Escort Website Design, Building Etc.

[YouVantOption]

Ladies, I just want to point out that you need to be careful about where you spend your money.

There is a new company out offering their services, and I am all for free market, but I find $2,800/year for their VIP level service to be a bit pricey when their own business site gets a lower Alexa rank (traffic measurement) than a site I pulled together for a local SP for $100/year.

Do some comparison shopping before you decide. My experience tells me 1and1.com are the cheapest hosting, domain hosting and everything else site out there ($50/year with an anonymous domain), they have site building tools, and gmail is a great place to send your email from because they anonymize sending IPs so your privacy is kept safe.

Get yourself a copy of Firefox, install the Alexa plugin (use google to find them) and well, just be careful how and where you spend your hard-earned cash. Check people who want you to advertise with them. How much traffic do they really get? is it worth it?

Set up individual gmail accounts and measure how much traffic they send you. It is my experience that Annonces123 and Craigslist and Kijiji and yes, MERB are the very best value for money. Backpage is pretty darned good too, you don't need to spend too much to make enough business to keep you screwing like a little bunny.

It really isn't hard to get a website together, and there are always dorks like me around willing to help a pretty lady.

Just make sure you change your password on everything if you get someone to help you, and keep them in a safe place so no-one can screw around with your stuff afterwards.

YVO, your friendly neighborhood conscientious objector

 

[neverbored]

I totally agree with the above information and would also like to add my own 2 cents...



CREATE AN ADMINISTRATIVE EMAIL ADDRESS

Do not use your home isp's email address. What happens if you move and your sympatico ou videotron email can't be used anymore?

You can create a gmail account for this, just make sure you use a secure password you can remember.

Also do not use this email for all your correspondence. This account should only be used for administrative tasks from a secure locations.


BE IN CHARGE OF YOUR DOMAIN NAME

I've seen too many horror stories where webmasters hijack a clients domain due to an argument (usually caused by the customer realizing they are getting screwed)

Register your domain yourself and use your "administrative email". You should never use an adminsitrative email that is based on the domain you're registering. For example, if you're registering XYZ.COM you should not use an email based on XYZ.COM (if the domain expires and your site is down, how can any mail reach you?)

Don't register your domain name where you will be hosting your site. This gives you control to open a hosting account elsewhere with very little downtime. I've also heard of some web hosting companies that make it really hard for you to transfer your domain elsewhere...beware of this practice.

Register with a reliable company (registrar) and pay for the privacy option. Without this, any info used to register a domain name is publicly accessible including name, address, telephone etc.

Godaddy.com charges 7$ for a .com + 7$ for privacy option ( 14$ yearly)


WEBHOSTING

Your designer might offer to host it for you, but you can also get your own hosting and supply access information to your webdesigner if need be.
Most hosting providers will give your a web based administration control panel that will allow you to change settings and create emails (similar to the windows and mac control panels its pretty much point and click now) don't get intimidated by the idea. Once its setup, you won't have much to do there, so why pay someone to do nothing?

I do my own hosting but there are a few reputable ones out there. Just beware of ultra cheap hosting packages, as they tend to overload their servers and performance tends to be really slow with a lot of downtime.

If you're about to use a hosting company, I suggest you take a look at its rating here: http://www.webhostingtestimonials.com

Here are are two good ones that I have used in the past:

www.hostgator.com
www.iweb.ca (Montreal based company for those who care)

If you do decide to take care of the hosting yourself, you should use your "ADMINISTRATIVE EMAIL" here too.


WEBDESIGN

Today you can purchase a web template for a full site for 10-50$ (templatemonster.com one time fee)...some are even free.

Then all you need is someone to edit these templates according to your content. You might even be able to learn some of the basics to do this yourself its not that hard...

If purchasing a template, keep in mind that there shouldn't be more than 2-4 hours work in customizing it for a pro designer. But if using a "less experienced" designer, this could go up to a day or two but really not much more than that. (This excludes scanning & photo retouching and content writing).

Payment should never be made in full. I personally use a 30% (at start) - 40% (midway) - 30% (closing and delivery). With penalties if the designer is late, and extras charged when the client keeps changing their minds. (All disclosed before agreement). This format keeps everyone in line

Personal sidebar:
Stay away from flash sites and flash intros. They are cute but offer little value (no copy paste, no back button, looks like shit on mobile phones if it even loads)

Stay away from music and ambient sounds (nothing better to attract attention in a work place... then again who the hell reads these sites at work?... oh yeah I do ) Also very annoying when you have 2-3 tabs open and all the sounds and music are out of sync or if you're listening to your own music...

Keep navigation to a minimum. Your site should be intuitive. Make sure your clients get to the info they want without getting lost.

If building an SP related site concentrate of the info that needs to be there: Description, service offered, likes/dislikes (music, wine...), price, schedule... contact detail should be on all pages. And when putting up photos, put A LOT of different ones! (personal request)

Everything else is probably useless. Keep it relevant! and remember, content is more important than container! and it can still look pretty too


EMAIL USAGE

Create a personal email you will be using for your correspondence with your clients.

Your web hosting provider should be able to supply you with a web based email system. This is similar to hotmail/gmail's systems except for your own domain.

When using your webmail, the IP address in the message headers will normally be the one from your webserver not the computer where you're connecting from (added privacy)

SECURITY

I can't stress on this subject enough. If you don't have basic understandings of computer security/usage and are still opening every spam email you're getting get someone to teach you a few things. And make sure you understand. Too many people underestimate the value of properly applied security measures.

