Porno – Moving The F*** Line

What’s a four letter word, ending in K, meaning “intercourse”?

I’m sure I can guess pretty much what most of you are thinking…

You’d be absolutely right because the answer is “Talk”. And you were right, weren’t you?

So why the bold title today? I’m going to come clean (Fnarr Fnarr – double-entendre intended) and tell you right now that this post title was pinched from Andy Jenkins (what a great guy!) from StomperNet. In his newsletter last week that was keeping us Stompers abreast of an upcoming event with Eben Pagan (note: the event has now passed and is now available for download! Keep reading this post as more information will be inserted in the end). The original subject line was “Moving The F*** Line?”. Personally, I thought it lost a little with the question mark at the end.

Anyway, why the additional reference to pornography in the title? Why have I just mentioned StomperNet and, especially, Eben Pagan? What does “Moving The F*** Line” actually mean? And what’s this all got to do with Internet Marketing?

Man, do I make it hard on myself sometimes… but trust me, it’ll all be clear as a bell. End to end, this post will be enjoyable to read. And it’ll be one hell of a sticky one once I’m finished off

Thankfully, with the recent changes to the design of my site, the change in attitude and verbal style, I feel able to be a little more candid about various topics and weave them into the new flavour of my blog posts. Regular readers may have noted the freedom that I’ve now given myself. One of those freedoms being the right to play with words in my new style. If you ever meet me in person, you’d understand what I mean. I love the precision of the English language but more so the ambiguities and subtleties that British humour is famous for. Utilising the ambiguous is a really wonderful thing. And there’s nothing quite fiddling with it from time to time or a bit of cunning linguistics every now and then (nudge, nudge, wink, wink – say no more!).

Let me begin (too late!) with quick story that’s tied into all of this.

As some of you may know I’ve been on the Internet for quite a while. Way back around the end of 1994, I was fortunate enough to have my own Mac and access to an internet connection. However, this wasn’t what got me started. It all started way before this point. And I’m going to make a confession now – one that might shock the more sensitive of readers (hahaha) – about what got me going back then.

Porn… Yup, it’s out now and I can’t pop it back in! (Ooer)

Okay. Enough of the innuendo now… well, for the minute, anyway!

Mise en scène (i.e. Picture the scene):

It’s the very early 90s. England has no “hardcore” pornography in magazines or video easily available and even rather dodgy establishments were only allowed to sell censored material. Even so called “under the counter” stuff was difficult to obtain and, let’s face it, being a young man with no budget I couldn’t really afford to buy a long rain mac (and wouldn’t be seen dead in one either!) and frequent those type of establishments. An encounter with a computer wired to the internet; an accidentally discovered JPEG file; a quick search with what I’d later know to be called RegEx and my exposure to a whole new world was complete. I soon found a whole stack of images – I say, “stack” but probably around 10 or so. Now, remember in those days, downloading just 1 binary image of 100kb would take half an hour on a 9600 modem. But this “find” was way *cooooool*…

Let me just say that the singular file I found on that day was definitely the one thing that turned me onto the Internet. In more ways than one! TBH I’m still not sure what the couple were doing in the image (or worked out if it was possible. Or even legal) but I’ve not stopped learning about the Internet since!

From that point on, finding new resources became like a game – one which would lead me into Web Development. After all, where better to find this stuff than with other warped-minded individuals who were more perverse and with bigger collections of videos and images than you had? Nothing quite like being very casually dressed, listening to metal, eating junk food and being challenged to surfing for the best smut around… *sigh*, I miss being a Developer.

