Intended Audience & Key Concepts

The Werk.Baby portfolio training project is aimed primarily at artists who utilize adult themes in their marketing and/or who sell adult content. But artists of all types may find it useful. One of the key concepts we will be employing is compartmentalization, where all crucial business services are split between different vendors. For example, the vendor collecting payments will not be the same as the vendor distributing content or running the website or hosting the individual pages. This is useful for adult and vanilla artists alike. The project is modular, so you can add different components, change them out, add services you already use or even double them up. (I use the word "vendor" in this context to refer to any company that provides a service or app that we will be using as part of the portfolio project. Note that everything used here except for the domain parking through Namecheap is free.)

I call it a "portfolio" because we're actually going to be building a collection of sites with different purposes. The first will be a vanilla business site. You can see a demo here. This is the site that you will show your bank and your family and your vanilla clients (if you have them) and put on your business cards. We're going to build this vanilla site first, before the blog with adult content and the something-in-between financial domination site. For artists actually selling adult themed content, there will be some special limitations with what you can do and where. But through proper compartmentalization, adult content is allowed to be displayed. Note that age verification needs to happen both ways for distributing adult content. Fan Sites and High Risk Processors will help take care of verifying the provider's age. And although the client's age is verified through the cardholder agreement, providers should additional use a client age verification and client screening with identity verification.

While it may seem a bit confusing to have the website into all of these different subdomains, and it is true that it complicates the setup a bit, the organization will help in the long run and, and it's a key component of achieving compartmentalization. 

For most of this training, I won't be using the names of specific payment processors. Instead, I'll be referring to one of four general types: Quick Startup Processors, Full Underwriting Processors, High Risk Processors and Fan Sites. The information in these sections is password protected, so providers will need to contact me for access. They include some recommended vendors as well as suggested places to look, and how/why you would use them. There is also a general payment processing section that recommends ways to utilize local resources, that is not password protected. For many purposes, like the Simple Payment Menu or Simple Paywall, these four different types of payment processors can be used interchangeably.

Providers who sell adult content will need to use either a High Risk Processor, or a Fan Site (that uses a High Risk Processor in the back end.) Some providers who employ adult themes but do not actually sell adult content may be able to use Quick Startup and Full Underwriting Processors, so long as they follow strict compartmentalization. In all cases, there should be a strict separation between the places where payments are collected and adult content is distributed. Wherever underwriters or risk assessment teams or AI bots are searching for adult content, they will use a "where there's smoke, there's fire," approach. In other words, it only needs to look adult content adjacent in order to be flagged.

Local regulations will vary widely, but I have included general sections on business banking accounts, business incorporation and tax accounting. Each of these sections will focus on helping you utilize local services, where you can meet the vendor face to face. Many of these steps will require or be made greatly more secure by first obtaining a discreet mailing address. That section is password protested as well.

You should read, or at least browse, all of the pages in this Key Concepts section before starting into the content on website building. The training pages are set up similar to a wiki page, where important concepts later will be linked back to the overview page. The word wiki, is underlined, for example, because that links to a page where I show how to add a wiki app to your website.

One of the challenges for artists in the s3x werk market in general is defining the actual product or service of value that they are selling. In general, it is preferable to sell a product (whether physical or digital) rather than a service, if possible. Either way though, through proper compartmentalization, the payment processor will not know which type of transaction is being passed through. Remember, if the product or service you are actually providing in exchange for money involves adult content, you have to treat it as adult content, no matter how you wrap it up and package it on the outside. However, if you stick to my policies of Aggressive Discretion, Keeping the Books Clean and Compartmentalization, the risk of being accidentally (or correctly) Flagged as High Risk is greatly reduced. (Because no one will know.)

After reviewing all of the Key Concepts on this page, continue to the First Step (1) Purchase Domain with Namecheap, if you haven't already received one (two actually!) for free through the Domain Giveaway Program. For access to the protected pages, or to ask any questions, contact Paul.