Adult Site Broker Talk Episode 16 with Morgan Sommer

1 (9s):
This is Bruce Friedman of adult site broker, and welcome to adult site broker talk, where every week we interview one of the movers and shakers of the adult industry, and we discuss what's going on in our business. Plus we give you a tip on buying and selling websites. This week we'll be talking to Morgan Sommer of Cybersocket. Adult Site Broker is proud to announce adult site broker cash. The first affiliate program for an adult website brokerage.

1 (40s):
With adult site broker cash you'll have the chance to earn as much as 20% of our broker commission referring sellers and buyers to us. Check our website at adult site broker.com for more details. First of all, today let's cover some of the news going on in our industry before the beginning of Monday's hearing to set the preliminary date. In the case against Ron Jeremy, the da overseeing the case, told Jeremy's attorney, he was filing an amended complaint, adding 20 extra charges to the eight existing charges of sexual assault against the adult performer.

1 (1m 18s):
Jeremy appeared in court on Monday where he pled not guilty to the new charges. The preliminary hearing was postponed to October 28th. His last hearing was June 26th when his bail was set at $6.6 million. And he's been in custody ever since Jeremy's attorney Stuart Goldfarb has confirmed that the new charges STEM from 13 new incidents, some of them as recent as earlier this year, the amended complaint includes six counts of sexual battery by restraint five counts of forcible rape, three counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of forcible penetration by a foreign object, and one count each of sodomy assault with intent to commit rape penetration by a foreign object on an unconscious or sleeping victim and lewd contact, a lewd conduct with a 15 year old girl, VR bangers has started production of their virtual reality content and eight K ultra high definition beginning with Spencer Bradley in bachelor, no more a studio rep described the four K and six K ultra high Def immersive VR experience as smooth, clean, and pretty much giving you the unique feeling that you've been there with the girl you just watched, even though she most likely was on the other side of the world.

1 (2m 41s):
Now imagine that we could double, or maybe even triple or quadruple the amount of smoothness you've just experienced giving you something even better. Six K ultra high Def, which was originally designed for movie theaters gave viewers as much as 19 million pixels as long the user had a high end VR headset capable of displaying such high resolutions. Meanwhile, AK goes, even beyond that, giving you an almost overwhelming number of pixels and providing an even more spectacular experience, even though the display of the VR visor remains unchanged.

1 (3m 19s):
The amount of pixels per inch is going higher, effectively giving a smoother and more lifelike experience. Now let's feature our property of the week. That's for sale at adult site broker, we're offering a sex toy review site dedicated to exploring sexuality and sharing and reviewing the authors favorite sex toys. The thing that really stands out is the extremely high quality content used throughout the site. Most sites, especially review sites, use junk content that is very obviously written just to rank for terms in Google.

1 (3m 53s):
This site is written in the first person and as a joy to read the authors, take the reader on a journey, showing them which toys that they find the most enjoyable and explaining how to best use them. The rankings in Google are high because Google is rewarded this site due to the quality of the content. It's also a nicely diversified site in terms of revenue. It's from a good mix of affiliate offers. So the business doesn't hinge on only one main program. The site is also very diversified in terms of traffic to individual pages.

1 (4m 27s):
The most traffic page on the site only makes up 14% of the traffic. So it's not dependent on just one page ranking. Well, all content is exclusive. Nothing's been taken from elsewhere. Pretty much all of the traffic comes from organic Google results, no ad or traffic buying has ever taken place. This is an outstanding opportunity for the new owner. If they want to further boost the traffic, this outstanding sex toy review site is available for only $225,000.

1 (4m 60s):
Now time for this week's interview, my guest today and adult side broker talk is Morgan summer at the founder of cyber socket. Morgan, thanks for being with us today on adult side broker talk,

2 (5m 13s):
I'm glad to be here.

1 (5m 15s):
I'm glad you're here at six in the morning. Your time now a cyber socket is and has been for a long time. The leader in online LGBTQ information, they run the cyber socket web awards every January, and also do the now famous cybersec had parties at many adult trade shows. They also have the gay board cyber socket.com has site reviews, movie reviews, a site and company directory articles, a blog, and even live camps.

