Recently, I took up a new hobby. I am now completely hooked on aquariums and freshwater fish. At the moment, I’ve got one female betta, one male betta, two blue gouramis, one pearl gourami, four honey gouramis, three dwarf frogs, three swordtails and a golden mystery snail. I love watching them. I even have a ten-gallon tank set up right next to my desktop so I can look at them while I work.
About a week ago I was blessed with a pleasant surprise. In my main tank, there are two baby swordtails. Baby swordtails aren’t really surprising. Swordtails are notoriously prolific. The females can store semen, which means they can give birth several times from just one mating session. What’s surprising about these two babies is that they beat incredible odds.
Swordtails are livebearers. A female can birth as many as 30 fry. The thing is, if the newborn fry are left in the tank, they usually end up being dinner for the other fish. The first time one of my swordtails gave birth I watched in horror as the gouramis, the other swordtails and the little fishies own mother gobbled up like they were candy. The second time one of my females gave birth, I valiantly managed to scoop two fry out of the tank before they became fish food. Unfortunately, the two died because I couldn’t get them to eat.
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So when I saw these two babies swimming around the tank, I was thrilled. These two little guys had managed to keep themselves hidden and fed while they grew and now they’re too big for the other fish to eat them.
Anyone smell an analogy?
Working in the adult Internet is very much like the whole big fish, little fish thing. Bigger, more experienced adult webmasters swim around eating the lion’s share of traffic and profits while the little guys fight desperately to survive. The big fish aren’t being cruel or unfair; they’re just doing what they need to do to endure. Little fish aren’t inferior; they’re just small.
If you’re a new adult webmaster, you’re a little fish. Like it or not, you are dependant on the big fish. You need their sponsorship programs. You need their hosting. You need their content, traffic and wisdom. At the same time you need to take care not to get gobbled up by predators. There are big fish out there that would not hesitate to ruin you and your reputation. They do so because they know something you may not. They know that if you keep working and learning, someday you’ll be too big to eat. At your current size, you’re no threat. But if you keep going, you’ll end up as competition to the big fish.
Your goal as a small fish is to figure out how to work your size to your advantage. Being small can be a blessing. After all, you don’t need as much to sustain you as a big fish would. Big porn companies have employees, affiliates and vendors to pay. A ten- percent reduction in your profits for a month will hurt you but a ten- percent profit loss severely damages a big company. A big company is a big target too. They are more likely to have their websites hacked and their content stolen. Big adult companies pay more taxes and are under closer scrutiny by tax authorities. When a newbie messes up, they get to blame their inexperience. When a big company screws up, the news spreads across the industry like wildfire. When a big company is built upon a trend and that trend ends, that company ends. When the trend runs out for a little guy, they just change sponsors.
You want to thrive, flourish and grow into a big fish. That’s only natural. Just the same, growth in this business is a specific process. You can’t grow from fry to fryeater overnight. You can’t compete with the big fish until you mature as an adult webmaster. Do what my baby swordtails did. Hide from predators. Promote to smaller niche markets. Find big fish that will pay you until you’re strong enough to go out on your own. Take care of yourself and then one day, you will be too big to eat.