By Kevin Johnson
With the massive and still rising number of adult sites greasing the information highway, grabbing attention for your own site is vital. And more and more adult webmasters are turning to blogs for help. QueerClick, Porn for Patric and similar sites upload free preview photos and videos from a wide range of porn sites, becoming major internet destinations in their own right. From the bloggers' point of view, these sites create an exciting online experience, and make money via the affiliate programs of the numerous sites they display by providing clear links back to the original sites. The producers benefit by luring in potential customers with free samples. And by viewing the comments posted on the blog, they can find out what content their readers like and don’t like. Many big-name producers make full use of blogs in addition to their regular advertising. But for the smaller, less well-known or more niche-oriented sites, they can be an important lifeline for getting the word out. QueerClick is now so popular that it can run four separate blogs for individual tastes, taking in Latin, Asian, twinks, bears, feet, piss and more along the way. Says Aaron Baker, QC's Editor-in-Chief, "We really enjoy showing all types of porn. If the producer frequently updates their site and the content is good quality, then we will bring it to our readers." Likewise, Porn for Patric holds affiliates with more than 60 sites, but doesn't upload every little thing. "Not every new video or photoset is perfect," says Patric, "so if it is truly bad, I'll just skip over it. Everyone has a bad day from time to time." Andy Fair, owner of Dirty Boy Video, is happy to take advantage. "Visitors to the blog get to see, immediately, what your material is - twink, muscle, amateur, whatever. And the blogger has an opportunity to editorialize about the material, explaining why he likes it." He also makes sure to target blogs that appreciate and compliment his site's style. "It's a waste of our time, and that of the blogger, to push content that he and his visitors aren't interested in." Okay, so you're sold on the concept. But of the many varied blog programs available, which one do you choose as the best one for you? As a webmaster, you're looking for ease of use, nice gadgets, simple installation, permission for adult content, a low price if any at all, plenty of storage, friendly help, and more. As Patric says, spam comments are the bane of many bloggers, so comment moderation is a must. We already know that socializing sites like MySpace, Facebook and Friendster, while still useable as R-rated promotion tools, don't allow explicit adult content on their blogs. So they're out, at least for the purposes of this topic. Microsoft's live.com is easy to use but clogged up with too many scripts. The behemoth that is Blogger allows adult content and offers fast registration. It also blends with Microsoft Frontpage for easy entry writing, or with an RSS feed to alert readers about updates. However, comments appear on a separate page from entries, themes are mostly inflexible, plug-in installation can be difficult, and Frontpage isn't exactly a state-of-the-art web development platform. With major competitor Wordpress, many themes and plug-ins are pre-installed. "From a business POV, it's pretty much perfect," says Patric. "It's versatile, reliable, powerful and fast, and there's an enormous user community if I require assistance." It does come with limited storage but, says Patric, "My grandmother is 87 and she set up her own Wordpress blog, by just following the directions." Aaron of Queer Click is a big fan of Movable Type. It's not free like Blogger or Wordpress, but for Baker it's worth every penny. "Since we have various blogs, having one installation of MT allows us to easily manage comments and workflow of content. If we used Wordpress, we'd have to maintain different installations for each blog - no thank you!" QC also employs almost a dozen bloggers in multiple time zones, some of whom don't speak English, so software has to be simple to use. In the end, the decision hinges on your level of technological prowess and your intended use for the blog. Beginners who want to have a bit of fun with dirty pictures will be fine with a free program like Blogger, which is simple and effective without being overly complex. Big businesses, however, might want to invest in a more heavy-hitting program like Movable Type. And for those in between, WordPress should do the trick.