1 (5m 47s):
Morgan and his company have been an incredible contributor to our industry. And frankly, I can't imagine it without them. First of all, Morgan new over at cyber socket.

3 (5m 60s):
I'm in at the moment, right? We're not doing anything different. Other than about a year ago, we stopped producing the print magazine. After 21 years, it just became, it became, it was always expensive and it just became, you know, 70% of costs and 20% of revenue. And as long as it was still producing 50% of revenue, it was, it was still worth producing in spite of its costs.

3 (6m 30s):
But it also, you know, it coincided with some other changes where I'd been doing basically the same job for 21 years. And I, I wasn't interested in doing that particular job anymore at the same level I was doing it. So, you know, so we made some structural changes in terms of what the company was producing, what we were selling. And then I also took a back seat for about six months and let our management team and my business partner take the lead while I pursued some other interests and do things like got certified to teach spin classes.

3 (7m 8s):
And cool. So, and you know, so then I started teaching six spin classes a week for awhile and, and you know, all the while still doing, working on cyber-stalking doing the award show for two, two years and all that stuff. But, but I also, my interest in advertising have also kind of shifted and I, and I started pursuing some other active, you know, what do I want to say?

3 (7m 38s):
Just started pursuing some other avenues for how to, how to be able to sell the kinds of things I want to sell. And because in the adult sphere, we're very limited as to what we're able to do. So, but that experience outside of the industry has also helped me to hone my message and our purpose for what we're trying to accomplish within the industry.

1 (8m 4s):
That's cool. Now you're a, besides still working with cyber socket, you've got a mainstream, a regular gig. Now tell us about it.

3 (8m 15s):
Excuse me. Yeah. So yeah, that started, that was part of that process is me looking around trying to figure out what interested me. And I found that selling broadcast TV advertising along with digital stuff was what I was really interested in. And it always fascinated me. And I was basically relegated to a print and adult site realm where there's, there's very limited avenues. So I pursued that.

3 (8m 46s):
I work for an ABC affiliate here in Wichita. I'm selling TV advertising along with national and regional and even international digital advertising. And that's kind of, that's kind of interesting because it gives me a perspective on how the rest of the world is working in terms of marketing, where the real big money is being spent in marketing, how it's being spent, the kinds of tactics that people are using, the technological innovations that have taken place that have kind of bypass that the adult industry has never been able to participate in because they were never offered.

3 (9m 25s):
Yeah. And so it's just, it's been really fascinating, but it's also given me a fresh perspective that I then take back to cyber socket every week. So I'm still doing cyber soccer 10 hours a week. I just am not in the details of every day. Sure. So

4 (9m 45s):
That's a big move for you a couple years ago. Yeah. Up and moving from LA to Kansas. How has that been for you?

3 (9m 52s):
Yeah, that was actually a good choice because you know, LA can be kind of a grind and the things I moved there for at 26, I got, but it wasn't what I wanted anymore at 50. So by the time we kept coming back and forth to visit Michael's family here in Kansas, and I came in all different, all different seasons, saw the worst of it and the best of it. And all the, while I, in the back of my head, I was kind of secretly thinking it would be neat to live there.

3 (10m 24s):
And, and it was decided when we came here for the holidays, one Christmas and one house shopping, and I saw what I could get seven, we bought a house before we'd even wrapped up life in LA. And, and that was that, but it, you know, so there was still, there was a festival, there's a family connection. It's that? And it's also just, you know, we kept looking for another, a different place to live in the U S because we're building a house in Costa Rica.

3 (10m 56s):
So we needed someplace that's here and someplace where we could at the time, the plan was both work remotely. And I'd, this was, seemed like a good place. And now my parents are even here. They sold their house in San Diego and bought a really nice house here. And so we're all here. So this big basically home, but it's basically home-based now.

4 (11m 19s):
That is completely awesome, man. You seem to really love it. I think that's, I'm really happy.

3 (11m 24s):
Yep. And then at this point we both have jobs that have tied us into the community here as well. So we're both, we're both working in marketing and both working with the digital stuff. So just, just working for competitive companies, which makes her interesting and still to dinner conversations where we may be working with the same client, but can't talk about it. Work for another television station. Yes, he is.

