In 1998, Apple released the original "Bondi Blue" iMac. This egg-shaped wonder revolutionized the home computer industry, not only because the iMac looked cool, but also because at the time, with a price tag of $1299.00, it was considered highly affordable. Today you'd have no trouble finding new Apple desktops and non-Apple PCs for similar prices but you'll as easily find high-powered, factory-fresh machines for less than $500.00 - monitor included.
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"Everything costs far less than it did in the 'glory days' of 1998 cyberporn. The only thing that's still the same price is the sweat you put into the effort." |
When the Interwebs began to take hold in the mid-1990's, there was only one place for an adult webmaster to obtain a domain name: Network Solutions. A one-year registration would cost you a whopping $75.00. It wasn't until ICANN broke up that monopoly and allowed other companies to become registrars, did the price of an Internet home come down to the less-than-ten-dollar fees we see today.
And hosting costs in the mid-90's? Fugeddaboudit. You don't want to know. The same goes for adult content and just about any software, service or gadget needed by today's porn webmaster. Oh sure, there was a small glory period where free-hosting was awesome and relatively bannerless, but that didn't last long. Now, you can open a virtual hosting account for less than five bucks. You can buy image sets and video content for peanuts. Probably the only webmaster tools that haven't gone down in price are favored softwares like PhotoShop, Sony Vegas and Macromedia (now Adobe) Flash. The upshot is there there are way lots of alternative versions of these programs, priced for a song. Better yet, there are even free, Open-Source versions of just about any kind of application you desire.
Do you want a digital camera? A nice scanner/printer combo? How about you Internet access? Remember when you sat praying that your dial-up ISP wouldn't bump you off while you were uploading files to your ftp server, while they simultaneously raped you for monthly charges? Or have those awful memories left your mind now that you can surf the web wirelessly - at high speed - for nothing at your favorite coffee shop?
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Guess how much the adult Internet's hottest killer app costs right now? Go on. Give it a go?$100.00? $50.00? $25.00? Give up? Here's your answer: Zero Dollars. That's right. Blogging is the hottest thing around and the best blog software is (arguably) WordPress and WordPress costs absolutely nothing.
Can we discuss Operating Systems? With an Open Source Linux OS, like Ubuntu, openSUSE or Debian, you have a fully-functional OS that is updated regularly and rivals the performance of both big MS and big Apple. Did we mention Open-source software? Well, you can pack your free Linux-based OS with all the Open-source software you want. There are literally thousands of programs out there for the download. If you don't want to give up your commitment to Windows or OS X, most Open Source applications come in Mac or Windows compatible versions.
While we mentioned that adult content is cheap, cheap, cheap, let's not forget to give some love to wonderful, glorious sponsor content. Free-Hosted image and video galleries. Personalized feeds. Build Your Own tours. Blogs. Customized DVD and adult toy stores. You can stack your little adult site to the rafters with enough product to keep them jerking to your page for hours.
When Cozy Frog first began, we used to tell you that you could get started in this business for no money down. That isn't true anymore. Today, you have to spend money on a domain and hosting - a whopping $20.00 to get started and as little as five dollars a month for space. The beauty part is that you've probably already got a sweet deal on a nice desktop or laptop. You're already surfing at high speeds for approximately the same price that you were slogging along at on dial-up ten years ago. Add in another $25.00-$50.00 for a buttload of inexpensive content, slap up a decent WordPress Template for maybe $50.00 and you've got a professional-looking, automated adult website, monetized with sponsor-provided marketing tools.
In other words, this is the best time ever to be an adult webmaster when it comes to cost. Everything costs far less than it did in the "glory days" of 1998 cyberporn. The only thing that's still the same price is the sweat you put into the effort.