This fantastic video
The site itself is a great example of what mainstream can learn from the adult industry. The site uses ‘traditional’ adult internet marketing tools, to produce an innovative mainstream offering.
This includes a warning page with age verification, the equivalent of a Free Hosted Gallery (FHG), sample movie etc. the only thing missing was a join page link.
CHATSWORTH, Calif. – After three years with the AVN Media Network, Jeff Random has announced that he is leaving to pursue other opportunities.
“My time with AVN has been very good for me,” Random said. “The knowledge, contacts and experience have really helped me to grow.”
Random joined AVN.com as online sales manager, and progressed to working across the entire network of companies. Most recently he has served as online marketing consultant with a focus on technology and affiliate marketing.
“Jeff Random has been a valuable and versatile member of our team. His departure comes with no hard feelings, and mutual respect. We wish him the best,” said AVN CEO Darren Roberts.
“I am very proud of my accomplishments and progress we achieved in the last few years,” Random said. “I have enjoyed the opportunities provided to me however now it is time for different challenges.”
Would you like porn with that?
Mobile phone retailers in China are offering free adult video clips as a value add for handset purchasers. – Link
Working for AVN in the Adult Entertainment Industry teaches you the value of relationships. The AVN media network spans magazines, tradeshows, and websites. IMHO the following quote applies to all of them:
“The relationship the magazine has with readers — and, more important, that readers have with readers — is at least as valuable as the magazine’s content. That’s a lesson.”
Originally
by Jeff from BuzzMachine
at September 1, 2005, 16:58
Understanding of the Long Tail is not required in order to benefit from it. “millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.” – Chris Anderson is the way the online adult entertainment industry has been evolving before the ideas ever hit mass consciousness.
Paysites have gone from from mega sites, to niche sites, to micro-niches, and even the membership model has been evolving. Many adult webmasters find themselves now functioning as filters using everything from porn blogs to Niche TGPs, review sites even Yahoo groups and the like to generate traffic.
It may not always be apparent right away which of your projects will have the best ROI over the long haul. The Long Tail is very useful as a building block concept for analysis of the market & choosing the best strategies for current conditions. By understanding the concept of the Long Tail, then you have another tool to use in looking at the expected value of your projects.
“Gamers approach the business world a bit more like a game. They see the different companies—and maybe the people they work with—as “players.” They’re way more competitive and are very passionate about “winning.” They are both more optimistic and more determined about solving any kind of problem you can imagine; they think there’s always going to be some combination of moves that will result in success. That drives them to be incredibly creative.” – Harvard BSWK
When I think about where I find examples of the gamer archetype outside of the obvious (playing games) I think of adult webmasters.
This article almost perfectly describes many of the type of people that you find in the online adult entertainment industry. Why is there such an overlay of gamers and adult webmasters?
Well for one it’s what gamers called min/max.
Min/max is gamer shorthand for a strategy or even a mindset. Most games try to be balanced. So for every advantage/shortcut/strength etc that you choose, there is some compensatory drawback/resource required/flaw/weakness etc. However, when you focus on ‘winning’ ie achieving X goal, there are often places that the drawback isn’t relevant. So if being able to bring a gun to a knifefight means that your character smells bad, walks with a limp and mumbles therefore isn’t well liked (+special weapon / -charisma, -movement speed) it doesn’t matter if X = win the knifefight.
When it comes to applying this theory to life, I imagine a subconscious calculation that goes something like this:
Let X = Have the best life possible.
Best life = Happiness x Good Times
Good Times = (fun-work+ sleep) x Quality of Life
Quality of Life = (Social interaction x Satisfaction) – Drawbacks
The drawback for adult webmasters usually is found in Social Interaction.
There is a certain segment of society that will not want to openly associate with adult webmasters. However webmasters don’t particularly like to hang around with your average reactionary either so that aspect of the drawback is minimized. The isolated nature of webmastering is overcome through adult industry networking – both using the internet (message boards, IM, blogs etc) as well as industry events.
The work itself is frequently enjoyable.
When the work becomes fun the drawback (have to do) isn’t relevant in the equation because it overlaps recreation (want to do). For some it’s the fact that in essence they get paid to surf the web for porn. Further along the same axis for others it’s because their sex life/love life can overlap their career. For many going to conferences & events to network & party is a recreation or vacation. Sometimes their product or service itself is an adult game.
Many choose or fall into it because it’s one of the least life cost (work from anywhere & high returns vs time) ways to achieve their goals, and it has relatively low barriers to entry.
For those like myself, the work itself becomes a game.
What we call ‘The New Media Game’ (product/service/content/traffic development & monetization) is an incredibly rich, complex, ever evolving, real time game for high stakes. Since I have started playing it has gradually replaced MMORGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games), CCGs (Collectible Card Games), and online no limit Texas Hold ‘em poker as my recreation of choice.
There are many subgames that all combine to make the metagame.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), TGP (Thumbnail Galley Pages), SEM/CPCM (Search Engine Marketing/Cost Per Click Marketing), social networking, business development, marketing and even industry politics can be fun to play.
A gamer mindset means you never lack for inspiration or variety in your challenges.
A gamer mindset allows you to see opportunities, and have competitive advantages that others miss. This mindset is what can drive guerilla entrepreneurism while your product/service is evolving, adapting and integrating along the way. Metagame is another bit of gamer shorthand that is also a mindset. I won’t try to summarize it here, there are plenty of articles about it floating around the web. I mention it because learning to see the metagame is a strength that ‘gamers’ bring that is often overlooked. Learning how to see the metagame allows you to take skills, knowledge, memes, strategies etc from games and apply them to your life. This both helps you to ‘play’ better, as well as enjoy your life more. By making it a game you spend more time doing what you want.