[TheLegacy]

When I first started off mid 90’s in the adult industry everyone was just getting ramped up and sowing new fields. Creativity and technical knowledge along with design savvy was gold while traffic seemed to pour into any site being made – demand was higher than supply. Ideas were passed around more than Paris Hilton except made better each time until the start of the millennium everyone sort of stood up and realized that they reached the limits of technology plus the digital playing field multiplied so fast – traffic is now gold.

The Market has grown – take for instance the gay market that was once scraping by within its own circles and with memberships mostly of gay and closet straight men (mostly marriage seeking to expand their tastes). No one wanted to discuss the gay market as a source considering the pink dollar as valueless with webmasters avoiding being associated with any content that would give their friends and associates the idea that they are homosexual as well. Now the estimated annual value of the gay and lesbian market is known at $515 billion. It is estimated that 21% of gay and lesbian households have income greater than $100,000 per year, and 28% have income greater than $50,000 per year. It is estimated that 62% own a personal computer. An astonishing 71% of gay and lesbian online users have made credit card purchases online. What is now the issue is first: how can the straight webmasters get into the market and secondly: the gay webmasters how to keep them out for fear of loss of integrity feelings that it simply isn’t a matter of content, but a moral / cultural issue. That particular group is slowly diminishing but the few who are left do have a voice that is heard loudly.

Production of content in all its forms gay and straight has changed a great deal as we factor in our members. There is so much free content out there and foreign that producers no longer dictate what webmasters will get – instead the age of content being king is gone. Now content producers are out of touch with webmasters and their member’s tastes. Free content has hurt, but the lack of knowing where the tastes of surfers have hurt even more. What’s hot is everyone’s concern. Celebrity – amateur models and foreign content helped our bottom dollar – but what is the next big thing? Hopefully technology holds the answer and we will break the barrier of interaction – instead of seeing the model but to feel - sense and smell what is happening in a reality broadcast that will confuse our ability to know what is real and not.

Relationships between once good business friends out to make a buck together with the attitude of “there is more than enough to go around” suddenly turned on each other – clients were stolen – digital reputations were needed to be created because of the boom in new faces until now a vile word in the mid-90’s is now a sought after title, “PIMP”. We never wanted to be pimps back in the beginning – we wanted to make money together and there was a brotherhood – a code of ethics if you will - instead of a bullying attitude. Unlike earlier years of the net where everyone was learning now employee’s got web smart, networking and more aware of how valuable the client lists and knowledge gleaned from the company they work with - mistrust grew between them and management – as management morphed - standing in front of vault doors like Gollum referring to their money, traffic, technology and client lists as “my precious”. Truth be told the majority of webmasters / salespeople and managers are making between 40 to 80,000USD while the bulk are lower. Only a few who have found their niche are in the millions. Yet those figures are not available to anyone since bragging of ones income tends to diminish the more you acquire. I have always found that the sales are made in the quiet dark corners of conventions and not in the front row staring at girls doing mud wrestling. Call yourself whatever you want – but the true leaders of this industry first do not see themselves as such – and would just as much call themselves privileged businessmen in retirement. They meet on exclusive island getaways for the required tax loopholes of having their money offshore and find the antics of the young raise too much negative awareness to an industry that was once shrouded in secrecy.

Legally the government because of a lack of understanding left the Internet alone for much of the time until they heard of the billions we are making along with heightened awareness of criminal activity against children / women and were putting us at blame. Some portions of the legitimate Adult Internet have falsely been lumped into the "whole", when actually most problem sites are foreign ones that malign the "whole". I feel that most of the legitimate Adult Internet totally detests CP in every way and supports its total elimination! Sadly mainstream does not see it as that. To them a webmaster is a cover name for a “pedo” – future sexual predator. Heightened awareness from the religious community who have become aware of the adult internet market during these years has given them ammunition in the pulpit and government hallways. To acknowledge our market as an “industry” would give credibility and enrage special interest groups who feel that we degrade models and harm society including the marriage values. We can only hope that as the world learns more of the internet they will also learn more about the people behind it. That we are their next door neighbors that they sometime ask to baby-sit – or their pastor, boss, real estate agent, police officer, lawyer and family member who needs a second income.

