Free porn, free hosting, free content, free lunches, I dislike them all because they send the wrong message to people starting in this industry.
Webmaster boards aimed at new webmasters are interesting but also frustrating places to hang out. They are interesting because you can see all sorts of talented and not so talented people coming into the industry. Frustrating because so many webmasters can give really bad advice that sounds wonderful to raw newbies.
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"Everything in this industry does have a value; everything costs something to produce." |
A perfect example is the advice that lots of newbies receive when they ask about getting a start in the industry. Quite often they are told that free content and free hosting is the ONLY way to make a start. Of course 'FREE' is a power word that is going to appeal to anyone who reads it and its power is increased immeasurably when it is read by a newbie who is afraid of getting burned.
Why is it bad advice? There are a number of reasons why a newbie should never be encouraged to use ONLY free hosting and free content.
First, most major traffic sources for free sites and TGPs will not accept sites and galleries on free hosting so the newbie will find it very difficult to get his work listed anywhere that is worthwhile. The newbie will learn very little about traffic, he will not get a lot of traffic and what he does get won't convert for him in the numbers that he may be hoping for.
Second, free hosting is never free. There is always some cost to the user and most newbies are not experienced enough to realise what they are paying for that supposedly free hosting.
The top and bottom of a web page are the optimum places to advertise and that's why a free host grabs those spots for their banners. In truth anyone who is using a free host is working for that host because the surfers who come to the site or gallery will get hit with the host's advertising first and it is the host who gets the majority of the sales.
Third, free content is often over-exposed. Surfers need to be held on a page long enough for the advertising to attract their attention. They won't remain for very long on a site that has images that they have seen before. Even sponsor content consisting of good quality images, which are regularly updated, become quickly over-exposed. It has got to the point now where a lot of the bigger link lists are refusing to list any site that uses sponsor content. TGPs are also beginning to follow that lead.
Fourth, the idea of free content and free hosting sends entirely the wrong message to new webmasters. This is a business, just like any other and in business everything has a cost. Simply put, you have to spend money to make money. It is a sad fact of life that applies to any other industry so why should we expect it to be any different in the online adult industry.
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Everything in this industry does have a value; everything costs something to produce. Webmasters who have been brought up on a diet of 'FREE' see little value in anything that is produced for this industry. They have never had to pay for anything before so why should they start now. That attitude has begun to affect us all.
Talk to graphic designers who work in this industry and they will tell you that they are getting more and more enquiries from webmasters who seem to have no concept of the value of a graphic designer's time and talent. One designer I know was asked for a quote on a pay site tour and when he quoted his standard figure of around $1300 was told that the webmaster expected to pay less than $50.00.
And that was not an isolated case. Other content providers are experiencing the same problem. My wife writes erotic stories and columns for various websites. Several days ago she was contacted by a webmaster who wanted her to write a regular column for his website. After a phone call to America and several exchanges of email the negotiations stopped in their tracks when Marie asked the webmaster what he saw as the bottom line. It seems that his bottom line was somewhere in the vicinity of zero.
Unfortunately there will always be some people who are prepared to lower their prices rather than see a sale slip away. It does make you wonder though at what point the provider begins to pay for the webmaster to take his work.
For example the base hourly rate for an unskilled labourer where I live is around $10.00 an hour. If I, as a writer or a graphic designer, agree to sell my work to a webmaster for $10.00 an hour or less then I am basically paying him to take my work.
I am also devaluing the work of other talented people in this industry and raising a very large question mark about my ability to produce good quality work that will sell.
After all, everybody knows that they get what they pay for.