4 (11m 51s):
That's awesome. That's awesome. I love when you know, you don't want to use to sell radio advertising. So, you know, I find that fascinating that, that now you're, you're, you're that you're the herb tar like of, of Wichita.

3 (12m 9s):
I don't know who herb Charlotte is.

4 (12m 10s):
Oh God. You're so young, man. You never watched never. You never watched WK RP in Cincinnati.

3 (12m 17s):
Oh, I remember that show when I was a kid. Yeah. Yeah.

4 (12m 20s):
Herb Tarlek Viet was the, yeah. Now you remember, now you remember he was the, he was the sales manager with all the, with all the crazy sport coats and stuff. Yep. Yep. So you're now the herb Tarlek of Wichita. I love it. So how do you feel the adult industry has responded to the COVID 19 pounds?

3 (12m 43s):
Well, I think studios are shut down. Production did so out of a sense of responsibility, but I think that what they did was they basically just dropped everyone off the face of the earth with no recourse. So honestly, I don't think they did a very good job of it at all because the industry has always been structurally extremely caring about its own talent.

3 (13m 14s):
Most companies, not all, but most companies have just simply dropped everyone. They've dropped the people that worked in, in inside the companies they've dropped the talent, who based it suddenly found themselves with zero income. And I think that, you know, they dropped a lot of the ancillary people that do the production work for them or finished their videos and all of that other stuff. They just simply dropped everyone. And, and I understand economics, trust me, I'm a good capitalist.

3 (13m 45s):
But what they did was basically poisoned the well in a sense, because they shown everyone how important they really are to the functioning of these companies, which in a lot of cases shows that they aren't very far important. Yeah. And I think there's a lot of

4 (14m 1s):
Disposables for parts. Yeah.

3 (14m 4s):
Yeah. And that, and there's always been that tension in the industry where the models and the talent have been referred to using terms like content as if they're just an object or a commodity. Right. And anyway, so I think that we've just seen that super illustrated once again. And, and I think that there is a backlash that'll happen with that where studios will expect loyalty again, once they start producing that loyalty will probably not come back.

3 (14m 36s):
Or if it comes back, it's going to come back to the price. Yes.

4 (14m 40s):
Especially with the, with the clip clip and cam market being what it is. People can do things independently now.

3 (14m 48s):
Yeah. And I think that because so many people have now been forced basically doing stuff solo, I don't think you're going to woo them back when now they have, they have more financial independence than they've had before. The only way to get the really qualified people back, it's going to be to pay them better and to make, maybe make more guarantees, right. To sign people, to contracts, whether they're getting, or they're getting salaries and treating and treating them like proper employees rather than just everyone pretending everybody's an independent contractor.

3 (15m 22s):
Sure, sure.

5 (15m 24s):
How do you feel like the LGBTQ market has evolved in the past few years?

3 (15m 30s):
I tell you the truth. This is part of what made my decision to pursue work outside the industry is that I think the industry in a lot of ways has eaten itself. The, the pool of people playing in the market has gotten a lot smaller over the last 10 years. Lots of thoughts of smaller companies have either disappeared or consolidated and the larger companies and therefore the pool of people and personalities in it has gotten a lot tighter.

3 (16m 3s):
Right. And I think that that's where innovation has now stifled like that we've gotten into a wreck with a lot of things. The LGBT market has a few really successful companies and then dozens of small struggling companies. Sure. And I don't think they see there's less reward for them because the traffic market is locked up and they cannot not compete. And so I think, you know, there's a lot of people I know that I talked to who are very discouraged about their ability to continue doing what they do.

3 (16m 39s):
Right. Cause it's just a function of how much energy do they want to put into a diminishing return. Sure.

5 (16m 51s):
So, so, so where, so along those same lines, where did all of the small, independent gay content content producers go?

3 (17m 4s):
A lot of them have just left the industry altogether, or they, they wrap themselves up into the affiliate program, aggregators, you know, and are hoping to make them living through that by having someone else manage the, the affiliate side of things and hopefully traffic. But I know that for most of the people I talk to do that that's also not been successful. So I think people are looking at trying to extricate themselves from those contracts that they can, or they're just leaving and moving on and doing other things.

