educational

Turnkey Sites Revisited

At the end of my article on turnkey sites, I asked if there were any legitimate turnkey adult site providers out there, who would like to respond to my article, and explain to us just why and how 'the average Joe' can profit from owning a turnkey adult site. The following is the email response I received from Jayson Jon from Adult Turnkeys®. I am also interested in hearing from anyone who whas actually purchased a turnkey site, and what their experiences have been ~ Stephen

Dear Stephen,

I more than welcome your invitation to educate you and X-Biz readers as to why Adult Turnkeys® are not only a better way, but also a more effective and cost-efficient way than the traditional method of building an Adult Paysite.

First, I must mention that "Adult Turnkeys®" is a registered US Trademark (#2,459,518). Judging by the way you have phrased your article, I am sure that you were not aware of this; however, I would like to start by commenting on your article and finishing by explaining the advantages of our Adult Turnkeys®.

I think it is important for you to inform your readers that your company owns a successful pay-per-click program, and you are the ex-editor of a resource that also has a pay-per-click program (e.g.: an affiliates program that shares revenues from a variety of paysites that an individual can promote). It would be a fair statement to say that an increase of paysites to the industry would take away a percentage of your pay-per-click program's market share, and that you can therefore not offer an un-biased opinion.

Another key point I'd like to bring up is that your article has no facts such as interviews with turnkey providers, statements from turnkey owners, or other references; the majority of your article focuses on a small percentage of misleading companies that few people take seriously. The presentation of their products are generally done in a very unprofessional and unrealistic manner, prompting any potential purchaser to think twice before giving out the credit card information.

Headlines such as "Grab your share of the multi-billion-dollar online porn industry, no experience necessary" are not only used by a small percentage of "turnkey" providers, but are also used by pay-per-click programs, as they often quote unrealistic figures and do not actually convert well compared to the amount of time invested. In fact, just about any commerce-related adult site could make the same claims!

To bring you up-to-date on the turnkey industry, there are currently under 60 companies actively promoting turnkey products and services. This list of companies was taken from popular search engines and industry links. Out of these 60, the majority of them comprise of web design companies selling pre-built adult paysites with the turnkey name. Less then 2% of that 60 offer services that match the description you gave in your article!

As of early 2002, our legal council began issuing it's cease and desists against all those infringing on our "Adult Turnkeys®" trademark. Over time, we will have the small percentage of "turnkey" providers that you reference removed in a legal manner. The majority of the "legitimate" providers out there have already started referring to their sites as "Pre-Built Paysites" or "Pre-Designed Paysites."

As you can see, we have gone through great lengths to protect our intellectual property and created an identity to our brand.

It is important to understand the definition of Adult Turnkeys®. Adult Turnkeys® are computer services, namely, designing and implementing adult entertainment websites for others, in Class 42 (In layman's terms, a complete adult paysite business that is ready for sale). It includes everything a customer would need to start their own online adult paysite business, including a completely custom-built adult paysite with licensed images, streaming movies, maintenance free members area and online credit card processing. Adult Turnkeys® are ideal if the customer is starting their own adult paysite business or simply looking to add more adult paysites to their collection.

Each of our Adult Turnkeys® comes with the following features:

1. 100% Custom Designed Paysite - All of our Adult Turnkeys® are custom designed using Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver editing software. Each paysite has it's own unique look and does not resemble another paysite for sale. The finished site is uploaded to the appropriate FTP site, burned to CD, and shipped to the customer. Each site includes a high-quality Splash Page, preview pages, webmasters page, links page, and member's page.

a. 3 Preview Pages — Our Adult Turnkeys® include 3 custom designed preview pages that focus on the photo galleries, video streams and XXX bonuses that are included in our content plug-in.

b. Webmasters Page - With an ever increasing online presence, our customers are going to want to have their own affiliates program, allowing them to pay out a percentage to those who wish to promote their website. They can set the payout percentage to their likings and offer a percentage of the initial sign up or recurring revenues.

c. Links Page - This area is where our clients can post their links or affiliations with other webmasters.

d. Maintenance Free Members Area — Handling membership accounts is simple with the automated admin panel offered by the third party processing company, CCBill or IBill.

