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With the tough times that are continuing in many parts of the world making a decent living here in adult can be something of a challenge.

While I'm sure that many of those who started back in the good times ... and were wise enough to keep up with the advances in technology and the movements in our marketplace ... are still doing well others who came later may be finding life a little hard.

In times like these it's tempting to take what we have learnt here in adult and step over the fence into the mainstream and dabble a little. And it seems that so many have been tempted to try mainstream that some adult boards now have forums dedicated to mainstream.

But before you do set out to conquer mainstream there are several things you have to consider.

The very first thing you should think about if you want to play in the mainstream area is the very thing that's making life difficult here in adult ... the prevailing economic climate. If people aren't buying our adult products because money is tight then why are they going to be any quicker to buy any mainstream products you might want to advertise?

The second thing to consider is another perennial problem that plagues many people here in adult ... traffic. You may have built up quite a decent traffic flow in adult but if you step over the fence into mainstream where is your traffic going to come from?

Unfortunately traffic is not a tap that you just have to turn on to get it flowing to your mainstream sites. Mainstream traffic is something you have to work at getting and it takes time to build up enough traffic to maintain a reasonable level of sales.

So jumping into mainstream as an affiliate marketer is not going to seriously add to your cash flow any time soon. Of course you can make the transition but it won't happen quickly and you're stepping into a marketplace that has just as many problems as we currently have here in adult.

Of course there are other things that you can do over in mainstream besides affiliate marketing and it's quite possible that there's more of a market for those ‘other things' than exists here in the adult side of the online industry.

For a start there's a huge market out there for anyone who can design business websites. The last time I saw any statistics they clearly showed that there are still more businesses in the United States that don't have a website than businesses that do have a website.

So if you can design websites there are plenty of people out there who probably want to talk to you. I'm sure that sounds wonderful if your cash flow is a bit weak at the moment but there are problems that you will face if you decide to build business websites.

The first problem is that you have to go and find your clients. They're not going to come to you ... at least not in the beginning and not before you have built up a good reputation. So basically you have to market yourself and that is something that can strike fear into the hearts of a lot of people.

Then you have to learn to be patient ... so many potential mainstream clients will tell you that they want a website and they have no idea how it should look. You'll even struggle to get them to make a decision on basic things such as the colors that should be used.

They may not know what they want but once you build something they'll be quick to tell you if it's not what they were expecting. So you will need to be diplomatic ... patient ... and willing to put up with a lot of dithering.

You'll also need to be firm too. It will be a great temptation to walk away from some clients who seem just too difficult to work with and there will be times when you won't be able to resist that temptation. However there will be times when, if you're firm with the client, you will be able to get them to come round to your point of view.

You will also have to learn to speak to the clients on their level. Most clients are sure that they have a comprehensive understanding of how the Internet works, what will and what won't sell and what you should be able to provide at almost no cost to them.

Sadly those people usually don't have a clue and you will need to educate them. If you succeed you'll have a client for life ... if you fail they will always be looking for someone who can do it cheaper and faster and they will never wake up to the obvious fact that cheap and fast does not equal quality and a good return on their investment.

So if you're thinking of dabbling in mainstream there are a few tips to help you get your thoughts and expectations in order. If you can build a website that sells here in adult you can almost certainly make the transition to mainstream ... just so long as you know how to deal with real people.