Do you ever feel ashamed of what you do?

[basschick]

it's not brave for me - it simply that if someone really can't accept me for who i am, i don't need them in my life. after all, having someone in your life whose constant message to me is "you're not a good person" is harmful to me.

and since my mom is who taught me to be myself and be proud of whatever i do, i can't see that i was ever in any real danger of her not speaking to me.

Well new year and all that, i might prepare my folks for it. I thinks its pretty brave of those of you whos parents know. Ill tell them its extra cash which is true but im working on going full time. If they disown me ill blame you lot (joke of course).

[Dzinerbear]

Ashamed? Not one single bit. At 30 years of age I dumped my big career job with the big salary because my doctor told me I'd be dead in two years. I decided to start doing things that I really liked. I began to look upon work as being a means to get money to do the things that I wanted. It didn't define who I was.

So after managing a hotel reservation call center for several years, I had no problems working in a bath house, then a bar, and finally a video store. While at the video store, I taught myself Photoshop and Dreamweaver, and eventually landed my first job at MANcheck. A year and a half later, I lost my job. Broke and unemployed, I bought my first five picture sets and started my little corner of the Web. Today people all over the globe look at the stuff I create. What do I have to be ashamed of? And as we seen by page-fucking Republicans, or meth-using Christian bottom boys, the people who try to make us feel bad about what we do are often the biggest hippocrites.

So the next time someone tries to make you feel badly about what you do, just lean in closely and whisper, "Everyone has a porn magazine under their mattress. So the next time you've got your cock in one hand and your porn magazine in the other, think of me."

Michael

[maxpower]

Sorry to say this but you really picked this career to reduce your stress? What did you do before this? Work for Child Protective Services, or as a Day Trader?

[Dzinerbear]

I managed a call center for hotel reservations, so everything was judged by how quickly your people answered the phone. Try having 35 agents on the floor all on calls with another 100 in queue waiting to be answered, that's stress.

I don't find this work particularly stressful. I'm my own boss, I work when and how much I want, I can work in my underwear, I can take cat petting breaks whenever I wantt, I like what I do, and I don't have anyone screaming at me to be more productive. Sure there are stresses when sponsors go tits up and don't pay you, etc. but overall, I enjoy my work.

Michael

[Sana Chan]

I managed a call center for hotel reservations, so everything was judged by how quickly your people answered the phone. Try having 35 agents on the floor all on calls with another 100 in queue waiting to be answered, that's stress.

I don't find this work particularly stressful. I'm my own boss, I work when and how much I want, I can work in my underwear, I can take cat petting breaks whenever I wantt, I like what I do, and I don't have anyone screaming at me to be more productive. Sure there are stresses when sponsors go tits up and don't pay you, etc. but overall, I enjoy my work.

Michael

! Cat petting breaks. Everyone needs those breaks. And Cat with Laser pointer breaks. That always makes me smile.:sunny:

[maxpower]

I did not used to be a stressed out as I am right now I guess, its just that right now I am doing 2 or 3 full time jobs at one time. I could go on about all the jobs I am doing right now, but I think most of you get what I am saying so I will spare you all that, besides who has the time to type all that crap LOL.

I have never had a sponsor go under that I know of, normally if the conversion ratios suck I do not use them so it really has not come up yet. Anyway other than losing a few recurring members, and some banner changes not really much to worry about there. I do on the other hand worry much more about these LL following in AVS’s footsteps now days. We are in a transition phase (at least I hope) with allot of the existing LL on the way out really do to them trying to maximize their profits at our expense, and we are still waiting for some new guys to step up to the plate and replace them. This is just how I see things working, as the LL take less and less sites from the “outside” the more and more their sites become stale and their viewers become more and more inundated by the same sites pushing the same products. Sorry but I am a capitalist and believe in the open market, and competition. With out true competition between webmasters things become stagnate that’s just how the world works:boring:

[maxpower]

I do wish Lee would add a soap box smiley for me

[shackzinc]

I'm not ashamed at all, and I agree that we are all providing a very important product that people want and appreciate.

[Ben]

I do on the other hand worry much more about these LL following in AVS’s footsteps now days. We are in a transition phase (at least I hope) with allot of the existing LL on the way out really do to them trying to maximize their profits at our expense, and we are still waiting for some new guys to step up to the plate and replace them.