Finding out about how to get new material was actually great way of learning. What better than having something compelling you to learn to do things in a better way? Writing scripts to grab videos and pictures from an open directory through to decompiling an SWF file to find out the real paths to the images or video content – now *that’s* a challenge! It wasn’t so much about the images you’d get at the end – ultimately, there was a satisfaction about the “process”. The “doing”. Right from discovery, leeching files through to *cough* finishing off on the process…

Fast forward a couple of years >> Having spent a great deal of time, erm… “researching” and trawling the Internet, there’s very little I think that could possibly shock me now. Put it this way – there’s so much content that would raise one’s eyebrows out there so instead I’ve taken to shaving mine off and tattooing a set in their original place! My real eyebrows are in my hairline

Seriously though… in a funny kind of way, knowing how to do all of this and having a good grasp of the Adult market actually landed me a really cushy project. In the ISP I used to work in, over here in the UK a couple of years ago, they actually had an Adult section. It was all very hush hush and on the QT – but it *did* exist. The basis of the section came about from the search results that users were typing in – an indicator that there was a huge amount of traffic for this type of material. The sensible option would be to monetise the traffic.

But it’s actually more difficult than it seems.

It was the type of project that was doomed to failure. No right-minded Project Manager would touch it. Not even with yours. No-one really had any understanding of the Adult market and most people were too blinded by the *content* to realise it’s true potential – if done right, that is! And they do say that looking at this stuff will make you go blind!

Thankfully, I was a left-minded Project Manager, so the project was handed to me and I have to admit was a welcome break from all of the tedium working a normal 9 to 5 in an ISP. There’s nothing quite like being given a letter stating that you’re *allowed* to look at pr0n at your desk during work hours. And trust me – I did *a lot* of research on that particular project. I did overtime. I took work home. I worked my nuts off…

You get the picture

Not that I needed to. I’d already had quite a mis-spent period at University looking into this particular area to specialise in. Let’s face it, as a cash-strapped student you look for various ways of getting a bit more on the side. Money that is. The bizarre thing was, I’d spent so much time looking at these sites that I was starting to get bored. Instead of going and viewing the content, I was actually going and looking at the other sections that these types of sites had to offer.

Imagine my surprise when I first discovered the link called “Webmasters”. Trust me, it could have been a different story had I pursued this avenue into Web Development. I could actually have been rich by now ! There but for the grace of god go I, eh…?

So what’s my point?

Well, recently Eben Pagan has been making quite a buzz with this whole idea of “Moving The Free Line”. Let me tell you something – this isn’t a new idea!

That’s right. On the Internet, the whole Free Line thing has been done and is continuing to be done by the Adult market because *it works*. If you head on over to any decent Adult site (by this I mean one that is generating a good income – not one that has your favourite content on it!) you’ll see Affiliate Marketing in action like you wouldn’t believe – free content delivered to your inbox for you to post up on your pages. The user’s are then given access to free content. All of this done so that the real products (subscription based models) can be made an attractive proposition.

And if you really want to know about Marketing, then I’d recommend you head on over to the likes of Cozy Frog’s and see the types of things that Adult Webmasters get up to. Why? Because the reality is, these guys are way ahead of the game. If you want to see market’s being segmented and subdivided into very precise niches, then man just look at the Pr0n industry! If you wondered where most of the technology for the Internet as we know it today came from – just look again. If you want to see the future of Moving The Free Line – then here’s an article from way back in 2005 about “too much” free content (semi-NSFW).

I’m not saying that the technologies themselves have been made in these markets – what I am saying is that these are the guys who *push* the technologies and get it working for them in order to satisfy the needs of their market.

After all, necessity is the mother of invention. And boy do these needs require inventive mutha’s!

Think about it for a moment. Skype and video conferencing – this type of video technology was being pushed in the form of Java applets way back around 2001 and probably before, from what I can remember. Only the content was different and the pictures weren’t as sharp and the motion was very slow due to the speed of the connections. Hell, even way back around 1995, I remember there was an IRC channel called CU-SeeMeSex where people with cams used to hook up, chat, hang out (quite literally) with the aid of the CU-SeeMe software and… well, get up to all sorts. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss much – it was all very pixelated as the only parts of the image that would refresh were the parts that moved, so you ended up with this really weird mosiac and have to use your imagination instead…

