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Good morning all ... and yes, as I write this, it is the morning ... the very early morning ... about 4am to be precise. I got up early to tackle a new mainstream website for a client so I would have plenty of time through the rest of the day to get on with other work and ... I hit a brick wall.

If you've been following my ramblings here lately you will have read about our computer dramas last week ... the ones that I thought we had recovered from rather well ... until this morning. This morning I found that I'd forgotten to re-install Dreamweaver on the computer in my home office so there's no site building for me just yet.

Of course I could quite easily re-install the software now ... if only I knew where the disks were. They're certainly not where they should be and it's a bit too early in the morning to go rummaging around my office and Steve's office to try and find the disk. I don't want to make too much noise and wake Steve, if you've ever met him you'll know that there is a guy who really needs his beauty sleep so I'll just have to put that job off till later in the day.

I'm sure you guys aren't like us and you know exactly where all your important software disks are now don't you? And you always keep a copy of all those handy little freebie's that you download from time to time don't you?

Of course while I was looking for that very important disk I did find two others with some of those freebies that were on this computer before it was formatted so now I'm installing those ... at least the early start wasn't a total loss I guess.

Keeping up with the news
As adult webmasters we tend to retreat into a cave, roll a stone across the entrance and isolate ourselves so that we can work. In some ways that's not such a bad thing because it is easier to work without distraction but there are some negative social implications to working in that sort of environment and there are some negative marketing implications too.

When we're working in an environment where the outside world can't really get through to us we often miss some important news that can have a great impact on our marketing message ... if only we knew what was happening out there. Even when we are out there in the world we often see or hear important news but miss the marketing implications that are there for us.

If you run gay sites then last week there was a perfect example of some important news that you should be using to your advantage when it comes to marketing your products. Last week we saw the California Supreme Court legalize gay marriage and that really is great news! The gay community is celebrating and if you're running some gay sites then you should be joining in that celebration.

Now I don't mean that you have to head down to your nearest gay bar and join in the fun, what I do mean though is that you should be adding the celebration to any of your gay sites where you're trying to build traffic. Decorate it ... give it some party atmosphere and show your gay surfers that the site is relevant and is really there for them. Make your site look like part of the community and in touch with the community and you may well see your traffic and bookmarkers go up.

When surfers see that a site is genuinely part of their life and lifestyle then they will come back for more. If a site looks somehow remote from them and their lifestyle ... or out of touch with what's happening in their community then surfers will stay away or only stop by occasionally.

The same thing goes for any straight sites you may have where you're trying to build traffic and bookmarkers. Make your site relevant to where your surfers are right now and people will keep coming back for more.

Of course, if you want to make regular changes or updates like that then you're going to have to build the capacity for quick changes into your site's design but the increase in traffic could make that very worthwhile.

And now it seems that Steve has come to terms with the fact that it really is time to get up so I'm off to find that disk and get it installed. I've got an early morning meeting with another mainstream client so I won't have time to start on the site this morning but at least the program will be on the computer and ready to go if I want another early start tomorrow.