Stay in Touch With Reality
Posted On: 2007-04-05
I could hardly believe my eyes this morning. I was reading a list of expectations a new employee had of his new employer and they were astounding.
They included an executive benefits package with no waiting period, higher limits than other employees on standard expenses, a car, parking space, gym membership, about $10k a year for industry organization memberships and a professional development allowance of around $10k to be spent as the new employee's discretion.
Now I suppose if this guy was about to take up a job at a senior executive level in a major corporation those requirements could be seen as being quite reasonable. However, this guy was about to be the first employee in a two-man start up company that hadn't even received its first round of funding.
In those circumstances the package this guy wanted showed only thing; he was way out of touch with reality. But then he's not the only one out of touch with reality, this industry sees lots of newcomers who are so out of touch with reality that many old hands don't know whether to laugh or cry.
If you're one of those new people to adult online and you've come with visions of making loads of money in a very short time then let me give you a reality check. Of course you may think that you don't need to hear what I have to say because you've been involved in marketing, graphics, web design (and any other occupation that you think might think is relevant) for years.
Sorry to burst your bubble but you need the reality check just as much as someone who has never done anything faintly related to marketing in their life. And in some ways you may need that reality check even more than those who have no previous experience.
Let's talk money
So lets talk money first - after all that's why you're here isn't it? You want to make money and you've heard that it's so easy to make money here that any fool can do it. When do you expect to start making money by making your first sale? Tomorrow? The day after that? Maybe next week?
The reality is that you probably won't make a sale for several months. Some people can really wing it and score a sale in a matter of weeks but usually that elusive first sale doesn't come for several months and you almost certainly won't make it from your first site or gallery. And it could take at least a year - and quite often a whole lot longer than that - before you're making enough money to even consider quitting your day job.
There is a lot of money to be made in this industry but the key is that you need to know what you're doing to make it. Unfortunately it takes quite a while to reach the point where you know what you're doing.
Let's talk workload
A couple of years ago, when he wasn't so jaded with newbies, Steve would occasionally coach newbies one-on-one. I well remember his frustration with one newbie who he had taken under his wing and who he helped build his very first gallery.
When it was built and submitted the newbie wanted to know what he should do next. When he found out that what he needed to do next was to build another gallery, and then another and another until he was turning at least one out every single day he quickly lost interest. Right at the start Steve had tried to tell him that this business is nothing but a lot of very hard work ... but the newbie didn't believe him.
For anyone starting out in this industry be prepared for a lot of hard work. As you become more experienced you'll learn to work smarter rather than harder but all that does is give you more time to devote to your goal of making money.
Let's talk message boards
Message boards can be a great place for newbies to get the advice and help they need to succeed in this industry. They can also be a great place to get the totally wrong impression about the industry.
When you hit an industry message board it's quite easy to think that most of the people posting on the board are making big money. You may even come to the board with that perception and it's only strengthened by the way people talk. On some boards you will see a lot of bragging by people and they do come across as big players.
The truth may be something entirely different and the big players may not even be making cab fare. Message boards are a great place to bring people together but they're also a great place to attract every village idiot under the sun and on adult boards a lot of those village idiots like to pretend that they're making serious coin.
Don't be fooled by them. If they're spending lots of time on the boards then they're not spending lots of time generating an income. It's as simple as that so don't look at them as some sort of role model. Instead come to the boards to get your questions answered and then go away and get on with your work. If you want to spend your time hanging out on the boards you won't be getting your work done and that means you won't be making any money.
So there's a little reality check for you. There is no doubt that there's a lot of money to be made in this industry but to make it you have to work your nuts off. Don't come into it with the expectations of that guy I mentioned at the start because if you do you will be sadly disappointed and disillusioned.