When trying to put offers for your own online product or service before your market, your options are really limited only by your imagination, and by what the law allows. As such, spyware and other intrusive marketing tools should be avoided as should non-CAN-SPAM compliant mailings. This still leaves many options available, however.
Many experienced free site operators are well-versed in the arts of link list submission and search engine optimization and submission, but how many are exploiting new technologies such as podcasting, PSP downloads, BitTorrent file sharing and other P2P apps?
While these technologies are beyond the scope of this article, podcasting and the like shouldn't be seen as a mystery, but an easy, viral method for spreading your marketing message. While big-budget paysite operators might more readily implement these advanced marketing strategies, some careful forethought can make using these techniques available to all webmasters.
Second Hand Sales
Many adult webmasters do not promote their own products or services exclusively, but acting as affiliates, promote those of a sponsor. While the burden of creating these promotional materials falls on the sponsor, it's up to the smart affiliate to select sponsors based in part on the quality, effectiveness and range of the sponsor's marketing tools.
The competitive affiliate program will devote considerable resources to developing a broad array of fresh and innovative marketing materials. No longer is it enough to provide a handful of banners or other graphics such as full page ads. Offering geo-targeted ads featuring regional promotions (such as the now popular "find a fuck buddy in your town" ads), Flash-based screens that defeat pop-up blockers, and other interactive enticements, will not only increase customer sales but encourage affiliates to promote your sites to the banner-weary surfer.
The enhanced 2257 requirements will also affect the offering of free content to affiliates – long a staple of website promotions. Hosted galleries are becoming ever more important in this regard, as is the offering of accurate text links and website descriptions. The wide over-saturation of this promotional content can easily be avoided by limiting its release; offering it to either select affiliates or by not archiving the links. In this case, fresh galleries may be offered weekly, for example, with their links (but not the actual galleries themselves) removed from circulation once a new set is issued.
Affiliates looking for an edge will want to consider using sponsor-provided content to build their own unique galleries and other ads; being careful to only use non-sexually explicit material (as defined by 18 USC 2256) unless the documents required by the secondary producer provisions of 18 USC 2257 are obtained. While this area of the statute is being contested, prudence warns against wasting time and energy on materials that might not be lawfully usable.
While this article only scratches the surface of the possibilities of marketing materials, it has hopefully encouraged you to think about the various ways in which you can maximize the reach and effectiveness of your promotional efforts.
Remember, the real test of any marketing material is simple: after viewing it, would YOU purchase the product or service? If not, you had better try again!
