Posts

Mainstream Thinks Dot XXX is a Bust

,

Dot XXXAn op-ed piece was written on Mashable about the new dot XXX domain. It was a criticism piece about dot XXX being an irrelevant domain and that main stream people will only be buying it to prevent pornographers from using their trademark.

The author was ignoring the first non-adult trademark to purchase a .XXX with their own uses in mind..PETA. PETA was one of the first companies to buy a .XXX and they have every intention of using the site for their own marketing purposes. Since many people think that their ads are verging on pornographic anyway, it will be interesting to see what they do with their new domain.

The writer continued to criticize the adult industry and their history of domain names, saying that most of our traffic is based off of accidental web stumbles instead of specific searches, SEO and all the other traditional means of driving traffic to a site. He used the example of Whitehouse.com being an adult site and not a site for the White House. In that case, yes accidental traffic was the primary source. Of course the domain also gained a big reputation because it is not the White House and people liked the humor of it.  In this case the criticism  was more that someone was quick enough to buy that hot domain real estate and figure out a way to monetize it in a big way.

He also used Whitehouse.com as an example of a site not being what is appears to be.  According to this logic, your business URL and name needs to be reflective of exactly what you do. So if you make wool scarves, you better call your business Wool Scarves Inc and have the domain be woolscarves.com. Because branding like “Warm Sheep” is misleading. I think the marketing world on a whole would have a huge issue with this logic.

Is he right that most mainstream businesses will buy a .XXX domain to prevent someone else from using it? Yes. Of course that is why they also bought .net, .me, .com, .co, .info, .cc ….you get my point.  If your business is trademarked and branded you want to make sure that you are capturing every possible source of traffic. You don’t want someone else benefiting from your brands hard work. Is .XXX any different? No.

So will there be some mainstream .XXX that is actually used? Yes. Will some be parked? Yes. Does it mean that .XXX is a failure? ….no.

Dot XXX is Here!

“Lets be adult about it”, the slogan behind dot XXX, is going to be a phrase coming into more peoples awareness. The long awaited dot XXX is here. The ICM registry has opened up the sunrise period for trademark owners. So if you have a trademark on your dot com or your company name, you can buy your dot XXX now. If you don’t qualify for the the sunrise period you can sill reserve your domain before the formal registration opens up. Of course their will be an early registration fee.

The sunrise period is will run for 52 days, until October 28th.  There will be two phases. Sunrise A is for adult entertainment and Sunrise B is for those outside the industry.

After the sunrise period, there will be an 18 day landrush and then general registration will open up on December 2nd.

PETA goes Dot XXX

,

PETA has long had provocative imagery in their ads. Many people have criticized them for exploiting women in their promotion of animal rights. But they are taking their nakedness to a new level. PETA is launching their own .XXX site. Though they might not be aware of the controversy in the adult industry regarding this TLD, they are definitely not only preventing anyone else from using their branded (and trademarked) URL, but they are capitalizing on it.

I am sure this will come as a mild surprise to many people. Though if you have really paid attention to their marketing campaigns, it is not a big leap. Of course, if you paid attention to their marketing campaigns, anyone who was looking to capitalize on a big name .xxx left unclaimed after the “sunset” period for trademarked URL registration, would not have had to think hard to come up with a PETA knock of porn site.

PETA is aware that this is a controversial move, but they have been in the center of controversy since they started their nude anti-fur and nude anti-meat ads.

Here are some ads that a few well known porn stars have already been featured in. Will the new site open a new more mainstream modeling opportunity for adult stars?

Dot XXX at Ynot

,

The Dot XXX panel at the Ynot Summit was definitely the highlight of the show.  The panel featured Eric Bernstein from Embalaw, the Free Speech Coalition, Vaughn Liley from ICM Registry (aka Dot XXX), and Conner Young from Ynot. The talk quickly got tense, especially between Vaughn and Tom from Free Speech.  Despite some tension a lot of information was put out, and misinformation was clarified. For instance, Vaughn said that India has not banned Dot XXX. Also to help combat some of the potential SEO challenges, Dot XXX will be launching their own search engine. Of course this does not solve the Google or Bing SEO issue, but it could create some interesting adult search and marketing options.

A new development is that you can now unblock a domain that you previously blocked. This had been a big concern for people. They were worried that if they blocked a domain it would be permanently inaccessible. The parking fee got everyone stirred up. Yes you can park your domain, but you will pay to do it. Meaning if you are getting Dot XXX simply because you don’t want someone else to use it you will have to pay a few hundred dollars more per year to not use it and keep it parked. Though dot XXX said why would you want to park a domain that is getting traffic. A good point if you are an adult site. But if you are not an adult site and you don’t want anyone attaching .xxx to your domain name, you are going to pay a hefty fee.

