HEADLINE NEWS

After having been in the online adult business for 5 years, it’s easy to take for granted all of the information I’ve accumulated along the way without even thinking about it.HEADLINE NEWS

After having been in the online adult business for 5 years, it’s easy to take for granted all of the information I’ve accumulated along the way without even thinking about it. While my main website focuses on always looking at things from a newbie surfer point of view, I think I, like many webmasters, forget the newbie webmaster point of view.

AWE in Portland (held at the Marriott, August 3-5) was a conference that had its bases covered, with information that those new to the business needed, while still being able to present info that was new to me, or perhaps while not “new”, at least another way of looking at things. I arrived at the conference to find quite a different scene than I’d expected. This is the third adult webmaster event I’ve attended in the last few months, and each has been so very unique. I would have to say, the size, location, and tone of AWE Portland was just wonderful. It was not the circus Las Vegas can be: No booths staffed by women who didn’t know the business, no wild entertainment … in short, professional.

The first seminar I attended that day was the Sponsorship panel, with Aly from PythonVideo (http://www.PythonVideo.com), Bode from SexTracker (http://www.SexTracker.com) and MoneyTree, MikeB of CyberErotica (http://www.CyberErotica.com) and Far-L of HomeGrownCash (http://www.HomeGrownCash.com). These are some of the largest and most dependable sponsors around, and it proved to be a great way for the newest webmasters amongst us to find out the very basic info like the differences between unique and raw, and the more experienced to ask the tough questions about just how each program tracks and compensates webmasters for their traffic.

Even with this very experienced panel, there were differences of opinion. Many in the audience wanted to know just how long to give a particular program before making a decision. Aly was of the opinion that your decision should be based on whatever your best sponsorship program converts, and if you try a new one that isn’t at least coming close after a couple of weeks, you should drop it. Bode suggested taking your best current sponsorship as an example, and sending a new program about four times the amount of traffic before making a decision. For example, say you send 2,000 clicks a day to a program that converts 1/500. Send at least 8,000 clicks to any new program before making a decision.

The sponsors also used this time to talk about exciting new improvements to existing programs. CyberErotica’s Follow Me program, for example, is rolling out an option for webmasters to choose the number of exit consoles and the order in which they appear. This is great news for any webmaster who has wanted a bit more control over what they are sending their surfers off to. Bode mentioned international traffic and niche sites, two areas that MoneyTree excels in. Aly confirmed the importance of niches with her anecdote about their best converting site being a transexual site.

When asked to sum up the most important factors in choosing a sponsor, all the panelists seemed to agree that you should make sure it’s someone you can get a response from when you have a question, and that you should check out the reputation of whomever you are doing business with before sending off your hard-earned traffic.

TDavid (http://www.ynotmasters.com/wm_directory/profiles/TDavid.html) was next up with a short talk on scripting, focusing on how much time you can save if you really give some thought as to what you can automate on your sites. The host and emcee of the event, Dokk, tried to pin down TDavid time and again on what custom scripting generally would cost, but really it was not a question easy to answer as you need to know exactly what you want for any good programmer to really give an estimate. One of the most interesting aspects was how the information here was relevant to the earlier sponsor panel, in terms of what php scripting can do for dynamic content. After the short scripting Q&A, AWE put on a nice light lunch, which was a great low-key way to meet other people in the business.

The legal seminar ended up being informative even for an old hand like myself. While it largely focused on 2257 notices, the particular interesting point that attorney JB Obenberger, of XXXLaw.net (http://www.XXXLaw.net) made was how a lack of a 2257 even with legal models can end up being really damaging. First, I should explain for anyone who doesn’t know: 2257 is the federal statute that requires a model release be kept on all sexually explicit images produced after 1995. When you license any kind of content, it’s incredibly important to only license through a reputable source that can provide you with that information. When you produce your own content, it’s equally important to be compliant, regardless of your certainty of the legal age of the model. As Mr. Obenberger pointed out, you are in violation simply by not having one, and that allows scrutiny and some sort of means for them to take a look at your computer and files. Really, the chances are always high that somewhere in your hard drive or cache, you’ll have something you stumbled across, whether you even know it or not. Perhaps the legal seminar was a bit alarmist, but it’s always good to know how you can protect yourself from a worst-case scenario with simple precautions.

Last up was the panel I participated on, which was how to generate traffic. I think it went well, although I’d much rather know what the audience thought. On the panel with me was Sue Whatley from Sex.com (http://www.Sex.com.com) who focused on buying keyword advertising, which is how Sex.com sells their listings, as well as mainstream search engines almost across the board these days. The most important thing mentioned in regards to keyword buys is to buy what is truly relevant, because if you’re paying you want the most specific, pure traffic you can get. Mike Gall was the panel expert on TGP and picpost traffic, and also joining us was a search engine expert. Several good search engine tips were given, which can all be found at the SE Optimization page at AdultNetSurprise (http://www.AdultNetSurprise.com).

Dinner, and the party afterwards were both onsite at the hotel. Dinner was a perfect chance to sit and chat with new acquaintances. Kaiser was the perfect host, as always, and Kath from AdultBuzz (http://www.AdultBuzz.com) did a great job keeping everything running smoothly. I actually found all in all that it was a really great type of conference for someone new to the business. Small enough to network and chat with really anyone you were interested in meeting, and not the madhouse of the large conventions. If you can make one of these as they travel around the country, I highly recommend it.