Projects Abound

When I started e[lust], it wasn’t a completely altruistic venture. Sure it helps out any blogger who joins but I knew that my own traffic numbers were going to start declining once Sugasm died and then especially Fleshbot sex blog round-ups. And as Luka pointed out recently (somewhere, I forget where, but she did) a decent chunk of the traffic we might get from Fleshbot/Sugasm/e[lust] mentions results in a numbers boost but not a tangible readership boost (i.e. comments) it still helps in the end. Maybe the post featured in those places didn’t get extra comments, but I’d bet you gained a new reader or two. For me personally, having decent traffic and ratings means I get to keep my advertisers who help keep the site paid for, as well as my blogger-related trips. Fun trips that I won’t go out begging others to help fund. I depend on me. But that’s a rant for another day, folks.

This post is to highlight my most recent project: the e[lust] Sex Blogger Co-Op network. It’s a private network I created at ning.com, so that sex bloggers can freely speak their mind to other sex bloggers and sex bloggy issues. One of the first reasons I created this was finding out how many sex bloggers know little to nothing about what to do when approached with an offer for paid advertising (or what their peers are doing about it). But there’s a lot of shit out there that we can all help each other with. So I might know a few things about advertising. Someone else knows more than me, and I wish they’d share it. Maybe someone else knows a lot about CSS and give tips. We all have *something* to contribute, even if its just asking questions so that answers are put forth for the benefit of others.

You can read more about it over at e[lust]. (actually I took down the page once the network closed, so you can read most of that page’s content below) If you’re a reader and a blogger, I encourage you to join. The larger the community, the more information shared, the more we all benefit. Some things we’ve talked about recently include advertising basics; patents; post prompts; differences between blogpost and wordpress; what hotlinking is and why you should care about it; and some fun shit about sex toys and google search phrases. There’s a lot going on, a lot of information being shared that could be helpful to even the most casual of sex bloggers. I love for you to join us! Like I said, go read more about it over at e[lust], including how to snag an invite.

“A sanctuary of knowledge-sharing for all sex/adult bloggers”. Sex bloggers, IMO, have different bloggy needs than the day-to-day diarists or mommy/daddy bloggers. Namely, we’re various levels of “Not Safe for Work”. Which means that we have different issues and resources for blog directory listings, reader bases, advertising, contest giveaways, etc. I mean, no matter how much I might talk up XYZ makeup or something, I’m never going to be approached by the company or Sephora or whomever to do a review and a giveaway. They don’t want to be associated with adult bloggers. And, as example, back when I used Blogspot, I tried signing up for the google adsense….and got rejected. For awhile there I didn’t know that advertisers would ever want to affiliate with me.

 This social networking site is hosted at Ning.com, and is a private, invite-only safe space for sex bloggers only. So who is considered to be a sex blogger?

 If you’re on Blogspot and you have a Content Warning splashpage

• If you put your own “Over 18!” warning in your blogs sidebar
• If you talk about sex on your blog
• If you blog but also post erotic/nude/pornographic photos
• If you do adult product reviews on your own blog (if toy reviews are the only sex/adult part of your blog, you may find that the ToySwap Networkwould serve you better)
• If you write and post erotica on your blog

 And there’s more, I’m sure. And we’re all in various circles/cliques. But for the purposes of this site? We’re all just sex bloggers. Be it LGBTQ, kinky, perverted, affairs, dating, vanilla, educational….whatever your branch is, I don’t care – we all share a commonality. I hope to have members who are veteran bloggers as well as the newbies who just started last month. We all have something to give and something to learn.

 Want an invite? Keep in mind this isn’t a place to garner more readers and/or blog hits from, this is information-sharing between sex bloggers and we’re looking for members who are willing to participate and be active.

 Some recent discussions include:

 tutorial on hotlinking of photos

• tutorial on advertising
• fun discussions like toy storage & care or google search phrases
• post prompts, writing groups and more
• blogger vs wordpress, free vs self-hosted