The Reality of Online Success!
  Written By Titmowse

Last year, a lot of people who were employed by non-adult Internet related companies lost their jobs. The year began with an American election controversy and just got worse as the layoffs added up. While many of the web-oriented ventures cited the September eleventh attacks as the reason for their failures, the fact was they were failing anyway. Too much money was thrown at anything having to do with cyberspace and was lost due to a misguided belief that people would embrace online shopping without question. Even well established companies spent millions of dollars building a web presence only to find that nobody wanted to spend money on their sites. When these masses of former net high flyers were suddenly out on the street, a great many of them looked to Internet porn as a way to make a living with their existing skills.

Add to the above mentioned unemployed all the other poor folks who suddenly found themselves without jobs due to the affect that 911 had on the economy and you end up with a lot of desperate people looking to online porn as their savior.

The adult Industry welcomes you. We're glad you have an open mind and a desire to work for yourself. We are more than happy you are bringing with you your talent, experience and enthusiasm. You're entering an exciting field that is on the cutting edge of technological and promotional methodologies that the non-adult field can only dream of.

As a representative of the adult online entertainment industry, I feel it's my duty to inform you of a few realities:

Money:
Money is the name of the name. It buys software, web space, content and traffic. As the saying goes when it comes to money, you have to spend it to make it. But don't expect that dropping your last thousand dollars on some images, a cool domain name and shopping cart software will get you anything but a lost thousand dollars. This business takes a while to understand and quick cash is for blood donors. Even well established adult enterprises like Playboy thought they could overtake to online market and forfeited great amounts of cash discovering they had to start at square one just like everyone else. Start slowly and spend wisely. Experiment with free hosts and free content for a while so you can get a feel of how this all works.

Competition:
Get ready for it. The adult online entertainment profession is already populated with tens of thousands of savvy salesmen who know more that you have no desire to see you succeed. Imagine Glengarry Glen Ross and cast your self as Jack Lemmon. While there are many good-hearted people in this business, none of them are about to reach out to save the drowning. Yes, you should make friendships and build associations but never forget that the people you deal with have their own interests. If they take the time to help you, be thankful. If they see you are doing well, expect some of them to turn around and stab you in the back.

Honesty:
In a world where anonymity is the norm, it's easy to be tempted by less than honorable methods of generating cash. Yes, you are now in sales and walk a fine line between illusion and outright lies. But there is a line and you should never cross it. Don't promise free access to a sponsor when it isn't free. Don't offer help or services to fellow webmasters and fail to deliver. Don't redirect, don't image source, don't steal, and don't cheat. You may get a few dollars initially, but YOU WILL BE FOUND OUT eventually.

SPAM:
As said, you are in sales, but good selling is subtle and creative. Don't mass-email potential customers with unsolicited SPAM or terrorize poor folks on instant messaging programs. Don't make your first topic in an adult webmaster message board a SPAM for yourself. Find clever ways to introduce yourself to the world and your peers. Hard selling is for the desperate and fearful and everyone can smell it.

The reality is that the adult Internet is not for babies. Develop a sense of your market. Develop solid relationships with others you can trust. And most of all develop a thick skin.