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How to Get a Quality Webmaster Education
by Kath Blackwell
If you look around on the Web today you'll find lots of people and sites boasting that they have the solid information and training abilities that will help you to become a successful adult webmaster. But who has the real goods?
Who can you trust to point you in the right direction, help you get started with your own online business and give you the support that you need?
Webmaster resources sound like the first logical choice - after all, that's what they're there for, right? The first thing you have to think about is WHY someone would want to help you - why wouldn't they want to use those tips to help themselves, and why would they be willing to share them with some newbie stranger they just met in chat? What's ultimately in it for them?
History of the Adult Webmaster Community
Knowledge is power, so before you begin your quest for the perfect place to go that will teach you the basics of the adult online industry - it's time for a little history lesson. A long time ago, when the Web was still brand new, webmasters used to help each other. No really - they actually did. Because it was so new and the Web was such a big, wide open space with literally millions upon millions of fresh surfers stumbling onto it on a daily basis, people were free to share information, and willing to give out support for free.
Webmaster message boards and chat rooms were a meeting ground for veteran webmasters with a few years' experience under their belts and the virtual newbie, someone wanting to learn how to make a few bucks on the Web without having to do much work. Some of the veterans viewed this as a great way to educate the new generations, to help them to avoid making the same mistakes and lessen the problems within the growing industry. Others took an instant distaste for the newbs, and took every chance to put them down or "burn them" on the boards, at will.
MESSAGE BOARDS
Tom's Newbie Booster (www.tomsnewbiebooster.com)
A no-nonsense approach to new webmaster education and support, Tom's is a simple message board Q&A center with a few helpful resource listings handpicked by Tom. Tom's has been an industry newbie standard and mainstay for many years, helping many new webmasters become productive and integral contributors to our community and the industry as a whole.
Greenguy & Jim (www.greenguyandjim.com)
The one-and-only Greenguy of Link-o-rama.com fame teams up with well-known and experienced industry veteran and affiliate program guru Jim, to build an awesome, supportive and informative message board with category-specific help on everything from traffic and getting listed on links sites, to affiliate program promotions and everything in between.
WEBMASTER RESOURCES
YNOT Masters (www.ynotmasters.com)
With nearly 2,000 hand-selected and webmaster-approved listings available in their resource directory, YNOTMasters.com is the place to go when looking for real recommendations on specific services to use, and people to trust. Their webmaster directory allows for members to view other members' listings, add comments about why they would or wouldn't do business with that person - even rate webmasters based upon reputation and experience. Message boards, chat rooms and radio shows round out the offerings available at this long-running webmaster resource, making it definitely one to visit.
Adult Chamber (www.adultchamber.com)
Featured articles written by staff members and outside sources with actual online and business experience, plus an extensive list of webmaster resources, tutorials and recommended sites, definitely puts Adult Chamber on the map as one of the top adult webmaster resources, with high-quality webmaster traffic. Their Getting Started tutorial course is a very helpful start-up educational offering filled with excellent tips on everything from choosing a site name to protecting yourself legally, and everything in between.
WEB-BASED RADIO SHOWS
The Darren Austin Show (www.thedarrenaustinshow.com)
Looking for the 411 on all the latest hot topics and issues happening in the world of the online adult industry? Check in every Monday at 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific for AEBNRadio's Darren Austin Show to listen live, or catch up on all the episodes you've missed in the extensive audio archive. Whether it's clairvoyants, porn stars, gay issues, industry interviews, political protests or special guest hosts, there's always something happening on The Darren Austin Show - so you won't want to miss a single week!
Netpond Show (www.netpondshow.com)
Tune in Wednesdays at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific for interviews with industry webmasters, program owners and experts on a variety of hot topics and issues. Weekly guest-speakers talk on topics such as niche sites, legal issues, industry events and more. Listeners call type in questions via the chat room or call in directly to interact with guests.
EDUCATIONAL TUTORIALS/ARTICLES
Cozy Academy (www.cozyacademy.com)
Designed to be the industry's first real online educational network, Cozy Academy is set up as a funky, friendly, fun way to learn how to get started in the adult industry. The Academy addresses a wide range of webmastering skills in its Cozy Classroom - and even has advanced tips and tutorials that will help you tweak your current business model to get even more out of it. Backed by the Cozy Family of CozyFrog.com and a message board at CozyCampus.com, Cozy Academy is definitely a must-see resource for anyone seeking more knowledge about becoming a successful adult webmaster.
Of course this is just a small sampling of the sites that are dedicated to helping the new webmaster. We should include as well our own Klixxx.com, an online version of our print magazine complete with webmaster message board area, showcased features from our magazine and original Web-based news, tips, co-branded features from leading webmaster resource sites and more! Check out our online resource site for even more resources, links to other helpful sites and weekly tips for today's new webmaster.
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Still, there were a few message boards and sites online that catered to the newbie, and tutorials, online group chats, articles, tip pages and more grew and grew, creating a huge online network of resources and support for anyone who cared to learn about making money on the Web. Those sites slapped up a few sponsorship banners to help pay for bandwidth and make a little bit of money for themselves in the mean time - life was good and it was win-win for everyone involved.
Then along came the BOOM of webmaster resource growth. Resources literally seemed to just drop out of the sky, and soon it was difficult to discern the helpful from the greedy money-grubbers. The increase in resources also began to segregate the Web. Friends followed friends to new boards… enemies added further space and aggregation to their relationships, creating competitive boards… Pretty soon the average person had to visit a minimum of a dozen boards per day, just to communicate with the volume of webmasters they used to be able to reach on a single board. The educational value of the articles, tutorials and other tip-based materials found on each of these copycat sites diminished, giving newbies little to no place to go for help.