Here is a video of the panel if you would like to watch it in its entirety.

 

ICANN opens up TLD Registration- Are you ready for .Sexy?

,
Friday Feature Photo Tara Lynn Fox Adult Trading Card

Friday Feature Photo: Tara Lynn Foxx on her limited edition Adult Trading Card

So .XXX is not the only top level domain that is throwing their TLD into the ring. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that oversees TLD’s is opening up registration.

For most people we never think about our TLD, except maybe when you are registering a new web address (URL). In the adult industry, with all the hullaballoo about .XXX, I think it is safe to say that TLD’s have become a common topic of conversation. Whether you are for or against it, .XXX is making people think about the importance of their web address real estate.

.Com is the prime real estate on the internet. It is such prime real estate that most people assume you are a dot com. If you don’t have the prime domain then you might  be sending web traffic to the site that does own your dot com.

Every once in a while a site like GoDaddy.com will try to convince us that a TLD like .CO will be the next .com. This is more a marketing push to get people to register .co instead of, or even in addition to, a .com. Of course there are other issues with .co, like people thinking it is a typo or mis-remembering it as .com. To date, dot XXX is the only alternative TLD to gain traction as a plausible dot com replacement.

Despite dot com continuing to dominate website naming conventions, a few have managed to worm their way in. The TLD .me is one that is gaining popularity as it gets incorporated into URLs and in certain ways become phrases, like tungle.me a calendar and meeting scheduling website. “Hey, just tungle.me” is becoming a phrase people are starting to hear. Show.me is a real estate social network.

Another TLD that has made a splash is .ly. You might be wondering what sites use that. Well, how about Bit.ly. This is the number one website used for shortening web urls for social sharing. Almost every adult star and adult website will be familiar, and have likely used, Bit.ly at some point in their social marketing ventures.

So despite the overwhelming cost ($184,000) to submit a new TLD to ICANN, do not be surprised if you start seeing some interesting ones out there like .you or .whatever or .sexy. They may not overtake .com but will any of them get traction? Or will dot XXX be the only top TLD to cause a stir?


Tara Lynn Foxx is this weeks Friday Feature Photo. Make sure you chat her up on Twitter @taralynnfoxx. She is a great gal to tweet with. Not only will she keep you up to date with her appearance and updates to her site, but she might get a little flirty in her tweets with you. I love a good flirty tweet!

Hit up the Adult Trading Card Company to learn how to get a card like hers! Follow them on Twitter @ATCCompany

XXX: Good for your brand, bad for your URL

,
Friday Feature Photo: Coco Devine

Friday Feature Photo: The petite and sexy Coco Devine. She is XXX in all the good ways.

There is a lot of discussion about using .XXX as an adult alternative to .com.  AVN has a 5 part series about the ramifications of the dot xxx push. Although this discussion has taken place for the past few years, the issue is top news again because the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has a GAC (Government Advisory Committee) that is reviewing the issue before it decides the next step. The ultimate decision will determine whether “dot XXX” will be encouraged as a “dot-com” alternative for adult sites.

As it seems more likely that .XXX will be pushed, many sites have already reserved their .XXX URL.  So, the infamous www.sex.com would become www.sex.xxx. Seems like it could be sexy right? Not so fast. A .XXX TLD (top level domain) can seriously hurt your web business.

The purpose behind this is to let people know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a website contains adult content.  This is being done under the guise of child protection.  If you are in the adult industry, you know that any site that is on the level already implements child protection. In fact, Adult Entertainment is one of the biggest supporters of child protection and actively pursues new and better ways to keep inappropriate material from children. Fact is, the people who avoid child protection are not part of the legitimate adult industry, and they will continue to avoid it.

Dot triple X will only give people a false sense of security.  Any site that chooses will still be able to use a .com domain. Larry Magdid, creator of Safekids.com, says “As an Internet safety advocate, my concern about .XXX is that it could give parents a false sense of security…It would be like setting up a red-light district in a community while also allowing adult entertainment establishments to operate in residential shopping centers.”

Many people have purchased their .XXX to ensure that they are able to hold on to their branding. The ICANN seems to be interpreting this as industry support for the TLD.  However, this is not support – this is a reaction to the very real possibility of a new TLD and people not wanting to sacrifice their brand identity because they got on the bandwagon late.

From a website owner point-of-view the .XXX is bad for your site from a technical standpoint. Yes, people can block it, but the people who would do this are not your audience anyway. You don’t care if Joe Parent blocks .XXX but you do care if Google does.  Google already prevents their search auto-fill to populate for anything that is considered questionable material. It would be an easy step to block dot .XXX from appearing in any search results.  This would substantially limit organic traffic and completely nullify any benefits from SEO.

