Know Your Enemy

I thought this would be a good time to discuss some of the problems facing adult webmasters these days. Hopefully, I won't spook anyone too bad (check out the 'good' under each problem...) But it always helps to know what your obstacles are when you're starting out in anything. While none of these problems are singularly killing the adult web business, they are all making dents in the profits we could all be making.

File sharing

The BAD: This was something which I don't recall being around when I started out on the net. Surfers download one of the many different forms of file-sharing software, and are then hooked up to vast network of other user's computers. They can then perform searches on all of the files that other users on that network have. The system is an easy one, which anyone can use, and free porn is rampant. I'm talking full-length, high quality hardcore movies.

The GOOD: Napster was a giant file-sharing system which was shut down by the courts. Then came Morpheus - which suffered the same fate. File sharing networks build powerful enemies very easily - especially in the music business. As one head is cut off, another grows in it's place - but at least there are some decapitations.

Content theft and copyright infringement...

The BAD: This is an important issue that we've been discussing on TNB lately. At the end of the day, no matter what you do, there's usually some way that anyone out there, even with moderate skill, can download and keep your pictures and movies. Worse still, they can upload them and offer them for free to other surfers. Some will do this with the aim to make a buck or two, while some do it (amazingly) out of the goodness of their heart. If you find some of your content posted at one of these sites, it's enough to drive you crazy.

Newsgroups & 'leech sites'

... also fall under this category. The newsgroups especially are a haven of free (and often illegal) porn. As someone who never really got into the whole newsgroups scene as a user, I've got very few favourable things to say about them. Leech sites, as I call 'em, are the websites (or forums) were stolen content can also be posted. If users are getting it here free - they're unlikely to reach for their plastic.

The GOOD: All it takes, in some cases, is an email to the webmaster of the site to have your content removed. Whether that's a threatening one with a serious legal format, or a regular formal email requesting that the content is removed, is completely up to you. While it might cost an arm and a leg to follow through legally, some content thieves don't want the trouble either - and will remove the content after you've contacted them. Sadly, this won't work in all cases.

Hackers...

The BAD: Then we come to our old pals the hackers. You might think you're safe from these guys on the web, too obscure to bother with, but they out to get YOU too! Hackers can do anything from taking down your server, altering your link codes, or editing the member's database of a Paysite - and more besides. Whereas some of our enemies on the web plan to make money from what they do, hackers seem happy just to cause as many problems for you as they can.

The GOOD: There are some steps that you can take to help protect yourself from these guys. Choose a reliable host of some size, have password protection scripts in place on your paysites, and keep up to date with the webmaster forums. (These usually detail the latest tricks the hackers are using). Above all - be aware and keep your eyes open. Watch your visitor and bandwidth stats.

Hotlinking (shouldn't really be here)

I'm not going to go into hotlinking too much here. This problem is easily defeated with .htaccess. Experienced hackers CAN get around this but that's extremely rare in my experience. Hotlinking is a little like a disease which is now curable - take the shot and forget about it.

Password sharing

The BAD: One of the most frustrating parts of this business is finding that some kind soul has joined your Paysite, and then shared their password with hundreds of other surfers. While I'm sure that gives them a warm glow inside, it can leave your arse black and blue, and your monthly bandwidth bill substantially larger. There are resources out there on the web (usually in a forum layout) which post hundreds of up-to-date passwords to all the major paysites, and even the lesser-known ones too. No Paysite is safe from these parasites.

The GOOD: There are scripts that you can get (Pennywize and Stop That Hacker to name but two) which can offer a substantial amount of protection. Fortunately, these sites are also hunted down with a passion by Paysite owners, and they are often 404'ing before you can say "thieving scum". Most sponsors are also happy to withhold all finds on any site which they find is giving out passwords.

The anti-porn gang

The BAD: Not everyone in the world knows the truth about porn. There are people out there who will never be convinced that porn is anything other than the work of the devil . Only last week there was a porn documentary on TV which featured a porn documentary on the TV. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read their banners and boards claiming "porn is evil". But these people are dedicated to bringing porn on the web down and will, it seems, stop at nothing. It's not so much a hobby for them as a way of life - a cause!

The GOOD: This IS 2004, and attitudes towards porn have changed substantially in the past 40 years. What at one time would have caused a sensation and certainly a court case, can now be seen on a billboard, or in a TV advert. While porn on the web is still a gray area for the future (legally) porn in general is becoming less of a dirty word each day.

Free porn...

