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As of July 1, 2004 California Law requires that an operator of a commercial Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California… shall post its privacy policy conspicuously on its website…Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 22575-22579.

Besides being legally mandated in California, accurate privacy policies increase consumer confidence and awareness. Some affiliate programs have specific requirements for their affiliate privacy policies. You should be aware of the agreements that you have with any third party and how these agreements impact your privacy policies.

Your privacy policy should be easy to read and accurately reflect the way your business collects and shares information.

Below you will find some questions to consider in developing a privacy policy and clauses that may be found in a privacy policy. There is no one size fits all privacy policy. This document will vary from business to business. A privacy policy is a legal agreement between you and the people who do business with you. You should make sure that the statements made in your privacy policy are a true reflection of the way that you do business.

Your privacy policy should: (1) Be posted in a conspicuous place; (2) Identify the categories of information your company collects from consumers; (3) Describe the categories of third parties who you share your customer information with; (4) If your company allows customers to store and update their personal information, you must post the process in which they do so; (5) Describe how you will notify consumers of any changes in your privacy policy and (6) State an effective date.

Below are some sample paragraphs and clauses that may work for your privacy policy. This is a legal document that should be drafted by legal counsel.

Example of a Preamble:

This Privacy Policy sets forth the policies and practices with respect to information or data that is received or gathered regarding Members (note: do you have members?), visitors and Users of ____________ (hereafter the “Site”) or the services provided by the Site.

CAREFULLY READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY BECAUSE BY YOUR USE OF THIS SITE AND ITS SERVICES YOU WILL BE EXPRESSLY SIGNIFYING THAT YOU AGREE TO THIS POLICY AND THAT YOU ASSENT TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING THE USE OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION THAT YOU SUPPLY OR THAT IS COLLECTED ABOUT YOU AS DETAILED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

IF YOU DO NOT EXPRESSLY AGREE WITH ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY YOU SHOULD NOT USE THIS SITE OR ITS SERVICES.

Example of the Body of a Privacy Policy (note: these paragraphs or wording contained in them may not be appropriate for your specific business, this is just an example).

1. HOW WE COLLECT MEMBER, VISITOR OR USER INFORMATION

If you visit this Site, we may collect and store in our databases, one or more of the following types of information (ìDataî): your Internet Protocol (IP) address; the name of the domain name from which you access the Internet; the IP address of the Website from which you linked to the Site or our network of sites; browser data; email address data; and the date and time you access our Site and its functions. (Note: this is a relatively thorough list for an average paysite program, but if you collect another kind of information just by someone viewing your site, then you would list that here.)

When a visitor, member, subscriber, or other Site user requests web pages from the Site’s server, clicks on banners or other links or otherwise uses or views the Siteís services, products or other functions, we or our agents may automatically collect some information (“Data”) about the visitor, member, subscriber or user. This information may include the IP address from which the
Site is being accessed, the pages or links that were requested, the special preferences or requests of the user and cookie information received from the computer of the visitor, member, subscriber or user.

Sometimes, we may ask you to provide personal information. Whether or not you provide this personal information is completely optional. This Optional Information may include your name, username, e-mail address, physical address (or part of it such as your zip code), telephone number, gender, marital status, occupation, education and any special interests or affiliations. Additional Optional Information such as a credit card number, expiration date, security code and billing address may be requested for participation in special promotions or offers, or for billing and shipping information.

When a subscriber, member or user of this Site sends any personal communication or correspondence, by any means, to the Site, the Company or any employees, agents or representatives of Company or Site, we may collect and use any and all such information and all other Data regarding that communication.

2. COOKIES

Internet cookies are used for authenticating, tracking and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or shopping cart contents. Most Internet browsers allow the option to enable or disable cookies. You may disable cookies, but this may make portions of this Site unusable. Cookies are simple pieces of data unable to perform any operation by themselves. They are neither spyware nor viruses, despite the detection of cookies from certain sites by many anti-spyware products.

This Site uses cookies to make the browsing experience of our members, subscribers and users more efficient and convenient. Our system will use cookies to remember your web preferences, and to assist us in tracking and targeting the interests, preferences and desires of our Site users to present the most appropriate messages, offers and other communications to our users, and to generally enhance their experience at our Site.

Any and all information about Site visitors, members, subscribers or users collected by the Company, the Site or any agents or affiliates of Company or Site, through the use of cookies or other similar means may be included in our database and used in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy.

We want to inform you that third parties such as affiliates and advertisers use cookies on or in association with our Site. We often have no access or control over these cookies. We may also allow third party service providers to deliver special offers or services to Site users and to control the use of their cookies on your computer. We urge you to consult the privacy policies of any third party that you encounter on this Site.

(Note: web beacon technology, otherwise known as Clear GIFs, function similar to cookies, but are different. If you use this technology then you need an additional paragraph about Clear GIFs and)

3. HOW WE USE AND SHARE DATA AND PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use the information described in Sections One (1) and Two (2) for a variety of functions. In addition to using cookies, Data and Optional Information in the ways described above, we use this information to measure the number of visitors to the Site, to measure how traffic is generated and where it comes from; to track the success of our affiliate program and its individual affiliates (with whom this information may be shared); to track the receipt and success of customer newsletters, promotional programs, special offers and advertisements; and to generate and provide our marketing partners, affiliates, licensees, purchasers and successors in interest with accurate statistics on the performance of the Site. We also use cookies, Data and Optional Information to track customer preferences and to adapt our products and services to those preferences.

