Linkback Issues With Free Escort Advertising Malls/Sites
August 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This is just one part of a very long discussion. I’m discussing actual ads, not merely a banner exchange.
Due to my travels, I’ve looked into getting free advertising as much as possible. It’s very expensive to constantly pay for ads in changing locations, not to mention all the payment headaches. The number of online advertisers has exploded (especially overseas), so there are many options – even when I try to narrow my choices to what I think will be the best for me.
Because these are free ads, advertisers also want me to link back to them and the home page has become the popular spot. Advertisers have become overly aware of SEO and want huge text links with every keyword they can think of. It junks up my site, making it look somewhat spammy to Google too — which could decrease my site’s PageRank. (Advertising on an online mall is not about SEO for the escort, it’s simply about getting seen by clients.) I understand that advertisers need to be competitive by working on their PageRank and such.
But I think it’s gone to extremes. Even very minor sites think they should get 20 keyword-heavy text links leading from the front page of my site. If I’m not getting a front page spot on their site with lots of text/pictures, how is this a fair trade? If I’m lucky, I get a photo somewhere on their site. Or maybe just a text link, buried in their pages. That’s not worth junking up my homepage for.
Paid ads sometimes requires this as well, but it’s not as bad as with free ads. No one says you must use free ads (or any ads at all), but sometimes an escort has little advertising choice due to her location or budget. A number of escorts don’t even use advertisers and have a successful business (discussion of various non-advertising-mall methods throughout Book 2: Advertising and Marketing).
My Escort Site’s Advertising Policy
My advertiser policy: If you want your link here, you must have a very well-established, high-traffic site. Your link must be a badge. If you want your link here and you’re not a major site, then my ad should be on your index page just as your badge is here. Otherwise, all advertiser links go where they belong: on my Directories and Boards page.
All escorts are welcome to start using this policy (reword as needed).
Who knows how well this policy will work? I don’t think it’s any more arbitrary than the policies advertisers often have for their free ads.
Badges can still have keywords in their alt and title tags if the advertisers want. And images won’t mess up the design of your site like their heavily-coded banners often do (another new, irritating trend with advertisers). On a personal note, I think badges just look more attractive.
The Goals of Advertising Malls
Advertisers seem to forget that SEO and attracting new advertisers are two different things. To broadly summarize the cycle of attracting new advertisers — girls always use other escort sites as research tools looking for good places to advertise, photograher references and so on. Escorts will go to sites that seem good or are used by other escorts they like. More escorts advertising will draw clients. If the site charges for advertising, it will draw more revenue with more escorts. And if the escorts are successful with the site, the site grows even more. (Advertisers should realize a good banner will likely draw more escort-attention than lots of text like “London escorts”.)
Escorts also use sites that come up in Google searches for particular terms. The escorts are trying to mimic what potential clients will search for. This is where the SEO efforts of advertisers pay off. But there is more to SEO than forcing every advertiser to have frontpage links using the same keywords. I’ve seen sites pop up in the top 5 of my Google searches that I don’t want to advertise on because they seemed scammy or didn’t seem to have any real advertisers on there. I much prefer a site that’s established and has lots of real, established escorts advertising there. High PageRank isn’t the be-all, end-all of advertising malls. They have to benefit clients and escorts fairly equally to be truly successful (or at least appear to benefit both parties).
Their Traffic to YOU
Of course, your most important consideration is the Web traffic and successful appointments an advertiser brings you. Even the nicest site is worthless if it brings 1 hit/month. Checking Web stats or simply asking where a client found you tells you all you need to know. And when it’s not those sites lounging on your front page, well, there’s not much reason to keep them around.
Which makes one of the most successful, (formerly free) advertising options of all – CraigsList – even a better deal for those girls who use it.
Writing an Escort Ad
August 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
This is a very quick “what not to do” post.
One escort I saw online described herself as a “top chef” escort. From the context of her sentence, she wasn’t referring to her culinary abilities; instead she was comparing herself to a slightly more expensive margarita: top shelf.
I imagine her mistake came about because she drank a lot of margaritas and never clearly understood what the bartender was saying when she ordered one.
Some simple guidelines to avoid this:
- Proofread. If you never paid attention in school, find a friend who did and get them to proofread for you.
- Don’t compare yourself to food, cars, clothes, shoes, diamonds or any other inanimate object. I’d also refrain from comparing yourself to the elements. Animals and plants are iffy — they’re living creatures and many humans have similar qualities. That doesn’t always mean it needs to be in your ad, though.
- Drop the superlatives. Writing a straightforward ad about who you are as an escort is really the easiest way to go. It’s hard to mess it up (if you proofread).
The Hard Sell
There is a lot more discussion on writing your ads (and website content) in Book 2: Advertising and Marketing 
Book #2 is on the way!
January 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Yes, finally, it is.
First, thank you for your patience. I make big plans, but they aren’t always on the timetable I’d like.
It is printed and should be at my fulfillment center within a week. It won’t be available to the public for another couple weeks.
If you want a jump on things, you can either sign up for my newsletter or reserve a copy. You’ll get an opportunity to buy the book at a discount before it’s available to the general public (at full price). That’s my way of thanking my many loyal readers who have been waiting patiently through publishing delays. Buying information will be included in the newsletter or purchase email.
I apologize for all the delays, but now there are no more delays! (Fingers crossed that the delivery truck doesn’t skid on an icy road and dump my books in the snow or something.)
When Will Book 2 Be Out?
August 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’m starting to worry about a pitchfork-bearing mob; hopefully this explanation will help.
Golden Girl Press is a very tiny company funded by one person. Though the company takes care of its own day-to-day expenses, the big things – like printing Book #2 – come out of the pocket of the company’s founder/owner. Right now, that pocket is very thin and the cost of printing is not going down.
