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Just how responsive are you?
One of the first things Steve and I do when we get up every morning is to read the online version of the major newspaper for State that we live in. It's a ritual that helps us stay in touch with the rest of the world and that's important for all Webmasters on a number of levels.

On one level keeping in touch with the rest of the world is important because those of us who work from home can lose touch with reality if we don't keep in touch with the world. On another level keeping in touch with the rest of the world is a positive way of increasing your bottom line.

This morning the online newspaper we read was carrying the rather funny story of an emergency landing by an American Airlines plane some hours ago. It seems that some of the 99 passengers on board reported being able to smell burning sulphur and so the pilot called an emergency and the flight from Washington to Texas was diverted to Nashville.

The plane was searched, bomb sniffer dogs went over absolutely everything and the passengers were questioned. Finally one poor woman admitted that she had been striking matches to try and hide her rather personal and very embarrassing problem - flatulence.

While every human being has flatulence or gas this lady has it much worse than anyone else and for her it is a genuine medical problem and I can certainly understand how difficult her life must be because of it. Still it was a rather amusing and perhaps one that will get a lot of exposure in papers around the world as well as air time on television (sorry ... I just couldn't help myself).

I thought no more about it and went on skimming the other stories in the paper before turning to my email and that's where I encountered the story again. Right there, in among the press releases, was this headline 'Don't let Flatulence Spoil Yours or 99 Others Travel Plans'

Yep, even though the story of the emergency landing was only a few hours old a company that has developed some treatment for intestinal gas was right on their game and using the story to promote their product. They weren't waiting till the story was a day or more old; they were using the story to promote their product while the details were still fresh in the minds of their market place.

So how responsive are you to situations like that? Do you even consider using current news stories as a hook to hang your marketing message on?

Do you have some part of your online network where you can take advantage of stories like that? Or don't you even bother to read the newspapers?

You will find that if you have a part of your online network set up to handle current events and you respond to current events quickly then you have a little goldmine that will keep on producing money for as long as you remain responsive to the world around you.

While the example I mentioned above worked for a mainstream business there is no reason why the principle won't work here in adult too. Think of all the celebrity news that is out there and all the interest that is shown by the people right round the world in those celebrities. There is a perfect way to attract traffic if you just take the time to stay in touch with what is happening with those celebrities.

These days, in many parts of the world, glamour models and porn stars get just as much press as the celebrities and many of those glamour models and porn stars either have their own sites with affiliate programs or are featured on bigger sponsor sites.

All you have to do to attract traffic that is very interested in those people is to keep up with the latest gossip and to be in a situation where you can be responsive every time one of those people hits the headlines.

The ideal way to attract interested traffic is by writing something about the celebrity or porn star in a blog. The flatulence company responded with a press release because they knew that would give them some exposure alongside the story that was in the press but that sort of press release just isn't available to us. That means that we need to use other ways of getting our story out there.

Blogs are ideal for that but they aren't the only way. A regularly updated news section on an easily spidered and high traffic web page will also help to get your story and sales pitch out to those who are searching Google and the other search engines for more information on their favorite celebrity.

There are other ways too but I'll leave you to work those out for yourself.

The important message here is that you really do need to be responsive to the world around you. It's just one more way of making money in this crazy marketing game we like to play.