Most blogs began a circus of orgiastic, self-congratulatory praise the day they launch which they whip to a peak each December with their best-of lists. I’ve been decent enough to wait until the end of the final day of the year to begin mine.

Here are the ten most vital posts I’ve made in 2005, listed alphabetically and chosen by me. If you’re new to SugarBank – start here.

• An Open Letter to Google RE: Online Payments – taught me just how many people outside porn read Sugarbank
• A Silly Idea? – turns out, it wasn’t
• Be a Playmate: How to Get Into Playboy Magazine – because a Playboy photographer told me he now shows it to wanabe centerfolds
• Boils, Blindness and other Blarney - 9 Anti-Porn Myths Debunked – my most talked about post this year
• Finding Blog Bucks When Ads Suck? – a conversation starter
• Fuck Google – I predict that in a years time this will be the technorati’s default position
• Hookers vs. Harvard MBA’s – the post which started this all
• How to Make a Professional (Amateur) Porn Film #8 – Selling – because everyone loves the graphic
• Podnography #17 – Coed strippers, Wikipedia and Katie’s big O – my most popular podcast to date
• The Death of SuicideGirls – needed to be said

Kudos to The Observer for this stunningly well thought-through column on sex and prostitution, inspired by the British Government’s impending move to ‘crack down’ on sex work.

Quote: “…(If prostitution blighted communities) human civilisation would have collapsed thousands of years ago.”

Read the article here

As I write this I realize that ‘How can I look like a porn star?’ is a question as validly answered with ‘Get fucked on camera’ as anything else, but what this post is about is the oft-neglected art of make-up.

In an age of PhotoShop (and whatever the software’s called that removed the wrinkles from Naomi Watts’ neck in King Kong) a lot of people have conned themselves into thinking any blemishes they photograph can be fixed ‘in the mix’. It’s an appealing idea (somewhere between ‘Chocolate air’ and ‘Downloadable pussy’ in my book) but not a reality. Digital make-up is harder and more expensive to apply than the real stuff. While removing a zit from a scan is easy, applying eye-shadow, without making the person you’re re-touching look like plastic (which is only okay if that’s what they’re made of) is extremely difficult.

I’m not a make-up expert (I’m not even that great a dancer… hang on, that’s a mistake - I am a great dancer, they call me ‘Snakehips’) but experts I know (all too shy to be named, all currently working in Hollywood) have told me a few simple tips you can use to improve your looks, or those of anyone you shoot. Ugly’s genetic but fugly’s a choice, just say no.

• Foundation - Use a primer before you apply foundation, it’ll last longer.
• Eyeliner - The key to glamour. Stick to the rules of light and dark, choosing a color that suits your clothing (not matches unless you want to look like a twelve year old Japanese fashion victim). Line the upper and lower lashes and gently highlight the brow-bone.
• Eyeshadow - The darker it is, and the further away from the eye you blend, the more dramatic the effect. Try not to look punched.
• Mascara - waterproof is the way to go if you want to avoid that ‘crying teenager’ look when sweaty.
• Eyebrows - Comb them upwards and then use a pencil, as if you’re trying to draw on more hairs, to add definition.
• Lips - The younger the woman, the darker the red that’ll work. If you have a large nose, big chin or are over 30 choose a lighter shade, bright red lips will highlight your hideous physical ugliness. Blondes suit pinky red, brunettes can wear almost anything (you can see this for yourself when you cut through a blonde - the inside’s all pinky red).
• Skin - get a ‘glow’ by using highlighting products that reflect light away from the face. Moist formulations and illuminating cream blushers in pink or peach work well.
• Nails - to avoid looking like a tacky slut (always a problem when shooting double-anal) go for a classic screen-siren look, red with the cuticle tips left clear. Orange/red, scarlet and burgundy also work for this effect.
• Hair - should compliment the face, not overpower it. Less is more. Once it’s washed and conditioned, blast it with freezing cold water - it closes the cuticles, keeps the curls in place and leaves it soft.

Now I’m off to kill animals, urinate in public and otherwise reclaim my manliness.

The other type of porn industry research.

Figures detailing the size and shape of the jizz bizz are always fun to look at. They tend towards the overoptimistic, whomever’s behind them.

Analysts (Wall Street’s so-called experts) exaggerate because a lack of publicly listed companies makes researching (or using Google to read shareholder statements as I like to call it) useless. They extrapolate the few companies they have real data on, normally Vivid, Playboy and Private, and then guess at how much bigger than average these giants are. They guess wrong and their supposedly conservative estimates are always too large.

Industry professionals exaggerate sales based on a desire to seem like a bigger fish than they are. If you believed every CEO’s numbers the planet’s economy would be entirely porn based.

The Christian-Right exaggerate, because the bigger they can make the business seem, the easier it is to reverse reality and take the role of David against an imagined jizz bizz Goliath. In truth the churches have vastly more wealth, people, power and influence than pornographers.

This hasn’t stopped AVN, the industry’s leading magazine, from attempting to compile some data on what’s actually going on. Clearly their research isn’t independent, but they have referred to reports by Jupiter, Forbes, The New York Times and others which, assuming a modicum of honesty, should make these numbers as good as anyone else’s.

Highlights:

• 1B adult VHS/DVDs were sold in 2005
• 35% (the largest portion) of adult website viewers earn over $75K per anum
• 35-44 is the median age of adult website viewers
• 40% of online video-on-demand is adult
• 55% of hotel video-on-demand is adult
• 45M unique visitors are recorded by adult websites each month
• 13,588 hardcore video titles were released in 2005
• 90% of adult video sales are on DVD
• $700M worth of mobile adult content was sold worldwide in 2005
• $12.6B - is the value of the US adult market in 2005
• $4.8B (34%) - US adult video sales and rentals in 2005
• $1B (8%) - US adult magazine sales in 2005
• $800M (6%) - US adult cable pay-per-view sales in 2005
• $2.5B (20%) - US adult internet sales in 2005
• $500M (4%) - US adult hotel room video-on-demand sales in 2005
• $35M (<1%) - US adult mobile content sales in 2005
• $1.5B (12%) - US adult novelty sales in 2005
• $2.1B (16%) - US exotic dance club sales in 2005

Surprisingly, based on these numbers, the magazine industry is still significant, toys are surprisingly huge and the internet’s now bigger than the club industry. What does that mean for you? Argue among yourselves…

Download the data in full here (3MB .pdf) and here (2MB .pdf)

This post, and the next few, will make more sense when I tell you more about Internext, the Adult Entertainment Expo. It’s easy to drink a lot and then find yourself with a bunch of people you hardly know, talking about other people you know even less, in a stripclub.

