Yes I know. Been in the biz for 9 years.
Did it backwards by today's standards where you do a paysite last (AVS, TGP, other sites first). It's a lot harder now a days than you think. If you a newbie to the industry as a whole, honestly you might wanna follow some of the guides laid out on here for the years, and do a search. You really need to learn marketing 101, and then how best to set up sites, and what does and doesn't convert, traffic patterns, your niche, and what makes it, and so forth.
If you make your own content, it can be expensive, and if you are not shooting what your niche wants, you are wasting a lot of money, and may not know it until you've blown a couple of grand.
If you are buying it, you may not spend as much, but a site full of shit that doesn't directly cater to what you are pushing is also a waste.
My recommendation in the adult biz of online for today and newbies would be to do what other's have recommended on here, and find out everything you can about whatever niche you are planning for your long term. For example, if you wanted to do foot fetish (my niche, don't know much about others), you would want to go start a tgp, avs, or something to that effect. See what sets do and don't convert, which tours, galleries, promos convert. Study your traffic patterns, and alike, and then you would have a good feel of what to expect. If you are lucky, and you get a lot of members, or visistors e-mailing you, they will help guide you to where you need to be.
Then after some time, you have a good feel for where your traffic comes from, what your paying members want, and hopefully some nice traffic you can then push off to any other projects/pay websites you are planning in the future. Having a site with some nice traffic that you can push off to future endevors is key. But you have to know the basics of the biz, and would be best served starting on something small, w/ little out of pocket. That way when you see how much work is involved, and if you decide in 3-6 months this isn't for you, you are not out major bling.
Just my
