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Well here we are at the end of yet another week and I have to say that today, my response to that piece of information, is what many adult webmasters would be saying ... a wry 'so what?'

It might be the start of the weekend but I doubt that I'll get much relaxation in over the next few days. There's just too much to do and too little time to do it in so I'm with you guys this weekend ... it's all going to be work, work and more work.

It's important to look up
I went to a very interesting meeting on Wednesday. It brought together a number of businesses from around here to listen to a report on what the future holds for this town ... and I have to say that it all sounds very exciting.

One of the speakers raised a very valid point that applies just as much to adult webmasters as it does business owners around here. His theme was that you can't spend all your time with your head buried in your work or your business ... sometimes you have to look up to read the signs to know whether the months and years ahead are going to bring good times or lean times.

His suggestion was that we need to watch the stock market because the first signs of recovery from an economic downturn ... or the first signs of a downturn starting ... are always visible in the stock market. Long before businesses start closing and people start losing their jobs the signs are there in the stock market for all to see.

If the cost of shares is beginning to rise then that's a sign that confidence is returning and the economy is about to pick up. If you see people selling their shares then there are tough times ahead and businesses need to read the signs to know what to do to cope.

But how many of us actually take time to look up and see what's going on around us? How many of us keep our heads buried in our work and miss opportunities simply because we have no idea what's going on out there in the real world?

If you want to survive in this ever changing world then you have to take time to look up from your work and take notice of what's going on around you.

The myth of job security
I know quite a few people who are doing quite well here in adult but still hold down a regular job. Of course they could do so much better if they gave up their day job but many of them are afraid to do so.

They've got a great job ... it pays well ... it's secure ... so why would they want to give it up for the insecurity of working in this industry?

Well the fact is that if making their decisions based on the security of their day job and the insecurity of this business then they're probably fooling themselves. Years ago many jobs were secure ... especially government jobs. When you signed on you had a job for life ... back then.

That's not the case these days. These days there's almost no such thing as job security ... even with government jobs ... so what are you waiting for? If the security of your day job is just an illusion then why not make the jump and take control of your own future?

Is the price too big?
That may not sound all that grammatically correct but I'm not talking about value here ... I'm talking about the size of the font you use if you're displaying a price point. And I'm also going to talk about the color of the font and the dollar sign too.

Did you know that paying for something ... handing over your hard-earned cash actually produces a response in the part of your brain that deals with pain? It does and ... when you think about it ... who likes to see their money disappear?

So we need to make the whole experience of paying for something ... or deciding to pay for something ... as pain free as possible. Of course you can make the checkout process as streamlined as possible to reduce the pain ... and some of the billing companies that process for adult have done a really good job of that but we have to reduce the pain levels even before they get to that point.

There are several clever ways to achieve that goal without resorting to any underhand tactics. The first is to remove the dollar sign so that if the price point is $4.95 you display it as 4.95 with no dollar sign. You've shown the price but the pain factor is reduced because the dollar sign is not there to remind people that this price point is real money.

The second thing to do is to use a smaller font size for the price point while leaving all the other text around the price set at the standard font size for your website. Don't make it so small that people need a magnifying glass to read it ... just make it a point or two smaller than the other text.

The third thing to do is to change the color of the font you use for the price point. Don't make it bright and in your face but instead make it subdued ... use a pale pastel rather than a raging primary color ... but don't go overboard and blend it into the background till it's too light to read. Just make it a little less obvious.

And now I'm off to tackle the next job on the list of things I want to achieve before Monday rolls around.