Website construction

[puretotty]

I am tea total so Diet Coke will do And yeah I always believe a salesman knows another salesman when they meet... it's something about how we phrase things... and always look to close

Ok so this is my prospective on Chapter 1 - Equipement. You have to decide if this is going to be a proffession, a hobby or just a bit of fun...

When I started out even though I took the decision it's what I wanted to do as a career I probably started out on a much lower budget than I should have... the equipment I bought was very low key, infact I actually started shooting on FILM !!!

Probably the most expensive thing I invested in was the lights... ?1000 on a set of Elinchrom 600 (2 heads) I would say this was a good thing mind, getting the light right when you take the pics is key, something to this day I dont believe I have mastered... as many will tell you and mention my white balance ! lol...

However the style of the photographer can be a key element in the success of the site... Phil Flash for example in america with sites like www.tiffanyteen.com and www.nextdoornikki.com made his money with his lying on the floor shooting up pics, usually with the girl in high heels and sticking her ass out...

So I guess your response prompts two questions... first how much do you invest in the equipement... the answer is be realistic you are only starting out... you can always upgrade when the money is coming in ! A good digital slr with a couple of memery cards... a decent hd camera... and good lighting...

The other question is the style you are going to shoot and this comes a very important compnent of your success... both the content matter and your style... there are thousands if not millions of sites out there, and thats not even accounting for the free stuff... what is (and you dont have to answer that) the theme of your site going to be ? What do you do that makes the site different, it's unlikely it's a new idea as I dont think they exist any more lol... trust me I think just about every thing as been done now !

So you need to pick either an existing niche that will sell well or maybe it's a more tradition form of glamour/porn but the style of your work is what sells it...

[TKMedia]

Making money in porn is like making money by opening a restaurant.

There's a hell of a lot out there, but make sure you serve good food (Or in this case vaginas) and you'll be on your way to that fancy 8 bedroom house with an infinity pool in no time.

Put in the hours and you'll see amazing returns

[puretotty]

I would suggest staying out of studios if possible... no offense to studios but I dont usually like the feel they give... usually even if they have lifestyle sets they are dated... a lot look like something out the 70's...

We use managed apartments, very modern and usually cheaper... here's a tip bit... we always negotiate on price with the models... usually booking a girl for 2 days.... that means she needs somewhere to stay... so if you have an apartment she can sleep over there. As opposed to hiring a studio and then a hotel...

We pay aroudn ?80 for an apartment... a studio for 8 hours would cost us around ?120-?180 and then a hotel room of around ?60 ! Big difference...

Can I ask what levels you are going to look to shoot ?

[puretotty]

Hey James... if it's alright I would like to keep it on the board, without sounding off I guess if I am going to talk tactics it's only fair any noobs out there can benefit from any tip bits that may come up....

Yes managed apartments often do daily rates... some dearer than others, it's all supply and demand I guess... but certainly cheaper than most studios... and you get a more real feel.

As I said I dont know what the theme of your site is going to be, so you know we shoot a lot of teen girl next door stuff... we run a program called www.PixelBucks.com with and I am going to list them all...

www.NatalieBanks.com
www.SashaCane.com
www.SophieCocks.com
www.LaceyLittle.com
www.JessicaCutie.com
www.TalkSluts.com
www.MyFirstPink.com
www.TakeHerCherry.com
www.BrookLittle.com
www.TittyCrew.com

in it... we give the member access to all the sites when they join... good value for money (SHAMLESS SPAM !)

This will show you the type of stuff we do... all shot by us We also run www.TrashyContent.com where we sell content for people to use... kind of came about as a side business, I am a lover of multiple revenue streams...

So to recap... decide on your equipement and the level of investment you are willing to put in, dont over spend but make sure you have the equipement to do the job right...

An example for us was we shoot with a Canon Eos 30D and 50D really nice camera's We have a Sony E5Z HD Camera (cost about ?3k) but when we bought the HD camera we didnt factor in we would need a computer to render the video, and had to invest ?1100 in a Mesh i7 compuer with super fast spec...

Decide on the theme of the site, the direction it will take and how it will be able to be positioned to compete with whats out there... from a sales prospective what is it's unique selling points ??? Think about things such as the style you shoot, the type of content, and also the girls you use...

For example do you do a site of "The most minging girls" and use that as a niche, believe it or not there is a market for it... do you do the girl next door teenie (of which there are thousands out there) ect ect...

Also remember the UK does not have a great base of models, especially doing hardcore... sorry to say it there are a lot of girls out there who really shouldnt be modelling... I can probably think of maybe a dozen, 20 at a push who I feel are real porn stars... and some of them are hard to work with... models are flakey, porn models are in general mental lol... I will get in so much trouble for that comment no matter how true !

I am going to post again a seperate post about some of the set up costs, I then need to go for about 30 mins... but will come back and answer any response you made... I hope I earnt the desert as well by now lol...

[puretotty]

Ok so after you bought your equipment to do the shoot... you need to think of some other expenses... obviously there is the shoots, but we'll come back to those...

First thing up is the server... to host your site(s). Dont listen to anyone who tells you not to go the "Dedicated Server" route... get yourself the cheapest dedicated server you can find that is managed... they aint really that expensive...

