do all of the things big programs are able to do.

If any affiliates want an entry page made WITHOUT the voice intro, let me know. Also if anyone wants to select a different point of entry for people clicking from the hosted galleries, I can duplicate them for you and have them go to a different tour or entry page (or straight to join if you like).

Please do let me know if you see anything that's messed up or have ideas for improvement. I do VERY MUCH appreciate suggestions and helpful criticism of our "tools" and such. It may not seem like it since I'm not usually able to act on suggestions right away, but I love hearing any information and insight you're willing to share with us.

Good Examples

Here are some really good galleries showcasing Delia built by PornSiteReport's GobGook:

Delia, Sexy Leggy Crossdresser Beauty!
Fuschia Bra & Panties
Sheer Pajamas

I've been meaning to post links to galleries I like that have been built by our affiliates so I can provide some examples to other people who are a little unsure how to showcase and market us, so I'll try to do this more often.

GobGook also wrote a great thorough review of DeliaCD here and she was also recently reviewed by The Best Porn. These are perfect examples of how to write reviews of non-mainstream content that may not appeal to everyone. It's more effective to let surfers decide for themselves whether or not they find models attractive and focus the review on describing what a membership to their site will provide in terms of content and features than it is to spend the entire review protesting that you don't like trannies or chubby girls or whatever.

Of course, I do think it's fair when reviewing sites featuring multiple models to provide some kind of idea of the qualities of the models that aren't featured in the tours (too much makeup, too much silicone, too skinny, or even that they aren't attractive by conventional standards). There's a balance review sites have to strike, and the good ones know how to do it. The bad ones rely on making fun of things they don't understand and wind up really limiting their sales, I think, because they only seem to be able to provide information that people could have gleaned themselves by looking at the free area. If the surfer actually LIKES what they see but then reads the reviewer mocking what they like, the reviewer may as well be mocking and insulting the surfer. Not a really good way to engender loyalty to your site and probably not a good way to make sales. I'm not suggesting reviewers rave about content they don't like or withhold negative information about sites, just that sometimes they're unnecessarily negative about all the wrong things. Know what I mean?

Another NATS vs. CCBill Thread

Ahhhh, the age-old question discussed again here: GG&Jim's - Affiliate program growth. I like that this time the discussion is looked at more from the sponsor/site owner perspective than the affiliate viewpoint. As usual, Emma's remarks resonate with me.

I'm pretty happy with CCBill and appreciate the built-in trust that comes with processing through them. Also, I never want to make our affiliates go through that whole annoying transition of having to signup for our program again so it's not really something I have a desire to do. I don't feel the need to look all slick and swishy.

A Call from GoDaddy

I see a surprising amount of complaints on adult webmaster boards about GoDaddy and frankly, I think they're unwarranted. It's like when I read complaints about ClickCash -- I pretty much assume the complainer did something wrong themselves and is trying to shift the blame to the company for why his account was terminated when he knows damn well that the fault rests on his own shoulders.

I've never had a single problem with GoDaddy in the past five years. Not one problem. NOT ONE SINGLE ONE. And I have quite a slew of domains. In fact, I have gotten nothing but awesome service from them which only seems to get better.

I'm the kind of person who HATES getting phone calls, and especially hates getting phone calls IN THE MORNING, but when a "Customer Appreciation Specialist" from GoDaddy called me at nine AM on Thursday to see if I wanted to bulk renew a bunch of domains coming up for renewal so I could get a better deal, I though it was pretty nice. They were already on auto-renew so it's not like they were trying to convince me to buy domains I'd already dropped. It makes me feel like a rock star to be treated so nicely for a product that is really so damned cheap. And the frugal bitch in me really appreciates the quantity prices.

So . . . the GoDaddy haters' claims are totally suspect to me (as are many of the things I see adult web"masters" bitching about on the boards).

More promo content

I'm doggedly working on adding a small buttload of promo content and new hosted galleries for affiliates along with some other improvements -- within the next couple of weeks I hope to email our affiliates with all of the details and from then on stay on top of the basics and maybe even try to log into the dreaded icq every so often to be available to affiliates.

One thing that makes our program even more of a challenge to administer is that our sites are all SO different that most of our affiliates only sign up to promote one of our sites and are afraid to touch the others. So, even if I add thirty new galleries and zips, only a third (or less) of them may be useful to each affiliate.

I look forward to the day when I can hire someone else to do some of the grunt work in this area. On the other hand, I kind of enjoy doing it myself. If only there were a few more of me to do it all.