3 (17m 40s):
Sure. Most people had something they did before they delved into the adult friend realm. So a lot of people I know are very busy with whatever that is. And I, you know, so I think at this point there's a lot of the traffic market for adult traffic is really tied up in the, and a couple big networks and traffic brokers.

3 (18m 12s):
And unless you have a lot of money to play, really, it's very difficult to get any effective traffic. Oh, of course, of course. And, and I think that serves the larger companies just fine. They don't care. It doesn't affect them and they don't see it from the small company point of view, the smaller guys I see, cannot afford to buy enough traffic to make the returns they need anymore. Hmm. Got it.

5 (18m 38s):
Okay. So I know my opinion on this, but I'll ask you,

3 (18m 43s):
What do you think

5 (18m 46s):
Trade shows are relevant anymore?

3 (18m 50s):
Personally, I stepped back from my 90 a year to two. No, because here's the thing. The people I needed to do business with the most weren't at the trenches anymore. And that was largely the content producers and, or the true powerhouse affiliates. They were not showing up at the trade shows, not, not in the numbers they used to the trade show simply became the ancillary business. People, all talking to each other and the same people talking to each other over and over and over again, following each other around.

3 (19m 26s):
And it, you know, a room vote with representatives from the third party billing companies is wonderful. They're all great people, but I only have room for so many merchant accounts

5 (19m 39s):
Or traffic or traffic or traffic people, which seems to be what is overwhelmed with shows lately.

3 (19m 45s):
Right? And we always have two merchant accounts at any given time, but I can't hold a merchant account from everyone that wants me to have one with them, of course, and have, you know, relationships with every IP SP it's just not possible to do all of that. And everyone is tripping over each other, telling you why their rates are better, their throughputs better at the cysts, it's just nonstop. And then the affiliates that do show up or the affiliate reps that show up from studios all say the same thing.

3 (20m 17s):
Their conversion rates are the best. Our content is the best. Well, everyone's not the best. It's not true. And everyone's conversion rates are wildly, not, not the same. And we know that because we're, we're an affiliate of 200 companies and we, and we track every affiliate program. We promote across our network of websites. So because we have the cyber socket site and older, gigantic monstrous, one that called juicy goo. And then we have a bunch of blogs and we, we move companies and, or programs through our network of sites.

3 (20m 56s):
It's a closed network. We don't really do traffic deals with anyone. We don't, we don't because there's just no outside source there, it's all self-generated stuff. And so when we look at the ratios and we look at the, you know, whether we think companies are being honest or not, and you know, when we send 3000 clicks and it's a zero conversion yet publicly on their affiliate page, they're saying their conversion ratio is one and 150.

3 (21m 26s):
Like you're lying. When I know that someone else is a hundred, 100, 150. So I know that the traffic that we generate convert, but it doesn't convert equally. Oh, of course. Right. Of course.

4 (21m 40s):
Yeah. And everybody's the best and the greatest, right.

3 (21m 43s):
That leads me to the other part of the problem, which is this weird overreliance on the affiliate market, but it's also, it's treated the affiliates all along as if they are a problem and not a solution. So there's a lot of antagonism about affiliates, right. But then also a lot of affiliates became bullies to the content producers telling them, well, we're not sure your site fits our paradigm. So there's just been this weird thing all along.

3 (22m 14s):
But the affiliate market, I think, is dying quickly, the way it's being managed these days.

4 (22m 21s):
Yeah. I think that has a lot to do with it. Certainly it can work. It just has to work the right way. Again, I have an opinion on this, but what, what do you think is wrong with the industry marketing paradigm?

3 (22m 39s):
I think it allows someone who, yeah, so there's a few cup. There's a couple big things. One, I think there's been an over reliance all along the way on this affiliate model, I built the website. Here's my content. My content is, is great. A your now your job is to sell my content. And if you fail to sell my content, it's because you are flawed or your website's flawed, or your traffic is flawed.

