Make Money Market Porn For Newbies - Part 2
Before you even begin to market porn, you need to know that there are some things you must never do. Here they are:
- Never post illegal content or any links to illegal content or sites which use this. For most of us, what constitues ‘illegal’ will be a matter or moral ethics and common sense, but to clarify matters, here is a list of some things you should never use or link to:
- Anything which is in any way connected to underage sex, bestiality, rape or torture.
- Anything which promotes hatred and violence or incites others to perform violent acts.
- Anything not fully in compliance with 18 U.S.C. §2257 or any similar statute, law, code, or regulation of any country, province, or jurisdiction worldwide (and if you are not sure on this one - check it out).
- If you are not sure whether the content will be considered illegal, then don’t use it until you have checked it out, preferably with a good lawyer. And if you are given the go ahead, but still wonder about it, best not to use it anyhow, because if it makes you wonder, it will make your surfers wonder too.
- Never use stolen content. That video you’ve seen on another blog or site may be there for viewing, but it is not there for the taking. Here is a short list of what is considered stolen content:
- Videos, video clips, pictures and RSS feeds hosted on a pornsite or blog not belonging to you. In order to post porn video clips, pictures, RSS feeds etc, you need to be signed up with the sponsor providing them. Do not think that by using stolen (or hotlinked) content and putting a link to Paypal on your site you are getting away with it. You will be found out and the little bit of money you have made will be frozen before you can receive it. The adult webmaster industry has a very long and strong grapevine. Legal adult webmasters do our very best to look out for each other, so you will be caught.
- ‘Splogging’ using another blog’s RSS feed on your own blog. You may provide a link back to the original blog, but their content will be on your blog which will have your own affiliate links in the sidebars. Don’t do it. Every stolen feed is tracked back by the original blog owner. We will report you to your sponsors and spread the news about you so that your IP address is banned from our servers.
- Using a picture from flickr, a YouTube video or anything else of a similar nature on a porn blog is also a no no. The picture on flickr may be hosted under ‘Creative Commons’ licence for commercial use, but that does not necessarily mean that the owner wishes their content to be used on a porn blog. Ask first and abide by the answer. In any case, if you are serious about making money selling porn, you will not want to be using other people’s work and linking to them (as, of course, you have to do). It’s a wasted link (all outward links should serve a purpose to benefit you) and you should be posting pictures and videos provided by a sponsor with your sponsor affiliate link. That’s the only way you will make real money when you market porn.
- Using pictures you have on your computer which you downloaded from a ‘free share’ site is another thing you should never do. Someone, somewhere at some time took those photographs, either for personal use or as part of their own commercial venture. They are not yours to use online. Just because the content is on the web does not make it free to take. It never makes it free to take and use to make money out of. You do not have a licence to use these products. Do not use them.
- Never post pictures or videos of yourself, either naked or engaging in sexual activity in order to sell porn unless you have a licence and all legal paperwork to do so. You know you are an adult. In most cases, everyone who views your pictures will know, just by looking at you, that you are an adult. But you do not have the ‘legal proof’ according to 18 U.S.C. §2257 regulations or jurisdiction covering your own country of origin. Unless you prepare paperwork, with a lawyer, to prove you are covered by these laws, if you are using pictures or videos of yourself to market and sell porn for profit, you are doing it illegally.
- Never use ‘Spam’ to promote porn. Porn sponsors have been prosecuted and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars because a small number of their affiliates have used spam (mass unsolicited email) to get sales. All reputable porn sponsors have a zero tolerance policy for spam. Many porn sponsors do not permit any email promotion at all (check their terms of service). Others allow promotion by email if the person who receives the email has requested that you send it to them. Under this latter definition, if the person contacts you or answers an email link on your blog or site and requests further details, you must send them an email with an ‘opt in’ link. If the person still wishes to receive emails from you, they are obliged to click the ‘opt in’ link (or respond saying that yes, they still wish to receive your products by email). This demonstrates that they have not only requested an email from you, but they have then confirmed that request (a ‘double opt in’). You must also have it noted very clearly on each email that the receiver has the right to opt out of receiving further emails at any time and that you will cancel all further posts once they have informed you of this. If any of this sounds confusing, please read up on the CAN-SPAM Act. It is vital that you know exactly what it entails.
- Never post a porn blog or site on a free host which does not allow adult material (or who has rather indefinite terms regarding ‘adult’). Never post a commercial blog of any description on a free host which does not allow commercial blogs. For example, you can post ‘adult’ blogs (erotica) on Wordpress.com, but you cannot use affiliate links in your posts or advertise commercially in any way. You can post commercial blogs on Blogger, but Blogger’s definition of adult is subject to change and can be interpreted differently according to who is doing the banning and deleting of blogs that day. Erotic blogs, which consist mainly of stories and the odd teasing picture, can have affiliate links to adult products (sex toys, books, dating sites, etc) and are usually safe. However, they must post a warning notice and declare their blog as ‘adult’. But it only takes one person to flag them as ‘obscene’ and the blog can, at Blogger’s discretion, be deleted without notice. You have to ask yourself, is it worth the risk? I would say no. Either get yourself some cheap hosting on somewhere like Hostgator (which does allow porn - you need to check this out with hosting too, many hosts do not), or sign up for a free blog host which does allow you to post porn and gives you all the help it can to succeed, like Thumblogger.
So those are the main things you should never do when you market porn. Now, what are the Things You Must Do?
- Always read a sponsor’s Terms and Conditions thoroughly and abide by them. They are not all the same (the email rules above are just one example). All will follow the rules I have listed above, but some will have rules of their own in addition to these. For example, if you read some of my earlier posts you will find that I get quite hacked off because many sponsors refuse to have me as an affiliate because I come from one of their ‘banned countries’. This being the case, I can never sign up with those sponsors anyway, but there are other sponsors who have different rules on this. You may note that some of my sponsors welcome me as an affiliate, but will not sign up any of my surfers who I send to them from Europe (for instance). You need to be aware of terms like this, so that you can find ways to aim your promotions elsewhere (if you possibly can), or perhaps give this sponsor a miss and look somewhere else.
- Keep in touch with your sponsors. Most porn sponsors use affilate reps, whose job it is to answer questions and give advice to those affiliates asigned to them. Use them. If you have a query, or a problem promoting a particular site, see if they can help you with that promotion. They have (usually) been chosen for their job because they have good experience in this field. Use that experience to your own advantage. Also, if you have problems with any tools used by a sponsor, tell them about it. They may not always be able to fix things right away, but they have been made aware of it. All of this goes towards building a relationship with a sponsor which you will both benefit from.
That, for now is a whole list of rules of what you must and mustn’t do when you market porn to make money. Not very exciting, I know, but essential. If I have missed anything you think is important, then please let me know.
The next post in this series of Make Money Market Porn For Newbies will be more interesting, I promise, because now we all have an understanding of the rules of porn marketing, we can get down to the serious business of making money online. 
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[...] now we are clear on what you need to do and what you must never do when you try to make money as you market porn, let’s look at what you will need to do this [...]