Which is why the release date keeps getting moved back. Life happens. (Check the past few months of TexasGoldenGirl.com if you don’t already know.)
Though the enthusiasm from my readers is welcome (it means I’m doing something right), there’s not much else to say other than it will be out when it’s out. Unless one of you would like to be an angel investor! One day Golden Girl Press will be a solid small press churning out several books a year. But it’s not there yet. We’re struggling to finish giving birth to this one (it is a big one, though).
Fingers crossed – it will be able to see the light of day soon. It will be a great relief to me and I hope you enjoy the read.
Thank you all for your continued patience.
Reserve a copy of Book 2!
April 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment
You can reserve a copy of Book 2: Advertising and Marketing with just an e-mail. Simply send a blank e-mail:
reserve [AT] theinternetescortshandbook [DOT] com
You’ll receive a single e-mail notice before the book is available to the general public. At that time, you can choose to order. Your e-mail address will be discarded after the single notice.
Book #2 Progress: Editing
January 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I’ve gotten the manuscript back from my editor and am now going through her changes, as well as adding input from my First Readers, updated (or new) information and any other revisions. This is going to take longer than I thought, but I’m still on schedule for a Spring 2008 release. It just means not much else is going to get accomplished for the next couple weeks.
The feedback from my First Readers has been very positive.
Book #2 Progress: Completed!
August 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The rough draft is finished!
There’s a lot to do: compiling the Resources, interviewing escorts, making sure I’ve included everything I intended — but it’s done!
Due to my poor planning, editing is delayed until January. That gives me plenty of time to promote it and Book #1, as well as do things like blog more and work on getting an affiliate program started.
Expect to see new Squidoo lenses from me soon, as well as an exceprt from Book #2 and the Table of Contents. Work on Book #3 starts in a couple months!
Book #2: Call for Volunteers
March 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I want to test what I’ve written in my Web site DIY (do it yourself) section. To do that, I need one or two volunteers.
To volunteer
You must:
- be an independent escort with a live, non-Flash, Web site
- have direct access to your Web server/hosting
- have a need to make text/link/image changes on your site
- be literate
- be willing to be a guinea pig
- be willing and able to offer feedback in a timely manner*
- be a DIY kind of girl
- not have any prior Web design experience and are very new to HTML
- use a Windows computer at home
*I expect you to read the text, attempt your changes and give me feedback within 14 days of you receiving the material. The feedback doesn’t have to be formal, but you will have to give lots of detail as to what did and didn’t work for you.
The Test
You get my DIY section on Web maintenance. You follow along and try to make your changes. You have to be able to tell me if I clearly explain the concepts, where I’ve made mistakes and how it’s worked out for you. (This will be an edited rough draft. I don’t expect you to edit, but if there is a glaring error, feel free to point it out.)
Understand you will receive copyrighted material. Although you’re more than welcome to discuss it however and wherever you want, you cannot copy from my work in any way. You cannot share it with anyone else, online or off. You will not make “notes” from it. You will delete my file when you are done.
I can answer questions, but I prefer not to. I really want to see if I explained what needed to be explained through the text. But if you really cannot understand something, then ask. It will make clear to me where I need to re-write.
Disclaimer
You cannot hold me responsible for messing up your site. The text includes instructions on creating a backup. I don’t profess to know everything — I’m trying to explain the most common situation faced by most people with non-Flash, HTML-based Web sites.
Privacy
Unless you want credit for being my guinea pig (and I’m totally willing to do that for you), you will not be mentioned in the book, online or in any public way.
Thank You
You will get a copy of the finished book as a “thank you” for helping out. You can opt of this, if you want.
To Apply
Nothing complicated here. First come, first serve, as long as you seem to understand what I’m asking. I do want to know the site you’re working on so that we’re on the same page when you try to make changes.
Contact me: missbrooks [AT] goldengirlpress [DOT] com
Book #2 Progress: Web Site Stuff
March 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I’ve been working the last two days on the huge Web site section. No matter how much I write, it keeps growing. I don’t know if I’m adding too much detail or not enough.
At any rate, I’ve finished the SEO section, the “hiring a designer” section and DIY maintenance. Still have work to do on all these sections but the main work is done.
I have to say that I’m astonished at the prices escort Web designers charge. It’s been more than a year since the last time I seriously looked at a range of designers.
Designers who charge several hundred dollars and severely limit the amount of pages, pictures or links you’re “allowed” are not good designers. Good mainstream designers don’t pull this kind of crap on their clients — they’d be out of business if they did.
I see these “escort” designers as taking advantage of their client-base. It really makes me mad, especially when I see the general quality of sites these designers churn out. And rarely do any of these “designers” know the first thing about standards-compliant XHTML and CSS, or even basic SEO techniques (submitting your site to search engines is not a basic SEO technique).
I didn’t see a single designer that I would recommend, even the ones that I thought made some great sites. Every one of them seems to want to tie you down to their (overpriced and underserviced) hosting and maintenance plans. Good mainstream designers don’t do this, why is it somehow okay for escort designers to? Makes me steamed.
Oh well, that’s why I’m writing the book I’m writing.
Book #2 Progress: Web Sites and More
March 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I’ve been writing for the past week although I haven’t put everything down here. I’m re-tackling the Web site section and am working my through it in edits, realizing there’s even more to put in than I originally thought.
I finished the client correspondence section and have started on the Conclusion. I still have to write the Intro, but I’m thinking it will come easiest once I have a finished rough draft.
I made a major change in this book. I elminated the final section. I will make a formal announcement about this on the Web site and give some details here…but not today. Still have writing, research and basic editing to do.
The first draft of Book #2 is coming to a conclusion! Finally! Very soon…
