Hardened members script. Or have fun paying your bandwidth bill the first time your ditsy htpassword file gets hacked. Good server admins can probably do this themselves. Popular porn sites come under near constant attack- good server admins can make excellent money doing pen-testing and hardening.

Some Adult sites- say an Amateur site, can be competitive with far less expensive design and code- because you can swap out tour images and text pitches to refine it. You already have a certain USP in having an exclusive model so don't need to rely on so heavily on design to differentiate your product.

If you plan to be competitive in a very crowded niche, with many similar looking services, you will need a high-end designer and CMS. Hiring this designer will be something you advertise that will cause affiliates to join your program. They may not know you, but they have promoted other sites by this designer so know how it will convert. So aside from the hard numbers, it is a marketing tool to attract affiliates.

Top designer guy:
http://www.wyldesites.com
He charges in the 5k+ range I was discussing and has a very long waiting list.

Standard paysite CMS:
https://www.adultinterface.com/pricing

So either all the top players in a multi-billion dollar industry are dumber than you, or perhaps you are making assumptions in an industry you have never successfully worked in. In much the same way that people make assumptions about Bitcoin without fully researching it. Opening a penny-ante hobby site, is different from earning a living off of it- or running a corporation behind it.

As you can see, there is good money to be made in adult coding- which is why I advised a code based project, over a much more competitive design and marketing based one. But you gentleman have it all figured out so can come up with something far better.


18 U.S.C. 2257, 28 CFR § 75.6 (a)
Bitcoin and 2257 violations are not a good combo. Even if you only have eight videos it's not a formality- they enforce. People who play it fast and loose with documentation, or use content of unknown origin tend to be quickly blacklisted by the industry. No one wants to to down with your ship.

Whether or not I am completely ignorant about Adult sites, and starting a successful, competitive one is as easy as some claim is an easy thing to verify. Give it a shot. Get back to us with your results.

An adult website designer is someone who specialized in high-conversion site designs. Conversion ratio is the percentage of people who visit your site, to those whom signup. It is expressed at 1/500 etc. Better quality traffic improves your conversion ration, as does website design.

A reputable Adult site designer will have a portfolio of sites with community known conversion rates. Their skills are honed by designing, then refining hundreds of sites through multi-variant testing. The top designers have waiting lists several months long- and the hard numbers to justify it. An inexpensive designer may convert at 1/2000, and expensive one at 1/700.

Since conversions are recurring income, and designers are a one time expense, it is seldom worth saving yourself a small amount of money, and losing far more every month for the duration of that designs use. The most basic of newbie mistakes is DIY design, the design pays for itself faster than anything.


I'm sure you don't. That's why this is a profession and everyone can't just walk up and get rich.


Of course, it's easy. Most people just never think of putting up a template, a few stock scripts and grabbing 10% of the market. Kudos to you for being the first to try.


You used a free forum script (SMF), and changed one image in a stock template (Dziner). So you can use FTP, congratulations. This is the basis for your rather unrealistic assessment of your skill set.


Yes. Failing to understand even what defines a "better" design, or how that is quantified, you are unlikely to achieve it.


You won't be able to use a stock CMS for a live streaming chat application. It's not like your site where you uploaded a single folder and that was it.

A more frighting example of the Dunning–Kruger effect I have never seen. It's a bit like watching a train wreck.

Sure, let us all know how that works out for you.

To anyone actually considering and capable of undertaking this project, I'd offer the following.

A membership site requires an adult designer (3-4k) and a custom CMS (2-4k), a membership management script capable of taking Bitcoin (1k if hardened). It makes no sense to offer shares (recurring income) for a one time expense.

If you build a site, it will then be on the radar of the large players- that's where they look. They think it terms of competing websites- not competing apps. So you've just substantially shortened your lead by announcing that your business model will work on their websites just fine. So their coders will get cracking. This website won't get any traffic without an affiliate program, that cuts into profits and requires a large advertising budget to get the word out to potential affiliates (1k month).

This is one of the problems with businesses started with outside capital- it's easy to spend other peoples money. If it was their own money the developers would come up with something simple and clever, if they have funding- lets have a money fight. If they don't get sacks of money, they claim they can't start anything because no one will fund them.

