Come Out of Your Cave
Posted On: 2008-08-20
If you're like many adult marketers you're probably living in a virtual cave where the only things that you're really taking time to look at are adult webmaster boards, maybe a few sites like this one, your stats and the submission forms that you have to complete to get some traffic to your next free site or gallery.
If that is the way you're living right now then I've got to tell you that it's time to step out and see what exciting things are happening out in the real world. And no, I do not mean the Olympics … I mean some of the things that are happening that will have an impact on you and what you do here online.
Right now as I type this Steve is using Twitter to talk to a friend who is on a plane bound from Australia to the United States. Sitting in our inbox is an invitation to use a Twitter add-on that will allow us to post messages to Twitter via voice.
A friend just posted a 12 second video straight from his cell phone to a video site to show us what the day looks like where he is. Yesterday another friend posted a much longer video that was shot and uploaded in real time of part of his trip through an interesting place here in Australia and just a few seconds ago another friend posted a photo to a picture sharing site of where he's having coffee.
As he posts the photo he can also check the site to see if anyone else has logged in from close by in the last couple of hours. Web-based technology is suddenly exploding in every direction but are you keeping up with it?
I've just mentioned a couple of the new services that are popping up. There are plenty more that we either haven't touched or haven't even heard about and for marketers every one of them could be an incredible tool to be used for getting your message out to the marketplace.
Even if you're not into Web 2.0 stuff like that there are still some very interesting developments in web-based technology. Steve and I are currently trialing an interesting file storage system that does a whole lot more than just store our files online.
Because we're often working on the same project from two different locations … and the people who work for us are doing so from even more locations … it's sometimes hard to know who has the most recent updates of important files stashed away on their computer. But what if you could use an online storage system that not only stored your files but kept updating those files on the computers of those in the team who are working on that particular project regardless of where in the world they might be located?
That's a system we're working with right now, it's called Dropbox and so far we are definitely impressed. If you've read thoughts about online storage and other important pieces of software that need to be connected to the Net to work you'll know that I'm a bit of a skeptic … what happens if the Net goes down when you're trying to work?
Well if you're using something like Dropbox the Net can go down and it won't be a problem because you have the latest files on your computer and you can still go on working. As soon as your connection to the Net is restored Dropbox updates everyone's files and there's been no loss of production time.
Those are all interesting tools and new technologies that you really do need to stay in touch with but there's another reason why you need to come out of your cave every day and see what's going on around you. That reason is the law … it's changing and those changes are really going to affect marketers everywhere … and it won't really matter whether you're only doing adult or not. There are changes coming to the mainstream marketing laws that will spill over into this area and affect the way we market our products too.
Marketers in mainstream are beginning to realize that regulation and enforcement is inevitable and experts are suggesting that many attorneys general both in the United States and overseas are going to be taking some serious action against what they consider to be 'unfair and deceptive acts or practices' by online marketers. Now that's fairly wide net and it's going to be used to cover a multitude of sins but let's face it … there are still plenty of cowboys in this industry who are going to get caught even if a very narrow interpretation of 'unfair and deceptive acts or practices' is applied to what they're doing.
So let me tell you quite plainly that it really is time for you to come out of your cave and have a look at what's going on around you. In fact, make time to get out of your cave every single day because if you don't then the world is going to leave you behind.