3 (23m 11s):
And therefore, and also this, when someone comes to you to buy traffic from you, they want to buy it at the super cheap discount rates that the traffic brokers are selling junk traffic ads. And so the buyers on the other side, they're chained to basically belittle you belittle your website and the little, the conversion rates, no matter what they really are, because you can never tell, but they're basically trying to bully you into, into lowering your prices to a point where it's very difficult to sustain that, even selling those things.

3 (23m 44s):
So I think, I think that, and you can't compare junk traffic from tube sites and, and traffic inside of these broker networks to direct traffic and the curated sites. It's very different. One is hyper qualified. One is who knows what? And I think there, and I think there's, so there's a culture right now where that's, those are the two extremes that we have and buyers are generally not that invested in the industry.

3 (24m 16s):
They come and they go from the company. So they don't really work on building longterm relationships with people either. So it's, they're not, not following the, the general rules of marketing. What should, the things that I get to use when I'm selling TV advertising or, or national digital campaigns, we're working on the same numbers and we're looking at ROI, but it's professional and people treat each other, mostly respectfully. A lot of agencies still have kind of dickish people in them. But, but, but that's,

5 (24m 48s):
I remember right.

3 (24m 51s):
Culture and the culture exists, but I think it's translated into the adults fear, but worse because it's dominating the adult space. Got it. So, well

5 (25m 4s):
Obviously race in Americas is, is certainly a hot topic right now. What changes do you think our industry needs to make regarding race

3 (25m 16s):
For the last 23 years? As long as I've been attached to this industry? It's been a thing that my friends and I have talked about. There is systemic racism in everything about the industry, there's systemic racism and everything about American culture. And then a lot of, a lot of countries, right? Not just, not, not just Western countries, there's all this thing about the other, but in the adult space, they've always, basically justified it by saying things like, well, it doesn't sell.

3 (25m 52s):
And if it doesn't sell within, we don't make it. And our job is to sell. So it's not that we're racist. It's just that we're only gonna make the thing that sells or does the thing that sells the most, but that has translated to treating models of color as if they are only useful for that commodity. That's about race. So, because we're so busy, only looking at people as they're in there in terms of their value in a racialized product, we will never get rid of racism in the industry because you're always going to be the black model or the Latino model, or

5 (26m 30s):
Okay. In other words, in other words, if you're the black model you gotta to be on the black site.

3 (26m 37s):
I heard some people saying on the experts thing, once we've sought our quota of black or Latino content for the year we're done. So sorry, we can't use you. And then, and that is, and that's because everyone's just looking at things in terms of these categories. I don't know the solution to that though. I see the problem. We can identify the problem, but you know, you can't force companies to make a thing they can't sell.

3 (27m 9s):
Right. But we also need to start at least talking about race in a different way. And instead of pretending that it doesn't that the problem doesn't exist. I know on the gay side of things, black models that have been friends of mine over the years have always talked about it. Have always been, say how they feel and how they don't feel valued and how they don't make as much in general. And I think that's, it is sad. And I think it causes a lot of people to feel very discouraged about it.

3 (27m 43s):
But again, Islam, this models are treated as disposable commodities rather than intrinsic parts of the company. I think whenever you get past that, Oh, that, from that, from that standpoint, I guess there isn't racism. Cause they're all treated that way. Well, there, I think they're the racism is that those people of color are treated even worse because they're told that's the sad part, right? So they're all, they're all not treated well right there, but people of color are treated even worse.

3 (28m 17s):
And, and so, you know, so like with our award show, I'm not sure where we're going with our categories. I know that the other companies that made react made statements of there will be no, no racially themed categories. I haven't made that decision yet. We haven't put out our nominations categories yet because I'm going to be talking to different models. Who of color find out what they think. I want to know what they think. I'm not in a public forum. I want to know what they think.

3 (28m 47s):
One-on-one because I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of the jerk reaction to when people say things that don't represent what someone else thinks they should say. So I want to talk to people off the record first, get a good feel for how different people are feeling about things. And then we'll make a decision. Cause I've already, I've did a little straw poll on Twitter. The other day, I was asking people that they thought, and I wanted only response from people of color.

