Summer Slowdown

This is always an interesting topic. I should have included it on the list I posted the other day of 'things that are likely to raise strong feelings on a forum'. I'll also put it down as the next vote topic so we can get an idea of what % of webmasters believe in it or not.

For anyone new here wondering what summer slowdown is - it refers to signups being lower in the summer time. The theory is that because it is summer, and people are on holiday, sales will slow down.

I used the TNB search engine this morning - http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/search.html - and searched for "summer slowdown". I then read through some of the things that have been posted on this topic in the past here. I got drawn in and spent almost an hour reading through the comments. Here are some quotes that you may find interesting on the topic of 'summer slowdown':

"Most myths have some basis in reality. I think, in the case of the summer slowdown myth, that there is something to it, or else it wouldn't have been around as long as it has. There are many webmasters who report fewer sign-ups during the summer months. I don't think they are lying. But, I also don't think it's a direct result of it simply being summer. I think the webmasters who most experience a summer slowdown are newer webmasters who may over react to a slowdown that just happens to take place during the summer. They automatically think of school being out and explain it as a "summer slowdown". But, many veteran webmasters, who have experienced more summers in this business and have tons more traffic than newbies, and who have honed their marketing skills, do not see the summer slowdown and consider it just a myth. So, I think they're both right. And it certainly isn't something to get excited about."
MrsJustForFun, 2001

"My thoughts on summer slowdown. I have never seen one yet. My opinion is that "there is" and "there is not" a summer slowdown depending on who you depend on signups from. If a person has JUST sign up proggies they use I can see a summer slowdown of sorts because (IMHO) the majority of porn buyers is probably in the USA... Why I don't see much of a summer slowdown (other than minor monthly shifts)is that I am heavy into recurring sponsors and phone sex sites."
JerryB, 2002

"There are other minor fluctuations but it seems clear to me there is definite pattern of slowdown in the summer.

I guess we need to differentiate between slowdown and decrease, firstly. Like I mentioned, if the rate of growth falls off even though absolute figures do not decrease, I see that as a slowdown. Most of us here are growing our business just by sheer learning curve effect, if nothing else. So, to drop from a 30% growth rate to 10% in the summer months, is a slowdown to me i.e. summer sales are just not as bountiful as other periods in the year."
Monk, 2001

"Well This will be only my third summer in the business and the first summer I didn't have enough sites to know or not. My hits, hits to sponsors and sales increase every month. Last summer there was a 3-4 month span that I just couldn't seem to get it to increase, It didn't drop but just wouldn't grow. Then in Oct. It began growing again. I have no idea if this had anything to do with summer or if It just happened. I tell ya what though, it made me work a lot harder, and what I accomplished during that "slowdown" has really paid off this year."
Jimbo, 2001

"Well, this will be my 4th summer in the business. I, too, have yet to have a summer slowdown, but then our traffic has grown slowly and steadily since we started things.

However - the rate of growth seems to slow for us in the summer months, and occasionally we get advertiser feedback that they don't have as large a budget for ads because they experience signup slowdowns, so I think there is something to it."
Jane (janesguide.com), 2001

"I've been going through all the different boards archives to try to understand traffic trends. Seems everyone has a different theory about slowdowns. Summer slowdown, spring break slowdown, Xmas slowdown, holiday slowdown, political slowdown - I think these are all unfounded justifications for the down points on the porn rollercoaster ride! The best one I saw was the "full moon slowdown" haha. I think I'll call it part of the biz and just keep building new sites..."
Larry, 2000

"I've always experienced a summer slowdown back in my porn monger days. So what did I do?? Hang out on the boards and whine cry kick and scream about it?? Nope...Built more sites .. so when the upturn came back in September (and it always invariably did).. I was ready with yet MORE sites Nothing earth shattering about the concept.. during the good times, you put a bit away for a rainy day. When it rains you draw on it, and get ready for sunshine again."
Gord, 2001

"I can only speak from my experience and for me - Summer never has any effect for better or for worse. Keep building, re-inventing, planning, experimenting, and working like hell - that's about all I've got to say on it. Don't worry - people are still horny in the Summer!"
Tom, 2002

"I believe that like most times of the year our business is more effected by the economic side of the scale than the anything else, even with the college kids going home and to the beaches.. With home computers dirt cheap anymore and DSL and cable modems so accessible I would think it boils down to can horny customer X get the relief they need via a vacation, or do they need to fall back on the tried and true internet porn version of a vacation."
RobP, 2002

"MikeFold just posted this graph on the general board. It has tracked monthly sales from free sites for the last 3 years. Clearly shows when the summer slowdown starts and ends. As he stated, this is the time of year you will also see a lot of grumbling on the boards about poor conversions. Hope this explains whats really going on. Surfers just dont seem to want as much porn in the summer as they do the rest of the year. http://www.gifs.com/empire "
Wicked, 2000

"One other thing I'd like to mention ... you are going to hear a lot about "the summer slowdown". This comes up every summer. Well... I'll let you make up your own mind, but from our experience? Don't get discouraged. Summer has never affected our traffic and signups. I'm not saying that others are wrong or lying, or anything like that - but I am just giving my personal experience."
Mona, 1999

TOM ^"^

Spy vs Spy

One of the more interesting stories in the world of the internet this week deals with spyware, err adware company WhenU. WhenU is being sued by the state of Idaho for their nefarious practices that include several spyware techniques, where software is installed on a computer and then serves context based ads that match the surfers habits.

