Finding a Place to Call Home
Written By Wenchy

So, you've decided you want to build some adult sites. You've purchased some content, studied up on your HTML, and have a pretty good idea what sponsors you want to use. Now you have a decision to make... paid hosting and your own domain or free hosting.

I see no point in beating around the bush, so I'll say it flat out... I do NOT recommend the use of free hosts, except in two very specific instances which I will outline a few paragraphs from now. There is no point in "dabbling" in the adult industry. You're either here to build a money-making business out of your efforts or you're a porn surfer who's done some nosing around and figured out a nifty way to get your hands on some extra content. If you are the former, please read on. If you are the latter, go get yourself some lotion and do what you do best.

Okay, now assuming we've pared the field down to serious webmasters only...

The original idea behind free hosts was a good one; give new webmasters a way to get some cash flowing and to decide if this is really what they want to do before spending money on a domain and a hosting account. Things have changed, as things often do, and these days free hosts are basically nothing more than a backdoor for making some quick cash... for the free host owners, not for the webmaster users.

Sure, the accounts still don't cost the user any up-front money but, by the time you factor in the huge number of advertisements at the top and bottom of the pages, the actual cost is much higher than you might think. I've heard estimates of anywhere from 2% to 25% of your traffic that is lost to those ads. Add to that the number of surfers who are wise to the ways of free hosts and will immediately back out of a page containing all those ads at the top, and we could well be talking as much as 50% of your traffic! For a site with a lot of traffic, that 50% could add up to far more than a domain and hosting would cost you!

I've actually had conversations with free host owners, and their general feeling is that they don't want sites hosted with them, only galleries. With all the cheating and other webmaster nastiness that goes on these days, I can certainly see their point! Purely from the perspective of keeping their servers clean and free of rip-off artists, it's a lot less work for them if there are only pages on their servers rather than whole sites.

Let's look at this from another angle for a moment. Say you've got your site on a free host. You've done the link lists, AVSs, and TGPs, and you're starting to do search engine submissions. Now, worst case scenario here, let's assume that you wake up one morning and your free host has disappeared! Don't laugh... I've seen it happen. You are now in a position where every page you've ever submitted to anyone is showing up as a 404 or, worse yet, is being redirected by the free host domain owners (I've seen this happen, too!). They're making money off of what used to be your sites and you're up the proverbial creek with no paddle! All the time and energy you put into building your sites and pulling in traffic is just gone and you're left with nothing. Too bad, so sad... bleh!

Look, the reality of the situation here is that in order to become successful and be taken seriously as an adult webmaster, you must have your own domain and paid hosting. There are tons of hosting options out there... check webmaster resource sites and ask around if you want to know how fellow webmasters feel about a particular hosting company. Domains can be purchased for as little as $10.00 at Web Inc., or any of a number of other places that offer low-cost domain registration.

My point is that the adult internet is quite possibly the least-expensive business you can start. You can hit the ground running for less than $100 for hosting and domains and possibly even content, if you buy carefully.

Yes, hosting can get expensive if you are a TGPer who uses 100 gigs a month, for instance. No, there aren't any guarantees. Shit happens even to the best-run, most reliable companies out there... power outages, server crashes, email viruses, the works. But the risks are far lower and the likelihood of downtime small with reputable companies.

Okay, enough suspense. I'll give you my two exceptions to the free hosting rule now.

First is Adult Revenue Service and the free hosting option they provide for their affiliate webmasters. You get banner-free pages on which to host your gallery pages and the only stipulation is that you must use only ARS sites as your sponsors. Not too much brain strain there. It's an excellent opportunity for ARS webmasters and a nice break from huge bandwidth bills for TGPers who choose to promote ARS.

Second is the CyberAge AVS free hosting, CyberSex Network. With this one you do have to fly a CSN banner on your site, you are not allowed to use any AVS other than CyberAge for your sites, and you absolutely MUST use .htaccess (which they give you if you are signed up with them). A big bonus with this one is that you can either choose a third-level domain within their structure or you can actually buy your own domain and have it moved onto their servers (highly recommended!)! This is a great way to get started with only the cost of a domain (see above) and build your AVS income until you can afford your own hosting.

Please keep in mind that I recommend these two free hosts only in case of an emergency, for TGPing (ARS) or AVS sites (CSN) where you'd like to save a little cash on bandwidth, or for those who are just coming into the business with very little capital. DO NOT begin using these services with the idea in mind that it's a forever kinda thing... it's a hand up, not a hand out! Don't abuse the generosity of the companies that offer these programs by staying there for five years and hammering them with huge amounts of traffic that you should be paying for yourself!

Get serious about your business and get yourself some hosting and a domain or two (or 200 if you can afford it!). If you learn how to build and run sites and do it well, you'll make your money back before you know it and then you'll be in the wonderful world of profit... which is why we're all here in the first place, isn't it?

Until next time, happy hunting and may your surfers continue to whip it out....

Article written by Wenchy - Adult Biz Resource Writer.
Wenchy owns and operates Adult Copy - Ad & Site Text For Adult Website Marketing