GFY Educational Series: Marketing Solo Girl Sites

[S P A N N O W]

I. INTRODUCTION
II. SURFER vs. CUSTOMER
III. RIDES vs. MOVIES
IV. CONTENT MANAGEMENT
V. SOCIAL NETWORKING
VI. INTEGRATION
VII. MARKETING
VIII. LEVERAGING
IX. CONCLUSION

I. INTRODUCTION
This GFY Educational Series segment will discuss the fundamental business principles necessary to successfully promote solo girl web sites. It should be noted that these principles or factors are essential not just for this industry niche but apply to any industry, niche, or product. These factors are the foundation upon which we build something great! The subject matter ranges from an analysis of the customer, to the evolution of the business model, how social networking plays into it, creating an experience beyond downloading files, leveraging and integrating it all together. To stay competitive in the marketplace you have to provide a diversified product by integrating the latest technology and trends into a seamless experience. Only by conducting comprehensive self-analysis and improvement on a regular basis can anyone expect to stay one step ahead of competition.

[S P A N N O W]

II. SURFER vs. CUSTOMER
One of the first factors we focus on is what many loosely refer to as the "surfer". Things have definitely changed and the surfer from just a few years ago has evolved into a very sophisticated potential customer with a discerning eye for bullshit, scams, phishing and the like. If there's any hint of dishonesty the customer is gone - never to return. The surfer has indeed evolved and we must evolve with them or loose them forever. The first step in our evolution is to respect the customer as a "customer" and no longer the derogatory surfer. The customer is the key component in our transaction. Without the customer there is no business. Start to think like a customer and evaluate your own product(s) - would you join? Would you rebill? Consider what the customer wants to see and create that environment whatever it takes and you will see the difference in your bottom line, even in a tough economy you might be down but certainly not out! Taking into account obvious economic and other factors the solo girl niche is as competitive today as it ever has been. It's nearly impossible to throw up a web site with a dozen photosets and videos, no updates, no involvement from the model, call it a solo site and expect success. Program owners are faced with the daunting challenge of constantly adapting to an ever-changing landscape or closing their doors forever. Photo content, by itself, is static and cliche. Although to a lesser extent the same holds true for video content. The million dollar question right now is "what does the customer want that they're still willing to actually pay for?"

III. RIDES vs. MOVIES
Solo girl sites tend to offer a static "movie" type of experience. "This is what we offer - watch it whenever you like - as many times as you please" and that can get boring very quickly unless the site is flooded with new content almost daily (ergo a tube-type model). Rather than a movie, if your focus is on creating an amusement park "ride" per se, then each person takes away something unique for themselves after each visit. It can be described and shared in a limited way but never truly appreciated until you experience the ride for yourself. This is what sets apart the garden variety site from a viral explosion! Kate Ground and Tawnee Stone are just two early examples of explosions that set the bar for solo girl sites and helped to formulate the niche into what it is today. They provided lots of exclusive content and that used to be enough. In fact the only obstacles back then to a customer saving all the .zips and videos at their convenience were low bandwidth capabilities, limited storage devices and inferior streaming or CoDec technology. Streaming is old hat now. Similarly storage and bandwidth are less expensive and getting cheaper every day! Everyone has a giant gigabyte or terabyte external as well so for a customer to login and download all of your material, cancel and move on the the next site is painfully easy anymore and the first real hard-knock lesson many new site owners learn. The question then becomes what can we, as a business, provide our customers that transcends the downloadable file dynamic? The answer is quite simply a fun ride! Very early iterations of this concept were the proto-personality sites of Next Door Nikki and Raven Riley. That idea began incorporating components, beyond simply content, into the web site intended to create an atmosphere or experience. Eventually as the personality site model permeated throughout the Internet web sites which continued to only provide static content appeared obsolete next to these newly enhanced web sites. We're beginning to see hints of the evolutionary next step in the solo girl site model in the form of reality-tv meets integrated social networks meets customer participation. Natalie Sins and Got Gisele are two great examples of this. Today we look for models that don't just shoot content but tweet, facebook, blog, make live appearances at events and meet and greet fans to name a few of the real-world things successful models are doing today. The mental fantasies of the last generation that drove those customers to signup are no longer enough. The new fantasy is a virtual relationship with the girl perpetuated by her responding to customer messages, requests and comments via livecams or direct responses. Anything and everything that feeds into the fantasy is golden = monetizes! After all what we're really talking about here is the dove-tailing of two individual markets = the internet web site and the fetish role-playing world. Today we can accomplish this merger in a "live site" version 1 let's call it. The models role-play an interested, flirtatious pseudo-friend and the customer a charming, true friend who just cares about her well-being.