A simple App website advertising it's functionality (if you use the same UI designer as the app it saves money), and providing a Market link is sufficient. Ideally it's creation would be paid for by income generated from just the initial Android app. Done properly it requires more skill and planning than it does capital. The other guys always have more capital so it's a lousy tool to try and compete with.

All you need is a mobile app programmer, a lawyer and probably a UI designer- the latter two are a one time expense. There's really no need management or any additional staff beyond a single developer/owner. No one else is needed and they will just cannibalize profits and hurt growth. There is no reason this can't be bootstrapped by a single developer. The other skills required are modest, one time expenses.

I'm sure I'm the one they are laughing it.

No, I act that way when people are not just dismissive- but rude to those who take the time to offer professional, qualified advice.


Look, anyone who wants to do this for real just ignore Vegetta's silly bloated proposal and get Mobile app coder and a lawyer.

1. The first hurdle for cams is talent. First you need to lower the barriers for entry to them. Right now, between faxed releases and IDs it's at least a week- plenty of time to change their mind or be talked out of it. You want impulse, low barrier adoption. Cute 20-something are interesting going shopping now- regular income and sitting around is a tough sell (attendance in most Adult businesses goes up 20% the last week, and down 20% the first week of the month because of rent money- few workers have any savings or any interest in it). Quick cash for what they want, and what they can't get under current business models.

2. Most men who buy porn, cohabitant.

1 and 2 have been the case for quite some time, the following are recent developments that the industry has not moved to take advantage of due to legacy technology investments and complacency.

3. Most hot girls, don't use computers anymore- this is key. Only three of my ladies own computers at home- and all are avid internet users.

4. Wireless cellular broadband is widespread, and cheap.

5. The most recent generation of smartphones have a front facing camera and support two way video chat.

6. The rear, built in high resolution cameras are of sufficient resolution to photograph anf upload an ID.

7. With text scrolling on the screen, the front facing camera can record and upload a video of a model reciting an oral contract.

8. Bitcoin is the ideal- and only practical means of payment as getting merchant account approval for the above would be nearly impossible. The product is unique enough that clients would have an incentive to tackle Bitcoin adoption hurdles. The product is largely made possible by the introduction of Bitcoin.

9. It would not even be necessary to charge a percentage. The ladies would be willing to accept fairly low exchange rates simply for convenience. If they on a moments notice they can put their phone on the end of the bad for 20 minutes, and make either 2BTC or go spend $20 instantly in Amazon- nearly all will choose the later. Shipping would go to the name and address on the photo ID- helping to ensure it's veracity.

10. Pull based. Instead of 20 women waiting around for an 8 hour shift for some guys to show up (and expecting to be compensated for such), they can receive phone notification when the surfer to performer ratio drops below a certain level. During these times which would be more lucrative to be on cam, and increase their average earnings per hour by allowing them to stay offline during off-peak times.

11. Smartphone users are a higher income demographic than computer users.

Benefits:

A single downloadable application can enable a woman to- on an impulse, start making money within minutes.

It allows men to engage in interactive adult chat without being tied to computer that their partner might walk in on.

You would not need a website, or any affiliate marketing.

No need to deal with talent management and associated headaches.

The ladies working from home, when they choose, without set hours would be considered "Independent"- this would have market appeal.

There are no larger players that could take your market share due the the way the app adoption works- you will have far more downloads, more installs, so will maintain a lead over any late comers. You will also be able to stay ahead of the development curve, leaving them to play catch up.

Comparatively low startup costs and monthly overhead. A single server, running Red or Wowza, a single- if somewhat complex app that can be reverse engineered from parts of other already existing apps. A single Android version would suffice to get ones foot in the door. iOS would obviously be an issue.

Minimal staff- the only labor is approving IDs, most of the rest a clever coder could automate.

There is not a single 2-way Adult webcam mobile chat app available at the moment. Easily publicity with a single press release.

If you can't do this project, then have a look at this one to get some ideas.