It’s great.

While I sleep - enjoy this review of ‘The Contortionist’s Handbook’.

Another goody. If you’re a blogger and you haven’t yet read it let me know - I’ve got a few extra copies to share.

Yesterday I spoke on a blogging/podcasting panel at Internext. Though I was working from the same notes I’d used for the presentation I gave at the International Players Ball called ‘Treat your lady right’, the other panelists made some excellent points.

Most useful of all was an answer to the ‘How do I get linked from Fleshbot’ question I’m asked all the time. Here’s what you missed:

• Jonno (Fleshbot’s editor) has to make 12 sexually themed posts a day to satisfy his contract. That’s not easy. It means hes desperate to find high-quality stuff to link to and welcomes good submissions.
• High-quality means original. If you’re re-posting something you found elsewhere your chances of getting picked up are very slim.
• High-quality also means high-value. Lots of big pictures or a nice chunk of video are exactly what he wants. If it’s text, make it short, sweet, funny and brilliant (then add an original picture because every post at Fleshbot has to have one).
• Don’t use Flash or frames to present your content, they make it hard to link to.
• Make sure you’re able to pay for the bandwidth you’ll use if you make it in. A Fleshbot link can send a significant chunk of 200,000 people a day in your direction.
• Send your items (not your blog URL, but the specific post you’re submitting) to tips@fleshbot.com

This advice also holds true for getting linked from Wired’s sex blog Sex Drive and just about any of the other big blogs. Good luck (though if you do what’s been suggested you won’t need that much of it)

The 2006 Bloggies are now accepting nominations. Though anything that highlights great blogs is valuable, can the Bloggies really claim to represent the ‘best’, when only the blogs which receive the most votes make the shortlist?

You can nominate your favorites here. If you’re going to vote for SugarBank I’d suggest the ‘Best New Weblog’ category and thank-you.

The best of the blogs by the bloggers who blog them (this week starting with the letter ‘R’):

• Real? You decide (swelteringcelt.com)
• Reminder of Summer (domequeen.blogspot.com)
• Restraint (curvaceousdee.blogspot.com)
• Riding the Train (ambientstorm.blogspot.com)
• Right Now… (secretbrain.blogspot.com)
• Sanctuary (nyc-urban-gypsy.blogspot.com)
• Sitting Behind You (alwaysarousedgirl.blogspot.com)
• Snowballed (sexinga.blogspot.com)
• Stimulate Me, Penetrate Me (insatiablemrw.blogspot.com)
• The dancer… (dzerotica.blogspot.com)
• The Girlfriend (radicalvixen.com)
• The Peach On…. First Times (damnjezebel.com)
• Back at Last! (shaysexcolumn.blogspot.com)
• Blind Date (anyonesgirl.blogspot.com)
• Driving Passions (deltaofvenus.blogspot.com)
• Facial pictures… (pornster.blogspot.com)
• Fallen (in lust, love, sex, from grace….) (chaosnoir.blogspot.com)
• Femme de la cuisine (emergingontheotherside.blogspot.com)
• Girl interrupted……Pt 1 (whatsexmaycome.blogspot.com)
• Gonzo interviews Gonzo Vasili K (sexblo.gs)

More Sugasm #16…

Join the Sugasm

(All Sugasm participants must post the 20 Sugasm links above. The following links are optional, but if they are ommited the ‘More Sugasm…’ link above must me included.)

• House of Sedalia (theholidaylife.blogspot.com)
• How to Look Like a Porn Star (sugarbank.com)
• I’m not a smoker I’m a midnight toker (mimredbeard.com)
• Kendra on Abby Winters (iloveabbywinters.com)
• Kitkast Outtakes #1.2 (mskitka.com)
• Lexie and Kristin on Sapphic Erotica (simply-saphicerotica.com)
• Lina and Rita by Morenko on Met-Art (sensualarousalblog.com)
• Looking For That Perfect Pose, Maybe You Can Help? (tirepaddle.com)
• Pallet wrap (mnsss.blogspot.com)

Image courtesy The S-Spot. Links lovingly policed by Sabrina Morgan.

As I’ve been reminded this week, making the most of a trip to Las Vegas is about more than pure cocaine and deniability. The merits of trade-shows are debateable, but if you’re making money in the sex industry you will eventually find yourself in a convention centre, hopefully glad you read this.

• Empty your bag. On your first day you’ll pick up a thousand free magazines, leaflets, business cards and, if you’re lucky, female booth models. They’re heavy and you’ll regret carrying much else.
• Wear comfortable shoes. You’ll walk a couple of miles on the show floor, if your shoes hurt you’ll get pissed off, act like a prick and people will hate you.
• Pack water. Unless $5 bottles of water and $7 hot dogs float your boat, you’ll be glad of having something to eat and drink in your bag.
• Ignore the first hour. The start of the show is about long lines and trying to find people who haven’t yet got out of bed. Pretend it’s not there.
• Ignore the last hour. The last hour is about people going home, packing up shop and getting pissed off that you’re trying to talk to them when they just want to go home. Forget about it.

Why don’t hotels put free toothpaste in their bathrooms?

I arrived back from Vegas a few hours ago, once again having packed with all the care of someone fleeing an earthquake. When I arrived I realized I’d forgotten my toothpaste. As I’ve found in every hotel I can remember being in, from roadside motels to five star pads, the bathroom of my room contained hand soap, shampoo, towels but no toothpaste. Why?

What’s the logic behind giving a guy hand-cream, moisturizer and a sewing kit but not a little Colegate? Seriously, for the business traveler toothpaste, a porn DVD and a packet of condoms would be infinitely more useful than a shower-cap. I’m on the edge of starting a ‘Gideons‘ like organization which leaves care packages in bedside tables for weary travelers with a note, “This toothpaste was left here by a pornographer”.

Then again, people might start to question the flavor.

“Free your mind and you ass will follow.” George Clinton

That I’m building a Sex Blog network isn’t news to most of you. What will be is that I’m not doing it alone, and that my partner in this venture is Paul Scrivens and Co, the team behind 9rules.

The decision to team up was simple.

