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If there's one thing I regret the most about my time here marketing adult products online it's the fact that for years I never looked outside of this industry for marketing tips and advice.

When I think back on those days it's rather odd because, before I became involved in the adult industry in the real world, I was involved in telemarketing ... and was rather successful at what I did ... so I had been exposed to other forms of marketing.

Yet for some reason, when I started selling adult products online I forgot all about those marketing techniques that I learned in telemarketing and I forgot all those marketing techniques that I learned in the adult industry in the real world. All I focused on was what I was being taught here in this industry.

Now I'm not saying for a moment that any of what I learned here in adult online was wrong ... or even vaguely incorrect ... because it wasn't. Both Steve and I had some very good teachers and we are forever indebted to them but there are plenty of marketing lessons to be learned out there in mainstream and much of what mainstream has to teach you can be applied to whatever you might sell here in adult.

So if you're just beginning here in adult ... or if over the Christmas break you've decided that now is the time to try your hand at making your fortune selling adult products online ... learn all you can from the true experts here in adult but don't neglect what the mainstream marketing experts have to teach you either.

While you're over there in mainstream looking for good sources of marketing information don't discount any that you might find simply because they deal with marketing channels that you can't use.

It's easy to look at some of the sites that want to teach you about marketing on Facebook and Twitter and, without looking too deeply, simply decide that they have nothing worthwhile to teach you simply because you can't use those channels to sell adult products. But to discount those sites would be a mistake because you will pick up some great marketing ideas simply by skimming through what they have to say.

One of my favorites is socialmediaexaminer.com ... it's in a blog format and almost every post there has something of value for marketers regardless of what they might be selling.

I know that there will be some dummies in this industry laughing at what I've just said ... their view is that it's been the adult industry that has always been the leader in online marketing so mainstream has nothing to teach us and to some extent that's true.

This industry was the leader in online marketing for many years but our industry failed to learn one very important lesson ... mainstream gives nothing away for free and people are prepared to pay for what mainstream has for sale. We give everything away for free and most people aren't prepared to pay a cent for what we want to sell them.

So don't ignore mainstream marketing sites because there are some very good ones out there that have a lot to teach anyone who wants to sell something online.

One thing I picked up from a mainstream marketing blog last week was the value of including interviews on your sites. Now obviously most people here in adult aren't going to be able to go out and interview pornstars but what about "interviewing" some of the girls who appear in your sponsor's movies?

Most of those girls aren't well-known pornstars and as long as you don't get too carried away you can come up with some realistic questions and answers that may encourage your surfers to join up to see the action that the 'stars' enjoyed so much. It's just a thought and it could add to your bottom line.

Another suggestion I picked up from a mainstream marketing email I received this week was the subject lines ... it was "Hurry! Last Chance to Read this Newsletter" and I just had to open the email. I was busy at the time and I had 100 different things to do that day but I just had to open that email.

If subject lines or headlines like that work in mainstream then why not use something similar here in adult? Experiment with them to see what works and what doesn't ... try some fairly lurid headlines and then try some that are more subdued ... you might be surprised at how many surfers will actually click through to your site or gallery if you just take a little time to craft an almost irresistible headline.

And now I'm off to enjoy this holiday Monday. It's going to rain most of the day but that's fine with me. I want to play with a few test sites of mine just to have some fun and to see what might work and what won't and some rain won't hinder that.