Page 46 - AVN August 2013

CROWDSOURCING | By Stewart Tongue
Site Specifics Webmasters: What makes your favorite sites worth visiting?
As a group, adult industry webmasters spend countless hours online creating, updating and evolving a massive aggregate of sites in virtually
every marketable niche. Webmasters are also early adopters of new technologies, efficiency-minded business owners who are likely to use
digital forms of entertainment even more often than the general public. That led us to this query for August’s Crowdsourcing column:
“What makes your favorite sites worth visiting and what can be learned from them?”
TECH NEWS
Staying Ahead of the Media Curve
For some webmasters, what retains their interest is a site that keys in on trends and stays ahead of traditional news media.
“A lot of people have heard of Reddit.com, but I’m always surprised how many people have been slow to start using it,”
said Sean Holland, vice president and general manager at Hustler.com. “I find it does an excellent job of foreshadowing
useful trends for business and also gives an unfiltered way to check the pulse of the general public on a lot of consumer-
centric data that surveys or paid business research reports tend to miss. It’s a really useful site and there is always something
new worth noting there.”
Other sites offer news that’s meant to amuse. “For pleasure I visit TheOnion.com,” said YanksTodd, owner of
YanksCash.com. “I go there every morning to start my day with a laugh. It appeals to me because I appreciate wit, and
their comedic creativity is simply unmatched in the world of fake news. What I really enjoy, though, is the inadvertent
‘rick-rolling’ effect it has from a traffic generation standpoint. I would love to dig into their social stats and see the break-
down between the liberal audience appreciating the satire and the conservative audience clicking through because they
were inflamed by a fake article.”
46 | AVN.com | 8.13
In the information age, being current really isn’t
enough anymore. Your bookmarkers and subscribers
are likely to be expecting you to stay ahead of content
trends as well. During the newspaper era of years
past, people eagerly awaited reviews by critics like
Roger Ebert before going to see a film that had
already been in the theaters for a weekend or more.
Now, fans are unlikely to wait for a film to be
released, let alone professionally reviewed.
“Outside of work, YouTube.com and
ComingSoon.net are probably two of my most
visited sites,” said Ruth Blair, business development
manager of Paxum Inc. “YouTube for the obvious
reasons—you can find pretty much anything there—
and ComingSoon.net because I love movies. Coming
Soon provides at-a-glance movie and trailer informa-
tion in a format and layout that I find comfortable.
Of course, habit comes into play as well, I’ve been
visiting ComingSoon.net for years to get the latest
movie information.”
Some webmasters won’t even wait for movies to be
slated for release before taking an interest in them.
“I’m always returning to Stage32.com,” said Colin of
Wasteland.com. “I literally stumbled across the site
several months ago while looking for some cinema
lighting tips and quickly found out that it is the
project of a successful adult industry veteran friend of
mine since around 1996 or so. What I like about this
site is that it is jampacked with film directors, pro-
ducers, writers and creative folks all actively talking
about the creative processes that they employ in
making mainstream movies, documentaries, reality
programming and more. This large and lively group
of film folks really gives me great ideas and helps me
‘think outside the porn box’ for the movies I produce
at Wasteland and Sssh.com every week.”
Surfing for Fun and Profit
Of course, webmaster interests go well beyond film
and media, but the thirst for new information and
forward-thinking viewpoints about other fascinations
remains much the same. “I’ve been driving Chargers
for the last five years and I have a soft spot for them
now, which often leads me back to
ChargerForums.com for the newest points of view,”
said Kalyn of AdultFriendFinder Networks. “Any
question I have related to any year Charger, I can find
answered there. I’ve owned two since they started
coming back out and I’m currently driving a 2013
R/T Pitch Black now.” Kalyn also mentioned
TheFlyingKneeMMA.com, stating, “This site is not
business related yet but I’m an MMA enthusiast as