Any ideas for marketing an Erotic Stories site/directory?

[Hankphone]

I will be launching an erotic story post site soon and would appreciate any ideas or advice on marketing this type of site. I have several amateur authors that are actually very skilled at writing these "hustler" type stories. If ths post gets any feedback I'll be sure to post the url when it's finished.

Thanks!

[Jamdin]

Good luck

[ecchi]

The big advantage of a story site is that it is search engine friendly. However the big disadvantage is that most of your authors will be writers not search engine gurus. Your first (and major) marketing task will be to educate them, make sure that they use keywords frequently enough, but not too frequently to get your site seen as a spammer.

One of my businesses is selling eBooks, and I often either help my authors set up sites advertising their work, or set up sites like that myself. Believe me, if you are using other people's work, you are looking at a hell of a lot of work making the site search engine friendly. It is amazing how easy it is to write a story without using necessary keywords once (eg. a lesbian sex story that describes what the women are doing without ever using the words "lesbians" or "lesbian sex"), or use the wrong keywords (eg. a lesbian sex story will often use the word "lesbian" (singular) a lot, but surfers are typing "lesbians" (plural) into engines.

The other problem is that once you have told your authors this they often overdo it, making the stories almost unreadable, and certainly uninteresting (eg. "these lesbian women were both lesbians, they enjoyed lesbian sex, and these lesbian women who were lesbians often had lesbian sex in the morning, they enjoyed lesbian kissing and using lesbian sex toys as lesbian sex aids...."). I also have one author who cannot get his site listed on Google, which I think is due to Google seeing this as keyword spamming (which it is).

And be very careful to ensure that the stories don't give engines the wrong impression. For example a story about the randy sex life of a photocopier repair man may convince the engines that your site is a trade site for photocopy repairs. You'll not get porn surfers, and those people who do end up there will mostly be at work, so will leave your site in a hurry.

In short, your best marketing ploy is to work the search engines, but be aware that you are going to have to put in a lot of time educating your authors on this skill, editing their work, and dealing with tantrums because they feel their story is best unedited, even if it will convince the engines that your site is a plumbers supply site, and has nothing to do with erotica.

[Hankphone]

Good info, thanks. Do you know of any directories that would be good to submit the site to, or any article directories that are good for adult stories?

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Hankphone

Good info, thanks. Do you know of any directories that would be good to submit the site to, or any article directories that are good for adult stories?

I just use the regular link lists.
Some of my authors use newsgroups that are set up for story posting. Basically they post one of their short stories to the group with a link to the main site. But if you try this, be sure the newsgroup allows this, you don't want to spam (it will loose you sponsors). Success varies, the best (claims) to get about a thousand uniques a day from one story a week (to several groups).

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by Hankphone

I will be launching an erotic story post site soon and would appreciate any ideas or advice on marketing this type of site. I have several amateur authors that are actually very skilled at writing these "hustler" type stories. If ths post gets any feedback I'll be sure to post the url when it's finished.

Thanks!

In addition to the great info you've already received I would say that you promote this type of site like any other. Submit to directories/LL's, trade links, buy traffic, maybe try some offline promo tactics.

If there is an adult equivelant of goarticles.com / ezinearticles type of site, then I would certainly submit to that as well. If there's not a site catering to adult erotic stories, maybe there should be. I don't know of any, maybe someone else does?

[BOONESTOONS]

Originally Posted by Hankphone

I will be launching an erotic story post site soon and would appreciate any ideas or advice on marketing this type of site. I have several amateur authors that are actually very skilled at writing these "hustler" type stories. If ths post gets any feedback I'll be sure to post the url when it's finished.

Thanks!

Oh that's easy, get someone to illustrate the top stories you post. That way you build up an art bank to go along with the stories as well.

[Linkster]

Id be real interested in hearing what sponsors you would be using as I have yet to find a site that can convert story traffic worth a damn

[chromakey]

A very interesting thread. I have always wondered about this myself.