Or you can pull a Vegetta, piss on professional insight, ignore the market, try and beat the best of the best at a cut-throat business they've been doing for a decade, offering same product but with the additional hassle of a currency no one uses.

Huh, no dice. Okay, well it does require programming so somewhere there's going to be some one who is a bit of a maker/hobbyist with the right skill set to pull it off. It's just not me or anything I know- but why let it go to waste

Check this thread here

Lot of derp, but I'll give a rough outline of some of the factors effecting Bitcoin startups in general, and Adult Chat services in particular.

Summery: a startup that is simply copying an established business model, just with Bitcoin as an alternate form of payment is not viable- at least in the Adult niche. You need an Unique Selling Proposition.

The advantage of Bitcoin is it lowers startup costs and hassles because you don't have to deal with merchant accounts and processing. At this point due to adoption hurdles it is better suited to accepting payments from a small number of repeat customers, rather than a large number of new ones.

So, for a technical type, without a huge amount of capital, what they need is a unique product or service they can produce with their existing skill set, but sell to a lucrative niche. Something that they don't have, that has technical barriers sufficient that others are probably better off buying (or leasing) the original product. I know a few things like this, but here's one:

Sex Waldo NSFW (mods: how to handle?)

The lady I used to work for, whom I learned the business from built this. The site describes it well, but basically it gives you a web interface so you can use a dildo (sex machine, whatever) with real time motion mapping to a mouse, over the Internet with a video live feed. So clients are not just paying per minute to passively watch- they get to actually do the deed (well their hand does). To say you can charge vastly more for this than normal chat is a huge understatement. Being able to penetrate someone, anywhere in the world with a slide of your mouse- is a lucrative (if disturbing) bit of tech.

I still have the working unit and Linux control box. I *think* I have most of the specs somewhere or can at least read part numbers. The lady who
made it is out of the Adult scene so I can't get more specific info on how she made it.

A client of mine who is an engineer had a good look at it, said it would not be very difficult to reverse engineer, but suggested that an "embedded controller could be potted and used for remote subscription authentication" which seems to mean the entire device could be secured and leased to a cam studio at a monthly rate? Which is an interesting idea.

I think it's a neat project for a tech, who is smart enough not to want to muck about with Adult marketing, site design, affiliates, models and that whole nightmare- it's almost a pure engineering to Bitcoin project.

Just to be clear, I am not selling anything, pitching, looking for partners etc. If anyone wants to go ahead (and is qualified enough that I won't be wasting my time) I'll be happy lend what assistance I can. If you make one you are welcome to use the existing site- it is quite old and will place very well on the Google. No charge, as there is nothing significant I can do to help, but if you do use her design- please give her a credit.

Wait, you've got a Twitter account, AND a Cafepress site? Counting Facebook that's like THREE websites you "built"! Holy crap no wonder everyone is lining up to work with you.


Tell you what, how about you teach us all a lesson and keep this thread updated with the progress your vast IT empire is making. Since you have assured everyone you can do it all yourself, there should be no excuses if a cam site fails to materialize. When the site appears, you will have "shown us, shown is ALL!"

Future reference- if you want to do something, and a professional who does that thing for a living says "here's the specific reasons why A won't work, here are some specific problems you need to plan for in advance, if you want, here are some ways to increase your chance of success"- that's big ears/small mouth time. There several individuals reading this thread whom are professionals in their own fields- they know this. They see you don't, and that's why they dropped you.

I've got 12 nude models, a shooting facility, a dedicated offshore steaming server and a ton of adult traffic- you have a CafePress tshirt site and can "fix computers". Yet, you still are convinced I was applying to be on your team.

You Sir are Awesome

 

Well "not a whore" is usually what Adult workers say (scream) to imply they are better than other Adult workers. So a "whore" in the sense I am in the Adult industry, but not in the sense of taking money for sex. I take pride in having sex for free. Whore is none the less a popular description for me in the forum. It's not very PC, but since it does not really carry the same weight with me as with other women, I let it pass. It's a bit like calling a gay person a "homo".