1. Collaboration is smarter than competition (ask OPEC or the Mafia)
2. Paul and his team have experience networking (I don’t)
3. I know the adult market (which Paul et al don’t)

Together we intend to apply a potent mixture of insider knowledge, new ideas and practical experience to build a network that serves bloggers as well as blog-readers.

In the next couple of weeks expect to hear a lot more about the network (including its name) and announcements regarding the blogs that will form its core. If you want to nominate a blog for inclusion, even if it’s your own, you know where to find me.

I remember when ‘blogger’ was just slang meaning African-American lumberjack. Now anyone with an opinion and an opposable thumb has a website, and the traditional phrase used to describe people who indulge in public monologues, ‘loudmouth prick’, has been replaced almost entirely superceeded.

That said, as a loudmouth prick, I’ve got to admit this blogging thing’s fun.

As part of building this network, I’m launching a number of new blogs. More than I can write and even if I could, my sense of humor would eventually bore me. To that end I need a few good, smart, ambitious people to help man some new projects. If you’re interested in sexy print, movies, websites or babes I might have something for you.

All writers working on SugarBlogs are paid a percentage of earnings (not a flat post per fee as is traditional) and the blogs in question are designed to be valuable resources to readers (making them valuable properties to advertisers).

If you’re interested in working with me, email a couple of writing samples (shorter is better) and please include a cover letter, which explains a bit about who you are. No attachments and no applications from people who think teamwork means compromise. It doesn’t - teamwork means having people to discuss compromises mandated from above with. Women, minorities and freaks (who can hit deadlines) welcome.

Now the Sugasm’s officially on a roll, I’m thinking about pushing it even further, expanding it to encompass a group podcast.

Like today’s Sugasm, Sugasm AV would be a compilation of sex-themed content, in audio and video form, glued together by me and podcast weekly. A group podcast will get far more interest (when posted across participating blogs) than anything a single blog could do, and I’ll pay for the bandwidth. Video content would be ideal, but if existing Sugasm participants wanted to make high-qaulity recordings of their text entries and email them in, that’d work too.

It’s an obvious idea (now I’ve had it). I was inspired a couple of weeks ago when, just hours after reading the Sugasm, I saw the best tits I’ve ever come across (when I say come across I mean that literally - open caskets rule.)

So - is there any interest or should I stick this idea with other great missed opportunities like that car I designed which runs on water the Blow-job-o-matic. Sugasmers - talk to me.

The best of the blogs by the bloggers who blog them (this week starting with the letter ‘H’):

• Head Case (domequeen.blogspot.com)
• Interview? (swelteringcelt.com)
• In Today’s Mail (alwaysarousedgirl.blogspot.com)
• I Want Fingering In the Fast Lane (damnjezebel.com)
• KITKAST #1.11 - The Sex Party, Pamela Anderson and Kitkast Field Correspondents (mskitka.com)
• Phone Hoing 101: How To Get Into Phone Sex Part 1 (talkingdirty.blogspot.com)
• Pleasure Under Foot (4dirtylaundry.blogspot.com)
• Reader Question - Threesomes and Infidellity (shayssexcolumn.blogspot.com)
• Secret Reads: SexWatts Per Hour (secretbrain.blogspot.com)
• Sexual imbalances and what to do (realadultsex.com)
• Shrunk Down to Size (radicalvixen.com)
• Sight Unseen - Short Fiction by Mr. W (insatiablemrw.blogspot.com)
• Simply Beautiful (mimredbeard.com)
• Super Hottie From Portugal (eroticandy.blogspot.com)
• The Good Girl (chaosnoir.blogspot.com)
• The Sacred Obscene (deltaofvenus.blogspot.com)
• Tip of the Tongue (theholidaylife.blogspot.com)
• zafira and jo on sapphic erotica (simply-sapphicerotica.com)
• A massage (emergingontheotherside.blogspot.com)
• Bloggers Wanted (sugarbank.com)
• Join the Sugasm

(All Sugasm participants must post the first 20 Sugasm links above.)

• Cock For Me (sexinga.blogspot.com)
• Diana And Darcy On Abby Winters (iloveabbywinters.com)
• Does "Ugly is as Ugly Does" Also Apply to Vibrators? (sexeteria.blogspot.com)
• Girl Interrupted……Ch. 4 (whatsexmaycome.blogspot.com)

Download this week’s links as HTML (3KB .htm)

I used to work for a stripper, when her career in the clubs was over and she was a self-made millionaire who only took her clothes off in studios she owned, staffed by photographers she employed, shooting cameras she bought.

Spending time in and out of stripclubs with her (and alone while working for her – it was a pretty great job) taught me more about stripclub etiquette than a million drunk guys ever could. Strippers talk to other strippers honestly, and through careful listening I became expert. A lapdance jedi.

Since returning from Vegas I’ve heard a lot of stories from guys who thought that the convention was taking place in the Olympic Garden (it was actually in Cheetah’s) and who are now trying to reconcile how much money they wasted using their strip-club dollars inefficiently. To spare them (and you) a lifetime of wasted money, I’m going to share a little of what I know, good bad and fugly.

White Hat Lapdance Optimization Techniques

The guys who have the best times in strip clubs are celebrities. The guys who have the second best time in strip clubs are the ones who make stripper’s lives easy. Here’s how.