[S P A N N O W]

IV. CONTENT MANAGEMENT
The frequency of updates is another very important factor specifically when it comes to rebills. Web sites can't get by anymore with "regular" or once a week updates. Now and days the customer is not only accustomed to real-time everything but they demand interaction and frequent updates with material suited to them and their needs. A perfect example of this can be found in the mobile markets. Customers now expect all content to be compatible with their mobile devices and if you don't provide it someone else will - count on that! The challenge to site owners is to generate enough material to "stock the shelves" if you will and enough dynamic social interaction as to feel active. If you can do that your site will succeed. If you can't you might consider an exciting career in electronics... Automation is the key in terms of frequency. Automate as much as you possibly can keeping your overhead under control and saving you money. Naturally there are elements that will never be automated such as interaction with the model but you get the point. Not every site or program needs a CMS but if and when you do, shop around for the best program that suits your specific needs. Shopping for a CMS is a lot like shopping for shoes - buy something that will grow with you because you never know where you will be in a year and tight shoes suck!

V. SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social networking isn't going anywhere, sure the platform people use will change over time, the fact remains it's here to stay! Lately this is where many customers swim around all day from one reef to another, sometimes in schools and sometimes alone. Study them, learn their habits, discover how to hook 'em and reel them in! Something I read all the time is, "...how do I make money off of Facebook? Twitter? Youtube? Blogging? Or before that MySpace?" In my experience that's entirely the wrong approach. Trying to work those networks and make money singularly off any of them is not worth the effort you put into it. Alternatively you ought to let those networks pull their resources collectively and work for you, at your convenience. Now that's more like it! By integrating them all into your web site you are essentially creating a small network of your own! As long as everything funnels back into your site you'll be fine. Note you will have some traffic leaks unique to each individual social network that you won't be able to do anything about - make peace with it. Do enough on each network to appear active, automate the rest and watch it grow.

[S P A N N O W]

VI. INTEGRATION
Time is the only commodity that is truly irreplaceable. Your time is just as important as the models time, never forget that! However, understanding that your lives are driven by totally different goals is also critical. With both of those points in mind the objective should always be to make as small a footprint on each others time as possible so you both can go on and do what you do. This is possible right now like no other time before in our history. The integration of various technologies and resources into one focal conduit like your web site driven by something like a mobile device is the key to firing on all cylinders. So let's assume you've got the model in the bag, your integrated through and through, you have a truly unique experience designed and deployed and it's taking members, now what?

VII. MARKETING
The greatest web site in the world will fail if nobody knows it exists. The solution is marketing! It's academic that you must vigilantly promote your web site in order to draw as many potential new customers as you can while retaining the customers you already have. How do you successfully market your site is the real trick. There is no magic one-step to stardom short of a plug on TMZ or media scandal and even then nothing's guaranteed! A thorough marketing campaign is comprised of several contributing factors that all work in concert with one another and each guides the customer in the same direction until they reach the desired target. In other words there's no shortcut to success, if your product is in demand, the aforementioned good old fashioned business principles and elbow grease will get you there.

[S P A N N O W]

VIII. LEVERAGING
If you get signups every week your site has value. The fact that you're making sales in a recession means you've got eyeballs on your product and that's something that many pay top dollar for, and still fail. Although your traffic might not be on par yet to trade with the big leagues you most definitely can wheel and deal at a peer level and get some reciprocal magic happening. A funny thing happens when you start trading on your brand, the more sites you recip with the more people want to do business with you - imagine that! Before long you might find that you have very strong branding. When you find yourself in this position there are two things you must remember 1) don't be a dick! And having said that, 2) don't be afraid to leverage your brand to get what's best for you either! You'd be amazed at how many are embarrassed to leverage themselves for fear it'll make them look mean or greedy. You've worked hard to get where you are now get what you deserve, nicely <- it can be done.

