How to start a porn site: the definitive guide

How do you start a porn site? What types of sites can I create and what platform do I need? How do I know if the provider will let me start a porn site?

In this article, How to start a porn site: the definitive guide, we will answer these and other questions about starting a porn site. We will start with the types of adult sites that can be created and we will see the advantages and disadvantages of each type.

We will then see what are the steps you need to take to start a porn site. How to choose the topic on which to focus, what rules to follow to find an effective domain name and what to consider when choosing the hosting.

We will see what to consider when choosing the platform for our site and then we will also see what alternatives there are to find the content that will populate the site.

In the second part of this article, we'll focus on strategies to put into practice to get organic traffic and climb the SERPs.

In conclusion, we will see how you can earn money with a porn site.

How to start a porn site: what type of site to choose?

If you are wondering how to start a porn site, the first question you should explore is what kind of adult site you want to create. There are several alternatives you can choose from from a classic tube to a cam site.

Besides the most popular solutions such as video sites, live cams and membership sites (paid content), there are also other adult sites that include classifieds sites, blogs and forums dealing with adult themes and even erotic writing communities.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as the best type of site, but you should aim to find the one that works best for you.

Let's take a look at some of the major categories of adult sites in detail.

Video sites (tube)

Video sites are on the top of the list, they are also commonly called Tube, which collects videos and makes them available for streaming. In short, it's the NSFW version of YouTube, and these sites in fact resemble its interface.

Examples of popular adult video sites like Pornhub, xHamster or YouPorn belong to this category.

Let's examine the advantages and disadvantages of this category.

How to start a porn site: advantages and disadvantages of video sites

Popularity and competition: adult sites that offer streaming videos are among the most visited sites both on computers and increasingly on smartphones and mobile devices as well. This also means having to deal with a lot of competition.

Earnings: there are several strategies to start a porn site that offers videos (even free ones) and help earn money. We'll talk about the different monetization strategies later in this guide, for now, I just want to mention that some of the methods include advertisements and member-only content.

Adult cam sites

Cam sites look similar to video streaming sites but are based on different content. If, in fact, on a video site you can watch previously recorded streaming content, cam sites allow a more direct experience for the user.

On these sites, in fact, you can access content filmed in real-time by models (men and women).

More specifically, you can access live sessions "open" to the public or private shows and interact ( via chat) in real-time during the sessions.

These sites typically use "tip" systems (called tips or tokens) that users can send to models.

Some famous examples of sites are Chaturbate and LiveJasmin.

Creating a porn site: advantages and disadvantages of cam sites

Cam sites tend to be in high demand because they focus on the interaction with visitors, which is missing, by contrast, in a classic tube. Theoretically, a larger audience can guarantee you higher earnings, thanks to advertisements, for example.

On the other hand, however, creating a cam site can be more complicated for obvious reasons like finding male and female models.

Membership sites

Another alternative is to create a porn site that, instead of providing free streaming content, offers premium content that is only accessible with a periodic subscription.

How to start a porn site: advantages and disadvantages of sites with premium content

Membership programs allow you to earn higher earnings than you can get from advertisements.

On the other hand, however, they require more effort in promoting the service. The winning strategy is undoubtedly to be able to provide original and in-demand content, in other words, content that justifies the subscription.

At the same time, it is also important to keep the subscription prices in line with those of the market.

How to start a porn site: the first steps

Now that we've seen the various types of sites you can create, let's see how to go about starting a porn site. Some of the information such as choosing a domain and hosting applies to all types of sites, but here we will talk specifically about the considerations to be made for an adult site.

Other sections, such as the one where we'll talk about where to find content for the site, focus mainly on how to create a porn video site.

Let's start at the beginning and see what to consider when choosing a niche when you want to start a porn site.

How to start a porn site: choose a niche

Among the first steps to take to create a porn site, one of the most important choices is undoubtedly to try to carve out a slice of the market.

To do this, it is not convenient to focus on a site that embraces general categories, but you must go into more detail. In a nutshell, find a niche, a fairly specific category, where the competition is lower and therefore the chance of visibility is greater.