2. Credit Card Processing — Each Adult Turnkeys® website is ready to start collecting credit cards within minutes of purchase, with no merchant's account required. Clients split no percentage of the revenue with us, and use the popular CCBill or IBill third party processors. 3. Legal Documents - When a customer is ready to purchase one of our Adult Turnkeys®, they can feel secure knowing that Sexco's Corporate Attorneys are specialists in the First Amendment and Entertainment Laws. Each site comes with:

a. Ownership Certificate & CD-ROM - You receive an Authentic Adult Turnkeys® Ownership Certificate and a Back Up copy of your complete website on CD Rom.

b. Splash Page Disclaimer Notice - This Notice is to warn web surfers that they are entering an adult paysite and that you comply with Sections 2252 and 2257 of Title 18, U.S. Code.

c. Join Page User Agreement - This Agreement sets your terms and conditions when a web surfer wishes to join your website by credit card or online check.

4. Domain Name Ownership - When Adult Turnkeys® are purchased, we immediately transfer the domain into the customer's name. They retain complete ownership of the website and domain name, unlike the "no-control leasing" that your article outlines.

5. High Speed Hosting - We maintain our own data center 24/7, secured by monitored surveillance, multiple video camera system and key card entry. We have six tier 1 providers connected to our state of the art facility. Multi Processor Rack servers, 24 gauge steel room, anti static floors, climate control, ups battery backup and a diesel generator are used to ensure the reliability of our client's website and our 100MB fiber connection ensures scalability for every user. Every website needs to host somewhere — you imply in your article that it is odd for a company to charge for hosting a website on a virtual account; in reality, all hosting, no matter how small, needs to be charged for. We charge $19.95 for our Virtual Junior account, which comes with each of our Adult Turnkeys®.

6. MegaChannel Content Plug-in — This high-quality content plug-in comes included with each Adult Turnkeys® and has a monthly price tag of $100 — not bad, considering what you get!

a. 10,000 + Pictures - Neatly organized into thumbnail galleries, the web surfer has the ability to scale the picture in a new window to it's original size.

b. Streaming Movies - High Quality streaming adult movies edited into five minute clips can be previewed using a Real Video player, which is available for free download. We use Sure Stream technology, which allows viewers to watch the videos with a 56K connection or cable/DSL broadband connection, which streams the video at a minimum of 300K per second. All movies are broadband optimized and can be previewed in full screen.

c. Live Feeds from Amsterdam — A live voyeur house from Amsterdam with over 25 cameras strategically located in bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, showers, tanning beds and more. Most cameras have chat terminals so that you can interact with the girls!

d. XXX Bonuses & Games - A collection of bonus material has been added to our content plug-ins, including online games such as strip poker, XXX Memory and XXX Solitaire. Not to mention thousands of XXX stories and cartoons to keep customers amused for hours!

7. Promotions and Advertising Package - With any of our Adult Turnkeys®, our customers get a complete promotions and advertising packages to help them get your website started — including search engine listings and 1 MILLION banner advertisements across ten adult search engines! This level of service not only far exceeds the "no help" policy you outlined in your article, but is also one of the best deals in the industry.

8. 3 Animated Banners — Our customers receive three 468x60 animated banners. Each banner has a minimum of 3 frames and clearly displays the website's name and slogan.

9. Instructional E-Books - With the purchase of our Adult Turnkeys®, customers receive access to a set of six instructional e-books. Written for the layman, these in-depth booklets outline how our customers can keep their paysite successful and making money over the years. E-Books offered include:

a. Maximize your Profits - Find out how the best in the industry maximize their profits with this informational booklet.

b. Increasing Traffic - Find out the tried-and-true methods used by professional webmasters to increase revenue and traffic.

c. 7 Secrets to Success - An informative booklet on the weekly routine of a successful Webmaster.

d. Referral Revenue - A complete manual on how to set up and maintain an affiliates program of your own.

e. Webmaster 101 - Catch up on the latest terms from our Lingo Dictionary and get the scoop on the best website authoring software.

f. Understanding Search Engines - With hundreds of companies and varying algorithms, Search Engines are a very prolific and constantly changing business. Get the dirt on how they work and you can take advantage of them more effectively.

10. Online Account Manager — Tracking website statistics, hit counts, bandwidth usage, support requests, and what's new is made simple with our interactive Account Manager. Clients can log in and make changes to their account, upgrade their services, and more!

As our Adult Turnkeys® are completely owned by the customer, they are free to change hosts, drop our content package, edit their website as they wish, or just leave it be — all at no extra charge. If they make a mistake while editing their website, they always have their backup CD handy, adding another layer of security.

After ordering our Adult Turnkeys®, we will have them ready to accept customers within 30 minutes. You get all of this for just USD$599.00 and +$119.95 per month — which is an amazingly low cost, compared to the costs of building a site yourself.