IX. CONCLUSION
Always remember that the fundamental business principles and factors discussed here, while necessary to successfully promote solo girl web sites, are universally applicable to any industry, niche, or product. The principles of respecting the customer, anticipating and filling their evolving needs will never change, ever! You should have a grasp on customer analysis, the business model's evolution and future trending, how social networking plays into your campaign, creating an experience beyond downloading files, leveraging and integrating everything together. Self-analyze and improve yourself on a regular basis, stay focused on the customer experience, never lose sight of who's paying who here and you will stay one step ahead of competition and more importantly - succeed!

[JFK]

this thread is worthless without ...................

[Relentless]

Nice writeup. Bookmarked!

[myjah]

Thank you Mark! Great information applicable across multiple fields. Appreciate your contribution.

[CaptainHowdy]

I love you, Spannow...

[RyuLion]

Wow man, don't give too many secrets! lol..

[Roald]

Nice one!

[crazytrini85]

Excellent post, thank you.

How many photo sets and videos do you think it takes in todays market to OPEN a solo girl site? Day 1, what does it take in todays market?

[Roald]

Originally Posted by RyuLion

Wow man, don't give too many secrets! lol..

All these secrets are worthless without a girl who is willing to work her ass off to succeed

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by crazytrini85

Excellent post, thank you.

How many photo sets and videos do you think it takes in todays market to OPEN a solo girl site? Day 1, what does it take in todays market?

That's a question that's really open for debate. However, imho, you can open a site with a little as 10 photosets and 5 videos. How much you open with isn't nearly as important as how often you update. For example, if I were to open a site today with 10 pics and 5 vids but I update it 2 or 3 times a week with new content then who cares how much I opened with - the customer knows immediately that the content library is going to grow rapidly and they keep rebilling. Add to that social network interaction and possibly livecams and you've got nothing to worry about. It's better to get your product on store shelves now than to wait for years until it's meticulously, anal-retentive perfect...

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Great post Mark!!!

ADG

[crazytrini85]

Originally Posted by S P A N N O W

That's a question that's really open for debate. However, imho, you can open a site with a little as 10 photosets and 5 videos. How much you open with isn't nearly as important as how often you update. For example, if I were to open a site today with 10 pics and 5 vids but I update it 2 or 3 times a week with new content then who cares how much I opened with - the customer knows immediately that the content library is going to grow rapidly and they keep rebilling. Add to that social network interaction and possibly livecams and you've got nothing to worry about. It's better to get your product on store shelves now than to wait for years until it's meticulously, anal-retentive perfect...

Thanks for the reply.

That has always been my approach with general paysites (get it up and open and update along the way) but I have zero experience with solo sites, always wondered if the type of consumer who joined those demanded more.

[crazytrini85]

Another question, and I know it often depends on the model, but what are your thoughts on hardcore solo sites vs non hardcore vs extreme tease sites?

So many different sites out there and I have been attracted to all types but I have been unable to pin point why I will accept LESS from one girl but not from another.

[S P A N N O W]

Thx everyone!

Originally Posted by Roald

All these secrets are worthless without a girl who is willing to work her ass off to succeed

Roald that's exactly right, and finding that girl is an endless quest!

[D Ghost]

Nice read Spannow!

[crazytrini85]

Thanks again for the great info.

[trevesty]

Originally Posted by Roald

All these secrets are worthless without a girl who is willing to work her ass off to succeed

Motherfucking words of wisdom!

Hard to come by.. Gisele and Violet are two of the hardest workers I know.. along with Janessa Brazil and a couple others.


emphasis on the "I know"

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by crazytrini85

Another question, and I know it often depends on the model, but what are your thoughts on hardcore solo sites vs non hardcore vs extreme tease sites?

So many different sites out there and I have been attracted to all types but I have been unable to pin point why I will accept LESS from one girl but not from another.

