Lesson #29 Marketing to Adult Webmasters!
Written By Cyndalie

When I first found myself in the adult industry promoting my first adult sites I thought "Hmm, if I ask for reviews on adult webmaster boards I'll get traffic!".  Remember the enchanted days when you thought every click meant a penny and you found yourself marketing completely the wrong way?  What? Adult webmasters don't subscribe to porn sites, so why was I pushing my sites on them?  Just because it's adult traffic doesn't mean its surfer traffic! I found myself learning about all the sub niches of adult traffic, how you can hone in on what will drive you sales, and how ethics and etiquette can become be very valuable attributes.

Walking a Tight Rope
I believe the most important part of marketing to other adult webmasters is knowing what NOT to do.   Do not harvest email addresses from boards, resource sites, or search engines for spam efforts. Don't spam adult webmaster lists with your latest program or affiliate offer, it's the easies way to earn disrespect.  If you want to post your opportunities on webmaster message boards, do so in the appropriate threads.  If you do post on multiple message boards, avoid copy/paste cross posting.  Take some time to deliver your message to each unique audience or try to keep it in-topic.

Nothing will tick webmasters off more than being treated like garbage with drive-by spams and deceptive tactics.  So not everyone has an advertising budget to afford banner spots at top resource sites like CozyFrog.com, so what?  There are multitudes of ways you can promote, beyond spam, beyond the banner, and can help you groove your way into becoming a resourceful member of the webmaster community whom other webmasters want to do business with.

Press Release Power
Just launching your program or resource? The best way to get started is by writing a press release and distributing it to adult webmaster resource sites and industry publications.  Press releases should contain only newsworthy information such as the new launch of your program, a redesign, new pay out rates, promotional material, content sets, or whatever is applicable to you.  Press releases must contain NEW and unique information that has never been announced before. There are many old-timers in this biz that will know if you "officially launched" the same program a year ago and just seeking free press.  If you don't have any news, make some!  Run regular promotions or updates that you can announce.  If you have a webmaster related product, service, or program I highly suggest posting some news about it at least once every three months.  Webmasters like repetition of a name, it makes it seem more reliable, and steadfast. Some webmasters will only do business with programs or services they have heard or known about for a year or more.  Begin branding as soon as possible.

When submitting your press release to webmaster resource sites it is best to first visit each individually and create your own Press Release Contact Sheet.  Once you learn the names of your PR contacts, address them personally each time you submit and build on these relationships for the future.

Article Advice
One of the best ways to earn respect and attention from other adult webmasters is to COMMUNICATE GOOD INFORMATION that webmasters can use.  Write an article about what makes your program unique, or how your resource or tool offering can help webmasters save time or make more money.  If you want to promote your niche affiliate program, become an expert in the webmaster community on that niche and provide stats on conversion rates, search requests, competing sites, content applications, and much more!  By becoming a knowledable resource for webmasters, your program will grow along with your own popularity as an informed webmaster.

Submit to Centers
Getting listed at resource sites is a very important step in launching any webmaster related program, product, or service.  Try using these tools to submit to adult resource centers. Don't forget to setup a resource page for your reciprocal links!

Something for Free
I cannot express enough the power of FREE. Webmasters comprise some of the thriftiest minds on the net.  The best way to keep your profits up is to keep your costs down!  Imagine if you were a content provider looking for business, its bad enough webmasters have to register to even see the content samples, why not give them something extra for their time and effort?  By offering webmasters a FREE TGP Gallery (10-20 images) of their choice, webmasters would come in droves, and it's a great way to develop your own contact database for future sales and promotions.

Invitation to Interaction
If your site is a board or resource where your revenue model depends on webmaster traffic rather than webmaster signups, contests are a great way to promote a new hang out.  Webmasters love free stuff and they love to win stuff! You can easily find a content or hosting provider, for example, to donate prizes and base a contest on must number of posts, most referrals, longest thread, etc.  Want to take your branding concept even further?  Try printing t-shirts and sending them out to top posters or other printable items you can send off or give away at shows.  If Interaction is your motivation then create a release as an invitation for more webmaster participation!

Regardless of what you are promoting or your goals in your promotions, understand that you are marketing to industry peers. Some may have more experience than you do so it never hurts to be too careful, too polite, and respectful to others until you get to know your space and build relationships to create more networking opportunities.  Some of your "competitors" can become your closest networking advocates, get to know them!

Eventually, after you've done enough press releases and/or articles, traded links and listings with resource sites, and gotten a basic understanding of what works and what does not when it comes to communicating with webmasters, you will begin to realize that you name becomes synonymous with what you are promoting.  As you participate in the industry more and more the less you will have to try pushing your promotions and opportunities will open up where you will be INVITED to spew your spiel, such as on radio shows or in seminars.

When marketing to webmasters, the straightest path is always the quickest and being upfront, informed, and respectful will earn you all the opportunities in the world to promote your site. Get Involved!