The adult Internet is responsible for creating and perfecting the first profitable business model of the cyber age. We did more than just offer a product people wanted. People want all kinds of things besides dirty pictures.
| "I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to have my remains turned to crude by the layers of other people’s innovation. [...] The technology isn’t the only thing that has passed us by. Surfers have outgrown our offerings." |
Our contribution to the stability of web commerce goes deeper than selling smut to willing customers. We understood the limitations of dial-up connections and in turn, built sites that delivered content as easily and quickly as technically possible. We implemented and standardized the sponsor/affiliate program incorporating statistics, marketing tools and payouts. We recognized the value of traffic and proceeded to generate it, trade it and sell it. We forced content and service providers to accept the reality that reducing their prices in trade for volume sales was a better ROI than charging high rates for a few sales to one or two outlets. We connected webmasters, designers, hosts, content providers, paysite owners, programmers and others via message boards and resource sites. We manufactured an entire industry that was completely virtual and we made it work.
So much for our respected history. Today, we are suffering and to blame our suffering on a worldwide economic crisis is shortsighted and inaccurate. The adult Internet has been losing ground for years. The fallen economy merely accelerated our downfall.
I can’t say for sure exactly when things began to turn to crap. As far back as the late 90’s there were grumblings about too much free porn thanks to TGPs and free sites. After we hit the new century, we collectively ignored the blog software/RSS phenomenon, chalking it up as a non-adult fad. We laughed (many are still laughing) at the possibility that people might want to access porn on their cellphones instead of their computers. We basically swept peer-to-peer file sharing under the rug, claiming that the platform was no more threatening to us than Usenet. We fumbled and let Tube sites become a juggernaut. In essence, the Internet’s original innovators, adult webmasters, are on the verge of becoming dinosaurs and if we don’t adapt, we’ll die off.
I don’t know about you but I’m not ready to have my remains turned to crude by the layers of other people’s innovation. We’re adult webmasters, goddammit. We took the oldest form of entertainment and put it online through sheer will and a reverence for original ideas. The technology isn’t the only thing that has passed us by. Surfers have outgrown our offerings.
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It’s time to face reality. The Internet stopped being novel years ago. Virtually everyone that wants to be on the web is already on the web. Anyone that wants to find porn on the net has already found it, free and in abundance. The only real source of fresh customers is the unreliable and technically savvy 18-21 age group. Our profession has depended on the gee-whiz factor for too long. We sell a product that people want but it’s also a product that people can get without paying.
We’ve got to figure out how to reach surfers in new ways. We have to show them that we offer something that can’t be had for free. We must prove that our shit is worth paying for.
Hell, if I had the sure-fire answer for that question I wouldn’t be telling you. I’d be putting my idea online and charging for it. I will say that we absolutely have to catch up to the times. We need to incorporate all the current trends such as social networking, mobile content and SMS billing as well as exploit the prevalence of broadband users.
When the average individual is capable of creating their own community portal with a free account, we have to do better. Maybe that involves giving customers the ability to create adult versions of existing trends. Maybe it involves creating something that’s never been done before. Whatever it is, it needs to be done - quick.
Sponsors and vendors are dropping like flies. Cheaters and scammers are coming out of the woodwork; ready to destroy whatever vestiges of respectability we gained when we shooed them off the open floor years ago. If we’re not careful we’ll find ourselves taken over by corporate raiders and telecom buyouts. The lone wolf adult webmaster will become a relic and this wonderful industry will be nothing more than another business venture for the very rich.