The Whoring of an Industry
by undermyspell - Adult Grind

I have now been in the adult business slightly over 4 years. There has been a lot of change in that time and a lot of people and programs catapulted to notoriety for how much money they flash around or how crazy they get at parties or just simply by whom they know. What has happened within the adult industry that has given us such a lax attitude toward respect for people's achievements and abilities? Why is it that we have become such an awe struck community that renting a yacht or hiring a rapper to perform or renting a limo to shuttle people around can catapult our status to god like proportions.

Sure, marketing yourself, your sites/program and/or your programs is the key ingredient in making it in any business. The drive to ensure that your name is on the tip of everyone's tongue is an almost overwhelming endeavor. You must have the ability to ensure that your name is being whispered by each and every player in the game. When I discuss players though i'm not talking about what the common perception of a player is.

I think the biggest mistake that any program can make in today's day and age is to rely solely on the big fish. Imagine what would have happened to programs that relied solely on John Zuccarini as their big money maker. That's not such a pretty thought is it. For those of you that do not know John Z. is the guy who owned thousands of misspelled domains and was recently sentenced to jail for "misleading" and "luring" kids to pornographic websites and then profiting from that traffic. I have heard some sponsor programs say they only want to go after the big boys. And in my estimation that's a huge mistake. Not only are you putting your eggs all in one basket but you never know who's toes you're going to step on. Today's small fish may be tomorrow's Shemp. You have to remember that everyone starts somewhere and the webmasters that are coming into the market today are enthusiastic and eager to make money and eager to learn. So, to get your name on EVERYONE's mind is definitely an economically feasible thing to do.

How should you proceed with marketing yourself or your company though? Should you go for an all out guerilla campaign that involves spending tens of thousands of dollars or should you be a personable operation that caters to personal contact and not a barrage of media. I think that a nice combination of the two is the most effective form of marketing you can do. By being a go getter and making the personal contacts by email or phone or icq and learning about people and their business and learning about their personal lives you can be so much more effective and persuasive when attempting to get people to promote you or your product. Trust me in the fact that boozing up some guy at a party and getting him falling down drunk he is not going to come any closer to promoting you than before you got him slobbering drunk. But on the other hand if you get to know someone and perhaps that webmaster has something significant happen in their business or personal life and you remember that and inquire as to how that business or situation is going they will remember you and remember that you're a "people" person.

I think that the number of webmasters in the business with true people skills is not a large one. The beauty of working online is that you can hide behind any persona you wish to create and if you never attend any conventions or gatherings then nobody is the wiser. You can have virtual anonymity in the online world. So, to answer my own question I think that you can have a quite successful marketing campaign without shelling out tons of money. I think your key objectives to strategic marketing would be computer contact, phone contact, live contact and be friendly and outgoing with all of your contact. A small investment for some business cards would round out a good start on your campaign as well.

Of course being in the adult industry there is a certain amount of flashiness that is expected. I think the main reason for this is to show prospective partners and affiliates that there is money to be had in the adult industry. In theory that's actually a great idea to demonstrate how you own multiple cars and homes and have a gorgeous woman on your arm every night and they can achieve that dream also by promoting your sites. The only flaw with that is most webmasters will never achieve that level of income and could potentially become discouraged with how little they are making while your pockets only seem to grow fatter. Another issue with that would be the return on investment. Say a company spends $100,000 to exhibit and throw a party at a convention. How many $29.95 memberships would it take to get a return on that investment especially considering that sponsors must pay an affiliate a significant portion of that $29.95.

It simply amazes me how many of the companies that are in the limelight today have gotten there sheerly by the amount of money they spend to promote themselves and not by their achievements or the greatness of their sites. I won't name any of those that I am amazed by but I will take a moment to point out those sites that I think have made names for themselves strictly on personality alone. The first I will talk about is one of the pioneers of the business. Shemp has operated TGP sites as long as anyone I can think of. I mean honestly who has not rubbed one out looking at a nice gallery on a Shemp owned site? The beauty of it is he has done it by being a nice guy, a smart business man and most importantly being personable. You can approach Shemp and not be beaten down by bodyguards and you can always drop him an email or put in a call to him and actually get a response from the man himself.

Another site that has stuck in my head simply because they aren't in your face about the advertising or the public bling statements is Nasty Dollars. These guys are probably one of the most widely promoted sponsors on the internet. In fact they are so promoted that some say they are oversaturated and money is hard to be made with their program. I personally find the fact that I have never seen them at a convention, throwing a party or posting like idiots on message boards quite refreshing. I think it shows true class to let your business speak for itself. The last site I will discuss is RatedHot.com which is owned and operated by Marsha "Princess" Youngs. Princess started off working for a rather well known organization and while marketing the organization she also marketed herself and her talents. When the time came and she branched out on her own she was able to make the transition to running her own site quite smoothly and successfully. She doesn't spend obscene amounts of money to get people to post on her message board and she doesn't have to wine and dine sponsors to advertise on her resource site but by being a friendly and outgoing individual she's made the people that she does do business with comfortable that they are getting a total package by working with her.

I'm not sure when the whole adult industry became a penis size contest or a contest to see who can spend the most money and have the most elaborate event but I do know that there are viable alternatives to being successful than engaging in such practices. You can become a name that is well known and trusted in the adult industry without whoring yourself out to do so.

Jan "undermyspell" Grady
Editor in Chief - Adult Grind