• Order food. Stripping’s hard work, with long shifts and dancers are often hungry. If you have finger-food or pizza at your table they’ll hang out to eat and think you’re a nice guy into the bargain. Being liked means better dances (being licked means the dance of your life).
• Tip big. Strip club customers are walking ATM’s as far as dancers are concerned. Tip big early on and you’ll send a clear message there’s money to be made in spending time with you. Doing that means tipping more than average - 40-50% on your first dance should be enough to get a dancer’s attention (I never said this was cheap).
• Don’t touch. Most American clubs ban touching (travel abroad for more intimate interaction). If you sit on your hands your dancer will feel confident to push things, she knows that you want the sexiest time possible. The less excited you seem the harder she’ll try so relax. If you’re trying to penetrate her with your knee she’ll spend more time fending you off than getting you off.
• Make eye contact. Her eyes are the two white dots a foot or so above her tits. Look there occasionally and she’ll remember you know she’s a person.
• Buy her time. If you give a stripper a lot of money just to ‘talk’ she’ll assume you’re waiting for the chance to roll her in pepper and make a belt out of her hair. She’ll relax if she knows you understand the club’s just a thrill, not a dating agency, and she’ll work harder if it’s clear you’re smart enough not to blow your cash (don’t try the old “If I blow my cash on you, will you turn that cash back into a blow?” pickup line – it doesn’t work.)
• Be regular. This has nothing to do with taking a shit (unless you’re in a German strip club in which case you’ll know to leave before they play ‘The Strangler’s classic – ‘Golden Brown’.) Strippers survive via regular customers who ask for them by name. Being one means she’ll count on you coming round and make it worth your while when you do. That means your second visit should be more fun than your first.
• Buy her drinks. Many clubs require dancers to buy a set number of alcohol-free $10 cocktails each evening, ask her how many (it’s normally 2 or 3) and then ask how many she’s got left to shill. When you know, offer to get them all for her as long as she hangs out with you while she drinks. She’ll be relieved, flattered and grateful. Try not to think about what you’ve paid for – it’s mostly cola.
• Clap. Very few guys clap for strippers performing on stage, and most dancers hate being on stage. Clapping makes strippers feel more like dancers and less like vulva puppeteers. If George Clooney was watching strippers he’d clap and that dude gets laid all the time.
• Tip the stage. When a dancer you like’s on stage make sure she sees you leaving a tip. Aside from being universal code meaning “Congratulations on giving me an erection, come right over” this also reflects an appreciation of her art (I’m not kidding, I’ve seen strippers whose talent is worth a pair of large Pollacks).
• Be complimentary. Strippers know they have hot bodies, cute faces and great tits (if they don’t have any of those things, what are you doing?) If you can find something nice to say which isn’t clichéd or obvious you’ll stand out (“You work the pole like my kid sister, hey – come back.”)

Black Hat Lapdance Optimization Techniques

Trying any of the following moves makes you a scumbag but damnit, some of the happiest people I know are motherfuckers.

• Feign illness. The perfect illness is something fatal, believable and non-transmissible. Leukimia’s great, MS – without peer. Tell her your meds have everything under control but… (trail off and look at your drink). Then smile and say that you’ve made a bet with your friends that you can ‘check-out’ broke and happy if you work at it hard enough, tell her your presence in the club is part of the plan, because when your last girlfriend found out about your condition she left you. Enjoy.
• Take a woman with you. Strippers do stuff to, and for, women that men don’t see outside a thai-brothel. If you can convince a woman to hang with you, and get dances, you can witness a show that’s a thousand times hotter than anything a guy would receive. Try to position yourself between the dancer and the woman and make the dance a shared experience. When the rules go out of the window it’ll be hard for her to tell who’s doing what to whom.
• Ask her questions. All strippers have three names – their stage name (e.g. “Chardonnay”), the ‘real’ name they tell to customers so they feel they’re getting somewhere and spend more money (e.g. “Mary” – it’s always something deliberately plain) and the name they have on their drivers license and their parents gave them (I once knew a stripper who worked as “Destiny”, told people she was Sydney and was in fact Willow – which made her real name more ‘stripper’ than her fake ones). Until you know a dancer’s real name everything she’s telling you is bullshit. Of course, really smart dancers have four names…
• Hold out for the 2-for-1’s. Most clubs cut songs to about 90 seconds (it’s why you don’t hear much Zepplin) and 2-for-1’s offer marginally better value. They’re always followed by other dances but, if you have the balls to leave after your freebie, you’ll maximize your return on investment. You can’t do this with the ‘free’ dances some clubs sporadically give out – leaving straight after one of those will only prove you’ve no money (and poor people are slightly less attractive to dancers than guys in ‘Cunt Hunters of the Night’ T-Shirts.)
• Get a Chicago roll. A Chicago (Detroit, Philly etc.) roll is a fist-size roll of ones, wrapped in a few large notes. It looks impressive despite being worth less than a half a pair of Nikes. Letting a stripper see your roll sends exactly the right message (I’m-a-rich-guy-with-an-easily-manipulated-ego.)
• Fake being a regular. Ask your dancer when she normally works, and mention that you’re new office is just a couple of blocks away (you’re self employed and can set your own hours). If she’s working in daylight hours during the week, say you might come round and ask if she’ll mind. The dayshift, Sunday to Thursday, is dead in most clubs, she’ll want you to be there, and will work to ensure you come back.
• Go during the day. The only people who visit strip clubs in the day are unemployed pensioners and people spending welfare. If you arrive when it’s slow and have money to spend, dancers will compete for your dollars. Try a dance from a couple of people you’re indifferent about, tip big and wait for word of your presence to spread. When a dancer you are interested in approaches you, say “I’m sure you’re better than the rest but I’m bored and I think I’m going to call it a day.” She’ll try to convince you to stay, you’ll reluctantly concede and then enjoy a dance she thinks she has to work extra hard at.
• Be recommended. Playing to someone’s ego works 90% of the time in all areas of life. Tell your dancer that a friend told you she was the best he ever had (“…he was here with a bunch of friends a couple of weeks back, kind of stocky, Mike” – she’ll remember him just fine). With her professional pride at stake as well as her reputation she’ll ride you harder than a Chinese bicycle.
• Say you work for Playboy. This is a really shitty move but it’s tragic how well it works. Without a business card you’ll have to tell a story. Try the truth – Playboy won’t publish women who’ve posed naked anywhere else. Then tell her it’s your job to scout for new talent, but the clubs don’t like you being there because they think you’ll steal away all their best girls (that’s true as well). Tell her you don’t have business cards on you for the sake of discretion, but that you think she looks right for the magazine. Focusing on your guilt will help you last longer as she attempts to fellate you to a modeling career.
• Be a VIP. This is pretty easy if you look the part. Tall guys play basketball, white guys drive Nascar, black guys run record companies and women are lesbian TV executives (say you work on Desperate Housewives). Most people, including dancers, think fame’s sexually transmitted. I used to tell people I was a famous guys brother at clubs and hang in the VIP room getting comp’d while I waited for him to arrive. I know – I’m a bad person.

The ‘mainstream’ world is getting fairly excited by the prospect of this sex-blog network I’m working on with the 9rules crew (and yes, it does have a name but what’s the point of sending you to a URL with nothing on it yet?)

9rules CEO launching Sex Blog network

Paul Scrivens launching Sex Blog Network

- 9rules + Sugarbank = seksweblognetwerk – 

Sta arrivando il sex blog network

A lot of discussion about the concept, and wisdom, of networks in general has sprung from this. Andy Hagan’s at Performancing had this to say about second-tier networks (i.e. anything that’s not currently running profitably and wasn’t part of the first blog-network wave) and why they won’t work (from at blognetworkwatch.com):

1. Many new blog networks do not have the necessary funds to pull off a medium-scale project. You need a stash of cash to pay writers through the first six months (before major ad revenues come in and balance out this cost), and it doesn’t hurt to have money to throw at good development, design and hosting, too. (Yes, I’m aware that some networks have tried paying writers on a rev-share basis, but this seems to fail time and time again.)

