Two brand new exclusive video sites were unveiled to webmasters this week by Mesmerotic.com. AmateurHunks.com and Muchachos.com join the successful Justusboysclub.com and Malemovieclub.com websites in the Mesmerotic.com affiliate program.

“We’ve been working on Amateur Hunks and Muchachos since mid-2004 and have filmed guys from around the world in these exclusive videos. We already have 6 months of weekly updates ready for these sites“, said JD Going, Mesmerotic President.

Mesmerotic.com claims a great selection of marketing tools, dependable payouts, and tracking via NATS affiliate software. All videos in Amateur Hunks and Muchachos are being streamed to consumers using high-performance servers.

As it relates to how well traffic converts when promoting a sponsor program, AVS had traditionally performed much better than free sites. But this is changing.

Logically AVS traffic should convert better, because it’s comprised of consumers that are predisposed to spending money on porn. And for many years this proved to be true. Now we are seeing a shift in that performance. AVS traffic still delivers a little bit better than free traffic, but not by much.

There’s a lot of head scratching going on right now, because we can’t figure out why this is. We do know that over-all traffic from AVS sites has diminished, suggesting the AVS consumer has moved to free sites. With better pop up and ad blocking tools available it could be that those looking for safety in the AVS sites no longer need it. And lets face it; free sites are a lot easier to jump in and out of than AVS. But the drop in traffic volume still does not explain why that traffic is suddenly converting at a much different ratio.

Sell My Content Is the latest straight and gay content supplier to enter the business. “Our intention with Sell My Content is to offer content that is already customized, ready to go, and easy to use,” company partner Sandra Seward explains. “Being webmasters ourselves, we realized how much work is involved in the preparation of purchased content and have assisted in this process, which helps get to market faster and make more sales.” Webmasters can select gallery headers, three different image sizes, image watermarking, and ready-to-submit 20-second video clips and thumbnails.

As a getting-to-know-you incentive, Sell My Content is offering a free introductory video or photo set to first-time purchasers who pick up two or more sets during their visit.

On October 17, the FSC claims to have sent out, to its paying membership, a request for 2006 Board nominees. Apparently an undetermined number of members never received this mailing.

On November 15, the FSC mailed, to its paying membership, final ballots for the 2006 election. Again, an undetermined number of members never received the document. Those that did receive it were asked to vote for seven of the nominees listed – only seven names are on the list. Looks like a landslide victory for all candidates.

According to the FSC web site, “Top nominees and current board members who are running for reelection will be included on the final ballot.” Top nominees????

In the past couple of days several FSC members have expressed, on adult webmaster boards, concerns about the election. One of the concerns expressed is that no bio information had been published about the so-called nominees. Today, bios for some of the candidates suddenly appeared at the FSC web site, along with a list of all the candidates. Still missing is a list of the current Board members.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think the national press, elected officials, and public at large, are going to have difficulty taking an industry association seriously when one of the Board members is listed as Spanky.

Jim Everett
Sid Grief
Joan Irvine
Bill Murphy
Spanky
Nellie Symm-Gruender
Connor Young

The 2006 Board will be announced at the FSC annual membership meeting in Las Vegas, January 2006. I, for one, will be on the edge of my seat for this suspense filled announcement.

A few days ago I decided to research how many people are accessing the Internet with a broadband connection as apposed to those still holding onto dialup. What I found was that, while the numbers very from one country to the next, dialup users remain dominant. This suggests that adult sites should be designed to accommodate the dialup user.

But wait just a second. What I really wanted to know was how many surfing porn are still using dialup. So I did some more digging, and what I discovered was the answer to an even better question, or at least strong indications of an answer. What I really wanted to know was how many people spending money on porn are still using dialup. While the answer I got was not definitive, it was eye opening.

One study reported that 6% of all broadband users surf porn, as compared to 1% of all dialup users.

A study of European consumers concluded “Sites that draw the majority of their audience from broadband surfers include file-sharing sites, music sites, film sites and adult sites.”

Another European study revealed, “Almost one in four people with broadband Internet admit signing up in order to download pornography, according to a survey published today.”

A very recent study shows “More than 94 million people in the U.S. - 56 percent of the domestic Internet population - viewed a streaming video online in June 2005.”

An older US Dept. of Commerce report states, “The use of the Internet for entertainment is substantially more likely among those with broadband.”

A study released September 2005 concluded, “Compared with their narrowband counterparts, broadband users spend more time and money online because their surfing experience is faster, more persistent, and ultimately, more satisfying. This is good news for consumers, publishers and advertisers alike.”

Now I’ll be the first to admit this is not conclusive, and I’m not sure we will ever get a definitive answer. But the indicators are noteworthy, and if nothing else I discovered what the real question is we should be asking.