I also strongly discourage using internet cafés (battle.net especially) as they often contain keyloggers. These little pests grab all your passwords...not cool.

Beware of client's computers as well, since who knows if they are not trying to get your passwords... hey there are some weird ones out there!

This is also why I recommend creating seperate email accounts. That way if someone compromises your sp email account, at least he won't gain access to your "ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOUNT".


USE THE FORUMS

If you post questions in these forums, I'm pretty sure you'll find a kind soul to help you out.


Am I missing anything else here? C'mon folks... add your own!


--nb

P.S. Got specific questions, feel free to ask me via PM.

 

[Techman]

A couple of little things to add...

Navigation: you should have links to each section on every page. This way people can always get back to the main page of the section they are in without having to click 'back' 20 times, not to mention jump right back to your home page if they do manage to get lost.

Photos: people are getting larger screens all the time. The standard is now 19" widescreen with a relatively high resolution. Many new systems are coming with 20" or 22" displays. Even laptops are equiped with hi-res widescreen displays from 15.4" all the way up to 19". Images that show up great on a 15" display are miniscule on a 19" or larger screen. No one enjoys looking at thumbnail sized photos. And installing java scripts to prevent people from downloading the photos is futile. All that does is cause some anti-virus programs to give a false virus warning. If someone wants to save the image, all they have to do is go into their browsers cache and pick it out from there anyways. If you put pictures on your site, protect them with a watermark and accept the fact that some people will be saving them and passing them around.

E-mail: pretty much well covered except for one thing...answer it in a timely fashion.

Flash: some people like to spruce up their site with Flash and it is convenient if you wish to have video content on the site. If you want to do that, go right ahead. But also have an option for a non-flash site on the main page of your site.

Security: if you will need to access your e-mail or administer your site from another computer, get a flash drive and load it up with portable apps. www.portableapps.com This is a free package that runs entirely from your flash drive, including the temp files, and leaves no traces on the system you are using. It comes with a number of portable applications such as firefox browser, thunderbird e-mail client, as well as Open Office. Many other apps are available including a portable version of Nero for burning cd and dvds and Pidgin instant messenger. There are also U3 flash drives available which are similar, but portableapps are a better choice IMHO. But be advised that this will not protect you from keyloggers.

YVO also mentioned Alexa. While it is a moderately useful app to have, take it's stats with a grain of salt. Alexa mainly collects statistics from people who have the Alexa plugin installed on their system. It is by no means the most accurate method of judging a website's traffic but it can give you an idea of the traffic a site is getting. Many anti-spyware programs also flag the Alexa plugin as spyware and remove it.

Techman

 

[neverbored]

Is portableapps bootable? I can't seem to find details on their site. Just seems like an application loader. Dosen't offer much protection if using from an unsecured computer...

Might be better off using a livecd like ubuntu if you really want it to be secure...

There are a bunch of things that can/should be done. Was however just trying to keep things simple...

Is there such a thing? lol

 

[TTiger]

j'offre mes services au besoin je suis webmaster depuis plusieurs années je peut vous monter des set-up clef en main et monter vos site pour que vous puissiez le modifier par vous même.
je peut offrir un cours de maintenance de votre site.
contacté moi par mp au besoin ca me fera plaisir de vous repondre

 

[YouVantOption]

Hello merb,

can anybody clue me in with information about web design companies in Montreal who work with adult content.

I am looking for some changes, nothing from scratch.

If Mods have any information about what company is good in Montreal please kindly advise me.

And before you ask ---> yes I used a search button
Somebody told me that Montreal is a porno capital of Canada. It must be some companies who work professionally with flash, java and simple CMS implemented into website. As I said I look for some upgrades.

Offhand I can't suggest anyone specific, but I'd go to Craiglist and look around there, maybe post in the http://montreal.en.craigslist.ca/med/ section. Ask to see samples of the designer's work, ask for references. Shop around on price, these days, designers, like escorts are feeling the pinch and you should be able to negotiate a fair price.

 

[hornypilgrim]

1. 'clicking' is so passé. Enlarge photo or do what you want to do when user passes the mouse over is much more convenient.

2. Music is nice, but for this kind of site, you might land the user in trouble once he opens the page at God knows where.

3. Simple html is easy, get/work with a designer who will not just make the site, but also teach you how to maintain it. Sites can and should be built to be real easy to maintain. Forget the designer who is looking for a lock-in for future biz (flash anyone? no, the designer won't give you the source file if you don't know enough to ask for it, he will give you just the web part... and when it's done... you are 'locked in' if you want to make updates.) Better to smooch up some nerd here to make you a site and can show/teach you how to update it. You can always chuck him later once you have the hang of it.

4. Think of the user when you design your site, not just 'cool' or 'pretty'. Do it this way and you will have no trouble coming up with the important things that a site should do, eg. like what mk1992 did to make that asservissante 'work'.

 

[Red Paul]

Think of the user when you design your site, not just 'cool' or 'pretty'. Do it this way and you will have no trouble coming up with the important things that a site should do, eg. like what mk1992 did to make that asservissante 'work'.

Yeah, Asservissante's site is still my favorite. IMO it's the best for looks and for ease of use. Of course it relies on clicking, but I don't have a problem with that.

 

[Sashatemper]

Thank you so much, I am thinking of getting my own website and this information helped me out alot.