Pardon Me While I Smile
Posted On: 2008-05-29
There are times when I read things over in mainstream that just make me have a wry inward smile and I came across one of those things just this week.
Well over a year ago now my partner Steve was interviewed over on Problogger.com by Darren Rowse. Darren's the guy who runs the blog and these days he's very well known around the Web as the guy who teaches others how to make money from blogging ... and Darren is also well-known in church circles.
Back when Steve was interviewed Problogger wasn't so famous but it still had quite a following and when Darren indicated that the person he was interviewing was an adult webmaster there were howls of protest. How dare Darren bring someone like Steve onto the blog ... what could an adult webmaster ever be able to teach anyone in mainstream anything?
I suppose some people might have been upset at getting such a response when all they did was talk about marketing in a general way but it didn't bother Steve and we both had a laugh as some people really worked themselves up into a lather of sweat over basically nothing. And that response to Steve sharing a few marketing insights didn't turn us off to mainstream at all.
By that stage Steve and I had been involved in mainstream for quite some time and we already knew that adult has a lot to teach mainstream just as mainstream has a lot to teach us. Since then I've often suggested in my columns that any adult webmaster who really does want to succeed in this business should be looking at what's happening over there in mainstream because mainstream marketers are way ahead of us in some areas.
So this week I just had to have a wry inward smile when a well-known mainstream affiliate blog ... written by someone who appears to be rather religious ... suggested that mainstream marketers should be looking to what's happening in adult marketing if they want to be prepared for what could soon happen in mainstream marketing.
Shawn Collins, in a post entitled 'Naughty Affiliates' said that 'I think it can be instructive to track the issues for adult affiliate program, as many of their issues are also going on in mainstream, and others will likely make it here in the future.'
Very well put Shawn and very sound advice. Affiliate marketing is affiliate marketing whether we're marketing a sponsor who sells shoe laces or marketing a sponsor who is selling the Paris Hilton tapes and we shouldn't be so blind as to think that adult has nothing to teach mainstream ... and mainstream has nothing to teach adult.
Of course when an adult webmaster suggests something like that to a group of mainstream webmasters that's akin to heresy and the guy should be burnt at the stake and his ashes cast into outer-darkness. But when a religious mainstream marketer suggests it to other mainstream marketers then it's really good advice and something that affiliates should follow ... dare I say it ... religiously?
Yep, we've still got a hell of a long way to go before the chasm that separates adult marketing and mainstream marketing is bridged by anything but a faint hope ... but maybe we're beginning to see a faint glimmer of something more solid.
And while we're talking about mainstream marketing here are some interesting figures from April. The top 10 converting online retailers for April included Proflowers.com at the top of the list; Office Depot in second place, Lands End was in third, Vistaprint was in seventh place, Oriental Trading Company was at number eight and eBay was right down at number 10.
Now I didn't have to go digging too far to find those figures, I didn't have to hack into anyone's stats package to get them and nor did the person who wrote the article that provided those figures. Those figures are available for anyone who wants them and wouldn't it be nice if the adult industry was prepared to provide figures like that for affiliates?
Unfortunately we still seem to be locked in the dark ages where sponsors don't dare release figures like that in case affiliates discover ... what? How shaky some sponsors really are? How badly some sites that make a lot of noise about great conversions actually do convert?
Yes, we here in adult do have a lot to teach mainstream ... but they sure do have a lot to teach us about transparency and maybe even honesty too.