Good Thursday Morning!

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by HowlingWulf

Trying to increase my web 2.0 presence....

Sorry to be ignorant, but what the fuck is Web 2.0?

[Simon]

@ecchi - think of MySpace and other mostly static websites, which may have had framesets and blink / marquee tags plus lots of animated gifs. That was the start of Web 1.0 which had what you could think of as many, many version updates (guestbooks, mailto forms, etc) that were mostly still static pages. They were also mostly created by the individual webmaster or site owner.

Today's various social networks are good(?) examples of what Web 2.0 means. Most pages are not static, but instead database-driven. And most of the content is not created by the site owners, but instead is driven by the users' contributions. Blogs with open comments, and lots of readers commenting also fit, along with video sharing sites like YouTube (and some of the adult versions). The loyalty component is important here, with visitors returning to see new comments and content added by others, plus seeing how their own comments, posts, videos, etc. were received by the interactive/collaborative audience of these sites.

--Bonus content below for those who don't bore easily--

Unfortunately for most affiliates who market other people's sites or programs and who don't have suitable products of their own, the advancements of Web 2.0+(Web 3.0) will mean that almost everything now seen on computer screens will come to the television screen. There will still be some small market slivers that savvy IMs will be able to profit from, but a lot of the online revenues will be flowing directly from customer to seller.

The adoption of tablets and smartphones require websites and email campaigns to be redesigned in order to best profit from that market segment, but most affiliate marketers don't bother doing that. Instead sending that valuable traffic away via mobile redirect scripts that mostly lead to different domains (btw, the Big G doesn't like that).

The same thing is about to happen as more and more of the audience with the most disposable income moves to Internet television. How many affiliates will have sites ready to be viewed on large flat screen televisions? I don't mean just able to be opened like plugging your computer's video out port into a television. I mean a site which is designed to look great on a television-based browser in full screen mode on a 60 inch display. And ready to be navigated using gestures or voice control.

The point is, once consumers get used to being able to talk to and gesture at their big screen TVs to read their emails, get text messages, have video conversations, and enjoy their favorite cat videos on YouTube while checking their friends' Facebook status and ordering from Amazon, it's going to be a whole new world for the traditional middlemen who used to depend on surfers visiting their online sites first in order to be credited for sales, signups, etc.

Adult affiliates who think it's bad now, with so much of the traffic going directly to the big tube sites, are going to be absolutely devastated if they don't adapt to the coming convergence of media delivery methods.

Here's something fun to do. Try asking "how do you set a cookie on a television" and see how many internet marketers know what you're talking about. Then see how many good answers you get.

:-|

[ecchi]

Thanks for the explanation.

As to your "Bonus content for those who don't bore easily": I am still digesting and thinking about this, but I am guessing that the problem is the age old problem: The Internet is like the Borg "always changing always adapting", whereas webmasters are mostly like rocks "never changing, always the same". (A colon within a colon, is that grammatically acceptable?) Most webmasters still believe that "what worked in the 1990's will still work today", where in truth, what worked just yesterday does not still work today.

In the case of the affiliates you mention, let me give you my experience of talking to adult webmasters: On most of my adult websites you will find five types of adverts.

1) Those for adult websites/AEBN type movie sellers/cam sites/chat rooms, etc.... (I.E. the traditional stuff).
2) Adverts for spell books.
3) Adverts for my sci-fi detective book.
4) Adverts for other non-adult stuff.
5) Adverts for my porn eBooks.

Now because most of my sites have been around for years and hark back to the days when I only had the first type of ad, and have added the others when I have the time, over 50% of the adverts on my site are for adult membership sites. However this is the smallest revenue generator on my adult sites. On a porn site, well over half the profits come from spell books. The next best is my sci-fi detective book. After that comes the "other non-adult" stuff. My porn eBooks come next, making up almost a big a profit as the "other non-adult" stuff. And "adult websites/AEBN type movie sellers/cam sites/chat rooms, etc" bring up the rear, making less than 10% of my profits.

I used to mention this constantly on web boards and in conversations with other webmasters. I have even paid for adverts stating this (I run affiliate programs for the spell books, sci-fi detective book, porn eBooks, and some of the other non adult stuff I sell). But the answer I constantly get is "No thanks, only porn sells on porn sites."

The adult eBooks aff prog is managed by A1 adult eBooks and a few years ago Stuart was going to end this side of his business. He decided not to, largely because I was about to do a big push for the affiliate program. At that point I had only just started the spell book business, so it was not very big, and my ads were mostly my porn eBooks and adult sites, with the sales percentages roughly 75% eBooks, 20% adult sites, 5% non adult.

I advertised heavily across the adult webmaster business, spent a lot of money on this and honestly stated my sales percentages. Stuart later told me that he got practically no sign ups from that push and regretted not ending the affiliate side when he had intended to do so. In other words, nearly everyone who looked at my adverts thought "Oooh look I can make almost four times as much from those eBooks as I am currently making from selling websites, and if I added those to my sites I would be making almost five times as much money as I am now. But, fuck it, that would mean change, and change is scary, so I'll just remain poor, and eventually give up this webmaster lark to work for Starbucks or McDonalds at minimum wage."

However, I am not upset at this. I am currently reorganising and expanding my spell books, other non-adult eBooks, and adult eBooks programmes. It should be ready to launch in a new form next fall (northern hemisphere fall). Since not a lot of other non-adult companies allow advertising on adult sites then the majority of the "sensible" webmasters will sign up. Sadly this means that very few webmasters will sign up. No problem, I am also an adult webmaster, and I'll happily make all the money they don't make through my sites, and I'll just as happily take over their surfers when they leave webmastering to take up that career in the fast food business. Either way I genuinely intend to move into movie production in 2015 or 2016, if I am still alive, and that is how I intend to finance my productions. So (assuming I'm not dead) I'll be happy. Sorry for those who refused to listen to me over the years, but thanks for all the customers you left for me!

/rant