Some practical tips for finding a niche:

• Use keyword research tools to assess traffic volumes.
• Consider that a Google search may filter your results (SafeSearch).
• Take a look at the tags used on other porn sites.

Another thing you can do is to take trending searches into account. To give a practical example, according to a Pornhub report, in 2021 "hentai" was the most searched word worldwide.

How to start a porn site: choose a domain

The domain name is the address that will allow users to reach your website. Choosing the domain means creating the business card for your site.

How to choose the domain name

The first thing you need to consider when choosing an effective domain name for your site is the length.

Try to use a maximum of three or four words, and keep in mind that shorter domains are also easier to remember.

In addition to choosing a name that is short enough and easy enough to remember, you should also keep other considerations in mind.

The domain name should be unique.

Firstly for a technical reason since no two domain names can be the same and you must therefore make sure that the domain you have chosen is among the free domain.

Also, it must not be similar to an existing domain, to avoid legal problems as well.And then it must be unique as well as original.

We could discuss at length about name branding, but it is not possible here, so keep these factors in mind:

• you can choose a name that recalls the niche you have chosen to deal with;
• a name that immediately explains the topic;
• or you can choose a completely different, made-up name.

Look at examples of sites like "xnxx" or "xhamster" that have no precise meaning. Or sites like "brazzers" or "beeg" that have names derived from slang.

You can also opt to use keywords related to the content of the site. However, don't overdo it by using too many keywords and always do some research to ensure that the name you want to choose is not too similar to a domain name already used by someone else.

Which extension to choose?

Another aspect to consider is the extension or top-level domain, let's see which ones you can choose from.

Generic Top Level Domains

The .com domain is undoubtedly the most popular extension, believe it or not, 54% of all websites use this extension. (w3techs)

Other top-level domains among the most used are .net and .org.

National Top Level Domains

Then there are country top-level domains, which you might want to use if your site targets an audience in a particular country.

These include domains such as:

• .us
• .eu
• .it
• .fr
• .co.uk
• .de
• .es.

New generic top-level domains

As of 2012, specific extensions have sprung up for starting a porn site as well. Let's take a look at some examples: .webcam, .love, .sx, .sex, .xxx.

How to start a porn site: choose a hosting

Another crucial step in creating a porn site is choosing a suitable hosting.

First, you need to find a hosting service that allows sites with adult content. Not all providers allow you to host this category of sites and not all plans are listed.

Refer to the terms of service or contact support to find out if the provider will allow you to start a porn site or not.

Generally, as in our case, you cannot use shared hosting plans. Also, shared plans are not ideal for these kinds of sites because of the resources needed.

At SupportHost we only allow porn sites on VPS cloud hosting and dedicated servers.

Also with the activation of a new plan, you can have the domain included forever. You just need to register the domain when purchasing the plan.

Free extensions include .com, .it, .eu and .us, you can check the full list in our tutorial on how to get a free domain.

You can check the availability of a domain in the domain registration section of our website.

When choosing a hosting you should take into account the type of site you want to create. For example, a video site will need more space and unlimited traffic. Check the article on how to choose a porn hosting to better understand what features to look for in a hosting service in this specific case.

How to start a porn site: choose the platform

In addition to choosing the name that your site will have and finding a hosting provider that will guarantee you the space and resources, you need to make your site work, to start a porn site you have to choose the platform with which to make it.

The platforms used to create a website are CMSs (Content Management Systems). There are platforms designed to create an ecommerce site, others ideal for creating a blog and generic platforms.

What are the alternatives available to starting a porn site?

• Choose a CMS like WordPress and add functionality with plugins and scripts (usually paid).
• Opt for a ready-to-use platform: there are several scripts (or clones) designed to create a porn site. Let's see what you need to consider when choosing a CMS when you want to create a porn site.

Choose a mobile-friendly platform

Keep in mind that most visitors to your site will be using mobile devices.

Pornhub's 2021 report shows that 86% of traffic to your site comes from mobile devices. Specifically, 83% of users use a smartphone and 3% use a tablet, while only 14% of traffic comes from computers.

That's why it's important that the platform you choose to use to create a porn site is optimized for mobile devices.

Tip: You can use the mobile optimization testing tool provided by Google to check if your pages are optimized.