Fake Pagerank scams are becoming more and more common on the web. Scam artists usually hang out in forums or chat rooms, looking for inexperienced people to prey on. Often times they will act like the inexperienced web user, asking advice about what they should do with their high pagerank site. EBay is another place where sites with fake pagerank are sold.

For someone who knows how to do it, faking pagerank is quite easy. In effect, someone is basically telling Google that the web site my-low-pagerank-site.com is no longer at the address, and that the new address is someone-elses-high-pagerank-site.com. Google then displays all of the information (including Pagerank) for someone-elses-high-pagearnk-site.com for my-low-pagerank-site.com.

Now for anyone looking at my-low-pagerank-site.com in a browser with the Google toolbar, the pagerank now shows the value of someone-elses-high-pagearnk-site.com.

SEOLogs.com has developed a tool combat this problem. The Fake PageRank Detection / Pagerank Fraud tool (http://www.seologs.com/pr-check/pagerank.html) can help anyone to know for certain if the Pagerank value of a site is valid. Simply enter the URL in question. For example, enter my-low-pagerank-site.com, and the tool will show that the true identity and Pagerank for this site belongs to someone-elses-high-pagearnk-site.com.

Before purchasing a domain name, or a link on a website claiming to have any Pagerank, you should check the Fake PageRank Detection / Pagerank Fraud tool (http://www.seologs.com/pr-check/pagerank.html) first.

Source: PRWEB

According to The Online Publishers Association (OPA), a recent study of online video viewing concluded that consumers have a strong positive reaction to online video ads. Seventy percent of respondents said they had seen a video advertisement online, and 44% said they had taken some action as a result of seeing that ad. Specifically, 34% checked out a Web site, 15% requested information and 14% went to a store to check out a product. Most significantly, 9% said they made a purchase and 3% said they bought a subscription as a result of an online video ad.

Could this be the next hot tool sponsor programs put in the hands of their affiliates, or will we only see it being used for things like promoting the XBiz Awards? We already see video ads being used a lot in mainstream. The first time I saw it used at CNN I immediately compared it to the middle page ads used at some AVS programs.

This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.

In this article I’m going to discuss setting up external lighting. While the built in flash on your camera can adequately expose your subject, it comes with some drawbacks. The image is flattened, harsh shadows may occur, and there is the constant risk of picking up red eye. By moving to external lighting, you can begin to eliminate these problems. Although the principals remain the same, regardless of the type of lighting used, I’m going to discuss this in terms of using an inexpensive halogen flood light system.

For a simple set up you will need two lights. This is referred to as two-point lighting. The lights need to be positioned in front of the subject at approximately 45 degree angles, very much like you would set up a pair of stereo speakers. These lights also need to be elevated, so they point down at a 30 to 45 degree angle. They need to be elevated so that shadows are cast onto the floor instead of the backdrop.

One of the lights, the key light, functions as the primary source of light, similar to that of sun light. The key light is going to create shadows on your subject. Shadows are good, because they make your subject more dimensional. But you don’t want to over do it, by having extreme contrasts. The second light, or fill light, is used to soften the harsh contrasts created by the key light.

The fill light needs to be less intense, allowing some shadows to remain on the subject. This can be done in many different ways, depending on the lighting equipment you are using, and the size of the room you are working in. If you have a large enough space, simply move the fill light further away from the subject than your key light is. In a smaller space, try hanging a white plastic shower curtain in front of the fill light. Be very careful with this or you could end up with an unwanted melt down, or worse.

Three-point lighting adds a third light, a back or modeling light that sets the subject off from the background. The backlight is positioned 45 degrees to 75 degrees up from horizontal behind the subject, and creates a rim of brightness around heads and shoulders. Position the light far enough out of the scene so that it doesn’t shine into your camera lens. Make the light bright enough to do the job without being obvious. And make sure it is far enough back that it does not spill over the front of your subject.

Four-point lighting adds a fourth light (background light) that illuminates the backdrop, or background setting. It is positioned on the floor beaming up, or up high beaming down. Problems the background light solves are twofold: it eliminates the shadows of the subject that may appear on the background, and it makes the background stand out.

With all these lights going, the room temperature will quickly rise, so turn that AC way down and make good use of fans. I should also mention that it will be very difficult to work with inexpensive halogen floods once you move to three or four light set ups, particularly if you are working in a confined space. Although you can get away with using colored background lighting in a small space to create interesting effects against a back drop.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, and please drive safe.

Yesterday Topbucks announced they will be paying $55 per sign up for every eligible sale generated through their static hosted galleries during the month of December. The sponsor claims to have galleries for just about every niche and is now updating them weekly with content from the most current episodes. Topbucks is once again providing downloadable text files with descriptions for their affiliate webmasters.