Don't Quit Your Day Job
Posted On: 2008-01-17
Want to make a start in this industry? Then here's some advice you may not want to hear.
I sometimes find it hard to believe that lots of people outside of this industry still think that making money here is easy. I would have hoped that reality might have begun to set in by now but evidently not. Only today I spotted a post on a well-known adult webmaster board from a guy who had quit his day job, cashed in his 401k plan and wanted to know how he could use it to make money in this industry.
It was fairly obvious from his post that he hadn't even tried playing around the edges of this industry before he quit his job and thought that he could come in here, hit the ground running and grow a business. Is there ever going to be a world of disappointment in his near future!
Now if you're like that guy and you happen to stumble across this article then perhaps I can offer you some advice that will save you making the same mistakes that guy did. It's advice that you may not want to hear ... especially if you're stuck in a job that's driving you nuts ... but it's advice that you should take if you really do want to make serious money here.
Obviously the first piece of advice that you really do need to listen to is - don't quit your day job. Sure your boss may be a tyrant, commuting might be driving you insane and the siren song of all that loot that's to be made in online porn might be hard to resist but don't quit your day job ... at least not yet ... and be prepared to not quit your day job for at least a year and probably a whole lot more.
And the reason for not quitting your day job is simple ... you're not going to be able to hit the ground running in this industry because you are going to need to learn about a large number of things that you've never had to deal with before. You see, it's not just a case of building a site with a few banners and a few hardcore images.
To survive in this industry you'll need and understand of what makes people buy; you'll have to understand traffic and know how to get it for your sites; you'll need to learn about which sponsors and which niches you should promote; you'll need to learn about 2257 and other legal matters that affect adult webmasters and you'll need to understand how to manage your domain names, your hosting and a whole bunch of other things too.
The second piece of advice you need to listen to is don't fool yourself and think you can wing it in this industry. The fact is that even if you have some training in marketing or web design it won't be enough to get you to the point where you're making money. Of course you'll find that hard to believe and many people who have some training in marketing or web design don't take that advice ... and there are many people who have come into this industry with some training in marketing and/or web design who crashed and burned.
The third piece of advice is never think that you know it all ... even after a year in this industry don't fool yourself and think that you have acquired all the knowledge that you will need to make money here. After 10 years in this business I'm still learning and I'll be learning till the day I decide that it's time to retire.
And the final piece of advice I want to give you this time is don't bail from your day job too soon. If you've listened to all the advice I've given you so far and you've stuck with your day job then don't be in a rush to leave it. Trust me, I know how desperately you may want to quit your day job but don't jump too soon. The first month your income from this business exceeds your living expenses is not the time to make the break.
Wait until you have several months of sustained growth in your income over your expenses before you even think about making this your full-time occupation. I know how hard waiting can be but I also know what it's like to quit your day job just because you've had one month of great income only to find that income in the following months drops back below the level of your expenses.
Now hopefully I've just given you some advice that may save you making the biggest mistake of your life. There certainly is still some very serious money to be made here in this industry but definitely not if you're a green-as-grass newbie. To make money in this business you need lots of experience and that doesn't come overnight.