The Cost of Doing Business
Posted On: 2007-08-07
Once again Webmasters across most of the adult boards are discussing the question of 2257 compliance. The proposed changes to the regulations have obviously caused quite a stir as compliance for ordinary affiliates has now become much tougher.
It seems that under the new regulations affiliates are going to be required to keep fully indexed and cross-referenced 2257 information for each adult image they display on a website. But that's not the only hassle that affiliates are facing. Under the proposed changes to the regulations affiliates will have to display their name, address and contact details on each and every web page.
Now that one will definitely make life interesting for the small affiliates who work out of their home. Just think for a moment what that will mean for affiliates from regional centers and small country towns? Now your neighbors will really know what you do and how you earn your income.
Hidden Costs
Obviously if these regulations come into force becoming compliant will place quite a cost burden on affiliates; it will cost real money to set up a system that cross-references each and every image with the relevant model release and model's personal details and keeping that information up-to-date won't be easy either.
But there's a hidden cost in all of this and that's the cost that will come when Webmasters are forced to include their personal contact details on each web page. You won't be able to hide behind post office boxes this time, instead you will have to disclose your real street address.
For those Webmasters who already work away from home that won't be a problem but there are many who conduct their business direct from their own homes and now others will know what you do. Are you ready to pay that cost or are you prepared to gamble on the hope that the authorities will never bother with you if you don't publish your real contact details?
Hopefully the regulations will be changed after the public comment period closes. That's going to happen quiet soon so we may know more towards the end of the month but it certainly doesn't hurt to be thinking about what your response might be when the decisions are made.
Of course if you live outside of the United States your response to the new regulations might be quite different but I'm sure you'll still have decisions to make. While the United States government is dressing this up as a way to prevent the exploitation of children it really has little to do with that at all. Instead it's a move to limit the amount of adult material that's available on the Web so they're going to make life as hard as they can for overseas Webmasters too.
Unexpected Costs
A couple of weeks ago we noticed that one of the capacitors on the motherboard in one of Steve's computers was bulging. That's a sure sign that worse is to come and ultimately the motherboard would have to be replaced.
Steve finally brought his computer down to our computer shop last Saturday to have the board replaced and that's when the problems really started to happen. We had budgeted for the replacement motherboard so that wasn't a drama but for a while it looked as though we would have to upgrade to a new processor as well.
Fortunately we found a brand new socket 7 motherboard tucked away among some old stock and the drama was over but if we hadn't found it we would have been looking at a new motherboard and a new processor as well.
So how are you set financially if your computer suddenly dies? Our computers are something that we rely on every single day so have you set aside the finances to cover repairs or replacement if you motherboard suddenly starts to display all the signs of imminent death?
It's not something we like to think about ... especially if funds are tight ... but it's definitely something we should be preparing for because it really could happen at any time. In our situation we weren't only lucky that we had a replacement motherboard stashed away down at the shop but we were also lucky that the original board had lasted as long as it did.
That motherboard was almost four years old and that's something close to a record for that particular brand. If it had died at the time most of its brethren had given up the ghost it would have only just lasted beyond the warranty period. And that's how things are these days; sometimes they last for long periods of time and sometimes they fail quite early in life.
So are you prepared for the costs of doing business here? Are you prepared for the hidden costs as well as the sudden costs?