[Cynthiab]

I've attempted this several times as I used to make much of my living writing erotica. I assume you're not trying to charge people to read, rather making a free archive?

You might want to think about specializing in a niche - there are already several big archives and it's hard to compete with them.

Contests are the best way to get people on board. If you run a contest hit up the Erotica Writers Association - they've got some of the best writers online.

[CD Smith]

One thing that has always bothered me about certain TGP's and LL's that accept story sites and galleries is that so many of them demand that there also be photos on the story pages. Persian Kitty for example... she takes story submissions as long as there are at least 10 pics to go with it.

Now, it takes longer to write a good story than it does to make a thumbnail gallery, I've never understood why the story isn't treated as a gallery unto itself. I mean, there are well-written erotic stories and then there are photostories, usually two vastly different animals. Yet the gallery with just the story on it and no accompanying pics gets rejected every time.

Stories need love too!


I've had a LL site in the hopper for some time now. Once it's operational I'll be accepting story sites of all kinds, no demands for extra pics etc at all.

[Linkster]

CD - PK is the only one that I know of in the LL world - and she also has a little higher requirement for the number of pics on a reg free site as well - but like they say - its her list

[CD Smith]

She's the only one I know of, thus I picked on her. I realize it's her site, her list, and I'm fine with that. Doesn't mean I can't voice my disdain for certain rules. If no one says anything then nothing gets changed, yes?

And there being only 1 or a few sites that accept stories is about to change soon. There is no reason why a TGP can't include a small story section. Some of these sites get 30k, 50k, 100k, up to 2 million+ uniques per day, does anyone really think none of those surfers would be interested in checking out a few stories? I guess people with that opinion have never seen a Penthouse or Hustler.

[Ms Naughty]

What I've never been able to understand is why some LLs demanded so many free stories on a site. Two should be the maximum. I've never done a story-based free site simply because I just didn't want to give away that many free stories.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by grandmascrotum

What I've never been able to understand is why some LLs demanded so many free stories on a site. Two should be the maximum. I've never done a story-based free site simply because I just didn't want to give away that many free stories.

It depends on the length of the story. I could create a site with 20 stories on it in a morning. But all the stories would only be about a hundred words each.

[Cynthiab]

Originally Posted by CD Smith

One thing that has always bothered me about certain TGP's and LL's that accept story sites and galleries is that so many of them demand that there also be photos on the story pages. Persian Kitty for example... she takes story submissions as long as there are at least 10 pics to go with it.

Now, it takes longer to write a good story than it does to make a thumbnail gallery, I've never understood why the story isn't treated as a gallery unto itself. I mean, there are well-written erotic stories and then there are photostories, usually two vastly different animals. Yet the gallery with just the story on it and no accompanying pics gets rejected every time.

Stories need love too!


I've had a LL site in the hopper for some time now. Once it's operational I'll be accepting story sites of all kinds, no demands for extra pics etc at all.

10 is a lot of pictures to put on a story - especially if you write first and are looking for photos to go along with it.

[CD Smith]

Originally Posted by ecchi

It depends on the length of the story. I could create a site with 20 stories on it in a morning. But all the stories would only be about a hundred words each.

That's right. There are stories and then there are STORIES, as in actual short stories that, if they were in pocketbook form, would be 3 to 5+ pages long and have a more involved plot.

And when you take the time to write such stories... they become something special to you. You definitely don't want to just give them away for free en mass. (or sell them for five bucks each for that matter)

Those really short "stories" are actually nothing more than letters. In fact I suggest we start referring to them as letters from now on to avoid confusion. I can understand how someone would want several pics to go with such short writings.

[Ms Naughty]

Perhaps the solution is to talk in terms of length, the same way that movies are judged: a free site should have either four 500 word stories, or two 1000 word stories.

[Hankphone]

This is not a site selling affiliate bullshit, it is an erotic article directory.

[Hankphone]

Anyway, here is the site so far. Not ready to be launched just yet but I am accepting stories. Thanks for all the great feedback so far! Keep it coming.