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Have you ever stopped to think about what you're risking by being in this business?

Actually there's two types of risk that you need to seriously consider and you need to take all the necessary steps to make sure that you minimise both types of risk.

Obviously there's the legal and social risk that we all face by working in the adult industry and we need to pay particular attention ways of minimising that risk. From a social perspective we need to make every attempt to remain anonymous by having Whois guards in place and, if possible, trading as an LLC rather than carrying on business as an individual.

Now don't get me wrong here ... I'm not saying that we should be ashamed of what we're doing just as long as we work within the law. I'm not ashamed for one moment of the time when I worked in the adult industry out in the real world because what I did was perfectly legal.

However ... as I've experienced personally ... there are plenty of people out there who can make life at least uncomfortable for us if they think that they can gain some advantage by telling others about what we do.

So it's wise to be as discreet as possible about what we do.

And then there are the legal risks that we face. The laws that govern what is acceptable porn and what isn't are vague to say the least. There is no clearly defined line that we can see as we cross it to go from what's legally acceptable to what isn't so we need to carefully consider just how far we should go with what we show or provide.

However there are clearly defined laws regarding some of the things that we can't do and some of the things that we must do. For example we need to keep 2257 records and we must never use underage models. Those laws define risks that we need to minimise ... and we need to be very careful about minimising those risks.

If you're not living within those laws and maintaining all the records that those laws require you to maintain then you're not minimising your risk and you are leaving yourself and your business wide open to prosecution and a one-way ticket out of the industry.

Then there are the financial risks that everyone who sells anything online face and in lots of ways minimising those risks takse a whole lot more work than minimising your legal risks.

When you work online ... especially in this industry ... you struggle to keep up with all the changes that are forever happening. You get so focused on what you're right now ... on what is making you money right now ... that you miss everything else that's going on around you. As the general online industry moves on to bigger and better things you get left behind and before you know it you've reached the point where you will never be able to catch up.

Fear of change is also a financial risk that many of us face. It's comfortable doing what you know ... doing what makes you money now. You have your recipe for making money and you don't want to change it because if you do you may end up losing money instead of making it.

We know of one local business person who was doing reasonably well with a bricks and mortar business and was happy to go on working that business till they retired. However that person's kids kept telling them that they needed to get their business online and even though they were scared of doing that we finally got to build them an online shop that's working well.

Six months ago that person's kids began telling this business person that they really needed to get their business onto Facebook because it is one of those businesses that will attract a lot of orders from people who hang out on Facebook but they were really scared. For some reason Facebook almost made them weak at the knees and six months later we're still waiting to show that business person how to use Facebook.

If you have fears about new technology or new ways of doing things then the first step to minimising the financial risk that those fears present is to start reading everything you can about the subject. Overcome those fears by educating yourself and then jump into it and try it.

Of course you may lose some money ... nothing in this world is guaranteed (and that includes failure) ... but you won't make any money if you don't try and you will be increasing the risk of failure every day you don't try.

I could go on but instead I suggest that you head over to webprofits.com.au and look in their blog for an article titled 'How to Minimise Risk Online' . There's a lot more in there than what I've covered here and the information you'll find in that blog entry will help you survive the ups and downs of doing business online.