I swear, if I see one more paysite tour wrapped in a pink frame, with a photoshopped tableau of three hot sluts, dotted by twinkling stars, I'm going to barf. Yeah. Yeah. I've described the basic design for half the paysites on the adult Internet. Aren't you tired of them too? Aren't you tired of the sideways-clicking tour format? Haven't you seen about a billion thumbnail galleries with the same layout? If you've opened one three-column page, you've opened them all.

Hey, don't get me wrong. If you're making money. You're making money. You don't want to fix what isn't broke. Then again, maybe you do. Maybe you're tired too. Maybe you've been using that same design for years. Maybe you're just plain sick of looking at the same graphics, the same colors, the same menu buttons, the same old, same old, same.

"If you're making money. You're making money. You don't want to fix what isn't broke. Then again, maybe you do. Maybe you're tired too. Maybe you've been using that same design for years."

It's a dilemma. At least it is if your design has been good to you. We all know that change is good. We're fully aware that the shabbiest shops re-arrange the furniture occasionally. Only, our sites are not like real-world shops. When the physical shop owner moves the magazine racks from the left side to the right side of the store, he'll be there to guide any confused patrons. However, when an adult webmaster re-arranges his furniture, he risks losing new surfers, regulars visitors and his income.

Website design is an art. Some techniques can be taught but arranging the elements into a selling design, is more magic than skill. The successful designer knows exactly where to place every image, bar and text box. They know that this color works for co-ed sites and that color is best for bondage pages. Sometimes the designer is a degreed professional and many times (in our profession especially) he or she is a person with a natural, intangible gift. They just have the knack. Most of us haven't the talent nor the experience to create a winning design. We buy templates or hire pros and we play it safe. If the site sells, then we won't change a thing.

What complicates the issue is the money-making site with the crummy design. How is that possible? How can that awful-looking page with ugly colors and a 1996 layout, still be profitable? One clue is contained in the year, 1996. A good number of those arguably crummy layouts belong to webmasters that got into the game very early on. These places don't need slick layouts because they have something more valuable - hundreds of thousands of loyal bookmarkers. You think that the owners of these sites don't know that their designs are relatively ancient? Of course they know. Therein lies the dilemma.

These veterans are familiar with the fickle behavior of Internet surfers. If that menu bar takes too long to load or if that sub-category header got bumped down below the fold, a surfer might leave and some never come back. These supposedly weak designers at least have the wisdom to adhere to the cardinal law of page design: When the layout changes, the traffic changes.

So what am I bitching for? Why am I raging against a practice that works? Why should it matter if so many porn sites look the same? Why would I so much as suggest that site owners and designers are overdue with the fresh inventions?

The reason I write these things is because I am proud of this industry. The history books may never mention us but we know we're the ones that mapped the path to online profits. The mainstream copies us; from pop-up consoles to thumbnail galleries. We did that stuff first. We perfected the process. Years from now, when they teach commercial web design - instead of desktop publishing disguised as web design - they will use the standards, invented by Internet porn. It's because we're a super secret brain trust that I criticize. I worry that our caution is stifling our innovation. Innovation has been good to us.

Innovation could be good to you. Maybe you're the one willing to take a chance. You're a newbie, free to follow and free to make your own rules. You aren't bogged down with worry over losing you faithful following. You aren't a jaded designer, boxed in the frames of a selling formula. You're not an adult sponsor with bills and employees and affiliates to pay. You don't have to do the same old, same old. Could be that you hold they key to a design concept that will change everything.

Just be careful not to ignore the hard-learned principles of profitable site layout. Yes, that website you made entirely from Flash, looks cool but it's still going to turn off a lot of paying surfers. Your JavaScript, flying menu is adorable and also annoying to someone that just wants to know where the dirty pictures are.

Enjoy your newbie freedom! No, you don't have to build a site that looks like a clone. You're unconstrained buy the burdens that repress creativity. Go. Do. Invent. If you make something that sells then you win. You will stand out. You will have given the people something they didn't know they wanted until you showed up. Listen to advice. Read tutorials and accept criticism gracefully. But never be afraid to say: Enough with the Same Old, Same Old!