2. Most new blog networks have an identity crisis - they can’t tell you what they are (besides a ‘blog network’), or what differentiates them. They are, in a word, generic.

3. They aren’t putting out content which is useful to the reader. Most of them just re-post regurgitated news without adding much value or commentary.

I’ve spent more time than most thinking about how to make money with sex blogs, and examining how the sex market differs from the mainstream. I wouldn’t be interested in networking sex blogs if I didn’t see profit in it, but the difference between me and your average rastapedic capitalist is I think the easiest things to profit from are the best made, not the best sold. McDonald’s make crappy food and market it well. I’d rather make great things and then tell people why they’re worth buying. More long-term profit, less hellish self-loathing (you’re talking to a guy who once wrote ad copy - everyone in advertising hates themselves. Those that don’t should).

It’s clear to me that building the most profitable sex-blog network means building the one most useful to readers. So how’s that done and how can I address Andy’s points?

Here’s what I know:

1. The low hanging fruit is gone. If I was launching a network in 2002 I’d be thinking about link blogs designed around popular subjects. I’d be putting together an Engadget, a Boing Boing clone, or something like Fark. Just like everyone else – including many ‘new’ networks. Now that’s been done usurping the current heavyweights would require more expense than I can afford. Believe me, it can be done (as some of those blogs will discover) but the people equipped to do it aren’t working guerilla style (and I’m at least 50% silverback).
2. Content is king. This is worth saying because none of the big blog networks have chosen to focus on it. Their genius (and their greatest weakness) is linking to other content while adding a little editorial spin, effectively making the blog a rolling single-topic search. It’s the cheapest way to operate (I wish I’d been working on this early enough to occupy some of the prime link-estate these blogs do) but totally reliant on being first, fastest and foremost. New blogs stand the best chance of competing in a crowded market by producing content themselves, not just linking to it.
3. Cost-per-click (CPC) ads are inefficient. For perfectly understandable reasons, most blogs in most networks make most of their money from CPC ads, collecting their money ten cents at a time. The top-tier blogs do better, selling ads at a flat rate, but even then it’s a straight publishing model, and that means $24,000 a year is successful, $240,000 a year makes you a serious player and $1M dollars a year in ad revenue puts you among the elite. Of course, in the jizz bizz $24,000 a year is failiure, $240,000 is what a model earns running a decent fan-site and $1M dollars a year is what Midwestern couples filming blow-jobs take home every three months. 

Sex blogs don’t have to fall prey to the weaknesses Andy, or I described.

• “Many new blog networks do not have the necessary funds to pull off a medium-scale project…” This all depends on how you describe necessary funds. The money needed to launch a blog is relatively small (tens, hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on your style.) The biggest cost is writers wages and the obvious answer, making writers partners and paying them on a rev-share basis, doesn’t work well (as Andy pointed out) when your revenues are low. For rev-share to work writer income needs to quickly scale beyond the $10-$50 a post traditional networks can offer and for that to be true advertisers have to be paying significant sums, from the start. More practically, in order for a blog to grow fast, and attract readers and advertisers, it needs a lot of posts. If one writer, who’s waiting for a rev-share, is charged with that work it’s likely they’ll lose heart before the blog takes-off. Splitting the work across a number of writers makes the workload reasonable, and a real income can be generate for all involved without anyone having to write twelve posts a day.
• “Most new blog networks have an identity crisis - they can’t tell you what they are (besides a ‘blog network’), or what differentiates them.” How about a sex-blog network, dedicated to delivering the best sexually themed content to blog readers? A market that’s specific, large and totally underserved. Next.
• “They aren’t putting out content which is useful to the reader.” The solution here is to generate content, not link to it. By producing content (as this blog does) you become the subject linked to and guarantee readers that they’ll find stuff in your blog (network) they can’t find elsewhere. Getting to links faster than the existing link-blogs? Good luck.

So content producing blogs, with a clear identity should be hugely useful to readers as long as they can be funded properly. Luckily, in the world of sex, an infrastructure exists for paying webmasters for traffic, which is more lucrative than that in any other area (despite Amazon’s dubious patents – pornographers invented the affiliate program, not booksellers). Instead of paying for clicks, or selling ads at a flat rate, adult sites pay for conversions (new members). As new subscribers have a significant lifetime value, the rewards for finding them are large.

Good adult websites can consistently turn one in every two-hundred visitors into a customer when fed quality traffic. So for 200 clicks, where a cost-per-click ad on a ‘mainstream’ blog might earn $2-$20 (if typically paying one to twenty cents a click), an adult website can earn $20-$100 via a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) affiliate program. If an average adult website pays $40 for a new member (which is a fair estimate) that’s twice the earning protential of a ‘mainstream’ blog off the bat.

Additionally, ‘mainstream’ ads are usually for products which must be, mailed through the post, or experienced in a compromised form online. Adult ads offer immediate access to uncompromised content (an episode of ‘Lost’ from the iTunes store is compromised because it doesn’t look as good as one on DVD. A photo from a porn site doesn’t usually exist in another form, which makes the online version seem second-best, and is therefore uncompromised). Instant gratification and uncompromised content make ads for adult material significantly more effective than those in the ‘mainstream’. Additionally sex-content plays to a basic human need which is often capable of overturning reasoned consideration - Porn buyers want to buy NOW.

Which is why I think there’s a glowing future in being part of (or blogging for) a sex-blog network and am working so hard on building one. When it happens the revenue generated by the mainstream networks will seem minor by comparison, and the real winners will be the people who like to read about, watch and listen to, sex.

I’d like you to meet the Sugasm AV Orangutan. Primate’s are just the coolest.

Sugasm AV, like the Sugasm, will be an experiment in community marketing. The idea is to produce a single podcast, which contains segments produced by people all over the web. I’ll combine them into a single package, which will then be promoted across all of the participating blogs. This will run on my bandwidth and servers. As a group effort, it should be considerably easier to get into than doing a show on your own.

You don’t have to be a podcaster to participate. If you want to read something you’ve written go ahead. Video is what most people are into so that’s particularly welcome. Given the law, nothing hardcore will be accepted so keep submissions Playboy style or softer.

