Search Engines
Considered by many webmasters to be the finest traffic available, search engine traffic is usually the most profitable, and therefore hardest to obtain. The reason is simple: People who use a search engine like Yahoo to find "free porn" are doing so because they don't know any better. These folks are "newbies," and all they know about the Internet is that, when they're horny, a quick Google search is just a click away.
They will click on the first thing that catches their eye, and it will likely appear to them to be the greatest paysite on the web, causing them to quickly whip out the plastic. These surfers may never pay for porn again, but they'll do it at least once — at a site they found using a search engine.
I say they don't know any better because, if these surfers knew about TGPs and the other avenues by which an endless supply of porn freely flows, they'd be getting it for free there, instead of through Yahoo.
You should realize that, unless you really know what you're doing, you are unlikely to obtain a worthwhile ranking under anything other than the most obscure search phrase; but fortunately, most search engines make it easy to purchase targeted traffic from them.
Link Lists
With an often furious onrush of fresh traffic, followed by a steady flow of visitors once a site falls from the "new sites" list, the traffic-generating ability of a listing at Persian Kitty or the like is hard to ignore.
Link lists are often — but not always — hand-edited directories that rank submitted sites alphabetically, categorically, chronologically or preferentially. As such, someone has to verify their content and approve their placement before listing. This tends to minimize cheating, sending higher-quality traffic to your site.
While some may require reciprocal links for the majority of adult sites, which is only fair, link lists may provide one of your best and steadiest flows of fresh, high-quality traffic.
Top Lists
Top lists rank the listed sites not by their title, genre, or order in which they were submitted but by the amount of traffic the ranked site sends into the list. Want to be No. 1? Just send more traffic than the No. 2 site. It's that simple. Hence, their real nature is as a "Top Referring Sites List."
These enormous traffic pumps, while still commonplace, are not as popular as they once were because many are overwhelmed by cheating webmasters who use falsely generated traffic to increase their rankings and misleading descriptions and blind linking to increase their return hits. Still, they almost always return more traffic than you send in, regardless of your ranking on the list, and are a great way to "wash" less-productive TGP traffic.
Using a top list is simple: First, set up an account using an automated form. You are then given a link code along with a banner or button to place on your site, in as prominent a position as possible. Start sending traffic to the list, and you will move up the ranks.
Picture (Pic) Posts
Often overlooked today, and passed over by many surfers and webmasters alike, the lowly pic post was one of the first places a surfer could go to find quality free porn on the Internet. They are simple sites where you submit a sample image with a banner and description. If a surfer likes the picture, he is likely to click on the banner for more like it.
That's the theory, and in the past, it also was the practice. Now, with the explosion of free Internet porn, the pic post has been relegated to the back burner — with one major exception: single-model "real amateur" sites.
Much of the problem with pic posts was the arrival of the same old sponsor pics and banners. Everyone recognized those photos, everyone had already visited those sites, and nobody was going to click on them again. But, if your site boasts being the "only" source for your particular content, then a surfer who likes what you offer will frequently click to see more. Hence, "real amateur" sites can make excellent use of pic posts — even if few other adult webmasters can.
Fast-forward to 2006 and witness the explosion of social networking sites like MySpace, which, in a way, are overgrown pic post sites augmented with enhanced messaging and other interactive communications tools.
Thumbnail Gallery Posts (TGPs)
Pic posts originally declined in surfer popularity with the advent of thumbnail gallery posts (TGPs). The reason for this is simple: For the same effort it took to see one image, a surfer could now see 10 or more. While pic posts first conditioned surfers to expect free porn, TGPs conditioned them to expect unlimited free porn.
This, combined with the reality that TGP traffic can be rife with minors and freeloaders, means that it can be very difficult to make a "sale" if what you're trying to sell is porn. What I mean by that is if you expect a surfer, who is sitting in a sea of free porn, to click on your sponsor banner and whip out his credit card so you can collect a commission, then you're dreaming! It's not that sales won't ever happen, but your conversion ratio will be so poor as to invite ridicule. So why bother with TGPs? Loads and loads of bulk traffic!
I previously said you're unlikely to sell site memberships to TGP surfers, but perhaps you can sell them something else. Or better yet, give them something for free, such as special memberships and content packs as part of an email collection program, which will pay you a decent commission for each valid email address you send them.
In part two, we'll round out our listing of the basic means by which adult webmasters may drive traffic to their websites.
