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Let’s say for example you’ve got a website featuring a great web girl (or you ARE a web girl running your own site), and over time you’ve amassed some good video, a large gallery, and you have some private sessions earning some money. But, you still haven’t reached the level of recurring memberships you would like to see, and day after day, more and more web girls are popping up and stealing some of your customers. So now you are looking for ways to increase your membership and the profile of your web girl, and you’ve tried most of the obvious methods of gaining traffic and memberships.

You’ve spent time in the newsgroups talking your site up and posting a few free pictures with a link. You’ve created some thumbnail galleries, and posted them on various TGP sites. This has generated some traffic for you, but you are still competing with the thousands of other sites out there. What you are looking for is a way to raise your girl’s profile and set her apart from the rest!

Let’s look at some of the ways others are doing this. Case in point here – Vivid Entertainment. Wherever you go in the adult world, you will hear the term “Vivid Girl.” Most surfers understand this to mean a better than average looking girl that has professionally-shot galleries, perfect makeup, and a perfect body. Why do people perceive Vivid Girls to be “better than the rest?” It’s real simple... Vivid markets them that way. Despite many of the culturally known “big name” companies in the adult business, few have been quick to adopt the new things. Everyone knows the names Playboy, Hustler, and Penthouse. Now, Playboy has always had a good marketing machine, but it seems focused on the “flat world,” that is, print, videotapes, and television. And while their website gets millions of hits per day, it is essentially a general marketing machine for the Playboy name. They do brand their products with the familiar Bunny head, but they really aren’t leveraging it for the Internet audience.

Penthouse is somewhere in “Never-Never Land” with their web ideas. I recently contacted them to inquire about web advertising. Obviously, one of my first questions was, “What kind of traffic numbers do you have and what kind of banner space and pricing options do you offer?” After waiting several days, you’ll never guess what the response was. They said, “Well, our advertising on the website starts at $25,000 per month.” I said, “OK, what do you get for that?” The response was very vague... “We primarily offer website advertising as a companion to advertising in the print magazine.” This is the classic example of how NOT to market to web entrepreneurs. Their attitude seemed to be to think in only print media terms, with the web material just being an extension of their print publication. I’m sorry, but I just have to say it... this is completely stupid! Penthouse is taking a name with recognition, and wasting an entirely new revenue stream, as well as the future for their publication.

ALL of the adult magazines have felt the impact of adult websites on their sales. As time moves forward, it’s obvious that the web will grow, and print will die. It only makes sense. The smart companies will see this and adapt to the new market. Those that aren’t smart will fall by the wayside and play catch up in the years to come.

Hustler has started to take a more aggressive approach with their Flynt Digital network, and more importantly, branding adult products. They’ve opened up a series of Hustler Stores, where they sell their products as well as videos, clothing, and adult products manufactured by Topco, with the Hustler brand name.

This is the type of product branding I want to discuss.

Now, I’ll warn you, I’m going to talk about my company’s program, The Virtual Sex Machine. But, let me explain. It’s no secret to any of you that branding a product gives that product extra selling power. Many companies sell imitation pussies, but if you can sell Jenna Jameson’s pussy, or better yet, a pussy molded directly FROM Jenna Jameson, you suddenly have a product with more appeal. It gives an additional level of realism to know that the pussy in the customer’s hand looks and feels just like the “real” thing.

Vivid does a great job of this. They take a girl, and make her a “Contract Girl.” They announce this to the world in a press release. I’m sure if they changed the color of paint in the studio bathroom, they’d issue a press release. I don’t say that as a negative, I say it as a positive. It gives the aura that there is something going on at Vivid ALL THE TIME. They are generating interest, and getting their name in print. That’s why everyone knows who they are. They work their contract girls as well. I’ve seen everything from appearances in mainstream programs to posters of the girls. Now remember, these girls aren’t usually big stars before they go to Vivid, but they sure are afterwards.

This is what I’m talking about. And, yes, it is possible for you, the Webmaster, to get results. But, here you are, a small Webmaster with a finite advertising budget. So, it’s necessary for you to leverage your advertising dollar and get as much coverage as you can. It wouldn’t be easy for you to go to a company like Doc Johnson, or California Exotic Novelties and have them brand a dildo or pocket pussy for you unless you could promise huge sales, or a lot of up front money. So, what can you do? Well, I’m glad you asked!

Let’s review what you need:

1. An inexpensive (or better yet, FREE) method of branding.

2. A way to set your star apart from the crowd.

3. A way to integrate this into your existing site.

4. A way to utilize what assets you have, and leverage them for an additional use.

OK, so here comes the answer. Here is a way to get a product branded to your star’s name, to utilize your existing content and your new content, to find a way to sell that content without limiting what you are doing now, to have a product on the cutting edge of technology, to be able to sell the product without investing money into inventory that will sit on the shelves, and do it all for FREE.

For example, Virtual Reality Innovations (VRI) has introduced a program, “The Virtual Sex Machine” that will allow you to use existing or new content shot in the first person or “gonzo” perspective and re-sell it for use with the Virtual Sex Machine. This content is enhanced with Teledildonics^TM by VRI for use with the Virtual Sex Machine. This allows the customer to feel the action as he watches it on the screen. Now your customers can feel your star as well as watch them. (More information about how this works can be found here.) You can have a version of the machine branded for use on your website with your girl’s name, and have exclusive rights to sell it.

What’s the catch you’re asking, right? Well, the answer is... none. Think about it. It’s in both companies’ interest to do this. You, the small Webmaster raise your profile, and the profile of your star by having a cutting edge product branded with your girl’s name, as well as having something different than all the other websites you are competing with. You generate another revenue stream for your content (because VRI only gets the virtual reality rights to the content), which allows you to keep the streaming, videotape, gaming, publishing or DVD rights to sell the content. Anytime you can sell the same content over and over for a fixed production cost, you are bound to make a profit. You don’t invest in any product, you don’t have to commit to any sales level, and you don’t even have to handle order or delivery. The sales of the product can be integrated into your website, and from start to finish, it appears to your customer that they have never left your site to place the order. From VRI’s vantage point, they get another star signed up for content, which they can sell to their existing client base. They get another variety of content to expand their customer base, and they have one more website marketing their products.

It’s truly a win-win situation at no cost, which is rare in the marketing world. Think about the other methods you’ve used. If you pay for banner space, or pay per click, you are paying out of pocket with the hopes of a percentage of the money coming back to you. Then you talk about “conversion” numbers. Of course you have to talk about this, because you are paying an out of pocket expense. But, if you didn’t have an out of pocket expense, it wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t cost you anything, so you don’t have a chance to lose anything. You only have the opportunity to make money, or at worst, you break even.

If anyone can find a better method of generating sales without risk, I’d sure like to hear about it.

Eric is the CEO of Virtual Reality Innovations, Inc. and is an inventor and an innovater, or what he likes to call an "Innoventionalist." He is a special kind of entrepreneur that not only finds new ways to build a business, but also takes existing and new technologies, gives them a twist, and finds a new way to use it for a new purpose, hence: Inno- (Innovater), -ventional- (Inventor), -ist (of, or being), and Presto!... Innoventionalist.

Eric can be reached at ejwhite@vrinnovations.com.