[ArtWilliams]

I've been blogging -- trying to do a quality site -- for about 5 months now. I thought I would try and write a few tips about my experience. Here they are:

- When writing a blog, it's best not to combine your niches. When I started out, I wanted to cover the MILF, mature, housewife and mature single women niches. They are related niches but are in fact quite different. I found out several things after doing a bit of each. One, I noticed that with 6-8 good MILF sponsors who updated weekly I'd have enough content to write about. Being able to minimize my search for content has saved me time. Though I still write the occasional article on the other niches, most of my entries are now on MILFs. Two, you want to write about something well enough that the surfing public sees you as an authority on it. Pick one niche and become the best at it. Three, you can only spend so much time doing this so covering a whole bunch of niches stretches your resources too thin. Four, if the surfer is looking for MILFs (mature pornstars) and you're presenting cockold housewife porn then you may lose them. Eventually, I will cover some of the other niches I've mentioned but I will do so on separate blogs.

- Stats are your friend. The reason I chose the MILF niche rather than the others mentioned was because of my stats. In reviewing them I saw mature pornstar names coming up often. I figured that if people came to my site for Rhyse Richards or Brenda James to name two, then that is what I would give them. This is how most of my traffic started and remains to this day. In the last month or so I am now seeing more generic search terms (chubby milf, milf butts). Also, your stats can be the source of new ideas for sites. See what people are searching for and ask yourself, "could I make a whole site from that"?

- While most of my entries are about showcasing free hosted galleries, there is tremendous value in writing in depth blog entries and getting pornstar interviews. I wrote interview about a new MILF star Brenda James and the response was overwhelming. From surfers, site links and Google, people have been drawn to my site to read this silly interview. Going the extra mile will really make a difference. The best I can, I try to do one special blog entry a week. Sometimes it is a site review other times it will be a compilation of all the info I can find on a pornstar. (BTW, I do attribute sources despite the fact that will cause a leak of traffic. It is the right thing to do.)

- Google really does like blogs and the quality of traffic is really quite good. I am now getting about 1,500 uniques a day. Much of this is from Google. I will give you my 6 month stats in March but I can tell you that it looks like I am on track to make about $8-10,000 this year from my blog which I do part-time (Monday to Friday in the mornings).

- Try to think out of the box. Here is one way I made a number of sales. "Pornstar X" had appeared on several sites owned by one sponsor. I showcased all her galleries in separate blog entries and I made a sale here and there. When I made another blog entry telling people that membership got them access to the sponsor's 20 sites AND all the scenes from "Pornstar X", I got a number of extra sales. So remember you are in marketing and try to think of new ways to convince your surfers to wipe it out -- their credit card that is!

- Another thing I am trying is I've added a few TGP galleries which roll over every day. No, I am not running a TGP but I figure that if a surfer sees that they get 5 free galleries from a trusted source then they might bookmark the site and come back often. I also have a surfer poll which I change monthly. Give your surfers reasons to come back.

- Make a commitment to do your site for X months and don't quit. This is my second attempt at adult. I almost quite this time around like I did a number of years ago. I am glad I didn't. Your blog's success is a function of your marketing skills, link quality and link volume. You'll have none of these when you start so don't expect to make money right away. It was really frustrating for the first number of months to see traffic with no sales but it did turn around. I said I would blog daily. I have and now I am making a little dough. I can't see myself getting rich from adult but I can see myself making a living from it a few years down the road.

- Why a blog? Well in 25 words or less, I strongly believe that with tube sites and the availability of free porn that the future of the small webmaster will be in providing surfers with advice and insight into a particular niche. There are blogs that people go to to read about celebrities and politics that are successful, I want to be the "go to" source for MILFs -- plan and simple.

Okay, that is all I can think of for the moment. I'll update the thread if anything else comes to mind. Also, if you have questions post them I will try to answer them.

---art