NEWBIE SECTION
A review of the Newbie Orientation: How the Industry Really Works seminar at the Phoenix Forum
To wrap up a full day of newbie orientation programming at the Phoenix Forum, four industry experts met for a discussion about, “How the Industry Really Works.” Fortunately, there was not a large number of newbies in attendance at this show, as the discussion did not really expose any true trade secrets.NEWBIE SECTION
A review of the Newbie Orientation: How the Industry Really Works seminar at the Phoenix Forum
To wrap up a full day of newbie orientation programming at the Phoenix Forum, four industry experts met for a discussion about, “How the Industry Really Works.” Fortunately, there was not a large number of newbies in attendance at this show, as the discussion did not really expose any true trade secrets. However, the discussion did in fact cover very important current issues in the Adult Industry such as newbie survival and industry integrity. A well-rounded group of panelists consisting of Chris Mallick from Epoch/Paycom, Doug Wicks of CaveCreek Hosting, VegasLee from the Cybernet Expo and Steve Jones from LightSpeed Cash briefly introduced themselves before beginning the discussion.
Much of the discussion on this panel revolved around a small debate between Steve Jones and VegasLee as Lee commented, “90% of newbies in the adult industry will not survive one year.” He focused on the increasing level of competition that exists in the industry, which makes it more difficult for the newbie to get started and be successful. VegasLee also covered the important issue that being an adult webmaster is a full-time job and much research, time, and work go into becoming successful, acknowledging the fact that it is much more difficult to earn a share in the revenue of the adult Internet nowadays. On the other hand, by using several examples of newbies within the webmaster program of LightSpeed Cash, Steve Jones put more of an optimistic spin on VegasLee’s opinion saying that one really never knows which newbie will turn out to be a future big player in the industry. One example Steve mentioned was a newbie that went from earning nothing to earning several thousands of dollars a month after just six months.
Chris Mallick of Epoch/Paycom brought to the discussion another valuable matter – honesty and integrity in the industry. Mallick has much expertise in this area as his company Epoch/Paycom works closely with monitoring and eliminating fraudulent activity in the industry. Mallick pointed out that the webmasters’ reputation is very important to his or her success and that it is really not a worthwhile action to cheat or to be dishonest within this industry. Also adding to the subject matter was Jones who referenced the importance of webmaster honesty in creating good business relationships. There was a definite overall sentiment of the popularity of dishonest webmasters being a thing of the past and something that is quickly learned about throughout the industry.
As a change of subject, Doug Wicks of CaveCreek Hosting brought his expertise to the panel with a discussion about the pros and cons of the various types of hosting services. He discussed everything from free hosting as being the most inexpensive option to dedicated servers being the most expensive, yet most reliable option. A large focus of Wicks’ comments was on the excellent overall performance of the dedicated server, which makes it worthwhile for any serious webmaster.
With audience and panel members looking ahead to the scheduled events for the last night of the Phoenix Forum, “How the Industry Really Works” was wrapped up quickly with few questions from the audience. Along with some quick small cracks between Steve Jones and VegasLee, the discussion touched upon some good key issues in the industry. Overall, this last seminar wrapped up a good day of healthy debates and discussions during the Phoenix Forum. Now the attendees were ready to rest up and put on their party shoes for a night of networking and revelry.
Alli is the Director of Marketing & Public relations for TopBucks.com and TopCash.com and can be reached at allison@seekio.com.