4. CHANGING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

5. UPDATES AND REVISIONS TO THIS POLICY

This Site reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to revise, amend, modify or revoke this Privacy Policy at any time and in any manner. Changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon the posting of any revision on the Site.

6. EFFECTIVE DATE OF THIS POLICY

This Privacy Policy will become effective on _____________.

Some of the most often asked questions I receive are about domain names. What domain name(s) should a pornstar, producer or webmaster purchase ? How many should be purchased ? Which ones are necessary and which ones are simply overkill ? Are the .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ and even the dreaded .XXX necessary to purchase and what if I don’t want to buy all of those domain names ?

These are all valid and important questions. My answer is buy as many as you can afford. Domain names are like buying property. Some are better than others. Some will be more valuable than others. And then there are some domain names you would like to purchase just so others cannot purchase them and set up a website to compete with your website.

Obviously, the most important domain name to purchase is the exact name that you intend to use to promote yourself or your business. For example, if your performer name is Suzie Suckems, you will want to purchase http://www.SuzieSuckems.com. If you have a business called Suckems Sex Toys you will want to purchase http://www.SuckemsSexToys.com. However, the issue then becomes do you really need SuzieSuckems.net, SuzieSuckems.org, SuzieSuckems.biz or one of the other many top level domain name extensions. The answer is simple, if you don’t mind someone else having the website SuzieSuckems.net then you shouldn’t purchase all of them. However, if you want to stop someone from competing with you then you should probably purchase all of them, or at least the more common ones.

What about .XXX ? There has been a debate raging in the adult industry about .XXX and the tactics that they have used in registering and promoting the .XXX domain names. My answer is rather simple, .XXX is really no different than .NET, .ORG, .BIZ or all the others. If you do not see the need to buy every single variation of your domain name then you probably shouldn’t buy it. However, if you are the type of person that will also purchase .MOBI, .TV and .US then purchasing the .XXX might be a good idea. It is a decision that should be based on finances and personal choice.

What about variations on your name beyond just the .NET, .BIZ and the others ? A lot of performers in adult entertainment also use variations on their name. A few years ago when ClubJenna.com was a popular pornstar website many other performers starting buying the Club variation as well. If you think that ClubSuzieSuckems.com is a domain name you believe that you can use then you should purchase that as well. Be aware though, if you are going to buy ClubSuzieSuckems.com then you should probably purchase the .NET, .BIZ and .ORG and so forth and so on versions as well.

What about SuzieSuckemsXXX.com ? Again, that is a variation that is popular with many performers. Often because they could not register their own domain name because someone else already had taken their main domain name and SuzieSuckemsXXX.com was the only domain name still available. Some performers also register the name variation Blog, for example, SuzieSuckemsBlog.com. As a performer you may want to have a free blog linked to SuzieSuckemsBlog.com and another paid membership site linked to SuzieSuckems.com. Again, this is a personal preference.

Also, if your name can be spelled multiple ways then you should also purchase the other spellings with the .COM, .NET, .ORG and .BIZ and the other variations. For example, Suzie Suckems can also be spelled Susie Suckems. Thus, you would also need to purchase http://www.SusieSuckems.com to stop anyone from registering that domain and starting a competing site to http://www.SuzieSuckems.com.

Why is it important to get all of these different variations ? The answer is also very simple – Google.com. The more that your domain name is a match to the search terms that are being used to search for you the more likely your website will come up on the first page of search results. This will result in more visitors to your website and possibly more sales. It is believed that the “organic” traffic that you will receive from a Google search is the best traffic you can get to your website. Those people are searching you out and are more likely to come back and buy.

If someone is searching for “Suzie Suckems” on Google and you own SuzieSuckems.com then it is more then likely your website will be on the front page of the search results. However, if other people own the .NET, .BIZ or .ORG versions they may also end up on the first page of search results. If someone is searching “Suzie Suckems porn” or “Suzie Suckems XXX” then those website variations have a better chance of making it onto the first page of the search results.

However, that is an oversimplification of how Google searches work. Google often changes their algorithms as to their searches however, the goal is to own the first page of search results so any traffic from Google will go to a website you own or a social media page you control. Is it easy to do this ? No, not at all. That is why there are consultants that are paid to provide Search Engine Optimization. However, if another webmaster understands SEO and has the .NET version of your website it would be easy for that person to compete with you. Thus, it is highly recommended that once you have your blog or website designed, built and launched that you work with an SEO expert to increase your Google traffic.

In conclusion, make sure you buy as many relevant domain names as quickly as you can once you enter the adult industry, whether if you are a performer or as a business. How many top level variations and extensions you should purchase really comes down to finances. Buying multiple domain names with multiple top level domain extensions can get expensive very quickly. For example, I have known performers that have spent upwards of $1000.00 in buying their own domain names. However, it is an investment in your career. I can also tell you that spending $1000.00 to register numerous domain names is much less expensive then it will cost to get a domain name back once someone else buys it out from under you.

And remember, if you are worried about your privacy and real name being linked to your website either use a privacy protect service when registering your domains or register the domain names in your company’s name, if you have one.

In Part 2 I will be covering what happens if someone else has already bought your domain names and you have to fight to get them back.

Tag: website

Porn 101: Website Privacy Policies and Why You Need One

Porn 101: Buying Website Domain Names – Part 1