Affiliates

Affiliating means to join in an agreement with a sponsor to onsell their products i.e. you will help to sell their product by putting up their ads. In turn, they give you a percentage of their profits. This is how most adult webmasters make money.

AVS   

Adult Verification Service, or Age Verification Service. Provides a regulatory portal to adult sites, with strict criteria for inclusion. Designed to keep children from viewing adult pages.

Bandwidth

A phone line can carry a certain amount of data. This is Bandwidth. In hosting terms it is the amount of data going in and out of a computer. A site that uses a lot of bandwidth has a lot of visitors accessing the data.

Blind Link

Hidden or deceptive link e.g. a button that says “Next Gallery” but it leads to the sponsor.

Browser

The software that lets you surf the net. Netscape and Internet Explorer are the two main browsers. When designing websites it’s a good idea to test if the site works on both of them.

Circle Jerk

This occurs when the back button and exit button are disabled or diverted to constantly lead the surfer to a sponsor’s site. This also refers to endless popup buttons. In the worst cases the user has to reboot their computer to get rid of it. This method of advertising is often condemned, and may not be useful, as all it does is annoy the surfer and make them less likely to buy.

Click-throughs

A click through program pays you a certain amount e.g. 5c each time a new person clicks on your ad.

Console

A pop-up window containing an ad. A console is usually triggered when a surfer enters or leaves a site. It’s a way of doubling up on advertising, and can be a good marketing device. Link lists are increasingly becoming intolerant of consoles.

Content

Pictures, video or text (usually stories) of an adult nature. Content providers sell it to webmasters, while some sponsors provide free content.

Counters

Counters are small graphic boxes that keep track of the number of visitors to your site, and some keep detailed statistics about where the surfer came from and where they’re going. Sextracker is a popular counter.

Dialers

Dialers are programs that allow the surfer to pay for their membership through the phone instead of credit cards. A small piece of software disconnects their ISP and reconnects the phone to a pay-per-minute service, similar to phone sex lines. Dialers are controversial because some surfers don’t read the fine print or don’t hang up when they’re finished.

Directories

A directory is different from a search engine, in that the sites listed are sorted into categories by a real human being, who you can’t spam. It’s important to get your site listed with the Dmoz directory, as these guys provide information to many other directories.

Freehosts

A freehost offers space on their server in the same way that a host does, except they don’t charge you money for it. Instead, they place ads at the top and bottom of your pages – the best spot - and that’s how they make their money. Non-adult examples of a freehost include Geocities and Tripod.

Freesites

Adult sites that do not charge the surfer for entry. The whole point of a freesite is to move the surfer to a paysite.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. You use FTP to transfer your website files from your hard drive to the host’s computer so they can then be accessed by internet users. You need an FTP program to upload your website.

Hotlinking

You hotlink a graphic when you make use of a graphic on your web page without it being hosted on your own server and host. This tends to make others upset as you are using their server, bandwidth (and money) to make a graphic available on your own site. Sponsors tell you not to hotlink, and you must therefore save a copy of the banner onto your own harddrive. For more information, see the HTML page.

Hosts

A host offers space on their computer (server) for your website, so that your site can then be accessed by people using the internet. You pay them an initial setup fee and then a certain amount each month for the hosting. Bandwidth costs are extra.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. The computer language that most websites are written in.

IP address or IP number

Each computer connected to the internet has its own individual IP number – like a registration plate or ID card. Sites use IP numbers to keep track of where a surfer goes.

ISP

Internet Service Provider – the people who connect you to the internet.

Javascript

Computer language that can be embedded within html pages to create popups, rollover buttons and other actions

Link List

Link lists are websites that list other websites, often sorting them into categories. Link lists are a good way of securing traffic for your site.

Metatags

Specially coded HTML text that lives at the top of your webpage, out of sight of the visitor. They allow search engines spiders to find and list your site. There are three sorts of metatags: title, description and keywords.

Mouseover

Word or phrase that appears in the lower left hand corner of a browser when the mouse goes over a hyperlink. Used to cover sponsor codes.

Paysite

An adult website that charges the surfer for entry into their members area, which is usually where the hardcore smut is.

PicPost

Picture Post. Where single pictures from different sites are listed.

Raw

Raw is a count of how many times a file was accessed. A person can access a file multiple time and thus create multiple hits. See Uniques.

Rebill

After a surfer signs up to a paysite, their credit card is automatically rebilled when their membership runs out, unless they specifically ask for it not to occur.

Recurring

A recurring partnership is when an affiliate continues to receive a percentage of the profit each time the surfer is rebilled. For example, if a surfer pays for one month and stays for six, you get a percentage of their money each time the rebill occurs.

Revoke

A revoke is when the surfer gets their money back, and you consequently lose any referral percentage you may have received.

Search Engine (SE’s)

SE’s are sites that let surfers find web pages by searching for certain words.

Server

A dedicated computer which is constantly connected to the internet and hosts your webpage files for access by others.

Sign-up

When a surfer uses their credit card to become a member of a paysite. Also a form of affiliate program whereby the sponsor only pays you once, as opposed to a recurring partnership. A signup partnership pays more money in the short term.

Spam, Spamming

Spam is basically useless information that clogs up your computer. You spam when you send multiple emails to people you don’t know, advertising your sponsors. You can also spam newsgroups by leaving advertisements, and spam search engines by submitting your site six thousand times. The important thing to know about spam is: don’t do it.

Spider

Search engines use “spiders” to look for a keyword that the surfer has typed in. The spiders “roam” the web looking for pages with those keywords in them. They find and read metatags to identify what a webpage is about. All SE’s use different criteria for finding a page, and some are completely random.

Sponsor

A sponsor is the paysite whom you have affiliated with, and are advertising.

TGP

Thumbnail Gallery Post. You submit your thumbnail galleries to a TGP with an appropriate caption, in the hope that the surfer will either click on your ad or look at the rest of your site. Some say TGP’s don’t offer good traffic because the surfer has so much smut in front of them they don’t need to pay.

Thumbnails, Thumbs

Small versions of your photos which, when clicked on, lead to the full size version. A thumbnail gallery is a collection of small pics.

Traffic

Surfers visiting your site

Trial

Most paysites offer a trial membership for a period of 3-5 days for a small amount e.g. $2.95. Some sponsors pay you a percentage of a trial, others don’t because the admin costs outweigh the amount.

Unique

Unique is a count of a click that has some kind of identifier to it, such as an IP number. Unique hits count how many times a particular person has been to a page, or called up a file.