More Banners for SpyOnUs

I just added four new 585x100 horizontal banners for promoting SpyOnUs.com.

Yes, there are way more important things on my to-do list, but I needed to get rid of the inaccurate old SOU banners I have on some of our blogs and stuff, so . . . there you have it.

Tips for Promoting Delia

One of our affiliates had the wisdom to ask for tips on how to promote Delia, so here are a few things that come to mind from the perspective of someone used to "straight" porn and wanting to branch out to promoting "trannies".

First of all, the language. Obviously there are a lot of words we use in porn to describe people that are totally politically incorrect. Most transwomen don't like being called "trannies" or "shemales". But most affiliates' traffic isn't from people who will be doing searches for "transwomen" to masturbate to, so you have to figure out what will convert well for you and your traffic. The most important thing is probably to be accurate and know the difference between, say, crossdressers (men in women's clothing to varying degrees of passability) and transsexuals. They are two different "niches" which is why we're building a new site, DeliaTS.com now that she decided to transition and is on hormones. On the other hand, making the distinction between crossdresser and transsexual is less important with Delia, or at least less important to EMPHASIZE since her site is a solo girl personality site -- you're selling HER, an individual and less a generic niche. Delia gets compliments/great feedback from people who are looking for crossdressers AND people looking for transsexuals. Having said that, it's probably easiest to refer to her as a TGirl and use whatever other keywords work best for you (tranny, shemale, etc.), keeping in mind that we'll be able to offer more clearly man-in-drag type of stuff which will appeal to fans of crossdressers AND Delia's more recent and passable transsexual stuff once the two sites are running concurrently. In the meantime, I'm sorry for the confusion, but you will still make sales provided you aren't totally misleading people by calling her a hermaphrodite or some other ignorant term (which people have done, by the way, much to our chagrin).

Of course, you can just skip labeling Delia's gender in a special way and just refer to her the way you would any other "babe" you're promoting. Showing surfers what makes her special is more than enough explanation.

The best thing is to not stereotype fans (and potential fans) of Delia. Some of them are men, some of them are women, some of them are trans themselves. Many of them like crossdressers, many of them ARE crossdressers, many of them love hosiery, many of them love panties and upskirts, many of them love very feminine transsexuals. AND ALMOST ALL OF THEM IDENTIFY AS STRAIGHT. You would be hard-pressed to find a tranny fan who identifies as "gay", so don't put Delia or any other tranny porn in the gay box. Personally I think most people are bisexual and this especially goes for people who are turned on by gender-bending, but my (and your) personal opinion is meaningless here. For porn marketing purposes you should advertise Delia to the same audience you advertise straight porn to (and of course to specific tranny traffic if you have it, but I'm writing this more for people who don't). Some of your surfers might freak out, but the majority of them will be, at the very least, intrigued. Stick a few pictures of a hard cock in panties in amongst your "straight" porn or some upskirt shots with Delia's hard cock raising the hem and you will make sales if you have any traffic at all.

Right now is a very exciting (and marketable) time for Delia since she recently started on hormones so her boobs are growing but her cock is still completely functional and big (she doesn't plan to get "bottom" surgery so her main marketing tool will remain). People can watch her transition unfold through her photos, videos, blog and also her members-only vlog where she talks about the effects her hormones are having on her changing body. This is EXTREMELY exciting and unique.

The most important thing I can tell you is THERE IS A TON OF CROSSOVER BETWEEN TRIXIE FANS AND DELIA FANS. Most of our members prefer one of our sites to the others, but most of them are fond of elements in all of them. I can't emphasize enough that solo tgirl sites can be marketed as regular solo girl sites but with the expectation that the girl with the cock will convert ten times better than the girl with the pussy TO THE SAME EXACT AUDIENCE. Obviously you should still try to target surfers who already KNOW they love tranny porn, but you're really missing out if that's ALL you do. Delia's site is a major impulse buy for guys who aren't looking for a tranny site but cannot help responding to seeing her cock surrounded by lingerie.