The BAD: It doesn't take a rocket scientist of a surfer to figure out pretty quickly that there's a good deal of free porn on the web. People learn fast, and once the surfer hits their first TGP, they're probably going to take some dragging away from it. If a surfer can get explicit, uncensored hardcore porn for free, just by visiting a few of their bookmarks, then you've got a struggle on your hands. WHY should they go visit one of your sponsors? They're getting satisfaction for free. While profits have fallen over the past few years, free porn has been proliferating like horny mice. There seems to be no end in sight either. The surfers are getting the deal of the century.

The GOOD: Most of the paysites out there offer an experience which can knock spots off any of the sources of free porn out there. (Join one and see!) While there's an alarming amount of free material available, there's still a jewel or two left in the crown that we can tempt surfers into a tour with. There's also a bit of magic that you can always rely on: Sex SELLS! Some people will ALWAYS want to sign up for a hi-quality Paysite that's in their sexual interest.

Pop-up killers, site harvesters, cookie killers & ad blocking software

The BAD: There's always some genius out there who invents some software that will improve the surfer's experience, but who rolls right over the top of us to do it. Pop-up killers take away one of the tools that you have to sell to your surfers. Site harvesters allow surfers to download an entire Paysite while they sleep - all for $2.99! Cookie killers can prevent you from being credited for the sales you send, and ad blocking software is better than you'd think at stopping surfers from seeing your ads at all. After all - those terrible ads really get in the way... It doesn't matter that those ads are feeding you and your family!

The GOOD: Surfers are lazy, don't like paying for software, and are generally unaware that such tools exist. It's my experience that unless a piece of software comes pre-installed, as standard, on a browser - very few people will install it. Look at Internet Explorer's grasp on the browsing market. It got there because it came with Windows, and most surfers 'just used it'. It's the same with these kinds of software products. In the overall picture, only a small amount of surfers are using them.

Don't get too worried just yet. People ARE buying porn, and I believe they'll continue to do so. The history of the adult web has been strange and paved with problems, but it has survived everything to this day. Even with everything I've mentioned above (and some I've probably missed) you can still make good money doing this NOW.

TOM ^"^

Nobody Knows but Yahoo

Another week has rolled around and the summer doldrums are in full swing. Tourist season has arrived in full force with travel trailer exhausts stinking up my burrow and camera happy familys clicking digital pics of me everytime I poke my nose out.

This week also sees the spotlight being brought to bear on one of Yahoo's purchases. A while back Yahoo went on a buying binge, gobbling up smaller search engines and leading analysists to question what exactly Yahoo was up to. It was rumored that Yahoo was buying soem of these companies for their patents.

It now looks like that was the overriding motive behind at least some of those wallet emptying buys. Yahoo has sued arch rival Google right before Google's much ballyhooed public offering for a patent infringement.

According to the Silicon Valley Times "Google is the darling of the Internet and seemingly at the top of its game as it charges toward a public stock offering sometime this summer.

But the Mountain View company could be paying hundreds of millions of dollars to its Sunnyvale archrival, Yahoo, if it loses a little-noticed patent lawsuit unfolding in a San Jose courtroom.

The case pits Google against Overture Services, an Internet advertising company bought by Yahoo last year. Overture claims it patented an online bidding system for ads seven months before Google introduced a similar system.

Patent attorneys who have reviewed the suit said Overture's patent claims can't be easily dismissed."

Just how broad is this patent? "Advertising made up about 95 percent of Google's $1 billion in revenue last year. If the company loses the patent suit, it would probably have to pay damages, license technology from Yahoo or alter how it manages its ad system.

Overture, then known as GoTo.com, filed its patent in May 1999 for a ``system and method for influencing a position on a search result list.'' The 43-page patent application details a system in which advertisers would be able to bid for better placement of ads in search-engine results and manage their accounts through a Web browser.

The U.S. Patent Office awarded the patent July 31, 2001.

In February 2002, Google introduced its AdWords program -- a system that would eventually help reshape Internet advertising and legitimize search engines as a viable business. With AdWords, advertisers bid for the right to certain keywords. When a Google user types in that keyword as part of a search, the advertiser's pitch shows up near the results."

This seems to affect other engines but Yahoo is borrowing a page from the patent wars waged by Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com - using patent technology and licensing suits to target a rival while leaving others in the same arena alone. Using this sort of legal manuevering is not unknown in the brick and mortar world, but buying a company for it's patent worth that can be brought to bear against a rival is something that hasn't been used too often on the internet. Yet.