3 (29m 17s):
Oh, interesting. Do you want, do you would, of course I got lots of white people with Rupa Kenyans chip, but it's just, okay. I didn't even ask their opinion. You got it anyway. That's well, that's white people, but wait, wait, what do you need? My opinion doesn't matter right here. So, but I got two sets of feedback and they're, you know, that are contradictory. One is no racialized categories at all. And the other one says, no, we need to have distinct categories because they get lost in the bigger categories.

3 (29m 51s):
And there's a lot of people who do a lot of really good work and they want to be recognized. So I don't, there's no easy solution there. And we've gone round and round this, this monkey for years, because in a 20 years ago, we'd dropped a couple of the racial categories based on the suggestion that someone had. And we did. And we, and then we got calls from a couple of different people, basically claiming that that was an example of us being racist because we dropped the categories well.

3 (30m 30s):
So we added the categories and we've tweaked the names because we're trying to do our best as white guys, right. Who run a company to respond to the community in the best way we can, but I feel B and I, so our responsibility is to do that. But I'm also, I can, I only approach it from the opinion of a white guy, who's lived a white life, right. So I, you know,

1 (30m 56s):
But you're doing everything. You're doing everything you can to get the opinion from the people who really matter.

3 (31m 3s):
Well, we're trying to do that even better now. So at this point, because the topic is on a forefront of everyone's minds, I'm trying to get a really good feel for how people of color in the industry feel about it

1 (31m 17s):
When you're going about it. You're certainly going about it the right way more of it.

3 (31m 21s):
Yeah. Well, I hope so. That's our goal. So

1 (31m 26s):
Now you are certainly a pioneer of this industry, where are the rest of the pioneers gone?

3 (31m 33s):
I've left the industry altogether. And I think that for some people, it was a lot of fun in the beginning when we were creating things out of center. When there, when, what it's going to look like was still an open question and people were creating new things, new sites and new ideas all the time. And so the question of what's new would produce some really interesting answers. I've watched, you know, a couple of really innovative companies try to come in and, and help the industry evolve in new ways, but the industry didn't want to evolve yet.

3 (32m 10s):
So things like some things like VR, VR technology, is there, the cameras are there, the sets are there. People are buying those things for gaming, but a lot of companies just aren't really interested in pursuing it right now. And, and I think that meanwhile, the mainstream world is pursuing it. So, you know, it's something that people are going to have to do whether they want to or not. But at this point, I don't believe that the industry is driving technology the way it did 15 years ago.

3 (32m 41s):
I think it's become a follower. And I'm, so this and that is our opinion, right?

1 (32m 50s):
Well, you're not, you're not short of them, but they come from a very, they come from a very, a well-schooled place in terms of, in terms of technology, what is the industry doing wrong?

3 (33m 8s):
Okay. I don't want to use the word wrong, but I think there's a reluctance to adopt new technology until they see their competitors doing it. So everyone's doing a look, wait and see thing and following the leader, but no one wants to be the leader. Yeah.

1 (33m 27s):
Yeah. But, but Morgan Morgan, that I've been in this industry now for like 17 years. Okay. Not as long

3 (33m 33s):
I, you

1 (33m 35s):
Ever seen this industry be anything but followers?

3 (33m 40s):
Well, I think in the very beginning of it all, when we were building the things like the subscription models that became a standard across the world while we were doing things like that, that was, that was innovation. When we were using computers in cams, in a new way that people hadn't seen before, that was innovation. And I think, and I think around 10 to 15 years ago, it just stopped being the innovative side of things.

3 (34m 14s):
You know, at one point this industry was really a part of things like CES and that we were, we we're an ancillary part, but part, right. And I think there were a lot of interest. There were a lot of tech people that were in the industry as well. Now it's basically, there's an awful lot of people that are just, you know, people that look at spreadsheets

1 (34m 40s):
Well, as mainstream business, as more mainstream people come into the industry, I'm afraid. That's what you're going to get.

3 (34m 46s):
Yeah. Yeah. So, and you know, and I don't have a solution for that. That's why my own interest has gone to things outside of the industry as well. But in, but in doing that, I have learned those things that are out there that help drive business for, for mainstream company is digital tactics and things that no one in the adult industry has. And it's, and it's interesting because there's a reluctance where, where it can be applied as a reluctance by these people to try things that no one else is doing, even though mainstream companies have proven that they work.

