TRAINING CAMP

Internext’s first seminar explained to new webmasters how to set up and operate their own website. The panelists were Jay Servidio (President and owner of Teleteria); Ron Cadwell (CEO of Cavecreek and CCBill); YNOT Network President Greg Geelan; Mitch Farber (CEO of Net Billing) and Colin Rowntree (President of Wasteland, Inc.).TRAINING CAMP

Internext’s first seminar explained to new webmasters how to set up and operate their own website. The panelists were Jay Servidio (President and owner of Teleteria); Ron Cadwell (CEO of Cavecreek and CCBill); YNOT Network President Greg Geelan; Mitch Farber (CEO of Net Billing) and Colin Rowntree (President of Wasteland, Inc.). Fred Lane (an attorney and the author of Obscene Profits) moderated this and all other Internext panels.

According to Colin, the goal of a new webmaster should be to have a combination of a paysite and many free sites. What new webmasters should learn right from the start is to learn how to manage their exit traffic.

In separating themselves from other struggling “newbies”, Colin mentioned that a successful webmaster’s site should have a good feel to it, which produces an identifiable brand. Colin used the analogy of HBO’s slogan, “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” Branding is a term that many in the industry are starting to hear more of these days. In the old days of adult entertainment online, people could slap pictures on the net and presto, monetary success was a legitimate possibility. These days, however, a new webmaster must design a site that fits his or her personality. The building blocks to a successful operation, says Colin, is to have 5 or 6 free sites and 1 pay site (sold at an inexpensive rate), and not compete with the “big dogs.” Colin advised new webmasters to find 500-600 niche specific images that can be taken by the webmaster anywhere, be it a cemetery or a graveyard, as long as it’s niche specific. The key is to brand exclusive content to identify with your potential surfers. Another excellent way to promote your niche-specific site is to add stories to your site and submit your stories to search engines. Don’t rely on just META tags, said Colin, also submit stories to web rings on Yahoo (which is free of charge).

Ron Cadwell also had several helpful tips for new webmasters. He suggested changing sponsors periodically to test incoming traffic. Also, Ron highly encouraged new webmasters to gain access to the server log files (make sure your server has a stats package). Often, new webmasters fail to access their incoming traffic stats.

Third party billing processors can serve as the new webmaster’s source for processing transactions. With third party processors, said Ron, the new webmaster can forsake the expensive merchant account and also be able to enjoy weekly payouts. In an era when the monolithic entities of VISA and MasterCard rule everything plastic, it’s good to rely on third party processors to ease some of the burden off the new webmaster’s back.

Ron also stated that customer service and honesty to surfers are the most important components to a successful web operation. A surfer is your investment, therefore, once you get the surfer, treat ’em like gold, said Ron, who also advised new webmasters to make sure their hosting company is specifically catered to the adult sector. Adult web hosts are more capable of handling larger volumes of traffic.

Elaborating on design philosophy, Jay Servidio suggested that the graphic layout of a webmaster’s homepage should not force the surfer to scroll down, as was done heavily in the past. A black background with a common sales pitch on each page will help convert traffic into sales, said Jay. A unique added feature should also accompany the common sales pitch on every page. (For example, on page 1: $19.95/month for over 100,000 pics; page 2: $19.95/month for 100,000 pics in over 40 categories plus the hottest erotic stories, etc.)

Other tips offered by Jay Servidio were to keep the color scheme consistent; keep the trial cheap (Editor’s Note: Some may argue with that fact because of the problems of credit card micropayments); get an exit script to send the unconverted traffic for an effective revenue sharing program; and read the fine print of your hosting company.

Mitch Farber had several good points, most notably, the fact that fraud is less pervasive on niche sites because those kinds of sites have dedicated surfers. “The market is not saturated!” exclaimed Mitch. More and more people are going online, he proposed. Mitch closed with a tip on customer service: Email past subscribers and offer them a discount.

YNOT Network president Greg Geelan opined from a legal perspective. He was right up front with webmasters stating that if you cross the lines, you can very well end up in jail. Law enforcement has expanded in size and its aggressiveness in prosecuting online “shysters.”

Greg addressed every newbie’s million-dollar question, asking the audience, “How do you know whom to go to for webmaster services?” The answer (in addition to YNOT Masters) is to get on the chat boards; people are willing to help you in the industry. Ask for referrals and recommendations and email webmasters.

Don’t make the huge mistake of not reading the Terms and Conditions (T&C) and contracts, said Greg, as not all affiliates and hosting companies have exact rules. Greg closed by saying that every webmaster should be respectful of one another.

This first Internext panel set the stage for an intellectually stimulating set of seminars.