I have a friend who worked extensively on Intel’s Pentium III chipset (I should probably be sure to add a “TM” in there, eh? And the Pentium inside and little ‘doo-dee-doo’ sound.) He had some interesting stories to tell me about Intel’s product development process.I have a friend who worked extensively on Intel’s Pentium III chipset (I should probably be sure to add a “TM” in there, eh? And the Pentium inside and little ‘doo-dee-doo’ sound.) He had some interesting stories to tell me about Intel’s product development process.
I think that adult webmasters might be able to glean a little nugget of wisdom out of Silicon Valley. There are actually a lot of similarities between tech product development and adult websites. Check them out:
1) We both build and revise our products constantly.
2) We build for the same installed user base.
3) We have fierce competitors who build very similar products.
4) Our products must be extensively tested before they’re deployed.
5) As soon as one development cycle is finished another has begun.
… and the list goes on.
I got to thinking about this after my friend, Dave, came down for a visit. “Oz,” Dave told me, “things are moving so quickly now, that by the time our engineers conceive it, it’s obsolete.” We were sitting by the campfire drinking a beer. Well — he was drinking a beer, I was drinking Diet Pepsi. But you get the idea. “Okay, I’ll bite, Dave,” I said. “How can something you just thought of be obsolete?”
Dave poked a log with his marshmallow-roasting stick. “Because if our engineers came up with it, so did theirs,” he replied, referring to ‘Brand X’ in the computer chip world. And that was that.
How much different is it for adult webmasters? We spend a lot of money developing new products and concepts, and as soon as we debut them – someone else copies them. And we’re back to square one.
But these heavy hitters wouldn’t be able to compete at such an intensely competitive level without having their product development cycles nailed down tightly. Or, put another way, unless they’re both totally on top of their game at ALL times during product development cycles, they’ll be giving away a valuable edge to their competitors.
I think this ‘cold war’ (actually, there’s not much ‘cold’ about it, is there?) is very similar to the situation faced by adult webmasters. Sure, we’re all part of the adult webmaster ‘community’ and we try to help each other out, but let’s be realistic, we’re also competing with each other for traffic. So the way to get an edge up on your competition is to nail down your product development cycle.
First, (and frankly, most importantly) get on a schedule. If you’re building AVS sites, free sites, whatever, you need to first set a date they’re due to be released so that you can get into a groove. Development time might be measured in years, months, days, hours, or minutes! Remember – as soon as you do it, your competitors will.
Next, identify the key features to your ‘killer app’ (heh, heh) and figure how to exploit them best. If you have some specialized content that no one else has, capitalize on it! Half of the war is picking and choosing your battles. Fight on the turf you’re best equipped to defend.
Carefully TEST your developed products. This is the most frequently skipped step by adult webmasters. I’m not sure why – I suspect that we think we didn’t make any errors when we built the site! Just try to think of a time when you completed a document and spellcheck didn’t catch a single error. Probably never. I’ve seen sites with miscoded ‘Enter’ links – no lie, don’t laugh! Click every link, every time. There are also freebie sites that will help you do this – check out websitegarage.com .
Finally, when your product is deployed, be prepared to MODIFY it in order to achieve your desired result. Don’t just dangle it out there and hope you’ll get a bite. If it’s not working, do what you have to do to make it work. Sometimes this involves getting radical. Don’t get too attached to your original concept – it either works or it doesn’t work. Don’t let emotion or pride play into your strategy at all – this is strictly business.
We may not spend millions of dollars developing new chipsets, but we do spend a proportionally large amount of time developing our adult website products. Take the time to take a professional attitude towards your product development cycles, and as always, your wallet will be rewarded.
