By AJ Hall

YNOT EUROPE – So you’ve got some content and you’re ready to build a pay site. Now what?

The first step is to get the tools you need. On a basic level, these are a web host, a content management system or some kind of management script, a security and user management script, and a billing company.

Choosing which CMS to use is likely to be one of the more difficult decisions, as there are lots of choices. Try not to make price your main deciding factor; instead, focus on finding something that’s the right fit for your needs. Do you just need a simple script you may outgrow, or would you prefer a high-end software product that can grow with you? Do you want access to live support staff when you need help, or are you comfortable going it alone?

My advice is to pick a CMS that has the features you feel you need today and the features you think you’ll need in the future. Don’t settle when it comes to two things: Your web hosting provider and the software that runs your site. The truth is that these are the only mission-critical components of your operation and the two main components you don’t want to have to change unless absolutely necessary.

It’s tempting, but don’t go for the all-in-one deal from someone who offers CMS, billing and affiliate solutions in one package. Or, if you do go with them, just use the CMS or affiliate script and nothing else. The one thing you never want as a business owner is to have one single point of failure. You always want to be in a position where you can replace one component if it isn’t working. It’s much faster and easier to change a tire than to replace the whole car.

CMS and web hosting are the core of your business, so take your time while shopping and choose wisely.

Reputable companies are the safest bet. Visit industry forums and search them by name. Google the company by name. Be wary if you can’t see a history that shows a solid track record for the company. See who’s using it. If it’s used by a lot of successful companies, that’s a very good sign. Try to do business with hosts and CMS or affiliate software providers who have received lots of public praise from customers. If people aren’t publicly admitting they use a product, that’s a red flag.

Whenever possible, put your business in the hands of people who will take it as seriously as you do.

Once you have a CMS and hosting set up, it’s time to get to building. Ambition is great, but the phrase “Rome wasn’t build in a day” should become your new mantra. Start with one site and expand from there. Don’t get caught up in trying to roll out a whole network of sites at the same time.

Focus on quality and set attainable goals so you can get a site online quickly. You don’t want to still be building the same site six months from now.

There will be times when you find yourself fixating on one element, be it content-related, a design aspect or a feature of the site. This is where huge amounts of time are lost. When you’ve fixated on something for more than a few minutes, step away and quietly reflect for a moment. Ask yourself this question: Does this matter to anyone but me? More often than not, the answer will be no. When the answer is yes, you know it’s worth devoting your time and putting your energy into the task at hand.

I’ve seen more people fail due to mistakenly answering yes and spending time on things that don’t really matter. It’s easy to get caught up in thoughts like “It won’t sell unless…” or “It won’t sell if it doesn’t have XYZ,” but this thinking leads only to more work, bigger projects and busted deadlines. Many, many pay site empires have been built under the premise of “build first, fine-tune later.”

I suggest a happy medium between building and fine-tuning. By this I mean I believe that you should never sacrifice quality just to crank out a site as quickly as possible. Usually, you’ll end up with a shit site. Take time to make your content look good and don’t get lazy with things like titles, descriptions, tags and other aspects of the site that will help you make sales and improve search engine optimization.

When your site complete, choose a billing company and begin testing. You can start with small amounts of traffic, but you’ll need at least several thousand quality visitors to get an idea of conversion rates. Then you can begin fine-tuning. Free tracking tools like GetClicky.com and Google Analytics can help you identify problems and make improvements.

Once you start seeing sales and are happy with your site’s performance, you’re ready for what comes next: Get busy building lots more sites!

AJ Hall is a 12-year adult industry veteran, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Elevated X Inc., a leading provider of adult CMS software for the online adult entertainment industry. Elevated X powers more than 2,000 leading adult sites. The company is a six-time nominee for Software Company of the Year awards from YNOT, GFY and XBiz.