Hubs

[Machiavelli]

can anyone show me examples of what Hubs look like and such? ... I won't copy yours, just want to get the general idea..

[balls_deep]

lol, good luck.

just make a static page with links to all your sites. Be SE friendly with the links and such.

make it look like a directory or text tgp.

[Hammer]

The usual hub is old school, IMO. They used to work great, back when TGPs actually converted, because once you had enough sites or galleries listed they were kind of like a fake TGP. Personally, if I was to start a new hub I'd make it a blog. Every time I built a new gallery, freesite, or whatever I'd write a post. If you concentrate on good SEO technigues when you write the posts you'll get plenty of SE traffic. Then, I would add links to a bunch of my best converting galleries and sites in the sidebars along with banners and advertising for my sponsors. I would categorize my blog based on niches and create archives for each niche.

[horney]

Lots of people have been telling me to do a blog. I don't want to do a blog unless I am confident I can have enough original material to keep it interesting and I couldn't think of a subject for that. Stories are not blogs, IMO.

Thanks, Hammer. You've just given me it. You've even told me how to build it. That will be my project to begin in September, when I have the story site well established, all the free sites up, link listed and a good idea of the patterns for at least some of the traffic.

[Chang]

Originally posted by horney
...Stories are not blogs...

[Hammer]

[i]That will be my project to begin in September, when I have the story site well established, all the free sites up, link listed and a good idea of the patterns for at least some of the traffic. [/b]

Why wait until September? Start the blog as soon as you start building freesites. You can always fill up the first page with 10 posts for free hosted galleries to get the ball rolling and then add in posts for sites you build yourself as you do them.

And what do you mean by all the freesites up? If you plan to make money building and submitting freesites, it's something you should do on a nearly daily basis for as long as you want to make money.

And what about this 'story' site you're talking about. What's wrong with making that a blog too? Or at least having a blog with excerpts from the stories and links to the story site if the story site will be member based.

[horney]

Just trying to get one thing right at a time. I'm too new in this business to dive in with such a big splash. Added to which, I can't devote full time to it. Not yet, at least.

At the moment, the free sites are time consuming. I haven't got a good flow system together yet.

[Cozy Monica]

I think a story blog would be a very good blog site.

You can post a chapter or installment of a story with each post. Or you can post a new story with each post.

You could post interesting links to articles such as how to be a better erotic story writer, where to find good erotica, articles about vintage erotica.

[phuckbunny]

Horney, have you checked out sugasm? I'm not sure if it's still functioning or not but could be right up your alley.

As far as hubs go, I think I'll have to agree with Hammer. I've been thinking about building some type of hub site but the thing is, the SE benefits of a blog are too good to pass up. The thing is, how much traffic do you send out from the sidebar links? There has to be some type of creative design for a cool hub site.

Here's a question. What about appending a blog to your hub on another subdomain? I was actually thinking of adding a blog section to an old tgp that's basically an abandonded project.

Or getting back to what I said above, another option would be to find a theme where the sidebar text and visuals are more prominent visually than the blog copy, so you send more outbound traffic to your sponsors that way but your blog posts are there for SE traffic but don't take up the center of attention.

Don't know, just thinking out loud.

[phuckbunny]

I actually wouldn't mind seeing an example of a successful hub site myself. Thing is, the ones that come to mind on my end are actually in a modiffied blog format.

[Machiavelli]

any examples of non-blog ones?

[phuckbunny]

Mach, you can do it any way you like really. OK here's a couple of examples but like you, I too am looking for a good example that's different from the regular ol' blog but which works both in terms of SE and sending out traffic to your sponsors and/or sites. But I also wonder if it's trying to reinvent the wheel.

Look at this gay hub

http://www.justusboys.com/

HUGELY successful gay hub site with a community forum, directory, the works. Thing is, I think it's actually owned and operated by paysite owners - sure not all of the paysites they promote are theirs, they are cross marketing or whatever you want to call it but I think a few of them are. This is a terrific site (not the content per se but the way it is set up and laid out). Somewhat blog based though.

Now...