Choose by function

It's important to be clear about your purpose from the start. This way you can choose the platform that adheres to your goals.

Are you thinking of creating a membership system so that only members have access to the content? Make sure the platform you choose has all the features you are looking for or can be extended with additional scripts and plugins.

For example, you'll find WordPress plugins that allow you to create a streaming site, import videos from other sites, create galleries, track the number of visitors on the site, import live cams and create members-only content sections.

Take customization into account

Off-the-shelf platforms typically make some designs available, but in some cases, they can be limited in terms of customization.

If you don't want your site to look like many others, consider choosing a platform that you can customize the way you want.

How to find content to start a porn site

Now that we've seen what the first steps are to start a porn site, let's look in detail at how to find content for the site.

In this section, we'll talk specifically about content to create a video streaming site and see what options you have to find content that will attract visitors to your site.

Let's start with some basic rules that are always good to keep in mind:

• do not publish material to which you do not hold the rights, inform yourself about the laws that protect copyright and the risks of disseminating non-consensual material;
• for affiliations always refer to the terms and conditions of use;
• do not post illegal content.

Embed videos from other sites

Sites like Pornhub or xHamster allow you to embed their videos on your site. Keep in mind, however, that not all sites allow you to share their content.

This also applies to images, for example, some sites may turn on hotlink protection protection and prevent external sites from embedding images or videos hosted on the original site.

What are the advantages?

One of the advantages is the possibility to access a lot of content and find the ones that are part of your chosen niche. It is, in fact, the fastest way to share new videos and thus make your site popular.

Incorporating videos into your site is not only easy but there are also scripts that allow you to automate the process.

In addition, some sites also allow you to join an affiliate program, so you can earn money by redirecting traffic to sites you're affiliated with.

Are there any disadvantages?

If you're thinking of starting a porn site and using another site as the main source of your content, embedding the videos on yours, you need to keep a few things in mind.

When you embed content on your site, the video (or image) for all intents and purposes continues to be hosted on the site it came from. This means that you can save bandwidth because the resources of the source site are used.

However, it is also true that if the content is removed from the source site, it will no longer be visible on your site either.

To prevent this from happening it is a good idea to periodically check your site for "broken links".

There are several tools that allow you to do this including Screaming Frog and Google Search Console.

In the case of WordPress, you may want to avoid using a plugin for this purpose, check out our article on plugins that slow down WordPress to learn more.

Remember, it's not enough to just embed content on your site and wait to get visits. If you want to get your site to appear in search results you need to pay attention to another aspect of your content as well, namely optimizing it for the keywords you want to rank for.

We will come back to this topic in a future chapter of this guide when we will talk about how to get organic traffic. Now let's continue to see where to find content to start a porn site.

Buy and redistribute content

As we said at the beginning, it's important to have the rights to publish content. In addition to being able to embed videos from sources that allow it, you can also buy the rights and reuse the content on your website.

At that point, you can either distribute the content for free and make money from advertisements, or offer it for viewing only to members and then invite site visitors to subscribe.

Allow users to upload their own content

Another way to find content is to allow users to upload their own videos or photos.

On the one hand, this system allows you to get a steady stream of new content and save time searching for videos to populate the site.

On the other hand, however, it also hides more pitfalls, because the content will not be easy to control.

In these cases, in fact, you can apply terms and specify that users can only upload content to which they have the rights. However, this is not enough to protect you, and you may receive reports and complaints about copyright infringement, and in the worst-case scenario, you may find yourself dealing with illegal content.

If you choose this strategy, make sure you monitor the content uploaded by users.

Use self-produced content

Another way is to distribute self-produced videos and photos. This strategy compared to the others we have seen is definitely more challenging and also requires more investment.

Start a porn site and get organic traffic

To be able to get organic traffic, or visits from search engines, you must optimize your site to try to get the highest ranking in searches.

Let's see some tips that you should keep in mind starting from keyword research to how to improve the structure of the site.

Start with keyword research

There are tools like SemRush, KWFinder, Ubersuggest and Ahrefs that allow you to find keywords that are relevant to your niche and also check out what your competitors are doing.

