Getting the Hits
If there is one thing this business can be boiled down to is that of getting hits. Traffic is the key. You can have the best looking site in the world, but if folks don't get to your front page, you will make nothing.
While there are numerous ways to get traffic, I will go over a few. I welcome other input from webmasters who have found success in other methods.
1. Direct E-mail (spam). I personally have never done this, so I cannot go into detail about it. But so much spam goes on that it must be working for someone. Unless you are very experienced in sending out spam, I would suggest letting the pros do it for you. For a certain amount of money, they will get your e-mail out, and you won't have to worry about your service provider cutting you off.
2. Newsgroups. Newsgroups postings are used by many sites to generate traffic. James at AdultServe makes a comfortable living by using postings almost exclusively. Once again, though, I am not an expert here, so I will wait until I get more info to expand upon this.
3. Links. Links generate traffic. No doubt about it. The quality of the traffic can vary, though.
a. Links to link sites. Link sites, especially the good ones, can bring in a lot of traffic. If the link site webmaster categorizes the links and maybe write a little bit about them, the traffic converts even better. There are thousands of link sites out there, but here are a few recommended ones:
Greenguy--superb link site which sends very good traffic. Greenguy updates every Thursday, and for the week you are on the "new Sites" list, you will do very well. However, you will continue to get hits as long as you maintain your link back to him. Best of all, Greenguy's hits convert real well.
Richard's Realm--generates best for free sites, but also sends good hits for all types of sites.
Hardcore Junky--they only do free sites, but you can expect tons of traffic, especially while the site is newly listed. Traffic will continue long after that, though. Making a free section of 10 to 15 pictures, and then offering more of the same in a member area can be a good way to generate income from Hardcore Junky.
Naughty Linx--this link site is ore of an adult search engine. It looks and runs sort of like Yahoo. The nice thing about this site is that the links it generates are from browsers who are specifically looking for your type of content
b. Picture posts and thumbnail galleries-- picture posts and thumbnail galleries are very popular with browsers. Some of these can generate huge amounts of traffic for short periods of time. Surfers who hit in these, though, are not the best as far as conversion goes. People use these sites for free content, not pay. I've experienced as little as one sale in 2,500 hits with sites that normally convert at 1 in 200. A sale is a sale, though, right? Well yes, if bandwidth is no problem. However, the large amounts of traffic can exceed your contracted allowance, and the extra charges may be far more than the extra income generated because of the traffic. This type of hit generation may make more sense when you are using click-through banners, especially ones which pay per click vice per sale.
Thumbnail Gallery Post--a very popular post which, depending on your placing on that day's list, can easily generate 20,000 or 30,000 hits.
c. Links to other sites. If done smart, this can be a treasure trove of quality links. I recommend that you look at top 100 lists and sites with high search engine rankings with the same genre of content as your site has. Then e-mail them and ask for a link. If they say no, or if they do not reply, you've only wasted a few minutes of your time. But if they say yes, you can get some good quality traffic. Remember though, that the more links you put up, especially outside your pay area, the more opportunities your surfer has of going elsewhere rather than paying you. So pick and choose your links carefully.
d. Top 100 Lists--sometimes called bad traffic recyclers, top 100 lists can never-the-less generate hits. The more you send the list from your site, the higher you are placed on their list, and theoretically, the more hits you will receive in turn. I use these lists, particularly in fetish or specific subject matter. I am not convinced the traffic is particularly great, but I think it is a net gain. A few lists, though, seem to generate good conversion, traffic, though.
In order to earn high rankings, you need to send the lists traffic. With membership or avs sites, this means placing the links outside your membership areas. So you are letting potential customers get away, although most of them would most likely have left anyway without joining.
One method used to promote new sites is to sign the site up, then put the assigned referral link on one of your more trafficked sites. With the hits being generated from an established site, your new site will quickly start getting hits. (A few top 100 lists do not allow this, so read the rules, first.)
Danger Dave--hailing from Australia, Danger Dave has several top 100 lists for various subjects, (anal, asian, bbw, tasteless, etc). I have found these to produce good traffic which converts well.
4. Advertising--ads work. But they may not be financially viable for small or avs sites. For example, Excite offers banner impressions at $25 per 1,000 impressions for adult keyword packages. That means that when people request any of many adult keywords, your banner shows at the top of the list. However, only about 10% at the most will click on your banner. So for your $25, 100 people will go to your site. With an avs site, you would be doing well to convert 1 in 500 visitors to sales, and each conversion might put $12 in your pocket. So the math does not support it. However, if you have a large membership site, one which is fairly expensive and which does recurring billing, the numbers can support the outlay.
Advertising on a site with a more specific content can be a good idea, though. I have a friend who paid $300, for example, for a month's placement on a swingers top 100 site. She immediately saw a $700 jump in sales, so even ignoring recurring billing, she got her money's worth out of it.
5. Search Engines--search engines produce the best traffic, by far. Getting SE hits is the webmasters' holy grail.
One very good way to get search engine hits is to submit your site to ODP. Search engines such as AOL, Alta Vista, Lycos, Netscape, HotBot, and others take their data from ODP now. ODP is a hand-edited directory, so SPAM is tossed. But if you have a decent site which meets their guidelines, it will get listed. You can go to the directory and read the category FAQ to get the basic guidleines.
Yahoo is the king as far as getting traffic. However, they are rather more stringent in accepting sites. You may want to try their Buisness Express service. It does not mean your site will be accepted, but at least you will have a decision within a week.
Many services offer to submit your sites to thousands of search engines. Most of these search engines and directories are worthless. You need to get into AOL, Alta Vista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, NorthernLight, and Lycos. These will provide you most of your traffic.
Getting a top placement in a search engine is a complicated and only somewhat understood evolution. Going into it is far more than I can attack in the scope of this site. I recommend WebPosition as a good place to start in trying to understand the meta tags, keyword weighting, and other techinques used to gain high placement.