Another important thing to know about Delia's site (and all the sites in our network, like mine and AmberLily's and others coming up) is that we specialize in legwear (stockings, pantyhose, long socks, thigh highs, etc.), panties and upskirts. They aren't the sole focus of our site, but we do all appeal to surfers with minor or major fetish interest in feminine underwear, hosiery and other seductive, softcore details. Again, for a lot of members, they don't care WHO is wearing the panties or stockings or tights or short skirts -- it could be me or AmberLily with our pussies or Delia with her cock -- THEY LIKE ALL OF IT. The variety of genitals wearing the same familiar fetishwear is very appealing to a lot of people.

Delia also eats her own cum which is a pretty big selling point and she has a lot of solo masturbation videos, some with toys, some with my hands interfering, etc. Surfers love her long legs and tight ass. We also do live shows and have round-the-clock voyeur cams which set her site apart from other tranny sites -- our stuff is homemade, full of personality, and very intimate in ways that are both erotic in that amateur porn way and also establish trust and personal interest/loyalty with surfers and members because we're a real couple in what many people think of as an "alternative" relationship.

Many of the people who spend a lot of money on porn and like our content are middle-aged or older men for whom this is a huge, extremely loaded (in more ways than one) taboo, either their attraction to transgender or their own secret trans identity as closet crossdressers or both. For many of them it's an extra bonus both emotionally and sexually to see a happy couple like Delia and I in a healthy, sex-positive, long-term relationship. It's something most of them never thought was possible for themselves and is something they long for on multiple levels. OUR SITES MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GOOD INSIDE not just below the waist. Most people promoting porn completely overlook the emotional appeal of indie websites like ours featuring real couples and their homemade porn - we fulfill more than sexual needs, and people surfing for porn often have interest in more than just busting a nut (even if they don't always know it from the outset). If you are able to appeal to those needs and desires via blog entries, reviews, or other types of promotions like that in a sincere, genuine way you'll do a better job of selling all of our sites. It's not necessary, but it does emphasize things we are in a unique position to give. Delia's site is not just extremely erotic and painfully arousing, it's also inspiring, reassuring, and addictive from a personal perspective. People return to our sites not just for the porn, but TO SEE HOW WE ARE DOING, what's new in our lives, what mundane things we're doing on our spycams around the house, etc. We are like stories with characters people come to care about in books they don't want to end. They want to know how our business is, whether or not Delia has come out to her family yet, what books we're reading and tv we're watching and other stuff that sounds totally boring, but makes people feel connected and loyal to us.

I suppose the question is "HOW DO YOU MARKET THAT?" All I can say is that you probably have to be a fan of that sort of thing yourself to be able to advertise it with sincerity. Fortunately, if you can't think of how to do it, you can still focus on the pornographic aspects of our sites and do well for yourself, ESPECIALLY if you're promoting Delia (pictures like this one are irresistible converters). You can make sales to people who really want to jerk off right now. But you can also make sales by making people curious and interested in something more unique and personal than that, too. That's really the important trick to learn these days when people can go blow a load on redtube for free, you know? All of our sites offer things you can't get on a tube site.

I'll try to get Delia to post some follow-up advice on all of this, too, but really it's pretty hard to go wrong selling Delia. It doesn't take much, just some traffic. If you are able to sell solo girl sites, you will be able to sell Delia's. A cock in panties or poking out under a skirt is just too fucking hot NOT to sell.

CCBill's New Affiliate System

After hearing rumours last year that CCBill was working on a new system for program owners to get marketing materials to affiliates I was SO excited to log into CCBill today and see them announce "Web Marketing System (WMS) is a new-generation affiliate system providing all the tools you need to easily and effectively manage your programs to maximize their performance and profitability."

Fuck. YEAH!

I just called up to be put on the list of sponsors who want to demo it. I'm guessing bigger clients will get a shot at it first, but even if that's the case I don't care because a) they'll have worked out the kinks by the time I get in on it, and b) once it's in place it should really help level the playing field for small operations like ours.

So many small program-owners don't even know how to customize their mailers so the promo links are ready for affiliates (I didn't even know we could do it myself until a few months ago) and without buying software or hiring a programmer yourself it's really difficult to customize your promo offerings, links, etc. to provide each affiliate exactly what s/he wants without giving them what they don't. I know as an affiliate I love promoting ccbill programs . . . all except for when it comes to getting the promo materials, link codes, etc. It's KIND OF a time-sucking nightmare with most sites. I definitely prefer harvesting promos from sponsors who use NATS, partly because it's pretty consistent from sponsor-to-sponsor and because I can customize what I want. I really really hope this new CCBill thing does all of that and more.