The average person's website won't look as professional as the big players already in the arena. Most ISPs won't cater to adult-oriented websites, and those that do usually have such small bandwidth that their pages will take an hour to load. Banks have all but stopped issuing merchant accounts to Internet-based adult-oriented businesses. Then a prospective webmaster would have to promote their website and create banners - any businessman will tell you that for every dollar you spend on your business, spend ten on advertising! It quickly becomes obvious that a website is a business, not a toy.

Problems aside, let's sum up the cost of this operation. (Ballpark quotes from several sources)

$1000 for professional web-design.
$5000 for promotion and advertising (very conservative estimate)
$400 for legal documentation
$1000 to incorporate your business (required to obtain a merchant account)
$500 to apply for a merchant account (needed to accept credit cards)
$800 for a custom-built credit-card processing script
$100 per month for a high-bandwidth hosting option
$500 for a competitive content package

TOTAL: $9,300 US (+ $100/mo hosting)

A success story for everyone

As you mention in your article, Webmasters should consider learning about the business and building their own paysite from scratch. Dasha, Pornstar of Vivid Pictures once thought that this was the most logical step as well; however, she soon realized that the adult industry and being a web designer are two completely different trades within themselves. Although it might sound like a good idea to combine the two, the actual process of doing so is too difficult for the average person to accomplish.

Dasha taught herself Photoshop and Dreamweaver and built her own website from scratch. After trying to compete for over one whole year with "Big-Pimpin'" paysites owned by pay-per-click programs, she was finding it harder and harder to stay competitive.

Dasha came to Sexco with the hope of an improvement. We applied our Adult Turnkeys® formula to give her website (www.dashaxxx.com) a makeover: She was so impressed by her 100% traffic increase and higher member retention that she offered to be our spokesmodel. She even keeps 100% of her revenues!

Dasha, who is a leading actress for Vivid Video and is on March 2002's Playboy cover, would not be likely to sign on as a spokesmodel if her services were as bad as some of the ones in your article!

The online Adult Webmaster industry is often comprised of technical people and Internet-savvy surfers; however, very few of the Adult Webmaster Resources have a direct connection to the adult industry itself. The reality is that Adult Turnkeys® are one of many services that makes Sexco "Your Adult ISP." We are the only industry leader that has it's own data center with multiple OC-3 connections and an office open to the public; we service a true industry of adult entertainment leaders.

My personal advice to those first starting out is that the industry has not yet developed to it's true potential; only time will tell what works and what doesn't. I encourage everyone to make informed decisions and thoroughly research the products and services they are seeking.

I hope you now know whom to recommend in the future when turnkey questions are raised, and I hope that you have learned something new.

Sincerely,

Jayson Jon Simply being able to afford an "out of the box" web site package, no matter how good it is, is not a guarantee of long-term success.

Jayson Jon has been a webmaster for seven years. He has developed multi-million dollar paysites, had articles published in AVN magazine, and is the webmaster of PornoVice, "Your Webmaster Fix" — voted most popular Adult Webmaster Resource by Yahoo!

###

I looked over Jayson's site and his offer, and it seems to be as good as the one described in my article was bad. But as the only example in my own personal experience, the story that I told you is the only one that I can tell: Clearly, though, there are some people who may very well find one of these turnkey sites to be their best bet at running a successful online adult business; but without a sustained traffic plan, simply being able to afford an "out of the box" web site package, no matter how good it is, is not a guarantee of long-term success...

I do also have to add a clarification about a statement Jayson made: "I think it is important for you to inform your readers that your company owns a successful pay-per-click program, and you are the ex-editor of a resource that also has a pay-per-click program (e.g.: an affiliates program that shares revenues from a variety of paysites that an individual can promote). It would be a fair statement to say that an increase of paysites to the industry would take away a percentage of your pay-per-click program's market share, and that you can therefore not offer an un-biased opinion." Aaahhh, not true...

MY company does not now, nor did it ever own any webmaster affiliate programs, although XBiz' parent company does, and indeed, I have a handful of intimate acquaintances with the operators of various well known programs, (and all sorts of other interesting people in the adult business).

Opinions, by their very nature are biased, and I for one have not intentionally offered any opinions that were not biased. And while it is 'fair to say' that "an increase of paysites to the industry would take away a percentage of your pay-per-click program's market share" it is not fair to say that this was one of my motives in writing the original article, as I can assure you that while not "impossible," the likelihood of 'the average Joe' entering the marketplace today with a 'pre-fab' (or whatever the new term will be) web site, and making a statistically relevant dent in any of my "friend's" market shares is really just about nil, and that makes for a very low threat level.

If there are any of you who have actually bought a turnkey adult site, and would like to share your opinions and experiences on this subject, please drop me an email at stephen@xbiz.com and explain YOUR thoughts on this story!

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