Sometimes model's convey their reservations about going totally nude. They ask if non-nude sites even exist, is it even possible to make anything if a girl doesn't get totally naked or do hardcore things. I tell them that yes, non-nude sites do exist and, depending on the model or niche, they can do very well. HOWEVER, in order to be a successful NN model you have to be solid 10 or better! Or if they don't want to be totally nude but only show topless then their face and breasts had better be a 10 or better, you get the idea. Those aren't MY rules per se, only the nature of the beast we work in.

Secondly, a solo model can be successful doing hardcore and, again depending on the model, she can even be successful fucking the same bf or husband in all her content IF she's exceptional, ala Wifeys World. Anything short of that level of looks, performance and quality is going to have relay on a rare niche or some other magical secret weapon...

[SteveLightspeed]

Good info Spannow!

[RyuLion]

Originally Posted by Roald

All these secrets are worthless without a girl who is willing to work her ass off to succeed

Tell me about it!

Hey did you get to my email?
I told you, you should arrange your emails from A to Z man..

[SteveHardeman]

Thanks. Great post.

[NinjaSteve]

Great post man. It's interesting to hear how social networking and updates affect the site.

[Roald]

Originally Posted by RyuLion

Tell me about it!

Hey did you get to my email?
I told you, you should arrange your emails from A to Z man..

Got it, Petra is probably going to hit you up about it

[Elli]

The girl is a pretty critical component, I think. You can make a solo site about a pizza box more exciting than some solo girl sites out there. If she's got personality though, that can make up for other things that may be lacking (no hardcore, a bit out of shape, etc).

As for opening a site brand new? I would pre-populate it with at least a few months of content, and still offer it at an "introductory" price. Let the guys know that if they stay, they're locked in at that price forever so they don't want to cancel. But once you get up to a good supply of content, up your price point to reflect that. Better to do it that way than face a bunch of cancellations from guys who didn't realize how empty the members area was because the site is brand new. Those are just my thoughts, anyway.

Great article Spannow!

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by Elli

The girl is a pretty critical component, I think. You can make a solo site about a pizza box more exciting than some solo girl sites out there. If she's got personality though, that can make up for other things that may be lacking (no hardcore, a bit out of shape, etc).

As for opening a site brand new? I would pre-populate it with at least a few months of content, and still offer it at an "introductory" price. Let the guys know that if they stay, they're locked in at that price forever so they don't want to cancel. But once you get up to a good supply of content, up your price point to reflect that. Better to do it that way than face a bunch of cancellations from guys who didn't realize how empty the members area was because the site is brand new. Those are just my thoughts, anyway.

Great article Spannow!

Thanks Elli!

The model is indeed the engine that drives the web site given the tools you provide her. I completely agree that personality goes a long way and can make a good model great and a great model a star! All the same, a lack of personality or bad attitude can reduce a stunning girl into a bore or otherwise diminish her popularity just as quickly. The trick is finding a personable model with the commitment to stick to it, it's an eternal search, as discussed here earlier. But once you do have that special girl though and all your ducks are in a row everything else should fall right into place, smartly.

In terms of depth-of-content naturally we'd all love to open with vast libraries of material but that isn't always practical or possible at the time. So we work within our own capabilities and use the resources we do have access to. Therefore it's not unheard of to open for business with a handful of material and hit the ground running with good updates - that can still deliver in terms of conversion and retention. Just like a compensatory personality, the frequency and quality of updates often makes up for lack of content depth...

[Evil Chris]

Awesome step-by-step info Spannow, thanks!

[Ad-Min]

Bookmarked,thank you.

[Yngwie]

Very informative thread. A while back I thought of an idea that would work great for solo girl sites (just my opinion) and would help make them more $. Of course, I haven't mentioned this idea to anyone for a couple reasons. 1. It may be a great idea and get "stolen". (haha) or 2. The idea completely suck or not really doable.

Nevertheless, this thread has a lot of great information.

[S P A N N O W]

Ty guys!

Originally Posted by Yngwie

Very informative thread. A while back I thought of an idea that would work great for solo girl sites (just my opinion) and would help make them more $. Of course, I haven't mentioned this idea to anyone for a couple reasons. 1. It may be a great idea and get "stolen". (haha) or 2. The idea completely suck or not really doable.

