Unless you've been living in a cave for the last several years, you probably already know that blogs are the greatest communication tool to come along since Gutenberg invented movable type in the 16th century. Blogs have become the latest promotional tool in the adult webmaster's arsenal, and a very successful one for many.

Blogs have several advantages. One is that they're very low cost. For little more than the price of a domain name (or free if you go with a blog hosting service), you can set up a blog and start blogging. They're easy to set up, requiring only a simple software install and/or web-based configuration. Blogs have great SEO advantages, since they consist primarily of text, which search engines love. They're easy to promote as well, with blog directories, link trades, RSS feeds and pings drawing in visitors.

Adult bloggers cite the higher conversion ratios and lower bandwidth requirements of blogs compared to galleries, free sites and TGPs. Blogs are not subject to the whims of TGP and link list owners, nor do they attract as much of a freeloading element as galleries and free sites do. And at least as of this writing, blogs haven't quite reached the point of oversaturation that TGPs have.

Porn blogs are a great option for new adult webmasters, and are preferable to other forms of promotion because of their low operating costs, good conversion ratios and short learning curve. But like most everything else in adult, blogs require quantity and consistency. Blogs need to be updated regularly with fresh content. While it's possible to make money off of a few well-written, frequently updated blogs, many webmasters opt to create and maintain a network of dozens or even hundreds of blogs that are updated manually or automatically.

Starting An Adult Blog

There are two option for starting an adult blog. The easiest is to use a free adult blog hosting service. Thumblogger is the most popular, with over 20,000 adult blogs currently hosted. Thumblogger is loaded with tons of features and great tools, and you can have as many blogs as you want under one account. Other free adult blog hosts include Sensual Writer and XLogz.

The second option is to host a blog on your own domain using blogging software such as Wordpress or Serendipity. Wordpress is famously easy to use and install, with tons of plugins and templates available. Hosting a blog on your own server will involve a bit more technical skill and setup than using a free blog service, but you'll have much more control over your blog as well as the corresponding domain.

Blogs are very niche-oriented, so pick a porn niche that you know and enjoy (or one that you're currently promoting.) Unlike galleries and free sites, there is no firm standard dictating what you can do with your blog. Whatever you choose to do with it is entirely up to you. Nevertheless, there are some conventions that are followed by adult bloggers. Go to an adult blog directory like Adult Blog Finder, check out a couple of blogs and note the similarities.

Think of an adult blog as like a TGP, except with blog posts instead of short descriptions and thumbnails. In fact, most bloggers do nothing more than promote sponsor FHGs. (Free hosted galleries or FHGs are professionally-designed thumbnail galleries created by sponsors for use by their affiliates.)

Other bloggers may post a few full-size pics or a sample video with a link directly to the sponsor tour. The options are endless, but in any case, you'll generally be posting sponsor content or an external gallery or tour link and then selling it using very descriptive and persuasive text.

This cannot be emphasized enough: Blogs are an informational medium, and well-written sales text is very important! Learning how to write persuasive sales text is a valuable skill for any webmaster, but for blogs it is crucial. A blog with poor grammar, spelling and a only few short sentences is not going to get you very far. Spend some time reading other quality adult blogs to see how it's done.

Images are important as well. Porn is still a visual medium, so you'll need at least a thumbnail to the gallery or site you're promoting. Thumblogger has an external thumbnailing tool available, and Wordpress includes an HTML editor and an image import tool. There are many Wordpress image posting plugins available as well.

You'll need to update your blog regularly with fresh content. How often you do this is up to you, but at least once every few days is good. Keep in mind that you can easily post-date blog entries to appear on your blog days or even weeks into the future. You can also write a batch of posts on a new blog and date them in the past, making it look like you've been running the blog for a while. Simply edit the Post Timestamp on the New Post page in Wordpress.

Keeping your blogs updated is often the hardest part of blogging, as many blogs soon end up being abandoned after the owner loses interest. If this is a problem for you, you may want to consider automatically updating your blogs. Read on to learn all about blog automation.