Keyword research allows you to identify the keywords that are the easiest to rank with. If you are in the process of starting a porn site or have just created one, you should target keywords that have a low Keyword Difficulty.

Keyword Difficulty also referred to as keyword competition or SEO difficulty, is a metric that gives you an indication of how difficult it is to rank in organic search results.

Avoid duplicate content

You should know that Google and other search engines tend to hide content that is detected as duplicate (identical or very similar to each other). This applies to content on the same site as well as on different sites.

If you've decided to create a porn site and incorporate video content from a different site, you need to watch out for duplicate content.

Basically what you need to do is rewrite titles, descriptions and tags so that the text content on your site is not identical to that of other sites.

It can happen that there are pages on the site with very similar content. To avoid duplicate content within your own site you can use canonical tags.

In this way, you show Google which content should be considered original and, therefore, which should be indexed.

Optimize page texts

If you use WordPress there are several plugins that can help you optimize your on-page SEO, such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math SEO.

Optimize URLs

SEO optimization does not only refer to texts, in this case, example video descriptions or titles but also to other elements.

For example, you should use short URLs and try to use the keywords you want to position within them.

Create the site structure

What rules should you follow to create the structure of a porn site? The same as you would follow to create that of any other site.

You have to organize the pages of your site so that users are able to easily find what they are looking for.

This means, for example, that the most important pages (e.g. the different categories) should be linked directly to the home page of the site.

To help you structure the content of your site there are categories and tags.

Categories allow you to group similar content together. Tags allow you to highlight points of connection between videos or content from different categories. Tags also allow you to provide additional information about each piece of content.

Insert page attributes (HTML meta tags)

HTML meta tags are labels that help provide useful information to search engines.

For example, there are hreflang tags that are used to indicate translated versions of a single page. In this regard, if you want to create a porn site and translate the content into different languages, I suggest you check out our article on how to create a multilingual WordPress site.

Moreover, meta tags can also be used to allow search engines like Google, to filter the site when SafeSearch is active.

Tags are labels that are placed in the header of web pages and allow, in this case, to specify that the contents of that page are intended for an adult audience. In this way, parental control software recognizes the tags and filters search results or access to the site for minors.

You can use the RTA (Restricted to Adults) or ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) tags.

Analyze the results

Maintaining good positions in search engine results is not easy, and it requires constant effort.

You'll have to keep an eye out for problems, 404 errors,broken links, search engine penalties, and unindexed pages.

Free tools such as Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools can help you do this.

It is also important to analyze visitor behavior and keep track of the number of visits. In this case, another tool from the Mountain View giant, Google Analytics, comes to your rescue.

Start a porn site and earn money

Now that we have seen what are the main steps to starting a porn site, let's see what are the systems to earn money.

How do you manke money online through your website? There are several systems, you just need to find the most effective one for your site.

Banner ads

One of the easiest systems to earn with your own porn site is to use banner ads. In this case not just any advertising, but targeted advertising for a site with adult content.

Some of the advertising networks include Exoclick, CrakRevenue and JuicyAds.

How do they work? You create a campaign with one of the ad networks and place the banners on your site.

Affiliate programs

Affiliate programs allow you to earn commissions every time someone from your site visits a site you're affiliated with and takes an action. For example, they register with another site, subscribe or make a purchase.

Again, there are several affiliate networks including CrakRevenue. In addition, xHamster also allows you to earn money by redirecting traffic to their site.

You can refer to the terms of the affiliations by visiting the individual sites.

Selling Premium Content

As we also mentioned earlier, another system is to sell premium content or provide visitors with the option to sign up for subscription plans.

Conclusion

In this article, How to start a porn site: the definitive guide, we have seen how to start a porn site, as you may have seen many steps are identical to those of creating any other website. However, you have to keep in mind that there are a few more aspects to consider in this case. For example, not all hosting allows the creation of adult sites.

One of the issues you need to address is where to find the content to create a porn site, which is why focused on that in this guide. We also focused on how to optimize the site for search engines and, of course, the systems that help us monetize.

This guide tries to cover everything you need to know if you've decided to start a porn site from scratch. If there's anything we've left out or any aspect you'd like us to expand on, let us know in the comments below.