Challenges Facing Adult Webmasters In India
There are many obstacles to operating an adult site in India, among them are the following:
1) Telecom: The telecom infrastructure needs to be spruced up and broadband needs to be pushed much more aggressively by the government. Thankfully, the new IT & Telecom minister seems to be serious about the same.
Slow download speeds are obviously a big hindrance for online adult webmasters; the faster the downloads, the better it is for everyone. Even in the U.S. broadband is supposedly 20 times slower than compared to South Korea and Japan.
2) Hosting: Since pornography is illegal in India, it is simply impossible to host a site on an India based server. Even if it was allowed, I would still opt for an U.S. based host simply because it is much more economical to do so and more importantly, U.S. based hosts have great tech support which is generally not the case here in India.
3) Payment: Most sponsors pay their affiliates by check. On an average, a check sent by ordinary mail from the U.S. would take around 4 to 6 weeks to reach its destination address here in India. Add to this another 8 to 10 weeks for the check to get cleared and you can imagine how frustrating the wait can be.
I remember visiting an online gambling site called VipProfits.com which apart from the usual check based payment, offered its affiliates payments via "Western Union," NetTeller and bank wire. I am still to come across an adult sponsor offering so many options to its affiliates.
The faster the money reaches the Webmaster, better it is for the sponsor as well. This is something that adult sponsors need to look into.
4) Content: Personally I think there isn't enough *quality* Indian content on the Web, and as we all know, "Content is King." Dearth of quality content is surely hampering the growth of Indian adult sites; you usually get to see the same models on different sites and they have different names on different sites! Content providers need to woo Indians much more aggressively.
5) Sponsors: Most adult sponsors don't accept affiliate sign ups from countries like India, China, Russia, etc. This is, needless to say, a BIG hindrance. This issue has been very well discussed in a previous article titled "Adult Webmastering: An International Perspective."
Opportunities For Adult Webmasters In India
There is an immense potential for the adult industry to grow in India provided the government does the sensible thing of legalizing pornography. Even if the government doesn't legalize pornography, India can easily become the online porn capital of the world just as Costa Rica has become the online gaming capital.
The work that can be done from India (and to a certain extent is being done) is SEO (Search Engine Optimization), designing galleries, and creating Websites. Signing up with various sponsors is something most people find tedious which can be done from here, support, content creation which will involve local people and get things done in a legal manner like the way some of the girlie magazines in India acquire their (soft core) content, TGP gallery submission, Web server administration / maintenance, etc., – these are all things that can easily and economically be done here.
While it's hard to say how many Indians are working towards becoming adult Webmasters, but the lure of money should get quite a few converts. The Rupee, at the time of writing, is valued at around Rs. 46 per U.S. dollar. This in itself should be a big encouragement. Plus, considering the fact that the adult industry is by and large recession proof should also help matters. For example, after 9/11, traffic to adult sites had gone up by 20%. Indians, by nature, like security and consistency, which is what the adult industry offers. Hence the number of Indian sites should definitely go up in the future.
There is obviously lot more to be written on the adult industry vis-à-vis India, but this introduction will give you a good idea of the opportunities and pitfalls involved in reaching from – or out of – this market... I hope that you found this article to be informative; your suggestions, comments, brickbats, clarifications, etc. are always welcome. Simply post them below:
