At times, I believe an objective look is necessary to clear up the muddle and confusion that today's cutthroat markets generate. Just stand back, and look at your business as a dispassionate observer. I ask of you, why did you open a website which caters to the adult market?

I'm sure I'll get a lot of rabid answers to that as can be seen from answers to similar questions in the adult boards. Leaving the funnies aside for a moment, I would like to clear an issue central to a persons career, his happiness, success or failure.

Obviously, we can learn from the lives of successful people. But maybe they had something you don't have and cannot get. Maybe you don't even want to. Let me make that a little bit more clear.

Take a look into Danni Ashe's interview here. What I see are two things - She had original, exclusive content( and then some) and she got in on the ground floor. I mean she started her business when the market for her kind of content was relatively unsaturated. Now look into Larry Flynt's interview here. What I see here is again that he got in on the ground floor and, more important, he had in him the aggresive streak required to fight all kinds of battles to keep his venture ( and his freedom ) safe and profitable. I could probably come up with a dozen examples, but I think these two are enough to make my point.

In opening and running, successfully, a porn website, there are three important factors to consider:

1. Do you have the original content to run the website successfully over a period of time?

2. Do you have it in you to fight for what you believe is your right?( there's a difference here between you're right and your right).

3.Are you providing something which is new and exclusive to the adult industry?

The rest, as they say, is history.

All other issues from billing to traffic, which adult boards are adept at discussing and providing resources for, are merely the tools or accesories for building, running and promoting your website. The basic fact is, you're selling adult content to people who want it. Same as a hot-dog vendor sells hot-dogs.

I get the feeling that a lot of people, both new and oldtimers, forget this fact and come up with all kinds of services and websites as a part of the adult industry. My advice to these people is, step back, take a look at yourself in the mirror, and come up with an answer fast as to why you want to be in the adult industry. If your answer is the same as Danni or Larry, you'll do good. If not, I fear that in the long run, you'll end up in a place where you really don't want to be.

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