I agree about this with you Max. Ive also noticed alot of LL starteed making up twisted rules or just plainly rejecting perfectly regular sites. Even when they list you the traffic is nowhere near to what it used to be just a year ago. Basically you can make several new sites, get them listed with several LL and not make a dime. It's not encouraging.

Just for example... linkmeallover (and JUB in the first year of their existance) used to send me thousands and thousands of hits to a site, and this really did produce quite a nice number of signups. Today it's 100-300 hits and probably no signups at all.

I'm not optimistic regarding somebody new taking LL job in the manner it used to be though. I think everyone will have to build his own traffic with blogs, review sites etc... but what will happen when blogs become oldfashioned? :bigears:

[Chilihost]

I run a successful business that I started myself to fulfill a demand. I have grown it over the last 6 years and stuck through some hard times to get to my level of success. I do it well, so I am proud of it!

cheers!
Luke

[maxpower]

I agree about this with you Max. Ive also noticed alot of LL starteed making up twisted rules or just plainly rejecting perfectly regular sites. Even when they list you the traffic is nowhere near to what it used to be just a year ago. Basically you can make several new sites, get them listed with several LL and not make a dime. It's not encouraging.

Just for example... linkmeallover (and JUB in the first year of their existance) used to send me thousands and thousands of hits to a site, and this really did produce quite a nice number of signups. Today it's 100-300 hits and probably no signups at all.

I'm not optimistic regarding somebody new taking LL job in the manner it used to be though. I think everyone will have to build his own traffic with blogs, review sites etc... but what will happen when blogs become oldfashioned? :bigears:

I must say that I believe JUB has done a excellent job in avoiding most of the stagnation issues I see for so many LL now and in the future. I really do try not to call out any one site or service when talking about issues like this, but I do think just like UGAS in the AVS market JUB where the LL that blazed this trail to hell for most of us. I really have nothing but respect for the guys at JUB as I do see them as a leader in many ways, but that said I do not believe where they are leading us is necessarily a good place for the industry as a whole.

Before you think I am just calling out JUB I will say at least they still take real submissions from webmasters, and do return some traffic. This is much more than many LL do now days :rain:

[Ben]

I must say that I believe JUB has done a excellent job in avoiding most of the stagnation issues I see for so many LL now and in the future. I really do try not to call out any one site or service when talking about issues like this, but I do think just like UGAS in the AVS market JUB where the LL that blazed this trail to hell for most of us. I really have nothing but respect for the guys at JUB as I do see them as a leader in many ways, but that said I do not believe where they are leading us is necessarily a good place for the industry as a whole.

Before you think I am just calling out JUB I will say at least they still take real submissions from webmasters, and do return some traffic. This is much more than many LL do now days

Oh don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to say anything bad about JUB either. I mentioned them just because they are huge and used to send really massive traffic to submitted free sites, it converted very well and that's why the difference is that easier to notice.

I still like them, they accept sites and occassionally the traffic will convert. But it's not like in the old days and I don't think we can rely solely on that kind of traffic any more. Which really sucks cause I suck at generating traffic on my own

[SPACE GLIDER]

I'll care what people think of me when they pay my rent.

[XXXWriterDude]

Naw, I never feel ashamed, but I do understand that certain people in my family have a problem with porn, so I just don't tell them what I do. It's not about shame; it's about avoiding drama, period. Of course, pretty much the only person that doesn't know what I really do is my mother. Well, OK, and my father. Everyone else in the family knows, and everyone in the family pretty much agrees that there's just no sense in bringing it up, because Don and Jean just won't understand.

But I tell everyone I meet what I do, and I have no qualms with it. Also, because I have a very psychological, sociological goal in mind when it comes to adult entertainment, a lot of people are very interested to talk with me about my job and my vision for adult content. To me, it's not just about sex and money; it's about promoting sex-positive messages within the gay community, and when you approach it from that POV, people are a lot more apt to treat you with respect.

[WegCash Robert]

I am not ashamed of what I do. My entire family knows except for my Great Grandmother and we won't tell her because she would probably fall over dead. She's a bible beater. They don't care what I do as long as I am not in the videos it doesn't bother them. I think they just worry about seeing me in a video that they buy . I don't plan on doing that so I don't really worry about it. People always ask me and what I tell them is that I am a Internet traffic broker and that I buy and sell traffic for all types of sites which is kind of true. It's not really lying . I love what I do and really don't care what people think. It's a great living. I don't think I could do anything else at this point. I see myself doing this until I retire.