Getting Started in Adult 2
Posted On: 2010-10-07
Back on Monday I wrote a column about what you would need to know and understand if you were thinking about getting started in adult and really wanted to succeed. At the time I thought I could probably cover everything in just two columns but after thinking about it and making a list of all the important points I needed to cover I realized that I was never going to cover everything in just two.
So here is the second in the series and look out for the third and fourth next week.
I should also point out that these aren't the sort of beginners' tips that you usually find around the Web. What I'm covering in these columns is more a broad look at what you need to know and understand rather than getting right down to the basic details. This is very much an industry where you need to do a lot of research for yourself rather than rely totally on what others tell you so I'll give you some hints and it's up to you what you do with them.
With that in mind let's look at a few more points that beginners need to understand if they want to survive in this industry.
You need to learn about marketing
It won't take you long to realize that there's a lot more to making sales in this industry than just throwing up a bunch of images and a banner or two. While it may not take you long to realize that important point it is going to take you a long time to learn the most effective marketing techniques and the only way to learn those techniques is to spend time researching and learning about how to make a sale.
In fact if you're serious about making money in this industry you will never stop learning about marketing because the moment you do stop you're sales will begin to slow. So be prepared to spend a lot of time reading about marketing techniques but never totally accept what you read until you have tested it for yourself.
You need to test everything
Marketing techniques are not the only things that you need to test to see what works for you. There are people out there who are always ready to tell you the easiest way to get good search engine rankings ... the best place to generate traffic ... the best format to use when you want to market your product ... quick ways to make money ... but don't believe them.
This is very definitely an industry where what works for one may not work for another so don't blindly follow every piece of advice that you're given. Test everything and accept nothing till you have been able to prove for yourself that it will work for you.
Discover what sells for you
When most people come into this industry they look around at what others say is selling and then try and sell the same product. Sometimes that can work for you but don't be surprised if it doesn't.
Instead look for the niche that interests you ... it may not be what others say sells the best ... but it's often easier to sell what interests you than what doesn't. You will find that you make more sales when you can speak to your target market in language that both you and they are comfortable with.
You need to stay focused
When the money isn't coming in as quickly as you might have expected it's very easy to panic and run after every new sponsor ... every new niche ... every new way of making money that you will see touted on adult webmaster forums. But don't do it!
When you've found your niche and the format that sells for you stay focused on it. Don't be lured away by tales of easy sales and big money ... more often than not those stories are just sales hype spread by people who want to make money from you.
You need to learn about traffic
Traffic ... the people who come to your website ... the people who might buy what you're selling ... don't arrive on your site by magic and don't ever believe that they will come once you build it ... because they won't.
In the early days of your business you will get traffic to your sites by submitting your galleries to TGPs and submitting your free sites to link lists ... but even then you won't get huge amounts of traffic from these places.
The traffic you do get will be ok to begin with but you'll need more and more if you want to survive and grow so you'll need to develop your own traffic sources and developing that traffic is almost as much of an art as what marketing is.
So start learning about traffic ... watch where it comes from and where it goes to ... and what you can do to influence it. Discover who controls the traffic and try to learn from what they have done to get to the point where they control all that traffic.
And now I'm off to build some forms for a mainstream client who is so specialized that he doesn't need to worry about traffic. He gets all he needs by word of mouth and what others write about him.
I wish it was that easy for the rest of us.