Our Friday Feature Photo links to a site with an xxx in the URL:  www.cocodivinexxx.com. But this is fine, because it is in the site name, not in the TLD.  Having xxx in your URL will not get you blocked. Having it as your TLD is going to cause you problems and loss of traffic.

There are many potentials for blocking, from search engines to internet browsers setting their safety defaults to automatically block .XXX. It also sets the site up for being blocked from merchant account and hosting companies that don’t want to be associated with a business that is blatantly adult.  With all of that, let’s not even talk about the potential to be riddled by spam through any contact information on the site, yikes!

Overall we feel that the .XXX is a bad move for any website.


Friday Feature Photo: Coco DevineThe Friday Feature Photo is the beautiful Coco Devine.  As she says, she is the newest, sexiest, most curvaceous girl on the web.  She is definitely right. Not only is she sexy she is also a great person to tweet with.  You can see her pics, videos and even talk to her live on her website webcam. Then go and chat her up on Twitter!

Go to her website: www.cocodivinexxx.com

Talk to her on Twitter @Coco_Divinexxx

You can call her for bookings at: 888-800-8761

or email her at [email protected]

 

Spam is definitely not Sexy

, ,

TWAM

The different social networks fill various needs for its users. Linked In is better for B2B and professional networking. Facebook is your social circle online. Twitter is everything from friends to business to news. If you are in the Adult Entertainment Industry then you are most definitely on Twitter. In fact, you might not be on the other social networks because they make it so challenging to successfully market yourself.

So you are on Twitter,  how do you get people to visit your blog, your site, buy your product, vote for you, etc. In essence how do they become clients?

The biggest mistake people make is spam. We have all seen the people who get out there and talk about their product…all day…all the time…incessantly…ad nauseum. If you want to be ignored, do this. You will be hidden on Facebook and no one will read your tweets.

The adult entertainment industry is riddled with Spam. Hell, you could argue that it is a driving force behind the industry.  So what is the balance between marketing yourself and being flagged for spam.  If someone flags you as a spammer then you will be hidden, or unfollowed, or simply ignored.

If you want people to become clients, then you need to become friends first. You need to become a real person online.

  • Be the person who shares information.
  • Be the person who says good morning and wishes people happy birthday.
  • Be the person who re-tweets other peoples blog posts and pictures.
  • Be the person who offers good advice, for free, for no other reason other than you can.
  • Be the person who responds when someone mentions you
  • Be more than a pretty picture and a sexy link

Now you are dynamic. You are interesting. You are a source of information and you are someone people will look to. In the midst of all this good will, tell people about your website or video release. Ask them for to check it out. If you are looking for votes, then ask for support. Ask people to spread the word. And when they do, thank them. Pepper your own goals into your relationship development. Your friends will respond to your requests. They will read your posts, they will go to your site, they will give you their support. They will do this because you are multi-faceted and not all about yourself. They will do this because you have build real relationships with them. This relationship will drive them to spend more money, refer you to other people and will create a lasting (and profitable) relationship with your clients.

New Twitter & Adult Film Stars- Is it Less Sexy?

,

If you are in the adult entertainment industry, actor, producer, photographer, etc. then you will be familiar with custom Twitter backgrounds. It is actually rare to see someone in the adult entertainment industry who does not have a custom background.

But since September 14th, has the new Twitter release made custom backgrounds become a thing of the past?

Before the new release, a custom background on your Twitter page was a important facet of building your brand. Custom backgrounds allowed any company or individual to show PG13 publicity pics, show off awards, promote a new film or drive traffic to a website. It was a great way to hook a new follower.

Technically custom backgrounds still exist. It’s just that the re-design of Twitter‘s interface prevents them from being seen. In the new interface, “You will now find @mentions, re-tweets, searches, and lists just above your time line – creating a single, streamlined view on the left of the screen. On the right, you can see the features you’re familiar with, including whom you recently followed and who recently followed you, favorites, and Trending Topics.”

The re-organization of information does make the navigation of Twitter much more intuitive but presents a new challenge in branding and identity.

Twitter users will now have to build their brand awareness or their public persona primarily by the content of their tweets. The new interface encourages users to share more multimedia. However, you still have to post interesting content to entice followers (and would be followers) to click-through.

Ultimately, I do not think this will change the way in which people tweet. Yet, the new interface does re-emphasize the importance of your tweets and the relationships you build.

It is not how you look but what you say that matters. So increase your engagement by posting more pics and make sure your Bio can hook followers!