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Despite the significant impact search engines can have on the bottom line of any company, I have found that they are surprisingly under-utilized by adult webmasters, who seem far too preoccupied with TGP, AVS, link list, and link trade traffic to ever consider the hard work and artistry involved in achieving worthwhile search engine rankings.

Of course, you may not guess this by doing a search for adult material on Google (A search for “porn” will turn up a whopping 64,400,000 results!), but here’s the thing: I’ve found that there are generally two types of webmasters in the majority. First, you have those who completely neglect the search engines. These people are the vast majority. Their pages will still be spidered and listed, but their lack of focus will prevent this from becoming a significant traffic boost. Then you have the webmasters who study the search engines well, and exploit them to their fullest, creating doorway page after doorway page to get as many pages as possible high in the search rankings. These people know the tricks to getting those doorway pages listed well, and as a result, you may find that a search for “<insert porn star> nude” will turn up some frustrating results, with the first three pages being filled with doorway pages made by the exact same webmaster, all pointing to the same affiliate program. Replace that porn star’s name with that of another porn star, and many times you will find the exact same webmaster monopolizing that search result, as well. I would say there is a moderate amount of these webmasters.

Then there are those of us who attempt to get traffic from a variety of sources, search engines being but one of them – but I think we’re sadly in the minority. Unfortunately, it is this group who should be the largest. We would all benefit from more legitimate search engine results and less search engine spam.

There are several reasons, I believe, that most webmasters neglect search engine marketing. First and foremost, it takes some work in the forms of both research and application (unless you're paying a marketer). In order for search engine marketing to be successful, you must understand how each search engine works, which is something that changes frequently. So you have to keep up with the trends. This can require a great deal of research time – not only as a newbie, but even as a seasoned marketing veteran. And then the actual marketing will require more time investment.

Also, I believe many of us feel that the spammers are ruining it for the rest of us. How can we possibly compete with the thousands of doorway pages exploiting the very same keywords we’re using? It's nearly impossible not to become discouraged and apathetic. If you are not ranked in the first several pages (particularly the first page), then your marketing efforts are largely wasted. So many of us become disenchanted. Why waste our time on such a fruitless task?

Well, I would argue that this all just an illusion. Sure it’s hard work, but it’s not as hard as you might think. And sure, it’s frustrating to compete with the doorway page generators flooding results with mostly identical pages, but my experience tells me that there is always hope, and that even mediocre results can be used to turn a profit high enough to make it well worth your efforts.

The fact is, if you’re not utilizing search engines, you’re missing out on the opportunity for some great traffic. I’m not just talking about volume; I’m talking about quality.

But let’s not disregard volume, either. Search engines are the most frequently visited sites on the Net. And what are some of the most searched for sites? Porn sites! Several somewhat decent listings can go a long way toward building a good volume of traffic. One good front page listing for a popular search term can potentially draw a tremendous amount of traffic.

More important, though, in my opinion, is the quality of the traffic. For one thing, anyone searching for porn on a search engine does not likely have hundreds of free sites bookmarked. Otherwise, they would know more convenient ways to find free porn. These are people who are probably looking for an easy fix, but don’t yet know where to find it. They may not have all day to browse porn and find all the best spots. Present these people with good premium sites, and they just might buy memberships.

Also, this is highly targeted traffic, assuming you’re using your keywords appropriately. If someone is looking for mature squirrel fisting, and you happen to have a mature squirrel fisting site with a first page ranking, you have a very good chance of gaining a new customer. Just be sure not to mix your keywords, because a hit from a search for wrinkly old ladies probably won’t do your teen site much good. That’s just a waste of bandwidth, and a potential customer lost.

And let's not forget, this is free traffic. Aside from your time investment, there is nothing to lose here. You don't have to link to them, send them traffic returns, or even offer quality content.

So don’t dismiss search engine marketing without first giving it a try. Most likely, you’ll thank me later.

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