XBIZ
The State of Online Adult
With the rapid evolution of the adult entertainment business, it makes sense to take a close look at your business and marketing plan at least every six months to ensure that your company is on track — maximizing opportunities and profits, while mitigating any potential shortcomings or threats to your operational environment. To assist this process, we are going to take a brief overview of the mid-year landscape and examine some of its hot-button issues, greatest opportunities and the six months ahead.
Flame On: Social Media
It’s not news that porn stars and the interactive web go together like bread and butter. The step from web cams and community sites like Burning Angel to porn stars using mainstream social media channels like MySpace, blogs, and Twitter was intuitive. But social media’s full power is still being harnessed. Engagement with social media may very well be the thing that is key to fully assimilating porn with mainstream culture. Dana DeArmond, Nina Hartley, and Madison Young are three people who seem to really be on the right track, following the two basic tenets of social media: authenticity and transparency.
Payouts Now 25% Off
If you walk through any shopping mall, you’ll see plenty of store fronts with giant sale signs and discount offers posted in bright colors intended to catch your eye.
XBIZ Welcomes Dan Miller as Managing Editor
XBIZ has tapped veteran adult industry journalist Dan Miller as managing editor of XBIZ Premiere magazine. He brings 17 years of professional journalism experience to XBIZ.
XBIZ Award Winners Tori Black and Sasha Grey Star in 3rd Degree Film’s ‘Tori Black vs. Sasha Grey’
2010 XBIZ performer of the year Tori Black and 2010 XBiz crossover star of the year Sasha Grey appear in 3rd Degree Film’s “Tori Black vs. Sasha Grey.”
They Give Us Fever
We’re always asking what's hot” and “what's not.” Magazine articles typically follow sales figures and focus on the most popular performers and sites as measured by dollars, cents and mouse clicks. But this special focus takes the pulse of adult and looks at the fresh attitudes, new ideas and emerging trends bubbling to the surface of this creative cauldron we call adult entertainment so you, the decision maker, can take your own temperature.
XBIZ.net Members Reunite for 3rd London Gathering
Brian Gray, XBIZ.net London Gathering organizer and Love Bytes’ head of research, summed up last week’s XBIZ.net London Gathering, now in its third edition, in three words: “money, magic and merriment."
Ilana Rothman: A Fetish for Filmmaking
Most woman directors in the adult industry come up in the ranks from the talent pool. They’ve performed in scenes; know the technical aspects of production and in some cases feel that it’s time to make their mark behind the camera to make way for younger stars.
Executive seat: Intellichat's Billy and Jeremy Thomas
Some of the most interesting success stories in the adult entertainment industry aren’t necessarily people who have spent most of their working lives as adult entrepreneurs. Some are people who had track records in the mainstream business world before diversifying and branching out into adult. A perfect example is the British father-and-son team of Jeremy and Billy Thomas, who are the brains behind IntellichatAdult—a program designed to increase sales on adult websites. Founded in 2007, the U.K.-based Intellichat started out as a mainstream-oriented company— and Intellichat is still doing a lot of business on the mainstream side—but in 2008, Jeremy and Billy realized that if Intellichat could increase sales for mainstream websites, why couldn’t the company work with adult websites as well?
Executive Seat: Smashing Through Walls
Most people would get a major headache. A big one! But Smash Pictures Vice President Stuart Wall seems to thrive on the pressures of being in charge of that same company’s sales and production departments. Wall meticulously oversees everything from a movie’s inception, to its distribution on a worldwide basis. A unique position, especially considering the fact that his boss, Dan Quinn — the owner/CEO of Smash — is located 3,000 miles away in Connecticut.
Elemental Shadowing With Cascading Style Sheets
Website designers have long used cascading style sheets (CSS) to define, enhance and layout their projects, with varying degrees of design sophistication and cross-browser compatibility. This latter challenge of ensuring consistent visual display among viewing platforms has led some designers to employ hybrid table-based/pure CSS approaches; to rely on the CSS support of web design software; or even minimize their use of CSS.
Visualtron SMS Server Could Be Right Solution
For creative operators seeking to reach today’s technologically savvy and mobile equipped audiences, leveraging the power of Short Message Service (SMS) marketing can open up entirely new revenue streams while bolstering existing offers.
iPhone Pulse: Bridging the Gap
With all of the options unfolding in the mobile marketplace, adult entrepreneurs are seeking answers to the basic question of what type of mobile presence they should be investing in developing — both for today’s market realities and beyond.
Solid Solutions - Traffic Building for White Label Sites
Whether you want to easily extend your current site network, find a use for a parked domain, or take a shortcut to a new virtual empire, deploying one or more of the many “white label” website solutions offered by adult entertainment companies is becoming a favorite option for affiliates. This may be especially true for those lacking the capital and technical expertise to develop their own branded, quick-to-market adult website solution — but is deploying a white label always the best choice?
On Holiday
Holiday Products Vice President Ken Sahn tiptoed his way into the adult world in the ‘80s with five trendy, risqué retail locations in major malls, which he coowned in suburban Detroit. With retailer experience and natural people skills, Sahn’s career in wholesale distribution burgeoned as a jack-of-alltrades during a 19-year stint at adult novelty distributor Nalpac. Now as an executive at Holiday Products, Sahn employs his wealth of knowledge and industry relationships to methodically rebrand and rebuild the company as a solid distribution channel for retail stores, Internet sites and home party planners.
XBIZ Launches Lead-Generation Services Via XBIZ.net
Through XBIZ.net’s expansive and rapidly growing network of qualified industry members, XBIZ is now offering its clients targeted lead-generation services to maximize their marketing campaigns among all sectors of the adult business.
One Last Shot
The old saying that “it’s not what you make, but what you get to keep,” applies as well to the arena of website traffic management as it does anywhere else — especially when viewed in the context of maximizing the profitability of your traffic investment.
Liquid Lust - Libido in a can
It seems everywhere we go these days, there’s a new energy drink hitting the marketplace, promising to boost our energy and overall health with a plethora of vitamins and herbal supplements.
The Death of Downloading
Recent trends toward streaming video in the daily use of many mainstream surfers, fear of content piracy and several other factors are contributing to what appears to be a growing movement among adult site owners toward offering streaming-only content without any authorized downloadable formats for subscribers. That movement has brought out passionate proponents and plenty of opposition from some affiliates, review sites and porn buyers who have submitted feedback about the trend. Does this movement signal the eventual death of downloading?
XBIZ Introduces First-Ever 'Qualified Industry Members Only' Online Poll Results
Starting today, XBIZ’s online industry polls will be restricted to votes submitted by qualified members of the adult entertainment business community.