"Children: Don't do what I have done.
I couldn't walk, but I tried to run"
-Mother by John Lennon
I like to make my points with analogies. The above quote by my favorite
Beatle is from a song off his first post-fab-four album "Plastic Ono
Band". I would imagine John was speaking from experience when he advised
his listeners learn to walk before they try to run. After all, he and
the boys were just working-class guys in a tight little band who woke up
one day to find themselves the official spokesmen for an entire
generation.
Sure, they had dreams of fame and fortune. Most bands do. The problem
was that the Beatles fame and fortune came upon them when they were
still practically kids. They got their wish before they were experienced
enough to handle all the dilemmas that accompany such a wish. Linda and
Yoko weren't the reason the Beatles broke up. The fame was the reason.
The lack of privacy, the undue attention to their every move and finally
(I believe) seeing the words to the lyrics of one of their songs written
on a wall with the blood of a murder victim kind of took the fun out of
fame and fortune.
What on earth (you might be asking) has this to do with making
pornographic websites?
I am assuming that you want to be a successful adult webmaster. I'll go
even farther and guess that you probably have had that limo-riding,
mansion-owning, model-dating fantasy. You want to make it big in this
business and that's an admirable desire. Just be careful what you wish
for and how you go about achieving that wish.
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If I had a nickel for every adult webmaster who I have seen invest money
in hosting, content, site design and shopping cart software without
knowing one whit about how this industry works, I'd have one hell of a
bank balance. These poor souls are at the end of their collective ropes
because they've spent all this money and they aren't seeing any profits.
They don't seem to understand that the adult Internet isn't some magic
money machine that spits out cash just because they opened a porn site.
Paysites can generate major income. The visionaries who jumped on the
porn bandwagon at the inception of the World Wide Web did probably have
an easier time getting customers and sign-ups. We've all heard the
stories about college geeks who slapped some dirty pics on an HTML page
and became overnight millionaires. What you don't hear is the follow-up
story: Most of those original porn sites are gone and the majority of
those original Internet porn barons have fallen off the planet.
Sure, some retired because they made their fortunes and achieved their
dreams. But even more of them were forced out because of the
overwhelming responsibilities and costs involved in owning a business.
They may have known a lot about computers and programming but they knew
comparatively nothing about business or the market they were involved
in.
Unless you have a team of designers, programmers, marketing gurus and
about $50,000, opening a paysite is not a good first effort in the field
of Adult Internet Entertainment. Even if you did have all the things
mentioned in the previous sentence, if you don't know how this business
works, you will still probably fail. The Internet is like no other
market and people are still trying to figure out what makes people spend
money on a website. The adult Internet may be the most stable business
model but nothing is ever a sure thing.
If you are new to this industry, the best way for you to start out is to
start out small. Fortunately for you, there are so many ways to do just
that with little or no money. You can put a site on a free adult host
and use free content provided by sponsors and make money from promoting
and selling memberships to paysites already in existence. If you start
out this way, you have the time and the security to learn about this
business. Nothing is strong without a good foundation. Your foundation
needs to be your knowledge and familiarity with this business.
If you start out walking with small steps, it won't hurt so much when
you stumble and (trust me on this) you will stumble. If you start out
running before you learn to walk you could suffer irreparable damage.
You won't break up the Beatles but you could break your heart and your
bank account.