In order to give you the time to produce a segment I’m setting the deadline for this as midnight PST on the 27th. of January.

If you’re interested in participating, here’s how. Please take careful note as I won’t have time to individually respond to people who get it wrong.

• All files should be emailed to podnography@gmail.com
• All files must be under 10MB in size (if it bounces back, it’s too big)
• Yeah, that’s right - I make the rules.
• Audio files should be submitted in WAV, AIFF or MP3 format (MP3’s recorded at 192kbps or higher).
• Video should be submitted in MPEG (any variant) or QuickTime formats (sorry – no WMV, it won’t run through my edit system). Keep the quality high – otherwise it’ll look awful when recompressed (and that goes for audio too). Use the whole 10MB and you should be able to send me something pretty good looking.
• The no crappy video rule does not apply to anything shot with a mobile-phone. Mobile phone porn is hot.
• Keep it short. 60 seconds or less is ideal. I’m not going to edit anything, and submissions over 90 seconds will be rejected (think it though, 20, 90-second segments is a 30 minute show). 
• WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW!?
• Include a picture. Make sure it’s at least 1000px across its smallest dimension.
• If you email any huge files to my other email address I’ll put a bed inside your mothers vagina and fuck your sister on it.

I can’t wait to see who comes up with what. Abuse my inbox you nasty bitches.

The world’s first sex-blog network, which I’m building in conjunction with the team behind 9rules.com, will launch next month. It’s being built with readers - not advertisers - in mind, because everyone involved understands that a happy reader is more likely to buy something we recommend than an unhappy reader who’s wondering why the webpage they’re looking at seems to be made entirely of ads.

To help boost the network, and as an end in itself, I’m launching a number of new blogs over the next twelve months that I need writers for. The SugarBlogs (see what I did there?) are all aimed at existing niches in the marketplace, which can be profitably filled with a well-written blog.

Profit is not a dirty word (fuck is a dirty word, cunt – positively filthy). Unlike SugarBank, which was built to start conversations and make contacts, these new blogs have been designed to create content for readers. As these blogs will all be concerned with aspects of the commercial sex industry, the path from their content to advertisers is direct. It’s not only clever (which is fair to say because it’s not my idea), but it’s well proven in the adult space.

E.g. At Internext I spoke with an old friend who started a website based on exactly these principles eighteen months ago and is now making over $6M a year in advertising. It’s a free-site, which doesn’t take subscriptions, and doesn’t offer any access to photos or video - and it’s already making about ten times more per year than Boing Boing.

Isn’t porn wonderful?

In order to get these blogs off the ground I need writers, and before the network launches, I intend to start publishing the first three. Read through the following and if you’re (still) interested in being part of this project, writing for a networked sex-blog, let me know.

What are these three blogs going to be about?
The blogs I’m staffing now will cover three areas - adult websites, adult films and magazines. They’ll all be review-based.

How many people will work on each blog?
I’m looking for teams of four. That’s three writers and an editor (who has additional responsibility in return for additional pay).

Why so many people?
Payment will be based on a percentage of profit. That means no-one gets paid until we’re making money, and wise people would be cautioned to assume at least a 90 day investment of their time before expecting to see any significant return.

I won’t wait to re-coup my investment before sharing the wealth, but will pay myself back over time (I’d rather have happy paid writers, than pay myself back fast).

Using team means that no one has to kill themself in order for the blogs to thrive. It also means that readers get to experience a range of styles and working in teams is just more fun.

How much will I have to write?
Each writer will be expected to make at least two posts a week. Editors will be able to work with their team to exceed that, and I’d hope the real numbers were higher in almost every case. The faster blogs grow, the more readers they attract.

Each post will run 100-400 words, but there will be 1-2 hours work involved in researching and formatting each review.

How much do I get paid?
Blog editors will get paid more than blog writers in return for handling more responsibility and doing more work. Given a team of four, each writer will see 4% of net profit and each editor 8%.

4%!
That should be at least $200 a post when the blogs are making money.

This deal reflects the potential of these blogs based on their model. If the model were different, the deal would be different and might sound more attractive, but it would also change these blogs into the ‘just-scraping-by’ blogs, which the world has enough of and everyone else is building. Sharing large percentages of revenue doesn’t mean anything if no money’s being made. The question isn’t how big each slice of the pie is; it’s how big is the pie?

It’s far easier to understand if you look at the numbers. Let’s see how much you’d get paid for making 20 posts a month in some of the traditional blog networks:

Paid $10-$20 per-post
If I were to pay $10 a post to new writers, making 20 posts a month – you’d collect $200.

That’s $200 more than I’m offering today and it’s consistent but, if in a years time the blog you’re working on is making $100,000, you’re still getting paid $200 a month. If, by way of thanks, I then raise your per-post rate to $20 are you happy? (If you answered yes to this question look up ‘rhetorical’ in the dictionary and stop reading now.)

If the blog’s not worth $100,000 in a year, but is running profitably enough to keep you employed, is 20-40hrs a month of your time only worth $200? That’s not even minimum wage.

A larger percentage of a traditional ad-funded blog
Fact: 99% of blogs running Google, Yahoo! or other contextual ads make less than $500 a month.

Let’s assume these blogs beat the odds and make $500 a month with contextual ads, and that 50% of that money’s split between the four writers (leaving the rest for bills, other-staff, infrastructure and me). 25% of $250 makes your 20 posts a month worth about $60, or $3 a post.

Ouch.

Let’s be insanely optimistic and say these blogs rise to the very top and, like the very biggest contextual ad-funded blogs I know of, make about $10,000 a month in revenue

With the same math, you’d collect $1,250 a month. It’ll pay for a decent car, an okay house or a few big nights out each month.

Unfortunately it’s just not realistic – Google and Yahoo! aren’t good at delivering sex-related ads and, even if they were, paid at ten cents to a dollar a click, you’d need to make way more than twenty posts a month to build the blog to that point. More pages means higher expenses which makes me less likely to offer 50% of anything. Besides, can you really see yourself working hard for $50 a month, six months after launch? (NB: if you don’t know how hard the contextual advertising market is, read a few of the comment threads at Problogger. Ironically, Darren’s blog is one of the few that makes real money in the way he teaches.)

4% from Sam Sugar
At the start with you’ll make nothing at all.

