On Tue, 29 Jun 99 06:11:59, [email protected] (AshtonXXX) wrote:

Hello all. I am Ashton Moore, hopefully you have heard of me. I am in desperate need of any help or information on starting/creating my website. I have been warned that a lot of people are taking advantage (ripping off) poor little porn stars like myself, who do not know too much about the subject.I would really appreciate any help. Thanks soooo much!

Ashton

I would suggest "testing the waters" first to asses the size of your fan base before you enter into any long term contract with a professional web development firm. You certainly do not want to invest $5K or more in site that does not generate any traffic or interest from consumers.

You have several different options on doing this, depending on your particular skill level.

Option 1- Create a small, free personal page on your own virtually hosted domain and run it for 90 days. Note the domain ashtonmoore.com has already been registered. I do not know if Stephen Guess is a friend or business associate of yours or not, but he is the current owner ashtonmoore.com domain.

Capital Outlay

1. Domain name registration $ 70 for two years
2. Virtual server hosting space. List of available hosts can be obtained at http://www.ynotnetwork.com/ho/hosting.html. Note Terracore.com has probably the best deal for a small test the waters site. 50mb/ 15GB of data transfer,+ Realvideo for only $50 per month + $50 setup fee.
3. Type up a brief introduction about yourself and put up a few pics. Include dance schedule, upcoming appearances, and some personal anecdotes of working in the adult entertainment industry. You can do this yourself in Microsoft Word or Netscape if necessary, so there is no need to learn html.

A virtually hosted server frequently are not as reliable as your own server in a co hosting situation. Nor can you control factors such as server workload and network throughput, on a virtually hosted domain, so performance generally suffers, but co hosting is more expensive. Total Capital outlay : $ 170 + $50 dollars per month operating expenses.

Advantages: Really cheap and will allow you to see if anyone is interested in you without making a long term financial commitment. Will also allow you to develop relationships with your fans, to find out what they would be willing to pay for in a " professional" site. Will also give you some technical savvy which will help in negotiations with professional firms when it comes time to build the for-profit site.

Disadvantages: Will require you to take a personal interest and devote time to the management of your website. 90% of all adult actress sites are crappy and exist primarily to make money for the site developers, not the actress herself.

Option Two- Hire a professional to Design, but not manage your website. Professional designs the site, but you maintain management control. This allows you to have control of the dollars that come in, and not have to rely on the webmaster's word for the number of signups and revenue generated. Credit card processing can be subcontracted out to firms like ABM. A good place to start is the ynotnetwork adult webmaster hangout FAQ, http://www.ynotnetwork.com/ho/hangout_faq.html , Ynot will provide listings of potential hosts, credit card processors, web designers,etc.

Capital Outlay- Design Services will range from $40- $200 per hour. , Just because they charge more does not mean that they are better. Since you have not performed in very many movies,and have not built up a huge fan base yet, starting small and going a simple site might be a less risky option . Costs for hosting, both virtual and co located, as well as the various credit card billing services, can be obtained at the Ynot Webmaster hangout above.

Advantages- Better looking site than what you could create yourself. Gives you the ability to decide how much you want to invest, allowing you to add services incrementally.

Disadvantages- be prepared to spend several hours a day stuck in front of your computer dealing with site admin.

Option 3- Sign a no money down, we will handle everything contract with a professional web development firm. Get billed for 300 man hours of work @ $200 an hour for a site that took ten hours to build. Get charged $20/GB for bandwidth. Have no personal input or control or any involvement in the site- just sit back and wait for the checks to arrive. OF course, the checks never arrive, since your signup ratio was so low, we can't cover our overinflated management expenses. Plus, spend joyous hours with fans angry over credit card overbilling at every club you perform at for your entire career.

In short, this is your career and your reputation you are dealing with. If you are not willing to spend the personal time to manage it properly and make it a success, don't even bother with starting a web site.

The best actress sites http://www.asiacarrera.com, http://www.jenteal.net, http://www.kamikaze.org. The worst, virtually everyone elses. Hint: your fans want to get to know you, not look at snazzy graphics and java applets. If you kept a dialy diary online, talking about what you did that day, keeping it light hearted and chatty, you will be more popular and make more money than if you spent $10K on site design and had live web feeds..

BritPOP

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