I own my place so don't session much anymore, but when I do the essence of it is some guys will pay far more to be tortured than they will for sex. My place is one of the top four dungeons in the US by most reckoning. I started it after working in the Adult industry as management- not talent, for many years (content production, cams and static sites). I still maintain my industry contacts, so have a pretty good idea where the gaps in the market are.

My favorite quote of the week

Sure no problem, always happy to help out a merchant. "Real girl" facebook angle candids I can get you in a few days, but we only drag out the lights for the pro shots every eight weeks or so.

Come up with some funny chick ones, I'll get my girls to model them for you- no charge (well, don't count on getting the shirt back LOL).

Oh it IS a legal business, but even in this forum with reasonably literate members there are a dozen posts assuming it is prostitution and illegal. Some people incorrectly perceive my business to be illegal, so associating Bitcoin with it at this point would not be helpful. I can't say "perception does matter, you can't just say they are stupid" and then say "except for my business" LOL. It's my choice, I've suggested the same for a few friends in the Adult industry- that crypto-currency stands the best chance if we accept it, but don't paint the logo on naked women LOL.

It's a personal choice though, I have no problem with Adult business owners who feel otherwise. There are valid points to be made for either side. If I choose to openly accept Bitcoin again I would put it on a single page with search engines blocked until it had much wider adoption.


Oh, not censorship- if anyone tried to prevent Adult businesses from participating I would speak out very strongly. It's discretion. Even legal Adult businesses are used to this, we don't just have to abide the law- we have to be VERY good neighbors because the authorities can always find a reason. You don't open near a church/school and then fight it in court- you open someplace else, you don't exercise your right to have loud parties- you keep a low profile. Your staff does not come and go in a working class neighborhood wearing $400 high heels and designer handbags- you make sure they wear college sweatshirts and carry backpacks.

For Adult businesses, discretion when operating in the mainstream is the cost of doing business, it's the same for us with Bitcoin.

Yup

Yes, after all of the threads that we both have participated in- you really think I am that clueless.


So, you popped in with the helpful (if condescending) advice that the criteria should not be experience, or area of practice (manufacturing in the case)- but their specific degree?

So I should not ask for a LAMP admin but for a "Computer Scientist"?

Ah yes, BitCoin.org forums, we don't know how to make money with it, and if you try to discuss real world business applications we'll shout you down with irrelevant garbage.

Really? I didn't know that. But they all wear stripped overalls and drive a train right?

If you are looking for a low capital Bitcoin project with an insanely high, skill based barrier to entry (for the other guys) I got a fun freebie.

Great idea, but a link from me would not help Bitcoins image.

It's great to hear someone DOING something about PR rather than just complaining that people "don't understand".

Agreed- fascinating idea. Is Bitcoin still Sharia compliant despite not being back by anything tangible? Have any Islamic scholars given an opinion on the status of Bitcoin?

I think you should consider targeting non-Muslim customers as well. Several faiths in Western history have successfully capitalized on their reputation for honesty. Look into the history of the Quakers.

You would have to may it clear you were apolitical but the Muslim reputation in the West for somewhat implacable faith would work entirely to their benefit in a banking or money exchange context.

Thanks:-) The rest was just... depressing LOL


Check out Rework by 37 Signals, pretty much the best book for anyone starting a business. Best business book I ever read.


Bitcoin is actually not suitable for traditional porn membership sites. With competitive affiliate percentages a lot of sites don't actually get in the black on a new member in the first month.

The bread and butter of membership sites- the absolute lifeblood is recurring billing. Without all those guys who signup, then forget to cancel most sites would not be profitable. With Bitcoins low adoption rate, dropping it in as a payment option for a little buzz and SE traffic is fine- but if it ever caught on and became a significant portion of signups it would cannibalize recurring charges and bankrupt the site. It would really only be practical setting it as Bitcoin for three month membership- we do that with money orders, but it's a tough sell.

Sites that allow you to purchase a single video clip (clips4sale) still have a following- but mostly for hard to find fetish footage you can't get for free. Static content is a very, very tough market to break into these days and not one I'd recommend.

There are certianly opportunities with crypto-currency, but they will probably be realized by people who work within their existing skill set.