Like it or not, pornography has always been a huge driver of technology. Video conferencing wouldn’t have come to us as quickly without the Adult market. Or camcorders – these were a huge hit when people discovered they could make their own “content”. Phones were very big years ago for phone sex (I’m talking about the phones with the twisty wires attached to the wall – remember those?). And Photography – man, when people first discovered you could take pictures… well, you only need to research “vintage” sites to get an idea. The Printing Press – there’s been court cases about obscenities about books and magazines in years gone by! We could probably even take this to cave paintings… What was one of the first things that our cave dwelling ancestors drew? Yup. I think you know what I’m talking about.

So why is this all important to Internet Marketing?

Under the facade of our outer skin’s – the logic and the assumptions that somehow we’ve “evolved” – deep down, in our nature we are all just animals. We are driven by the most basic of needs: “Ficken, Fressen, Farnsehen”, I believe is a close German expression.

While it might seem to be about *need*, the truth is we don’t *need* pornography.

But, boy, you can definitely learn a thing or two about the “creation of need” just by looking at how the porn industry manage themselves. If you can get past the content that is. I’d say near enough every aspect of the Internet Marketing game has already been tried out by Adult webmasters. And do these boys *test*. Copywriters out there – if you really think you’re good, then try creating an entirely new niche and *really* getting into the mindset of the consumer of one of these markets just to promote it… Now *that’s* writing! Warped and twisted, mind you… but you have to give credit where credit’s due!

Only recently, I found quite a few new sites based on Blog technology. This gives me hope. If Adult Webmasters have figured out that Blogging tools are a great way to generate content quickly and easily, then that also means that there’s going to be some great spin-off technologies too. I have no idea what they might be but I figure they’ll probably be in the form of plugins that will make everyone’s life easier in the long run. It’ll get filtered over time – and these things do take time because a lot of people are blinkered and aren’t able to separate the content from the underlying structure.

I could show you a really amazing business model that works online – regardless of the fact that it’s actually in the Adult market – it’s one of my particular favourites because it’s so simple that it would blow your mind if you knew how it worked. But that’s a subject for another blog post.

It’s surprised me how long the ideas from these types of models have taken to reach normal markets. The whole Web2.0and community based thing – I got news for you: this was being done way back in 1998/9 (as far as I can remember). The Affiliate Marketing and subscription based models – just click on those Webmaster links and see what’s there. And Moving The Free Line – well, there’s so much content out there so I guess you can see how effective this particular technique is!

The reason why the tricks, techniques and methods take such a long time to filter to “normal” markets is that most people can’t see past the illusion. There’s some really smart cookies out there doing things you wouldn’t believe. The irony is, if you strip away the superficial outer layer of the pron business, you might see some real depth in the efficient and effective methods they employ that demonstrate how tuned into their market(s) they really are. It’s an illusion. If you can see past it.

Now, I’m not advocating you all go off and rush off to do a smut search (especially if you’re at work – unless you’ve got a letter from Human Resources!). What I’m saying is, things are never quite like they seem – there’s a lot that can be learnt from other industries if you know where to look and aren’t easily dazzled by the bright lights and glitz. A lot of stuff is re-hashed. The best marketers know this: if a product isn’t selling, you can repackage it and sell it again.

It’s about creating the want and the “illusion of need”. It taps into the very core of our animal instincts.

nd if you don’t know how to communicate effectively with your customers… well, you really are f**ked!

PS: Before I forget – go grab your Andy Jenkin’s and Eben Pagan audio file right now (where they discuss “Moving The Free Line” and “Landing Page Tactics”) from StomperNet. Even better, if you want to get great content – why not join up? And I’ve not even used an affilate link!

That one’s for free

Tags: adult, adult webmaster, andy jenkins, blogs, cozy frog, eben pagan, Internet Marketing, moving the free line, plugin, porn, StomperNet, videos

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Posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007.
Categories: Business Mindset, Internet Marketing, StomperNet, Tips.
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