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Wow it's Thursday already and it only seems like yesterday that the week started. It's certainly been a hectic ... and interesting ... week for us here so I guess it's no wonder that the time really has flown by.

It's been interesting and hectic because the mainstream side of our business seems to be booming. We've got lots of work on the go and more than a few new jobs in the pipeline ... but strangely enough I'm beginning to see some signs of stress starting to appear in the way some of the people who do work for us are beginning to act.

For example ... one guy this morning wanted to charge me $500 to install a script for one of our clients ... after he originally quoted me $100. Nice try but it seems that he didn't realise that I already knew that the script was free.

Now I'm wondering whether or not I'll get the script installed at all ... but if he doesn't do it I'll just do it myself. I originally farmed it out to him so I could save a little of my time but that saved time definitely isn't worth $500.

It's when people start doing those sort of silly things that you know they're struggling and are almost at the point of desperation.

If you're reaching that point then perhaps it's not too late to stop and have a look at what you're actually doing to make money? Are you trying to sell a product that's already over-saturated? Are you trying to sell a product in a marketplace that potential customers have already left?

Are you even talking to potential clients in language that they understand or that they are comfortable with? These are all questions that you need to be asking yourself ... all of the time and not just when your sales start to drop away.

There are lots of reasons why businesses, affiliate marketers ... and be extension people such as such as coders, copywriters and even graphic designers ... might be struggling. It's not hard to survive when times are good ... you don't have to be really good at what you do when there's plenty of money around ... but things are different when times become tougher.

It's understandable that most of us would struggle when times are really tough ... and for most of last year times were really tough ... but now there are positive signs around that we are moving out of those tough times and people are beginning to spend again.

And that means that things should definitely showing signs of improvement for you too. Those signs may only be relatively faint signs but the signs should be there for you to see ... unless of course you're market has moved on and left you behind or you have never quite been in touch with your market.

So what are you doing with your marketing? How are you reaching out to those who might want to buy your product? Is your product and the way that it's packaged for delivery really relevant for them? Is the message you're sending about your product going to where they are ... where it will be heard ... or is it going to that big empty space where they used to be?

Obviously for mainstream marketers life can be a lot easier when it comes to marketing a product. The people most mainstream marketers want to sell to are all congregated in one of just a few social networking sites and it's easy for marketers to reach out to those people.

But what about us over here in adult? Where have the people we want to market to gone? Have they deserted the TGPs and link lists that once used to draw large numbers ... or are they still there?

Maybe the people we want to sell to are still there on the TGPs and link lists but somehow they're missing our message or maybe we're not packaging our message in a way that they're prepared to listen to these days.

Maybe the people we want to sell to have moved on and if they have where have they moved to? Have you even bothered to wonder? Have you looked at the data? Have you done any research or have you just gone on doing things the way you have always done them in the hope that the porn surfers will come back some day?

Sadly I've got to tell you that if they're gone then they aren't ever coming back. If they're still around in the places they have been in the past and it's your message ... or the packaging ... that's not working for them then they're not going to come back to your tired old message and packaging.

They're not coming back because they don't have to ... there are marketers out there who are providing them with what they want and packaging it in a way that works for them.

And that's where you need to be ... out there with those savvy marketers who aren't stuck back five years in the past. You need to be out there delivering a relevant marketing message in packaging that works for those who might want to listen to your message and buy what you're selling.

So what are you going to do about it? You're never going to grow if you stay stuck in the past so all you have to do is catch up with the rest of the world ... and if you don't then don't expect to survive for much longer.