Foreign soil seemed the only place to consider having your banking and content shot, but not a market we wanted to go after. If supply and demand were the key to success then North American companies would seek a stronger foothold in foreign turf – but we aren’t. Try to find a good webmaster chat board for instance. We want the world to come to us but due to over-saturation, lack of creativity and technology boundaries the industry is forced to turn its head towards oversea markets to regain those past glory days. Whether it’s a lack of capital, vision, distain, drive, unwelcome, comfort level, common ground, ignorance, arrogance, currency differences, financial institutions, technology, uncertainty or simply language barrier – most companies would rather stay within the confines of the border surrounding North America as a whole. This will change in the future as we stretch out our efforts to worldwide.

Mainstream today unlike the mid-90s are getting into the adult industry as software programs become easier to understand more and more ‘amateur next door’ websites are starting up hoping to cash in on the porn industry’s success just to pay part of the mortgage. My job allows me to see an overview and cross section of the webmasters both old and new. Despite rumors of millions – the industry itself has at best 8000 webmasters making profits. Financial institutions also are getting into the act by buying up online casino’s and adult related websites. Mainstream interest has given new life and capital to our industry as the ‘boys with the toys’ are prepared to pay top dollar for a piece of the pie. I have been approached several times this year by large investment capital firms wishing to spend millions yet do not have a trusted source within the industry to contact. Soon I would imagine someone is going to create a bridge between the two and offer fair market value and knowledge to these investors for a price.

Concluding we survive now by hope – in our lawyers, our content producers, future technology developments and finally in those who have been around the longest to train and live by example for those younger entering the adult industry hoping to make a name for themselves by braun rather than brain. We need to clamp down on the inner fighting and reunite for the battles ahead of us. Divide and conquer is an old strategy we gladly are doing to ourselves without any effort by politicians, religious and the legal communities. We are spread apart in clumps of sanity and if it continues we will allow our rights to be removed. No one else is to blame but us. We have a free mentality that we deserve to win. Yet there is hope as long as there are webmasters and owners prepared to stand up for those who either can not stand up for themselves or simply hide in the shadows wishing it will all go away. If we want the right to show porn – eventually we will have to show that we ‘deserve’ to have that right. This comes in how we treat our employee’s – competition – unwelcome webmasters and finally our members.

Steal, rob and ignore any of these groups out of arrogance, ignorance - irresponsibility and we open ourselves to regulations - litigations that will hinder our freedoms.

You simply can’t fire an employee because you just don’t happen to like them that day – or they won’t fuck you – or take away your thunder by upstaging you at a party – or someone better comes along so you decrease their salary – or take away their clients.

You simply can’t remove client lists - walk into another job using them as a means to an end. Much less ask new employees to hand over previous lists.

You simply can’t infect your employers system with a virus because you hate them.

You simply can’t not pay your designers or webmasters (shaving included) feeling that ethics and reputation are a thing of the past – or fraud someone out of money.

You simply can’t attempt to ruin someone’s reputation on chat boards – deserving or not.

These (and more like them) are all criminal acts within the mainstream world that will soon be coming in some form or another to the adult industry. Trouble is that we simply do not fear anymore like we did because the money is there to buy our way out – and those without the money simply have no where to turn for assistance if they have been wronged. The mainstream world simply doesn’t take us seriously and usually backs away from such legal actions unless some serious cash is thrown their way.

The future will either be run by politicians and the courts or we will need to create our own ombudsman or group to handle such disagreements so we remain honest in dealing with one another again. We will strive ahead in technology and as the youth enter into this industry they will bring along fresh ideas – as it’s senior members train and mentor them in the way of doing business in an industry that has no training facilities or university degree’s associated with it. Eventually the world will catch up to us as they shed their religious barriers and accept a more forward thinking and acceptance of sexual topics and content. North American is one of the few countries left that has such a backward mentality over sex and the human form. Allowing ourselves to meld with offshore companies and peers we will learn from them that we don’t have a patent on sex – and with their assistance along with a more mature business mentality will start making the money and corporations we all hoped we can.