What to Look for...
In addition to knowing where to look for webmaster information and support, you will also need to know what to look for as well. Look for step-by-step instructions, tutorials on how to build a basic Web site. You aren't looking for the ultimate moneymaking plan…that doesn't exist.
With regard to site layout, you just want a simple basic rule for the design of a Web site. Specific tutorials are also available on the design structure for a free site, a TGP gallery, a link list site, a paysite tour and other models that you should study depending upon what area of the industry you are going to start with first.
When it comes to purchasing content, you will want a basic primer on the 2257 requirements - something that tells you about basic records keeping, what information you need to have, a basic content license agreement, and what to look out for and avoid. Also, read other webmasters' experienced opinions on the differences between purchasing quality content versus quantity. That's a huge industry debate. You won't find a simple answer to this age-old query, but you will at least get some background information to help you make an informed decision on your own.
Hosting is a big issue - you want to get a quality host, but you don't want to pay more for hosting than you have to, especially on a new webmaster's budget. This is also another good area where getting webmasters' opinions and experiences can be extremely helpful. Don't just take one person's word for it - ask in a community chat room, on-topic discussion or feel free to e-mail webmaster resource site owners for their opinions. Remember an opinion is just one person's experiences and/or thoughts - you need to gather as many opinions as possible in order to make a decision on your own. Don't choose a host simply on price - remember to ask essential questions about things such as down time, location, service assistance and response time. You don't want a host that's down 50% of the time and has unreachable staff. Try e-mailing to ask questions yourself, and see how well they respond - that's usually a pretty fair indicator of the service you can expect as a paying customer.
Choosing an affiliate program to send your traffic to is another huge hurdle. Your best bet, at the beginning at least, is to go with the most popular programs. Again, your fellow webmaster is generally your best resource. Another way to see who would be the most reliable is to look for companies that are highly visible within the community, have staff that are available for questions and support - and has a good reputation within the community for paying their webmasters on time. Once you become more familiar with who is who and who offers what, then you can start choosing sponsors by payout offerings, niche and other specific interests/needs.
Checking out industry message boards, attending online radio shows, visiting regular weekly newbie-based chats, and networking with fellow webmasters at national or regional events can be essential to the survival and education of the new webmaster. Getting to know experienced webmasters who can give you tips, help you avoid typical pitfalls - even tell you about mistakes that they made when they were starting - can really help you get going in the right direction.
However - don't make the mistake of spending too much time networking. Your time is always best spent building, tweaking, getting traffic for, filtering and designing new Web sites and projects. That's where the real money is. Webmasters who spend too much time on the boards and in chat never seem to ever get ahead. Knowing how to find a happy medium or balance between networking and site building is definitely one of the keys to success.
Online Webmastering Courses
Aside from the webmastering tutorials and articles found within the adult community, there are mainstream resources and courses that you can take that may help you in your basic instruction. Helpful sites like HTMLGoodies.com, W3Schools.com and PageTutor.com can be a lifesaver to the new-to-HTML webmaster. Or, if you are looking for some handy WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) software downloads for HTML editor/authoring tools, places like Download.com, Tucows.com and ZDNet.com could become your new best friends. See the article in the Klixxx December issue, Where to Find Free Design Software and Webmaster Resources, on page 64.
A recent article on CNN.com featured a story about online classes at AdultWebmasterSchool.com, a $140 course that claims to have graduated over 2,000 virtual newbies, teaching them how to become successful adult webmasters. Owned and operated by out-of-work dot-bombers, the site was opened in July of 2000 when its creators were laid off from their mainstream dot-com jobs.
The mainstream world can hold a plethora of information and guidance for non-webmasters looking to become webmasters. Your local Barnes and Noble or Borders book stores are filled with how-to books, step-by-step instruction for learning basic HTML design, PhotoShop, Javascript and other useful skills necessary to work well within the industry. You shouldn't limit yourself to just online or adult-only resources, but you should always use true adult industry oriented resources for training on areas such as getting traffic, buying content, site layout/design and other specific needs.
Everything is Educational
But however you learn, wherever you learn it and from whomever you learn it, you should remember one important rule - there ARE no real rules. Outside of legal restrictions, regulations and laws, there is no single required way to build a Web site - adult or otherwise - you are only limited by your own creativity, time and abilities. The more you know, the more you will be able to do. The more you experiment and try new things - the more you will understand through doing.
Don't just build one kind of site and never try anything else. Build a little bit of everything, try a little bit of everything and really get your feet wet with as many niches, site types and traffic programs as you are able. The adult Web has a few years' experience behind it, but it is by no means totally established and set in stone. There are still new things to be tried, new ideas to be thought of and new methods to be discovered. Who knows, you could be the next big trendsetter or discoverer of a new way to make money and generate traffic? If you never try, you'll never know.
Today's new webmaster has a lot of resources, community members and educational materials available at their disposal - all provided to help you get a positive, productive start. Use everything you can get your hands on, and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Visit some of the Web sites mentioned within this article for more information or contact the Klixxx Web site via www.klixxx.com or get in touch with our staff directly via webguru@klixxx.com. There are a lot of people out there who are ready and willing to help you get a good, solid start!
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