I didn't even bother checking the boards to see what people are saying before I called up (though I did get reassurance from CCBill that OLD LINKS WILL STILL WORK and THE NEW PROGRAM WILL RUN IN TANDEM WITH THE OLD so no work will be lost; affiliates who don't want to try it don't have to); whatever it's like it's bound to be better than what we have now. When I heard the rumours before I called and asked about it but the rep said he hadn't heard any such thing. I think that was during the phone call when I found out how to send out the mailers with the affiliates' numbers already built into the links. Anyhoo . . . good news. This will be a big help.

Why I haven't logged into ICQ in years:

This thread on GFY epitomizes all that is charmingly dysfunctional about the special working relationship between affiliates and sponsors.

On this particular issue? I can see it from both perspectives; each person has some valid points AND says other things that are pretty fucked up.

I for one think a program owner is going above and beyond to even BE on icq available to talk one-on-one to affiliates (or anyone else, for that matter). I know that I don't have time for it. It's not that I don't think it's a great idea to be able to respond to affiliate questions, feedback, requests, etc., I just think it's pretty hard to run a business and be on call and interrupted like that at the drop of a hat. You'd think, though, that if the guy makes as much money as he says he does and is so willing to reinvest tons of it back into his business ("noone spends more money than me on updates and on models and on keeping things unique") that he'd fucking hire somebody whose JOB it is to MAKE time to respond to affiliates in a better way and people to make sure the promo content really represents the high quality he claims to spend THE MOST MONEY IN THE INDUSTRY TO MAKE (why do people say such ludicrous things? WHY?). I totally understand feeling run-ragged by affiliate requests, but that's because I don't have the money to hire people to be run ragged FOR me. If I had the kind of money this guy says he has, I would not be sitting on icq chatting with affiliates. Seriously. I'd be making love to my hitachi magic wand on my own private island.

I think he could have handled it better, for sure, but I totally understand not having the motivation to do so. Finding a polite way to say, "I don't have time to customize content for you (or we do not want to give away too much high-quality video or whatever) nor do I have the need to because it has a proven record of converting" is probably not as satisfying from a personal perspective as ripping somebody a new asshole for assuming that just because you are a paysite owner and sponsor that someone can tell you your content is junk and you should JUMP to accommodate their desires, though I don't think what the affiliate said was THAT offensive. I mean, if you are in the habit of being offended by stuff like that, why make yourself available on icq and even give the impression that you care? Of course, not seeing the promo content in question OR any of the affiliate's work it's pretty hard to judge whether either of them has a point. Years ago I posted a guest gallery from one of the TushyCash sites and I thought the content was hot (if the quality was average it really didn't detract from it's worth because of the hotness of the fetish/role-playing); I haven't looked at it much in recent years because I always felt like I had to doublecheck my link codes more than usual because of the way their program is set up (kind of confusing); maybe it's changed since then, though.

I agree with the person who said they're both acting like crybabies. I also have to laugh any time anyone in this industry accuses someone else of not being "professional". For one thing, anyone who levels that accusation almost always has a huge double standard/is a total hypocrite when it comes to their own behavior (usually not professional) versus what they expect from other people (bowing, scraping, and dishing out "the customeraffiliate (or sponsor, depending on who's doing the whining) is always right" nonsense). Mostly I just think it's funny because people want to apply standards of professionalism from OTHER industries to an industry in which modeling many of those standards is totally absurd. THIS IS THE PORN INDUSTRY. If you expect me to not use foul language in my communications with you because "it's not professional" to do so I think you are confused about what my profession is: I am a whore, a pimp, and a pornographer. It would be unprofessional of me NOT to say "fuck" or "cunt" on a regular basis. I make money on my fucking cunt, okay?

Don't misunderstand me, though; I do think it's important to treat everybody with kindness and decency (unless it would be reinforcing or rewarding indecent/unkind behavior to do so), but that has nothing to do with being "professional", it has to do with being a good person to everybody you meet regardless of whether it's at work or not. Working on the internet DOES make that hard, though. Not seeing people face-to-face makes it pretty easy to treat other people like shit. Still, I think there's a difference between being frank and full of a certain amount of bluster/larger-than-life-personality (a good thing, perhaps, when trying to establish yourself online) and being genuinely mean. I don't think anything said by either of those guys is a reason for someone's feelings to be hurt.

