My views of Internext are mixed, in a sense, and in kind of a funny way.

On the one hand, I'm extremely pleased with all that CorbinFisher.com accomplished at this show and really glad we attended, had a booth, and sponsored a number of parties.

On the other hand, I know that this year's Internext was a small show for which the expenses involved in attending, exhibiting, sponsoring are hard to justify.

Let me explain... CorbinFisher.com is a new site, that has grown at a tremendous pace, and has quickly become one of the most popular gay adult membership sites out there. Yet in the last 2 years, we've never exhibited at any events, never sponsored anything, and never gotten to meet anyone face to face. I'm the only person any one knows as being with CorbinFisher, and I've only been there two months. So we wanted to get out there and really throw the name in peoples faces, as well as show a real presence. I also figured that (what was sure to be) a smaller show would be an opportunity for us to really stand out.

And so we exhibited. And sponsored 3 parties. And had a booth. And brought models. And brought every employee of the company. And attended all of the parties, web awards (at which our guys handed out trophies) and had a bunch of people at the booth every day.

Beyond the (well above average) dozens of new affiliates we've acquired in the last week, I wanted people to have a face to put with the name when they think of CorbinFisher, know that we're a force to be reckoned with, a site that is approachable and involved, and so forth. I personally know tons of people in the industry as Brian. But now I'm refashioning all those relationships as Brian From CorbinFisher.

As far as all that went, I'm very happy. And I think we were extremely successful.

Were it not for those points I just mentioned, though, and the unique circumstances that made us want to go all out at this show, I would have otherwise considered having a booth at this year's show a total waste of time and money.

Hardly anyone can justify the expense of walking the show floor and attending, and the only ones who can justify that expense and effort are attendees who go from booth to booth trying to sell their own product. In other words, as an exhibitor, you stand there and man your booth and 80% of the foot traffic that comes up to you are other people trying to sell you their shit, rather than people interested in your own product. For every 2 webmasters with traffic coming up to express interest in our affiliate program, there were 8 people hawking their mobile cell phone content distributor or trying to get us to switch to their unknown processing company or trying to sell us some wierd upsell feature they have or whatever.

Well, quite franky, we didn't spend the thousands of dollars that go in to getting a booth, staffing the booth, decorating the booth, furnishing the booth, etc etc etc in order to have random people come try and sell us stuff. We did it so that we could sell random people our stuff! . Why spend thousands on a booth when you can be one of the many who spend a couple hundred to go from booth to booth selling theirs?

Again, I'm still pleased with how the show went because all we wanted to do was exhibit in the first place and let it be known that we're here, involved in the market and industry, and so forth. We've never exhibited or attended a show in force, yet are an extremely well known site, so simply wanted to be present in force to solidify relationships and awareness.

But under any other circumstances (including next year), I'd not exhibit at Internext. It would not be a justifiable expense, I feel.