Here's a porn/art/fetish hub that is just a directory. Llists other people's sites but the focus is on the operator's own site as well as their sponsors.

http://intelligenterection.com/

Now check it out.

Despite being a crude tool and all, Alexa for the first example of the gay site: 3,875

Alexa for #2 is 675,000+

I know where you're coming from, and I do the same thing myself, but why mess with a good thing if blogging seems to work as it bring it that much needed and best converting SE traffic?

[Machiavelli]

I'm going to consider your suggestions... will have to discuss it with my WM since were partners in the venture... we only have 3 sites (2 of them currently being built) so if we build a Hub will have to mix in some sponsor sites i think....

[horney]

None too straightforward, is it? Then add in the time it will take and consider your other commitments. And all this at a time when both the technology and the industry are in a period of change.

That last bit, the technology and the industry, is an attraction on the one hand, but it also offers one hell of an incentive to get it right. My suspicion is that there will be money in it for those that do. I haven't thought through a strategy clearly enough yet. But I think I can do more with several months worth of original short stories - all my own work - than I have come up with so far. I'm convinced a blog isn't it, although a blog will get plenty to draw on from the stories.

Cozy Monica wrote:

You could post interesting links to articles such as how to be a better erotic story writer, where to find good erotica, articles about vintage erotica.

I was thinking along these lines but a few sites are already doing that. I have a few other things to add to the mix, but again, haven't thought it through enough in terms of how it will all hang together.

[Hammer]

Originally posted by phuckbunny
I actually wouldn't mind seeing an example of a successful hub site myself. Thing is, the ones that come to mind on my end are actually in a modiffied blog format.

Ask youself why.

As to your question/comments about links in the sidebar, I like the way Perez Hilton does his ads. They stand out, they're different and they aren't the ubiquitous banner that no one pays attention to but they aren't boring text links either.

http://www.perezhilton.com

[sunfunbill]

They stand out, they're different and they aren't the ubiquitous banner that no one pays attention to but they aren't boring text links either.

I notice that they have a lot of text within the banners. Most people seem to just have a visual, picture type banner, or all text. These banners have a nice, noticable small pic of the subject plus text inside the banner telling about what the hell your looking at. Nice match.

[artwilliams]

If you consider that many surfers will know your niche as well as you then no wonder they don't click banner ads. Why not give them something new and interesting by making your own?

---art

[pumpman]

I have a hub site that is not in blog format. I try, but it's not the success I hoped for.

I mainly make money from the free sites I build and submit to the TGP's. I have gotten a few sales from the hub, but I'm far from the successful hub site example.

I often try different things, then I wait and see if I go up in the search engine rankings. Not everyone has this kind of time. I've gone from a PR 0 to a PR 3 then right back to PR 1 all within 2 months.

Want to see my hub site?
Check me out at Blonde Stop

Good Luck to you. Love to hear what you decide to do. Best Wishes!

[Hammer]

As hubs go, that's a good one, IMO, Pumpman.

If your galleries and freesites are good, you'll always make more from your submissions than you will your hub but the thing is that since a hub is not really hard to build or update, why not?

There are some things you should think about with a hub and some tricks that can improve their effectiveness. For one, like I already mentioned, now that Wordpress has come along, I would automatically start any hub in a blog format. You can still add an archive section with pages you build to hold all of the links, but if every time you add a new gallery or freesite you write a quick post about it you'll have a way better shot of getting SE traffic than you will with a typical hub.

One trick that always works with hubs is to create a numbering system for the URLs of your galleries and freesites. Surfers are always looking for more free porn and one of the things the savvy ones will try with a gallery or freesite that uses numbers in the URL is to change the numbers.

So...

Let's suppose that this is the URL of your freesite. yoursite.com/free/big-tits/2335

What surfers will do is to change 2335 to 2334 or 2336 assuming that they'll get another one of your freesites. Now, if you were smart and didn't use a sequential numbering system and also have added a redirect to your .htaccess file, when they change the number, they'll end up at your blog. They still get what they were looking for, (free porn) but you get the benefit of a possible bookmarker and exposing them to more advertising.

[pumpman]

Thanks for the kind words about Blonde Stop
I'd like to try the blog. What would my url look like, and how do I begin?