Nevertheless, this thread has a lot of great information.

Appreciate the feedback Yngwie! Naturally we all have concepts or other intellectual properties that we hold back in a trade-secret sort of way. This is why, although it's cool to do these sort of "Educational Series" that cover mostly theory, it's up to the individual to follow through on their end and connect all the dots for themselves - it's all part of the invaluable learning process...

Now about that idea of yours... Lesstalk!

[Ethersync]

Great post.

[harvey]

very nice post

[Grapesoda]

Hi Mark!!!

[Mutt]

there are more ways to skin a cat than one - the social media/networking sites do offer an opportunity for girls and webmasters to go out and promote directly to potential customers. how many girls, especially the teens(18-22) who do solo model sites are up for this over a long period of time? a very small % of them. how many sales a day can a girl/webmaster do a day, week after week, month after month, year after year? i wouldn't do solo sites if i was basing my success/failure on social media/network promotion. I don't expect any girl I do a site to base her life around her site, they have other things to do, imposing a life online on girls that age is unrealistic. there are some who can and will do it, usually the girls who are hot or cute enough to see the immediate rewards. Keeping a girl interested and motivated when she is getting checks from CCBILL that total 300 dollars a month is impossible. Not many girls are going to stick with it making what they could make on a cam site in a night.

the affiliate base for solo girl sites has shrunk considerably in the three and a half years since I launched Dawson Miller, I'd say at most that solo girl affiliate base is 40% of what it was 3 years ago. Hoping it's not worse than that. I bought one of the really solid solo girl free sites a couple of months ago, Bodsforthemods.com off my friend Jonathan. Now I can see the solo site world from the view of an affiliate. Updates - if you can't update your solo girl site with at least TWO solid updates a week you're losing out and when I mean updates I mean a full photoset or a full video not some wallpaper or an addition to your 'friends' section or an archived camshow. Quality of content, it does count. Some of the content I see is horrid, blurry photography, zits. Nothing wrong with 'amateur' content, better in many cases, but there's still a level of quality that needs to be there.

That lost '60%' of sales can't be made up with social networking - impossible. 10% is what I think can be made up, a rare girl like Ariel Rebel who lives her life as Ariel the model can push more. All this bs that MyFreeCams drives a ton of sales to a girl's solo site - it's bs, I've seen it, it doesn't do it. The ONLY way to make up that missing 60% is to be able to reach out beyond the fairly small world of solo girl site webmasters and offer PPS on trials. Then your world opens up to affiliates, whales, who almost never promote revshare solo girl sites. Not something I can do, financially/risk wise, nor do I have the acumen in the processing end of thing to do it.

And finally, it's still all about the girl, she's the product, whatever 'it' is she has to have 'it'. Surfers decide, I used to think you could throw 10,000 surfers at any solo girl site and the results would be fairly similar. Running Bods for the past couple of months I see that is really not true. There are only a handful of girls on Bods that sell consistently and I wait for new updates from them because I know sales will be coming.

Nikki and Madden sell the best for Bods and talking to other webmasters in the niche most have the same results. Nikki is a no brainer, she's been a mega-star from the beginning and she looks better today than she ever has, big natural boobs on a pretty girl - KA CHING!!! Madden is more of a mystery to me, she's Non-Nude, and small chested - I'd have not predicted stardom for her. She does have the pretty midwestern girl next door thing going for her but if she sent me an email wanting to do a non-nude site I'd have passed. I don't think Nikki or Madden do much of the social networking thing, they are interactive with their members through their weekly camshows and update with good content consistently.

[GJ_Servers]

Great post & thread! Thanks.

[billywatson]

I would never, ever open a solo-girl site. I've never known anyone (directly) who's opened one that's been a positive experience...mine included.

[S P A N N O W]

I couldn't agree more, well said Mutt.

As with anything in business "one size" is never going to "fit all" so again, it's up to the individual to glean the information they deem valuable here, apply it to their programs or sites and make it happen.

As far as how social networking fits into it, I don't know about you but nearly all the young girls we've run across in the last 5+ years - all they do all day is text, tweet and Facebook. So for us it was less an issue of how do we make these girls play on these networks and more an issue of how can we fit into what they're already doing, make it not seem like work and everyone benefit from it.