Adult webmasters should be concerned about these tactics as the ads can easily cover sponsor tour pages and prevent pornmasters from making sales. It appears that most if not all adult sponsors have found a way around most spyware. Several lawsuits have been filed against copmanies that install such software for the purpose of serving their own clients ads on competitors sites.

Spyware has become a major problem for many surfers, often being downloaded without their knowledge. Clogging hard drives and slowing operatin systems to a crawl this garbage can be a royal pain in the furry behinds of pornogophers and casual surfers alike. It has become such an issue that several states are condsidering legislation to ban it and the federal government is reluctantly also considering such legislation.

So where does WhenU come into all this? First they sued Idaho on the basis of free trade and commerce laws, saying that only the Federal government could regulate interstate trade. Then they hit Google in an elaborate cloaking scheme.

Google's answer was to remove all their listings but since they are one of the larger spammers in search engine databases there are probably a few (thousand) of their sites still out there.

What makes this story unique isn't the spyware, or the spamming, or even the cloaking, it's the redirects involved in the cloaking. An unwary surfer didn't reach WhenU's site, even with all the inflated top listings they had. They were instead redirected to news reports and sites favorable to WhenU's litigation!

After I stopped laughing, I started to consider the implications of this. As pornmongers we are interested in good listings so that we can sell a product or service over the internet. But based on WhenU's tactics it appears that search engine tricks can be used for public relation spin campaigns. Think of all the litigation going on today in the world of the net and just for a moment think about what a good PR firm could do hundreds of top spam listings for their client if they redirected the surfer to favorable news reports and product reviews.

The world wide web offers many opportunities for commerce, but it will also continue to offer many opportunities for the more shady elements of our society to rip people off and now perhaps to help form opinions.

Have a good week! And may you get good listings that stick.

Read more about these issues, share your thoughts and comments, or just browse the resources at Webmaster RoundTable.com.

The CIA

A few months ago, there was an opening with the CIA for an assassin. These highly classified positions are hard to fill, and there's a lot of testing and background checks involved before you can even be considered for the position.

After sending some applicants through the background checks, training and testing, they narrowed the possible choices down to two men and a woman, but only one position was available.

The day came for the final test to see which person would get the extremely secretive job. The CIA men administering the test took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances" they explained. "Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her."

The man got a shocked look on his face and said, "You can't be serious! I could never shoot my own wife!" "Well", says the CIA man, "You're definitely not the right man for this job then."

So they bring the second man to the same door and hand him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances", they explained to the second man. "Inside you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her."

The second man looked a bit shocked, but nevertheless took the gun and went in the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes, then the door opened.

The man came out of the room with tears in his eyes. "I tried to shoot her, I just couldn't pull the trigger and shoot my wife. I guess I'm not the right man for the job." "No" the CIA man replied, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Now they're down to the woman left to test.

Again they lead her to the same door to the same room and handed her the same gun. "We must be sure that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances, this is your final test. Inside you will find your husband sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill him."

The woman took the gun and opened the door. Before the door even closed all the way, the CIA men heard the gun start firing. One shot after another for 13 shots. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. This went on for several minutes, then all went quiet.

The door opened slowly, and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said "You guys didn't tell me the gun was loaded with blanks! I had to beat him to death with the chair!"

It's your responsibility to use the tools you are given to make money -- no matter how much traffic or how many sales you have, nothing takes the place of good stats analysis to figure out where to squeeze out another dollar!

Keeping It Real

The adult industry is one of the best working environments in the world. Those of us who are steadily making names for ourselves are proud proof of what can be accomplished with a little time and a lot of energy and effort.

But what of those people who feel the need to lie and cheat in order to get ahead? Oh yes, fair citizens of the pornographic world, there are a great many more of the freeloaders and thieves than what you might think. If hard work is a requirement to get ahead, then why are some people working so hard to put up a front that will eventually not only be discovered, but brought crashing down around them?

The adult industry is one of the best working environments in the world. Those of us who are steadily making names for ourselves are proud proof of what can be accomplished with a little time and a lot of energy and effort.

But what of those people who feel the need to lie and cheat in order to get ahead? Oh yes, fair citizens of the pornographic world, there are a great many more of the freeloaders and thieves than what you might think. If hard work is a requirement to get ahead, then why are some people working so hard to put up a front that will eventually not only be discovered, but brought crashing down around them?