If using a patent as a business bludgeon becomes common place on the net, we will all be affected in ways we may not realize. While many of us bemoan the big G as the only game in town, having Yahoo as the "only game in town" is just as bad - same situation just different players. And the worst of it is that they don't gain that position by dint of customer service and being the "best" but rather by the strength of their corps of attorneys and a court ruling. No one is well served in this situation. Not the surfer, not the submitter and certainly not the rival engines.

The question remains how many other purchases have occurred based on patented technology that are just sitting out there waiting to be sprung on surfers, webmasters and rivals. We can only hope there aren't many.

Have a great week, whether you're a tourist, a tourist target or a hard working webmaster.

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

Get the Worm in the Hole...

Johnny was a very inquisitve 10-year old. Playing in the garden, he noticed an earthworm in his hole. So he pulled the worm out of his hole, and started playing with it. But after a while, he got tired of this worm, so he decides that it's time for the worm to go back in it's hole.

After an hour or so though, he still can't get the worm into his hole. Johnny's grandfather was watching him all the time, interested to see what would be the outcome of this.

He walks to Johnny and tells him , "Johnny my boy, if you get that worm back in his hole, I'll give you ten bucks!"

So Johnny thinks for a while, then runs into the house, and returns with a bottle of hairspray. He sprays that little worm with hairspray til its as solid as a welding rod, and then neatly slips it back into the hole, earning himself ten bucks.

Next morning, grandpa walks into Johnny's room, and gives him a hundred dollar bill.

Johnny looks at him wide-eyed and says, "But grandpa, you already gave me ten bucks!"

Grandpa looks at him and says, "This comes from your grandma..."

KayS

You Want It When?

“I like deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly past.” – Douglas Adams

Recently, deadlines seem to be running past me at mach 3 before I remember that they’re looming on the horizon. It can be very easy to lose track of time and forget things that need to be done by a certain date.

However, in the business of being a webmaster resource, providing a service, or updating content, deadlines mean money. Missing a deadline can mean a great deal of cash lost. How can one avoid missing important deadlines, and thereby avoid losing clients?

Simply put, it takes organization, which, admittedly, is not my strong point. So I have had to implement several ways to keep myself in line and on schedule. I’m going to share with you some of my best deadline-making ideas in the hope that you can use at least one of them.

Let’s start out very simply with a white magic eraser board. Mine is a good-sized one, about 4’x 3’ rectangular. I have used electrical tape, (the black super-sticky stuff that electricians use to wrap wires), and made a calendar grid in the upper left hand corner. I use the calendar, (which is just a weekly one, no way I was going to be industrious enough to make a monthly one), to tell me what’s due on what day. For example, if I get a client which requires an article every Friday, then I add that client’s name and the word “article” in the Friday column. Not too hard, is it?

The remainder of the white board is left for important messages and miscellaneous due dates, such as a one-time deal of stories due on such and such day. Not a bad little system, but if it’s the only one you have, you’re in trouble.

Why? Because if you’re relying on something that can easily be brushed up against and erased or marked out, then you’re going to lose important information. Time to back yourself up.

Use your computer to be your personal assistant. There are programs out there which will make your desktop or laptop your personal planner. These really help a great deal, because most of our business is done online through either email or ICQ. Just copy and paste the required information into your datebook program and off you go. Just remember to save your information!

But because computers are not infallible, it’s a good idea to do at least one more backup, and that requires a good old fashioned planner, notepad, or Post-It and a pen. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you’re going to have to lift a pen and actually write something down.

The Post-It notes are one of my favorite forms of self-reminders. If I write it down and then stick it to my monitor, I can’t forget it because I constantly have to see it until I finish the project in question. I then get the great joy of destroying the annoying bit of yellow paper.

Those of you with PDAs can use them exactly like a planner or datebook. That’s what those are made to do, however, they are electronic, and like any other electronic gear, they can easily “forget” for you. Make sure you take the extra step and write the deadline in a notebook or on a Post-It where you will actually see it.

There are many avenues of reminding yourself about deadlines that none of them should pass you by. But just the same, remember to apologize to your client should you miss a deadline and pray that they are understanding. Don’t make a habit of missing deadlines, or you’ll be making a habit of heading to the unemployment office.

Take care of yourselves,
Tala

News is a very powerful Internet marketing tool, which can be used by all adult webmasters. But you need some practice to use them in a professional way, not in the amateur one. So, don’t hesitate to take it up!