3 (35m 31s):
But also a lot of them, I can't sell to adult companies. So at least to their adult facing product, if they have more mainstream products, we can do that. Things like ed and stuff like that, all work just fine on these things. But Google and other bigger players that underpin these things, aren't interested in adult stuff, but there, but there are solutions it's not entirely a lot. It's not entirely a locked laptop thing.

5 (35m 60s):
Yeah. I, I just want, I, I questioned why VR hasn't taken off more so than it already has an adult.

3 (36m 11s):
I think, I mean, I remember watching a couple of different conferences two years ago. One of the trade shows that I can't remember which one, but people talking about it and what I saw was studio owners themselves who were in that room, weren't even aware of it. Like half of them, half the people in the room were, but the other half of warranty, even aware of it and the questions really were where it is that, so I hear it.

3 (36m 41s):
Right.

5 (36m 43s):
Do they re did they read

3 (36m 45s):
Apparently not, apparently not that much. I don't know. And maybe today they do, but now there's, you know, the, but the, but the ground is shaking, shaking again. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I don't know that right now is the time for that. Some people will choose to innovate, but right now would be a good time to innovate. I think so, too.

5 (37m 5s):
So is, is reform of the industry necessary or is it even possible?

3 (37m 11s):
I don't know how you reform a thing that isn't, that isn't centralized. There's no governing body. There's no, there's not even a true trade association. Right. There's, there's a couple of organizations that do functions that a trade association one, but yeah, there really isn't one and there's no standards that everybody abides by. So

5 (37m 33s):
Is as close as we got so far.

3 (37m 35s):
Right. And I support them when I've been a supporter of ASAP for 20 years as well. Absolutely. But I, you know, I was on their board for 10 years, but it's, but I think that, you know, it's still a loosey goosey operation with a lot of people doing whatever they want and no one yells at them and hopefully they don't get in trouble. And, and just, you know, I don't know. I don't know that there's, I think that the major companies can reform themselves and reform by, by working with each other.

3 (38m 10s):
But, you know, there's always going to be outliers doing whatever they want.

5 (38m 14s):
This is true. So what's next for cyber socket.

3 (38m 19s):
I think we have to figure out what we're doing for our award show in January. That's probably the next big conversation that Tim and I need to sit down and figure it out. Whether we're going to do a live show. I don't think LA is planning on allowing large gatherings. I'm pretty sure the of West Hollywood will not

4 (38m 37s):
Kind of, it's still kind of early, but it's not looking that way. When, when you, you know, when you're, when you're still seeing record a record cases.

3 (38m 45s):
Well, I know the city of Los Angeles has basically said no large gatherings through the rest of the year. So that's, that's already a done deal. What it's going to look like the second or third week of January, I don't know. But I would imagine that X business in the same position, looking at how they're going to do their trade show, just do we, I actually just did worked with webmaster access to help them drive signups to their virtual show. One of the products that I sell in the mainstream world, I was able to sell to them and really it's called ATD advanced target, advanced target display.

3 (39m 25s):
So it uses some really cool uses voice recognition. So you know how, when you talk about things, suddenly you start seeing those ads. It's, it's that it's that technology actually is a real, it's a real thing, not, not a made up thing. So it's advanced target display. So it uses a combination of voice recognition, Google search stuff, and a couple of other demographic building things to help build an audience. You can focus it on a certain geography and then you apply a bunch of keywords and it basically builds an audience out of the internet that is specifically interested in the thing you sell or the thing or the thing you're making.

3 (40m 8s):
So I've applied that same technology to the American heart association and K drive to generate people interested in Medicaid signups. So it's like really interesting permutations of audience building, but this technology works for that. And ed works successfully for that. And so anyway, so there's, well, how do they get on that topic? We were talking about shows that I think that virtual shows are working.

3 (40m 42s):
I know what

4 (40m 43s):
I are. That was a good, that was a really good event. I enjoyed it,

3 (40m 46s):
Right. They had a thousand more people participating. I think that they were planning on a while than they ever thought they would have. And I think, and I think they were really brave to do it the way they did it. And to show everyone this can be done. And, and for the next year, it may be that more trade shows need to be that otherwise, but you also open up your audience. So I think for every trade, so there should always be a virtual option moving forward.