Not surprisingly, some unscrupulous pornographers feel the need to make themselves look better and bigger. They will go through just about anything in order to become one of the people that other pornographers look up to.

When one’s ego is on the line, it’s incredible to watch the self-destruction. Lies become intricate webs of cover-ups until it’s impossible to see the truth; even the liar has difficulty figuring out what’s real and what’s bull. However, the immortal ego must be satisfied, and many times, the liar has to bail out of the industry before the industry bails out on him.

Occasionally, the liar is discovered well before he bails. Let me tell you something, folks: This industry is made up of a close-knit bunch of people, and once a lie is discovered, the knowledge of who told it spreads like wildfire. Please don’t believe that you won’t be discovered. You will be and it will hurt like hell.

You see, once it’s been figured out that you can’t be trusted, you will get no more business. Not from the newbies and certainly not from those of us who have been around a while. We have absolutely no desire to be associated with you or your product/service, even if you do happen to be good at what you do. Lies do not make a happy friendship.

Be aware, however, that I’m not talking about misunderstandings. Those happen every day and can be gotten over pretty easily. No, this article isn’t about that at all. This article is about blatant disregard of the truth.

This isn’t politics. We expect you to be scrupulously honest with us just as we are with you. That’s how good business is done. You want to continue to do business in the industry, you have to keep it real.

I don’t give a damn if you’re trying to impress us. There’s a difference between hype and outright bullshit. You can hype your program, product or service until doomsday. Advertise the hell out of it. Most of us are actually interested in what you have to sell or to say.

But when you start making so many bogus claims that you start to look about as real as a pair of silicon tits, don’t get pissy or be surprised when someone calls you out. If you can’t prove it, don’t claim it. Bragging is great and fine, but if you can’t pull it off, then be prepared to be seen as little more than pond scum.

Bottom line: If you have something to say or sell, don’t try to say or sell something else. You can’t build a mansion on a shit foundation, and the same goes for friendships and reputation.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m seeing a realtor about some ocean front property in Arizona. It sounds like a really good deal. I even get a bridge thrown in free.

Take care of yourselves,
Tala

Once Upon a Time on the Internet

Once upon a time, there lived a man who badly wanted to build a successful business. And instead of trying to develop a clerk his career, he has decided to make an adult paid site. His wish came true, but he got ruined soon, because he wasn’t able to not plan a good advertising campaign for the project.

Then another man who wanted to create a paid xxx site appeared. But he was cleverer and organized an advertising campaign for his site. But he got ruined too, because all his users left him when they saw that the site is updated irregularly, in spite of loud promises in ads. Besides, there was an awful member area site, the process of photo and video downloading was very slow, and no-one had a chance to contact the webmaster.

And recently another adult paid site owner appeared who wanted to get a good income. But before starting site promotion, he had thought of the ways to attract new users and make them stay. And then he understood that organizing a smart advertising campaign isn’t enough, if there is no means for effective site management.

And then our hero decided to find out what is necessary to make the site attractive for clients. He made the following list of prominent aspects:

1. Attractive site design
The site should look like a sweet candy. When buyers choose sweets, which they see for the first time, they can not appreciate their taste yet, that is why they judge by a wrapper. If your site reminds a creation of a freshman who made his first, people will hardly want to try such a delicacy.

2. Convenient member area interface
Users should feel at home in a member area. And member areas on many adult paid sites serve only as a hallway between a user and the content. Nevertheless, it would be silly to avoid using this space as an additional advertisement for the site. It can seem strange that such an advertisement is intended for already registered users, but they make the audience of your resource. And if every tenth user doesn’t pay for the next month, the significant sum of money will simply pass by you.

3. Regular updates
Promises of regular updates flaunt on every adult site. However, not every site can boast of the accurate performance of this promise. Webmasters should understand user psychology: even the slightest discrepancy will spoil the image of the whole site in their eyes. If updates don’t appear regularly on a site, then the photos there may be of poor quality, and videos are not thrilling, and a price for membership is too high. People tend to be distrustful.

4. Individual approach to each user
Nothing ruins business more than the mass approach to consumers. Every man sincerely considers himself the most significant person on the Earth and, hence, demands the appropriate attitude. If a person pays for some services, he expects the first-rate feedback. Otherwise he will not prolong the membership or, that is even worse, won’t become a registered user.

5. Webmaster availability for clients
Even regular updates can’t make a resource popular, if it’s impossible to find its webmaster when you need. Of course, a webmaster must always care for the site and its users, but if the number of registered users is huge, he may find no time to answer all the messages. Nevertheless, the effect of unanswered letters is much more harmful than the effect of late replies.

So, once upon a time there lived a man who wanted to earn money with the help of his own intellect. He created his own adult site, having taken care not only of the advertising company, but also of the proper recourse content. That’s why this man still has a stable income every month. Maybe that’s the story about you?