The models are always going to do their thing despite what anyone wants them to do, it's all about making small footprints in each others lives.

[Yngwie]

Originally Posted by S P A N N O W

Ty guys!



Appreciate the feedback Yngwie! Naturally we all have concepts or other intellectual properties that we hold back in a trade-secret sort of way. This is why, although it's cool to do these sort of "Educational Series" that cover mostly theory, it's up to the individual to follow through on their end and connect all the dots for themselves - it's all part of the invaluable learning process...

Now about that idea of yours... Lesstalk!

feel free to hit me up on icq - 16544251. The idea is nothing huge, but just a little something that I think would make $.

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by S P A N N O W

I don't know about you but nearly all the young girls we've run across in the last 5+ years - all they do all day is text, tweet and Facebook. So for us it was less an issue of how do we make these girls play on these networks and more an issue of how can we fit into what they're already doing, make it not seem like work and everyone benefit from it.

well............ there's a difference between the social networking the girls do for their own lives and social networking to promote themselves and their sites.

i am talking to a girl who is a one girl social network unto herself, she is everywhere and her life is already like a reality TV show. she has been going back and forth with herself for months now as far as going nude for a solo site. lately she's definitely leaning towards doing it. so i talked to her in more specifics, what she wanted from doing a site, the heat she would take, what type of site etc - so she told me she can handle the nudity, but wants her site to be like a tv show, where she can talk to her fans, then said 'i don't want porn creeps' hahahaha so i said 'um......... porn creeps are most of the people who will join your site, there's no money without them, if you don't want porn creeps you should just get a nice blog and keep doing your youtube videos'

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by Mutt

well............ there's a difference between the social networking the girls do for their own lives and social networking to promote themselves and their sites.

i am talking to a girl who is a one girl social network unto herself, she is everywhere and her life is already like a reality TV show. she has been going back and forth with herself for months now as far as going nude for a solo site. lately she's definitely leaning towards doing it. so i talked to her in more specifics, what she wanted from doing a site, the heat she would take, what type of site etc - so she told me she can handle the nudity, but wants her site to be like a tv show, where she can talk to her fans, then said 'i don't want porn creeps' hahahaha so i said 'um......... porn creeps are most of the people who will join your site, there's no money without them, if you don't want porn creeps you should just get a nice blog and keep doing your youtube videos'

Interesting, I see no difference between the social networking the girls do for their own lives and social networking to promote themselves and their sites, go figure. In fact that type of personal life stuff has even more value on a site because it sets the stage for customers that "she really lives here - on this web site". A real fan wants to see, read and know everything about the girl, especially things that are (perceived as) not directly meant for the site. Then it all comes off as "private", "secret" or even privileged information and that speaks to the voyeur in them like a LOUDSPEAKER = REBILL!

To each their own though...

[CaptainHowdy]

Keepin' this one on top...

[Nikki_Licks]

Great post! Thanks for taking the time to write this up and share with us.

Bump to the top

[Elli]

Great additional posts in this thread!

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by CaptainHowdy

I love you, Spannow...

Your money's on the dresser I'm done with you!

Heh, j/k love you right back CH!

Originally Posted by Nikki_Licks

Great post! Thanks for taking the time to write this up and share with us. Bump to the top

Originally Posted by Elli

Great additional posts in this thread!

Thanks folks, just keeping the room entertained until the band starts...

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by S P A N N O W

Solo girl sites tend to offer a static "movie" type of experience. "This is what we offer - watch it whenever you like - as many times as you please" and that can get boring very quickly unless the site is flooded with new content almost daily.

Bingo.

Without some excitement a site is dead.

[Mr. Romance]

School is in session! Well done my brother

Mr. Romance

[S P A N N O W]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Bingo.

Without some excitement a site is dead.

I've always believed that and it's why when we create something new it's important to always convey some level of real-time activity. It speaks to the current and potential members and that's reflected in new signups and continued rebills.

Originally Posted by Mr. Romance

School is in session! Well done my brother

Mr. Romance

Thx Gerrard, we'll touch base soon too about that thing we were talking about the other day!