Payment Testing
This is the most critical pre-launch test. If payments don't work, nothing else matters.
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Test every payment flow in sandbox/test mode — Successful purchase, declined card, subscription signup, subscription cancellation, rebilling. Every flow. Don't skip any.
Verify webhook processing — After a test transaction, confirm your site received the webhook, processed it correctly, and the customer's account was activated. Check your database directly, don't just trust the UI.
Test with a real card — Before launch, run at least one real transaction (you can refund it immediately). Sandbox doesn't catch every integration issue. Confirm the charge appears on the card statement with the correct descriptor.
Test cancellation — Sign up, then cancel. Does the cancellation process work? Does the customer retain access until their paid period ends? Does rebilling actually stop?
Test your second processor — If you have a fallback payment processor, test that one too. Having a backup that doesn't work isn't a backup.
Content Audit
Before launch, make sure your content library is actually ready:
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Check every video plays correctly — Play each one. All the way through. On desktop and mobile. Check for encoding artifacts, audio sync issues, and buffering problems.
Verify all resolutions work — If you offer 480p/720p/1080p/4K, test each quality level. Broken transcodes are common and invisible until someone tries to watch them.
Review thumbnails and preview images — Are they representative? Do they look good at the size they'll display? Are any broken or missing?
Check metadata — Titles, descriptions, performer names, tags, categories. Typos in metadata look sloppy and hurt SEO.
Have enough content ready — Launch with a minimum content library. How much depends on your pricing, but launching with 3 videos behind a $30/month paywall is a bad look. Have enough that a new subscriber feels they're getting value immediately.
Legal Compliance Check
Go through every required legal element. Missing any of these can result in fines, payment processor termination, or worse.
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2257 compliance page — Is it on the site? Does it correctly identify the custodian of records? Is the address current?
Terms of Service — Published and accessible from every page (footer link). Covers billing, cancellation, acceptable use, content ownership.
Privacy Policy — Published. Covers data collection, cookies, third-party services, user rights. Required by law and by your payment processor.
DMCA/Takedown policy — Published. Includes contact information for takedown requests.
Age verification — Whatever your age gate system is, verify it works. Test it. If you're in a jurisdiction with mandatory age verification, confirm your compliance solution is properly integrated.
Consent documentation — Do you have signed model releases and content usage agreements for every performer in every scene on your site? Verify this before launch, not after someone asks.
Technical QA
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Cross-browser testing — Test on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. At minimum Chrome and Safari (they cover 85%+ of users).
Mobile testing — Test on actual phones, not just browser dev tools. iOS Safari and Android Chrome at minimum. Video playback, navigation, signup flow, member login — everything.
Page speed — Run Google PageSpeed Insights on key pages: homepage, browse page, a scene page. Fix anything scoring below 70. Slow pages kill conversions and SEO.
Broken links — Run a link checker across the entire site. Fix all 404s before launch.
SSL certificate — Verify HTTPS works on every page. Check that mixed content warnings don't appear (HTTP resources loaded on HTTPS pages).
Forms — Test every form on the site: signup, login, contact, support, password reset. Submit test data and verify it processes correctly.
Email delivery — Test all automated emails: welcome email, password reset, subscription confirmation, cancellation confirmation. Check they don't land in spam.
Performance and Load
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Stress test your server — Simulate concurrent users. Even basic tools like Apache Bench or k6 can tell you if your server falls over at 50 simultaneous users.
CDN verification — Confirm your videos are actually serving from the CDN, not your web server. Check response headers for the CDN's identifiers.
Database performance — Load your full content library and run common queries (browse page, search, member login). If pages take more than 2-3 seconds to load with a full database, fix it before launch.
Launch Readiness Checklist
Final items before you flip the switch:
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Analytics installed — Google Analytics, Search Console, and any adult-specific tracking you plan to use. You need data from day one.
Backup verified — Run a backup and verify you can restore from it. A backup you've never tested is not a backup.
Monitoring set up — Uptime monitoring (UptimeRobot, Pingdom) so you know immediately if the site goes down.
Support channel ready — How will customers reach you? Email, form, live chat? Make sure it works before launch.
Marketing ready — Social accounts set up, launch announcements drafted, any press releases or promotional content prepared.
DNS propagation — If you're launching on a new domain, update DNS 24-48 hours before launch to ensure propagation.
Once everything on this list checks out, you're ready. Go live, monitor closely for the first 48 hours, and be ready to fix issues fast. No launch is perfect, but a thorough pre-launch process means you'll be fixing minor issues instead of fundamental problems.
