Let me update you briefly so that you will know a little about the situation even if you haven’t known about me before.
I decided to create a website to sell fetish wear in 2020 and launched it on December 31st so I would go into the new year with a grand entrance.
Oh, dear was I so wrong about it all. So, continue reading and I will let you know the full story…
How It All Started…
I have always had the idea that I would like to have my own fetish website right from when started 17 maybe even 18 years ago. Somewhere I could share my love of corsets, wigs, etc, and sell them to all my admires, cross-dressing sissy maids, etc…
I have a few friends but not many know about my hobby. So the few that knew I told them my ideas and they loved it. It’s best to have people like the same thing and then I could be myself and not have to hide anything. As regular people don’t understand the fetish world.
My ideas were always going to be elaborate as I had multiple amounts of thoughts and to mix them all up to connect with each other would be so much fun. Little did I know that it wasn’t that easy, designing, yes but actually building it, no. As a beginner, it was a massive task.
Keeping Myself Occupied During Lockdown…
So being that we were in lockdown for most of 2020 I thought it would be a good idea to start the website then to occupy my mind. I love being in my home with my kitty cats anyway but keeping me busy is essential as I get bored very quickly when I don’t have anything to do.
I had always had an interest in web designing for years. I tried to do it twice before, it was a complete fail as I tried to do it cheaply and at hardly any cost. Of course, it failed even before I started. This time I thought to myself I am not giving up until I succeed. I could say that I had the capital this time. We managed to raise £10k between us. Would it be enough? Not sure but we were going to give it a go.
Researching The Topic…
I first started looking at youtube videos on how to build a website with word press. I was advised that this was the easiest website for beginners to adapt to. I had been researching for years but I was much more serious about it now. I had tried to follow the videos previously only to come to brick walls each time. The reason was that the video was a year or 2 old and the word press that I was working with had been updated several times in that space of that time. So the screens that I could see on my laptop were different from what was on the video.
A Helping Hand Just At The Right Time…
Skipping a couple of days later, I received a phone call from a website that I had looked at online one night whilst browsing. I must have pressed an inquiry button and forgotten about it. I randomly answered the call. I very rarely pick up unexpected calls that I don’t know who it is.
The chap was very nice and he was saying all the right things that I need to hear at that moment. As I was not having any luck starting my website he was a breath of fresh air. So because he was experienced in that field of intelligence I automatically warmed to his conversation.
We spoke for about 30 minutes and concluded to have another phone call to talk over the details of the website that I particularly wanted. After the 2nd phone call, I agreed that I needed professional advice and maybe someone to start my website with the basics. I then could edit it myself according to my plans.
At the end of the business transaction, he ended up starting me on a word press website theme that I could very easily adapt to and build what I wanted with it.
A Lot Of Late Nights/Ealy Mornings…
Many nights I stayed up into the early hours of the morning. Learning how to make pages and linking them with permalinks and buttons to interlink everything together. (Wow look at me as if I know what I’m talking about Ha Ha Ha). Really making the pages so enthralling and interesting to the kinkster that they would want to click onto the next page and next page and never want to stop.
I was like a kid in a candy store wanting to try every sweet that there was to offer. My brain grew from a pea to a brussel sprout size within weeks Ha Ha Ha It was a standing joke amongst my friends.
100mph Thought Tank 24/7…
Each day I would open my eyes from resting my stressed brain and automatically be thinking what the next thing I had to do for the website. One of the things that really worried me was that I would be sharing these ideas with my partner friends and then not be able to deliver and show them the website. Many a time I had doubt in myself but it was because I was learning as I was building this amazing idea into reality. Every time I had an ounce of doubt, an ounce of confidence in another idea would counteract the doubt. I didn’t want to be all talk and no action as this was an amazing project and I so badly wanted it to happen.
So Much Fun Spending Money…
In between days of working on the website, I would take time out and do some online shopping for the products that I was planning to list on my website. As a woman, I was in my element. Females and shopping are like duck and water it just goes together so well. Dangerous in some cases but in my case if I didn’t have any products I had nothing to sell my avid onlookers.
Interaction Fetish Subscription…
As I was halfway to the completion another idea came to my thoughts. An interaction fetish subscription section. “Dam,” I said, “this could be wild to play when is fully finished”. As I mentioned before I have mad ideas sometimes and most of them are bigger and more expensive than I could ever afford to do.
If anyone is interested in funding the idea then by all means message me and we can chat about it. As unfortunately I never got to start it, let alone complete it.
Payment System…
As the seasons changed and the months passed so it was getting closer to finishing the project but there was one last major thing to put into place… the payment system.
One of my friends was a business tech guy that knew a lot about computers and behind the scenes. He was also very good at researching a subject and finding out how it worked even though he wasn’t familiar with it.
We tried to connect with Paypal in the right way they liked us to do it. There are lots of rules and regulations with this company and what a palaver that was.