That’s not too bad though, because you won’t have to produce a huge volume of posts, in order to create click-generating pages, to feed inefficient contextual ads. You can get your blogging done at the weekend and know you’re building for the future.

Let’s assume that these blogs grow like other sites I’ve built but, because I’m an imbecile and there’s a gaping hole in my plan I can’t currently see, in twelve months the blogs are only making 20% of the money other similarly structured websites do.

Assuming you keep posting 20 times a month, that’s $1.2M a year, or $200 per post, per writer.

Of course, if you post more, those numbers can increase (if we do as well as some existing sites using these principles, those numbers might be five times too small and, you could be getting $20K a month this time next year – wannabe editors can just double everything).

Of course, things might be slow, and there will certainly be unforeseen changes of tack, however as someone paid based on performance you can always be sure you’re being paid fairly. I’m also too smart to think that if the numbers don’t work for you, you’ll stick around. If I need to change the remuneration program to better satisfy writers down the line I will. I’ve been a poor writer too.

So you can guarantee this’ll be a hit then?
Nope – not in any way, absolutely not.

What I can say is that the network will bring more readers to networked blogs than they could ever find on their own. I can explain that this model is based on having decent numbers of readers, and I can tell you I’ve been personally involved in making a number of people very rich by applying exactly these ideas (in slightly different formats because you never make much by copying what’s out there).

I still don’t understand the model exactly.
If I described precisely how to implement it I’d put myself out of business so please forgive me, but key details are missing for smart reasons. Attempting to use the information in this post to implement a similar scheme as is stands could end in - shakes magic 8-ball - fiery death.

How do I become an editor?
Email me and let me know why you think you’d be good at the job. Based on what I hear I’ll assemble the teams. Editors need to be dedicated, hungry, have good writing skills and be on fast connections. You’ll either know, or learn to love, Wordpress (you have to make the sign of the cross when you say it too.)

What do editors do?
Editors will be charged with corralling their writers and maintaining their blogs. No posts will be published without the editor’s authorization, and they will determine the work assigned to each writer. As well as writing for the blog, editors will be charged with finding content for the blog (not hard – I’ll help a great deal with this), and managing the advertising (this doesn’t mean selling ads or dealing with money, just managing the ads as they appear on blog pages). They’ll also get to work with me.

What about my expenses?
There are none. Aside from electricity and your web connection, all other costs will be borne by me.

Thanks to the many people who’ve already expressed an interest in being involved in blogging with me. For those still excited about what lies ahead, email me regarding which blog(s) you’d be interested in working on, an estimate of how many posts you think you can contribute per week (allowing for 2hrs to watch a movie if that’s what you’re blogging, otherwise an hour per post should be fine) and tell me where you are in the world geographically (this is important).

Welcome to the team.

Sometime’s you catch the zeitgeist (that’s German for guy-with-zits), sometime’s you deliberately rip off an idea, and sometimes an idea’s so great everyone has it simultaneously. As a charitable individual (you should see this chick I slept with back in ’98), I’ll go on record as saying that I find a link between my repeated public statements regarding launching a sex-blog network, my announcement that I’ll be working with the team behind 9rules.com, and this announcement regarding a ‘competing’ network by a guy who’s just acrimoniously left the 9rules fold, completely impossible to fathom.

In case you haven’t got an email from them yet – here it is.

…

Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 2:58 AM

Subject:sexblogsinc.com is hiring

You’ve been invited!

So in the Late Spring of 2005 we will be launching SexBlogsInc., yes a massive sex blog network like none other With people who have been in the adult eterntainment industry, design industry and mass marketing industries. I’m sure this will be a huge success because of the energy and dynamics of the people involved. 

Terms

We pay our bloggers 100% of the first $250 in monthly ad revenue from their blog(s) - then 50% of any additional ad revenue. We have a bonus structure for additional ad revenue that comes into your blog. You get full editorial control over your blog, with only a few guidelines. And you get to own all the content.

Ok this is where you say: I’d like to blog for you!

Great. Send us a note at liberalcowboy@….com with your ideas for a niche topic within the sex industry. We are offering $100 Hiring Bonuses for people hired by February 15th, who post atlest 5 posts a week for 60 days.

The spelling mistakes in the above excerpt are all theirs (and the rest are all mine).

There’s nothing which confirms a great idea as certainly as being emulated so, whoever they’re emulating should be flattered their idea’s a good one.

The offer they’re making sounds pretty good – albeit very traditional. If you’re seriously considering joining their team - here are the questions I’d be asking:

1. 100% of $250 isn’t a lot of money, so what are they expecting to make overall?
2. If they want blog ideas, does that mean they don’t have ideas of their own? If you submit an idea for a blog but don’t get hired, will they launch an identical blog with another writer?
3. What experience of the adult industry do they have or are they hoping to learn as they go? Who do they know?

Despite not being able to offer a cash incentive, I am pleased to say the response from bloggers wanting to work with me has been flatteringly porky. I think they understand that they’re name and reputation is as much at stake as my own, and only want to be involved in something they believe in. If I was less interested in building smart teams who’ll work for the same goal, and more interested in getting blogs up, so I could say ‘look – it’s a sex blog network’ I might try cash, but I figure $100 wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Bloggers wanting to add their blogs to our new network, the wait is almost over. I’ll soon provide details of how and where to apply (and for those who think it’s solely up to my own discretion – it’s not). We’re going to build community, traffic and revenue, and I’m excited.

As for Sexblogsinc.com - don’t worry about me joining them, I haven’t been invited (to read all my networking rants wisdom, smack the ‘networking‘ tag).

The best of the blogs by the bloggers who blog them (this week starting with the letter ‘S’):

• Sex Type Thing (chaosnoir.blogspot.com)
• Six Girls Skinny-dipping on Abby Winters (iloveabbeywinters.com)
• Coach T…..Chapter Two (whatsexmaycome.blogspot.com)
• Sometimes You Just Miss Having A Penis (berkeleybiboy.blogspot.com)
• Strapping One On? (alwaysarousedgirl.blogspot.com)
• Tangled up (lumpesse.com)
• The Listening Brief (gentlygently.blogspot.com)
• True Secret: A Night With A Star (secretbrain.blogspot.com)
• Vixen, In All Her Sultry, Devilish, Glory (tirepaddle.com)
• Brett and Hiromi interview themselves (sexblo.gs)
• Hot teen lesbian sex on Sapphic Erotica (simply-sapphicerotica.com)
• Condom Conversation… (shayssexcolumn)
• Cherished (ambientstorm.blogspot.com)
• Dante’s Guide to Cybersex–Part II: Descriptive Writing (damneddante.blogspot.com)
• Darkness (nyc-urban-gypsy.blogspot.com)
• Exactly where I want you… (emergingontheotherside.blogspot.com)
• Expectations (swelteringcelt.com)
• Father Knows Best (theholidaylife.blogspot.com)
• Fucking Wifey To Make Me Jealous (radicalvixen.com)
• How do you jack-off? (whatsyourpleasure.blogspot.com)
• Join the Sugasm?
• More of Sugasm #18 here…

(All Sugasm participants should post the above links.)

