EDITOR’S LETTER

For any of you who have been in this crazy industry for a significant period of time, and by significant, I mean as little as two years, do you ever reminisce about past trade shows or past conversations you may have read or taken part in on various industry chat boards and suddenly think to yourself, “Hey, whatever happened to (insert company name, person, website, etc.)?”

I have recently gone through all three years of YNOTNews archives in helping to set up for some major launches we have just around the corner here at YNOT, and it just blows me away how SO many people who seemed so on top of their game, are gone and in many cases, forgotten.EDITOR’S LETTER

For any of you who have been in this crazy industry for a significant period of time, and by significant, I mean as little as two years, do you ever reminisce about past trade shows or past conversations you may have read or taken part in on various industry chat boards and suddenly think to yourself, “Hey, whatever happened to (insert company name, person, website, etc.)?”

I have recently gone through all three years of YNOTNews archives in helping to set up for some major launches we have just around the corner here at YNOT, and it just blows me away how SO many people who seemed so on top of their game, are gone and in many cases, forgotten. And these are just what I call the “public” people (those with a high enough profile). There is no telling how many “private” people (those who prefer to stay off industry chatboards and/or remain “anonymous”) have disappeared during that time.

Some of the oldest of the old timers will tell you (proudly even) that half of the people involved in the industry today won’t be around next year. More, depending on whom you are talking to. It’s not hard to find someone in our business who has switched companies several times or left the business and come back. However, don’t forget the fact that for as many people who leave the industry every day, there are that many more coming in for the first time or returning from a hiatus. The overall landscape can change drastically over several months, and has repeatedly done so, over and over again.

People leave our industry for a plethora of reasons. I’m a firm believer that if something is meant to be, then it will be. If you truly don’t belong somewhere, you will either weed yourself out or someone will do it for you. Where am I going with this? You’ll see in a moment.

As the “approval rating” of our “leader” (of the U.S.) continues to drop while tension worldwide continues to escalate, I hope to help point out an instance (albeit an extreme one) where someone truly doesn’t belong.

Before I get into my rant here (and I DO have quite a rant coming up that will most likely be all over the place), I’ll state the obvious: what I write about in my editorial is solely my beliefs and not necessarily those of anyone else here at YNOTMasters. Sometimes I guess it’s necessary to say these things to help avoid shooting the messenger. Yes, I sometimes receive flack for what other people have written in YNOTNews as if their views were an expression of my own. I don’t wish to censor that which I disagree with (with the exception of racism and hate speech for example.)

Anyway, as most people know, religion and politics are two things that arguably are best not talked about or debated, especially if you wish to avoid conflict. Consequently, two topics that often pop up in Webmaster discussions are religion (or morals and beliefs or the lack thereof) and especially politics. In fact on this week’s Humpday Lunch Radio Show, my political beliefs and thoughts of the impending “war on terrorism” were met with cheers and jeers.

I’ll go on the record and repeat what I said on the air the other day. I do not support a war! A war against Iraq and the murder of innocents is not a war on terrorism. Not supporting a war is NOT being “anti-American,” so before you tell me that I don’t support the troops and am anti-American… that is bullshit. I’m anti-greed, anti-bullying and anti-stupidity, so in effect, I don’t support the current administration.

I support our troops being home with their families. I also support our government going after Osama Bin Laden (Remember him? Seems like he’s taken quite the back seat to Hussein) and his comrades (who have successfully evaded U.S. “intelligence”). I support dealing with North Korea (a country with “weapons of mass destruction” capable of REACHING the United States) in a swift and diplomatic manner. A war against Iraq is about greed and getting re-elected, in my opinion. Bush wants to finish the war that his daddy started over a decade ago, and it’s quite apparent that he wants this war at any and all costs. He has been determined to have this war well before 9-11 ever happened.

Does my bitterness stem all the way back to the fact that the presidency was stolen back in 2000, and our Supreme Court stopped the ballot counting and eventually selected (not elected) our president? Absolutely. I could go on and on about that for hours but will spare you. Call all of this liberal propaganda; call it whatever you want, but there is no question that America is much worse off now than it was in 2000 across the board. Thank you President Bush. Here’s hoping that history repeats itself, and that you follow in your father’s footsteps as a one-term President. Here today, gone tomorrow. There’s my rant. I’ll cool down now.

Moving on… in this week’s issue, check out all the great contributions that grace these pages in YNOTNews…

Cyndalie from AdultChamber.com supplies us with an awesome article featuring search engine marketing news, updates and tips; Karen Wilder from AdultWebware gives us the conclusion to her five-part series on developing a better rapport with your traffic and potential members; Mickey from SexMerchant.com steps out of the shadows and is our Spotlight interview subject this week; and the one and only Dave Cummings from DaveCummings.com is back with another thought-provoking column, this week focusing on the public’s curiosity about porn. We also have some newbie-focused articles this week from attorney Jonathan Katz from Marks & Katz, LLC and Brian from TotemCash.

Separately I am all booked up now for writers wishing to cover Webmaster seminars at the upcoming Phoenix Forum for YNOTNews in exchange for free advertising, but I am still looking for Webmasters attending the NYC Expo in late April who are interested in doing the same. Hit me up at one of the email addresses below and I can give you more details.

Enjoy this issue! – LAJ

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters and can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.