Dont host in the UK... go for a US company, someone like Colo Cation (thats who I use) speak to Chris *tell him Steve from PureTotty sent you !* You can get a decent spec for $200 a month... probably a lot cheaper if you really are going with one site. It's not only the amount of storage you need, it's the speed of the server so that your site runs quick and surfers dont get pissed off and leave... For between $100-$200 you can definetly get something that will serve both the now and the foreseable future and you wont be sharing it with 10 other companies who might slow it down...

Next Design... again look to outsource to somewhere like the Philippines... UK prices are mad, as are the US... I have been quoted $3000 for a site design which my current site designer in the Philippines does for $400 ! Nearly 1/10 the price... and the quality is still as good if not better...

You do have to be careful, some are a little hit and miss... try and go on recommendation and still understand that they have a slight habit of disapearing... they will tell you this is due to a natural disaster like a typhoon or tidal wave... that translates to them having too much work on, or another job coming in that they take on a rush basis for someone... But bottom line the value is there.

You will need a back end system to run the content, I know there's a few cheaper ways to do it, but again your best to invest in a good content management system like SiteDepth, what we use... it's now in great hands too as was recently bought out by a guy called Rico who is a legend, and he has a great team developing it and offering support...

The system allows you to manage your members area content, I have all our sites scheduled to update for ages... it's great I put a couple weeks work in and then the sites run themselves... I know the SiteDepth package was $800 at one stage... but believe it's less now. If you factor in $800 your probably at the right end, as you would probably need some one to help with the installation... and once you learnt how it all works then it's easy (and trust me I learnt and I am the least techie !)

So with server costs of about $200 a month, a one off design of $400 and a one off content management system of around $800 you will have your site live...

We pay a very good video editor to do our trailers on the sites at $150 a pop, but that is optional, you can always knock something up yourself...

I process all our content... again you can outsource but this was one of the things I took management of... I dont believe in the principle of learning stuff myself... I believe the time taken and the cost involved can be far more than outsourcing, as I said some countries are very competative when it comes to cost, Philippines, India, Russia ect...

I use Adobe Photoshop to process all our pics... and Adobe Premier/Sony Vegas to do our video... nothing fancy, not like Dos Santos at Killergram, just a watermark, a header and footer and job done lol... Again somethign with a little noddle can be leant easily...

Right I have to go and get something ready for tomorrows meeting... will pick up on this in about 30 mins

[puretotty]

Not a problem... your now going to become my biggest competition and I will probably end up working in McDonalds lol...

As a celebration and Karma for my genourisity... I am settling down to what I call Cockney Suishi... which is Cockles, Muscles, Shrims, Crab Sticks and Prawns... yum yum...

One final point to definetly put into your equasion before I gag on the ridicolous amount of vinegar I put on my Cockney Suishi... is the models !

I work on the principle that I negotiate on price, some may frown upon this... but like any business it's about buying at the lowest cost and selling at the highest... if I offer a model X for a job and she says yes then thats her choice... if she says no then no hard feelings...

I know one particular model who works (not adult) for ?90 a day... will give you a full 8 hours, some people say thats mad... but the girl is booked solid ! She works pretty much each day of the week and loves every minute of it as she doesnt even think of modelling as work (as I dont when it comes to the shooting side !)

I know other girls who charge ?300 for the same levels for a day and aint worked in a month... so you have to do the math ! I am not suggesting you should try and get adult models in for ?90 a day mind, but as it's your business ask what their rates are... we always do 2 days shoots with a model and negotiate a best price on 2 days... for me it's a bonus for the model to get 2 consequtive days work...

But you definetly need to factor in what will be without your biggest expense... you need to work out how much content you are going to go live with... you mentioned 15 scenes and thats not bad, mostly we aim for 20 scenes on launch...

But then you have to update... at least once a week ! so you definetly want a bank of content to assure your first two or three months worth of updates, so you might be talking another 12 scenes in the can... how many shoots do you need to achieve this, how many girls... and if your doing boy girl you have to factor in the guys...

There are girls out there charging some crazy money for boy girl (well crazy in my opinion) and others who are a lot more realistic, the more expensive girls will argue they are the more experienced and you will get better results... this may be true, but there are plenty out there starting our who fuck equally as good... bottom line it wont come cheap, but dont be afraid to negotiate, as I said it's your business and it's in your interest to keep your costs down

[puretotty]

Oh one more why I am flowing... the site name ? You need to find something that is catchy/brandable/nice relevent...

Buy the .com and all the associated extentions with it like .co.uk .net and .org maybe even. Register the .com for as long as you can (apparerlently helps with SEO)

Something else I recommend, even though we're skipping ahead of ourselves a little here and getting in to the realms of traffic... your affiliates wont let you have any traffic leaks on the .com like links to other sites... so it's always good to do that with the .co.uk for example...

So you mirror the .com site so you have a copy on your .co.uk but that can have links... so you can include selling stuff on places like AdultWork and have their links, and in return plug your site so people can join...

Hope that all makes sense lol

[BigMattyP]

Hi James.
I have started down this road as well although I started around 6 months ago properly. I did months and months of research before that and what I have come up with is that you need to take it really slowly. Don't spend more than you can afford (or even afford to lose).
I am slowly gathering content to start a site so that when I do, it will be immediately interesting to the viewer.
So in short, don't let yourself go broke because it is all too exciting!
Pick a niche and stick to it.
Buy a decent camera and some good lights. Backdropresource are a good place to find reasonably priced lighting.
Finally, do what you are doing, ask around and chat to people
Take care and have fun fella.
Big Matty P