Descretion Is Key…
When it was finally set up I then thought that customers won’t want Lucy’s Fetish Closet on their bank statements. Not having done this before I didn’t realize until it was too late to change. So I tried to change the email address that was connected in the back office so the receipt email the customer would receive would not have the website name on it. I was trying to think of all angles so it was a smooth operation and not have any paper trace connected to Lucy’s Fetish Closet but it was becoming impossible.
The only way would be to change the title of the website and that would be an enormous job to do.
Maybe I was thinking too hard about this and because of that, I was causing most of the mix-up because I wanted to change too many things and it was just complicating everything.
At this point, I wish I had taken up the offer that the chap who helped me start all of this. I didn’t take it because he quoted me £10,000.00 for a fully-fledged website. Wow so much money when I could do it myself.
Respect To All Web Designs…
Now, sitting here typing this blog I am in ore of all website designers (especially the chap who is running this website for me). There is more going on in the back office than you realize.
Launch Day…
So when we got the website to a level of what we were happy with we decided on a launch day and stuck to it. Being that it was new years eve my friends had partners and wanted to be with them. I was fine with that as I like my own company.
The launch day came and I was a bag of nerves. I kept going onto the website to see if everything was working and connecting right but by 4 pm I stopped. Otherwise, I would have probably done something that would have mucked it all up. Then it wouldn’t work at all.
I decided to get dressed up for the occasion to make it feel special to me. After all, this was my baby, and my friends were just silent partners (which they had agreed on at the beginning).
11;30pm I checked on where the release button was to launch the website so I would be ready. Right, I’m all ready and sitting waiting. Coffee in one hand and stroking a kitty cat in the other who was on my lap to keep me calm.
5. 4. 3. 2. and I pressed the button to set the website live. Now because the fireworks from neighbors went off at the strike of 12 midnight it made me jump and look away. So I didn’t see if the button was pressed in the correct way. I sat there in confusion. I went onto my phone to see if it was live and it came up with the coming soon page. ” OMG,” I thought. So I texted a friend “can you check the website on your phone or laptop please?”.
Sometimes because my devices are logged and recognized to the website, my devices may react differently to other people’s devices that are not connected to my wifi.
Very Over Whelming…
Yes, they said they could see Lucy’s Fetish Closet in all its glory on their mobiles. I sat back in astonishment. I had to pinch myself to believe it So what happens now???
I suppose because it was new years eve everyone had parties to go to etc and were busy. I had a few texts come through congratulating me on all my good work. Which I was really happy with but no orders. ‘Oh’ i thought maybe they are just browsing and will order tomorrow.
I ended up going to bed around 1 am as I was so exhausted from all the work and build-up to the launch. That night’s sleep was restless. I woke several times but was not tempted to sneak a look at the website. I thought I would wait til I actually woke properly.
Such A Shame…
In the whole 6 months that Lucys Fetih Closet was live I got 1 order for a pair of panties. It was such a heartbreaking experience that when the renewal for the website came around I went on and closed the site down. It’s not worth keeping something going if I’m not getting any comeback from it.
Ghosting Is not Nice…
I researched afterward about why I didn’t do well. For some Adult website owners, it is very hard to get recognition because there are lots of (again) rules and regulations on social media to do with this topic. It doesn’t matter how much you post about your website if the social media website doesn’t like you then they will shadow-ban you and no one will see your posts.
This is what happened to me on Instagram. I was on there for years trying to get some following and within 5 years or so I only got 400 followers. Twitter is different as it’s more lenient with images etc but even so.
The pandemic had a lot to do with it as well. Everyone was holding back their money in many cases as they didn’t know what was happening from one month to the next and bills where their top priority.
Gaining Knowledge…
All in all, I gained a lot of experience from the project and it has made me much wiser on online matters but the world is still going through money troubles.
I think anyone that has succeeded online has had the right people in the business to help them and a lot of money to back them up.
I still have not recovered from the debt that the website has put me in and I will be struggling to repay my friends for a good few years to come.
Luckily they are very good friends and completely understand the situation.
Advice To Anyone That Wants To Build An Adult-Themed E-commerce Website…
So to anyone that is looking at building a website, do your homework first. Plan and plan again before you start anything. As it may look easy but there’s a lot more to look into before the manual build of the website itself.
Better Understanding…
At least if I have this opportunity again I will have a better understanding and knowledge to start the project at A B C and not be jumping in at D before starting with A, if that makes sense.
So the way forward with Lucy’s Fetish Closet is to use the title still but advertise the products in blogs with links to pages for the individual products (or something like that). I will update you as and when I do the blogs. As I will be releasing them one by one so I will trickle them into my social media and not overwhelm you with too many at the same time.
Contact Me…
If you would like to know anything else about websites etc or even purchase anything you have seen in my photography on my social media then I would be happy to hear from you.
Take care in all you do sweetie and stay safe, ML x