• How to Get a Killer Lapdance (sugarbank.com)
• Hot teen lesbian sex on Sapphic Erotica (simply-sapphicerotica.com)
• I might like you bettah if we shaved togethah (realadultsex.com)
• KITKAST #1.12 - AVN 1/2, Howard Stern and Porn Battle Kits (kitkast.com)
• Masturbation (sexinga.blogspot.com)
• Mindfucking and Oral Service (talkingdirty.blogspot.com)
• Men: What Are Your Best Blowjob Tips? (sexeteria.blogspot.com)
• More angie6969 (eroticandy.blogspot.com)
• My best fuck (damnjezebel.com)
• Phone (anyonesgirl.blogspot.com)
• My Fun Night at Work (MOCK POST) (tinastrangeworld.blogspot.com)
• Realizing Mortality (bikersballsandteacherstits.blogspot.com)

Download Sugasm #18 as HTML

Lovingly policed by Sabrina Morgan

As a bit of a boring fucker, my personal highlights from Internext/AEE were meeting Jonno from Fleshbot, and Wired’s Regina Lynn. Jonno turns out to be disgustingly likeable, and about as smart and cool as Stephen Hawking, after being accidentally left outside the igloo by his Innuit friends. During a snowstorm.

Regina’s funny, and far too modest for someone who’s written a book which gets so much right. She also has breasts large enough to mandate GPS for anyone attempting to navigate them. This has nothing to do with my respect for her tits writing.

Regina’s written-up the panel we were on in her ‘Sex Drive’ column for Wired this week (if you were there, enjoy shaded references to our fellow panelist who appeared coke’d out of his mind for the duration of the event.)

Apparently I’m at war. It must be like the war in Iraq because, even though I’m reading about it, it doesn’t actually feel as if anything’s changed.

As far as I’m aware my first attack (I think I’m America in this and they’re Iraq) was posting this blog network invite. I seem to have hurt someone’s feelings (I think I’ve virtually bombed his Mosque) and am being chewed out in public (which is a bit like him going on Aljazeera and showing footage of me driving tanks into houses).

My next crime was publishing his Google email address (taking female prisoners?) and this has apparently resulted in a deluge of spam and hate-mail. I’m not sure who’s sending the spam, I publish my email address all over this blog and Gmail catches 100% of my spam 99.9% of the time - which is why I use it. I don’t know who sends hate-mail (it’s so Southern Baptist/PETA) but I doubt anyone reading this blog cares enough to take the time to do something so ineffective. Besides, how can you write hate-mail about a job offer?

My final crime (the Abu Ghraib of this network war - I’m Private English) was to remove the email addresses too slowly in response to requests from the author. I’ll admit it took a few emails, but that was because:

1. I didn’t realize the guy emailing me wanted me to remove every email on the page, so I started with one. He then emailed me from more than one address and I got really confused about who was asking for what.
2. I didn’t think that any harm could come to a network head by having their email address on display. I still don’t.
3. I wanted to signify the email (which I received from multiple sources in a couple of hours) was genuine.

Despite all that I did exactly what I was asked to (for a stranger) because I’m nice clearly a total bastard.

So I’ve now learnt I am an aggressor, with violently expansionist policies, who must be stopped from raping the bloggosphere. You know what’s fucking scary? I didn’t even know I was doing it.

Anyway - I’ve decided to declare peace in this war (which I didn’t know I was in), sign a treaty and rebuild everything to really high standards. No-bid contracts will not be awarded, and I aim to be out of the occupied territory in about a week. Israel is secure, Palestine is free, and in Ireland, U2 are over at Ian Paisley’s house just kicking it. That was easier than I thought overall.

Happy Sunday Cowboy - war is over.

PS. If anyone else wants to involve me in a ‘war’ then please let me know in advance so I can buy bullets and wake up my ninjas.
PPS. I won’t to go to ‘war’ over blog networks because having more good ones is good for everyone, and because it’s freakishly, terribly, lame.

Apple continue to make podcasting their bitch. With the recent publication of updated podcasting guidelines, for the first time they’re being clear about what might get you barred from the iTunes store and suggest ways you might get round it. If (like me) you’re not in iTunes - this is gold.

Your podcast may be rejected for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to:

• Technical problems, usually the lack of episodes or the inability to download or play episodes. These problems can almost always be avoided by testing your feed using Subscribe to Podcast in the Advanced menu prior to submission.
• Strong prevalence of sexual content.
• Use of explicit language in the title or description of the podcast.
• Use of explicit language in the podcast when the tag is not set to “yes”.
• Apparent misuse of copyrighted material or other violation of third party rights.
• Inclusion of offensive material, such as racist content or child pornography.

I’d like to make a funny child-porn reference but some people think that’s impossible so I won’t. Anyway, child-porn’s like golf, terrible to watch, fascinating… (okay I’m sorry, and now being investigated by the FBI. Fuck it. PINNACLE/NUCFLASH!)

More worryingly (and hypocritically) Apple have added more proprietary ’stuff’ onto their iTunes podcast specification. That’s the kind of stunt Microsoft gets slammed for, and means that Apple’s now encouraging people to produce podcasts which only don’t meet open-standards. Sucky and stupid Apple. Please try to remain the cool kids.

Some of you might remember me suggesting that the current ‘iPod with video’, isn’t ‘the video iPod’ in October last year (if you don’t, go back and memorize the rest of SugarBank immediately.) It’s an opinion which is gaining traction, as is the belief that we’ll have iPods with wireless capabilities soon.

For podnographers, that means that a PSP matching 16:9 screen is just around the corner, ready to download Pixar movies and get another 20% of Mandingo (your momma might know him as ‘Big Dick Fred’) into every frame. If you’re thinking about videocasting (or doing it already) now’s a good time to go wide (just not goatse.cx wide).