Sometimes telling someone to fuck off IS professional when you're an internet pornographer or smut peddler. It's pretty hilarious when people go to a board called "Go Fuck Yourself" to complain about someone telling them to do just that.

Quickie on To-Do's

Just a quick post for now because it's been so long since I've made one here; first of all, if you've written to me I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet. YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE I SEEM TO BE IGNORING! Unfortunately we are just trying to do too much for two people which means a lot is left UNdone at the end of the day/week/month/quarter/year even though we are working our asses off.

A couple of the high-priority things I need to work on for WebWhoreBucks affiliates:

*GET REVIEW-READY
I'm glad review sites are eager to promote us; we have a few things to do before we re-submit to them, though, including tightening stuff up in our member areas, writing some guidelines for review sites (especially regarding "reciprocal" links that so many of them are requiring), special tours and links codes, writing ready-made reviews, etc.

*CONTENT/MEMBER-AREA REQUESTS
I'm going to renew access for a few of our affiliates who have had access to our members-only areas in the past, but I also need to think really hard about how we deal with these requests in the future especially now that we are adding new sites to our network that are operated by and feature people OUTSIDE our household. It's possible I will create a form for affiliates to fill out to apply for access to make it easier for me to get the information I need to determine whether or not to entrust individual affiliates with total access to our sites. We really appreciate the people who are willing to do the hard work of selecting content and building their own promos but we also need to be cautious about WHAT content and HOW MUCH OF IT is used.

*****

Of course there are also a million other things on my to-do list for affiliates, but getting review-ready and addressing our most ambitious affiliates' requests are the most important to me right now.

Next week we will be shooting a bunch of content for AmberLily's site and in the months ahead we're working on shooting for a new video site we hope to launch soon: I Make Porno (imakeporno.com).

Blocked Countries

For a long time I've allowed affiliates living in blocked countries to sign up to promote our sites, but I've just switched it back to the default. I just don't have time to police those people and they DO have a way higher incidence of sending fraudulent transactions. Fortunately it was CCBill who caught it this time, but yeah. I don't have time to watch that shit like a hawk.

When the Icon's Ass Has Already been Worshipped

What do I do when I do not want to follow suit by performing a rim job on one of the industry's Holy Men, but probably should? I *disagree*! Just to be contrary!! Because I like shooting myself in the foot like that!!!

Note to newbs: yes, you probably *should* kiss YNOT Bob's ass. Because it's, like, holy and stuff. If I had half a brain I would, too. Still? It cracks me up when girls deny that they have their noses buried between his butt cheeks. Moi? Kiss ass? Never!! It's especially cute to me since I see the same girl kissing SOME man's ass EVERY time I visit that board (which is rare, but perhaps makes it all the more noticeable that I see this EVERY TIME. Seriously though, every thread you go into with B O B posting, there are girls falling all over themselves to give him a virtual rim job. Enough already!!! Or just admit it; YES! I am kissing ass because it's the smart thing to do and/or there's NOTHING smarter than a girl acting stupid(er than a guy).

If you can't beat them, write snarky blog entries about them.

It's hard for me to describe why this trend chafes at me, but it has less to do with the specific instances where it occurs, and more to do with the overall tendency of webwhores to not engage in real discussions with Men Who are Assigned Respect in this industry, and instead to just try to get them to notice them by slobbering all over them and hoping somehow they'll get favors and traffic for exhibiting exaggerated deference to them. In theory I don't even disagree with this method and yeah, some of the guys *are* grand repositories of money, traffic and porno wisdom. But sometimes it just strikes me as grotesque, especially since there's such an obvious difference between the way the boys aspire to be ON the big mucky-mucks' levels and are more likely to engage in real dialogue with them, while the girls almost always do the bowing and scraping and submissive stupid-act. Teach me more, oh wise one! Thou FILLETH me with big lessons I am scarcely able to contain! I am content merely to kneel before you, a naked acolyte rubbing my nipples upon your knees.

Someday I'll give you a link to the thread in which I insulted Steve Lightspeed and explain why. But not today.