4 (41m 15s):
I think you're absolutely, I think you're absolutely right. And I think they're going to work out so good. You're going to start seeing that

3 (41m 23s):
Right. And I know like why not J he works for a company that has a technology, his main street job, right? He works for a company that has a technology that allows you to do that. So there's, there's plenty of, there's plenty of paths forward without being in person. I'm going to think in person events are great and meeting face to face is great for relationship building, but you know, the world we're in right now is putting limitations on that.

3 (41m 53s):
Oh, sure. Absolutely.

1 (41m 56s):
Well, yeah. I hope there will be more virtual shows because I don't think physical shows are going to happen this year.

3 (42m 2s):
Right. And I, and I might actually attend nine virtual shows a year, but there's no way I'll ever go back to showing up at nine shows a year.

1 (42m 11s):
I know I never did. I never did. Morgan. I think the most I ever did in a year, it was like six.

3 (42m 17s):
That was too much. So it's rough. And the older you get, the harder, it gets

1 (42m 23s):
Hard on the body. I'm 62, man. I ain't gonna, yeah. It's a SS not going to happen. Well, Hey, I'd really like to thank you for being our guest today on adults. I broke her talk and I hope we'll get a chance to do this again really soon. My broker tip today is part, one of what to do to make your site more valuable for when you decide to sell it later first, make sure you're converting as much of your traffic as possible. Traffic's expensive, whether it's search engine, traffic, review, site, traffic, or affiliate traffic, you pay it a lot for this traffic.

1 (42m 57s):
So make sure that when someone lands on your site, you give them every opportunity possible to either spend money or do whatever it is that you want your visitors to do. In the case of a pay site, make sure your billing options allow as many people as possible to buy, have multiple ways to pay in North America. Most everyone has a credit card, but in other parts of the world credit cards, aren't used nearly as much in Europe. For instance, credit card usage is low. So look for billing options that will match the areas where your traffic comes from in Europe, ACH and debit cards are used a lot in Africa and other developing countries.

1 (43m 36s):
Many people pay by mobile, do your homework and find out how people pay in the regions. You get. Most of your traffic, it will make you more money. The worst thing you can do is get a visitor, have them want to buy, but since you don't have their preferred way to pay, they can't buy. If you're looking for suggestions, feel free to get in touch with me via my website. Along with this is to improve your user experience, make your site attractive and easy to navigate. People have more options than ever these days.

1 (44m 9s):
I can't tell you how many sites I go to. Even some that are owned by large companies, where the navigation isn't obvious to the user, you poke around the site for what seems like an eternity to do something that should be relatively easy. Keep it simple. Before you launch any changes to your site, ask your friends to go to the site and check it out. Unfortunately, designers and tech geeks don't think like us. You need real people to look at your site for you. The same kind of people who will be visiting your site next, make a good offer.

1 (44m 44s):
If you're selling something in the offer, isn't good. You won't make money. It's plain and simple as that. And if your offer is to contact you or get more information, then make the offer attractive and easy to understand. If you're selling something, make buying easy, show them an easy way to buy and then leave, help them by making suggestions on what to buy. amazon.com is the best at this. They always have suggestions on what to buy based on your buying and browsing history. They use AI to do this.

1 (45m 15s):
There are AI engines available these days at a modest cost. Look into this. If you can, don't clutter up your site with unnecessary items, buttons, and images. Keep it as simple as possible. The best and most successful sites are the simple ones. The ones that lead you to take the action you like them to do. It's not that hard. Just remember when you're putting together any site, try to think through the buying process, like a human being, whatever you do, don't turn over that process to your designer.

1 (45m 49s):
Don't just say, build me a website. What you'll get at the other end will not give you what it is. You're looking for. Give them as much direction as possible and make it easy for them to build a site for you that makes your business succeed. We'll talk about this subject more next week and next week we'll be talking to Mark Prince of too much. And that's it for this week's adult site broker talk. And once again, like to thank you,

0 (46m 16s):
My guest Morgan summer. Talk to you again next week on adult site, broker talk. Hi, Bruce.