Along with networking opportunities for webmasters and more porn models than one can shake a dick at, the 2006 Internext convention in Las Vegas offered several enlightening business-related seminars for webmasters to attend. This year’s lineup included a plethora of fascinating topics and debates that touched on some of the most pressing issues currently facing adult webmasters.
Among the most significant seminars was “Porn Under Attack,” which closed out the three-day seminar lineup. The Free Speech Coalition’s Tom Hymes moderated a panel that included adult industry attorneys J.D. Obenberger, Louis Sirkin, Paul Cambria, and Jeffrey Douglas, as well as AVN senior editor Mark Kernes, who each took turns addressing the audience in individual speeches that stressed unification within the adult Internet community.
Unity also was a common theme among many of the discussions, most notably in the highly anticipated “Mind F#ck ’06” seminar, which included a panel of industry “all-stars” and was moderated by YNOT’s Connor Young, who posed a series of thoughtful questions related to issues of particular relevance to today’s adult webmasters. Among the topics discussed, the issue of a potential “dot-xxx domain produced unanimous agreement that such a domain was unnecessary.
“People already find sex through keywords,” said Cybersocket’s Morgan Summer. “I can’t see how it would make better business to have one area of the Internet for all adult content. [We would be] automatically labeling ourselves as porn and nothing else [and] denigrating ourselves as businesspeople.” Meanwhile, ClubJenna’s Jay Grdina stressed the importance of maintaining a strong front line in the battle for free speech—even if some find the content being produced a little distasteful. Although Grdina confessed that he sometimes finds it difficult to defend webmasters who deal in extreme content, he conceded that “as an industry, we have to support each other. If one falls, we all go down together.”
“How far is too far,” in fact, seemed to be the question on the minds of many attending during the “Taking It to the Extreme” seminar, where Extreme Associates director Rob Black and several others defended their penchant for filming extreme niche content. Though most of that seminar focused on the business side (such as how to secure models and how to avoid law suits), it did get somewhat animated toward the end, when Black said he was “sick of hearing from [producers of mainstream vanilla content] that they fought the fight and made it possible for me to do the more extreme stuff…A lot of them have copped a plea when they got in trouble, but copping a plea is not fighting the fight. I’m fighting and doing something that will maybe help change obscenity laws. You have to be willing to get busted and go to jail to really fight the fight.”
The “Blogging, Podcasting, and Beyond” discussion tackled the increasing importance of creating adjunct business by maintaining a blog with compelling original content. Content was also spotlighted in a later seminar, “Upwardly Mobile," which also discussed the latest in wireless trends and opportunities,
“Age Verification” stressed compliance with current laws intended to protect minors without alienating paying adults. Regarding the latter, Adam & Eve CTO and Director of Internet Sales Sean Trotter’s was adamant. “Unless you like orange jumpsuits and shackles,” he said, “adult webmasters had better take stringent steps to keep minors off their sites.”
The lively “Parents in Adult” seminar focused on ways in which adult webmasters can balance their careers in pornography while attempting to have a more traditional family lifestyle. Psychologist John C. Pappas said, “Once they realize the shame factor is gone, your children are going to understand what you are doing: You’re trying to support your family.”
“Brand Slam!” panelists encouraged webmasters to attend trade shows and advised novices to utilize webmaster message boards. “Maximizing Online Profits” speakers urged webmasters to create and follow a business plan, find new payment providers and methodologies, ensure customer satisfaction, maximize company assets, and treat customers and affiliates with respect.
Securing nontraditional income was the focus of “Cashing in on Alternative Revenue,” wherein SexToy.com’s Dave Levine suggested anticipating trends, saying, “Get into the new stuff before the field becomes big and crowded.” When the topic turned to attracting and working with mainstream webmasters, panelists suggested that perhaps an effective way to convert them is by discreetly presenting adult-themed merchandise to consumers as an adjunct purchase. PrivacyRevenue.com’s Rick Bennink said, “Once mainstream companies see your customers are comfortable, they get comfortable—especially when they realize the tremendous revenue potential in this industry. Mainstream wants to know they can reach the adult audience as cost-effectively as they can in other media.”
The “Playing in Traffic” seminar provided some noteworthy food for thought, as CuriousCash’s Lindsay Probin (aka CuriousToyBoy) proclaimed that the gay side of the adult Internet comprises a market, not a niche. Elsewhere, the panelists advised webmasters not to “blow their loads” by including explicit content in the preview areas, but rather to “put the good stuff inside” the membership areas, which would also limit access by minors to explicit content.
Addressing the theme of this year’s convention was “Convergence, Crossover, and Diversification,” which concentrated on content exclusivity, the differences in pricing structures and sale techniques between webmasters and offline pornographers, and how the popularity of iPod porn will affect both camps. Homegrown Video President Farrell Timlake led a discussion between HotMovies.com founder Richard Cohen, New Sensations Vice President Sean Holland, MeatCash President Arthur Chang, and Matrix Content’s Norman Bentley.
Cohen was wary about iPod porn. “We think it’s a fad. It’s a conscious decision to make that purchase, and most people are impulse buyers,” he said. “Plus, where are you going to watch it? Are you going to take it into the bathroom with you at work so you can get off?” Citing the popularity of iTunes, Cohen added that IPTV [Internet Protocol Television]is the wave of the future for the distribution of adult content for both webmasters and brick and mortar players, saying, “Nobody wants to buy CDs and DVDs anymore.”
