While the time, effort and dedication that this requires is a daunting task for full-timers; those who work in the industry on a part-time basis face even more of a challenge; as do those returning to the industry after an often prolonged absence (it's amazing what rising fuel prices will do to the Internet's website inventory).

Add to this collection of knowledge-seekers a continuing expansion into our ranks from the more traditional adult marketing channels such as video and print — and you have what I like to call "the new newbies."

These aren't what we often (or used to) think of as newbies — young, dumb, broke and dreaming of pussy and overnight millions; despite knowing nothing of this (or any other) business and having no money to invest or any sort of business plan beyond 'big pimpin.'

No. Some of these new newbies have been quite successfully working in adult for decades — but are now struggling to understand what running an affiliate program entails. Others have been dominating the online space; but faced with dwindling subscription sales are looking at physical distribution and wondering how to get their product on store shelves.

Doubtless both camps need to evolve in these new directions in order to survive, but I can't help but think about the web guys saying "nobody joins anymore;" while the video guys shake their heads at web guys going offline and think "don't these guys understand that nobody buys DVDs anymore?"

I personally think there's enough wishful thinking and "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" mentality in the process to go around, but the true reality is that convergence is here and it's going to take some learning if operators are going to survive — because it won't be as simple as "hey, we could sell more videos if we had a website!" or "hey, we should put our web content on DVD!" or, "Let's go mobile!"

And then there are the retreads: folks that for one reason or another "left porn" and now for one reason or another have returned. You see them posting on the boards; old friends and familiar faces coming by to give it another go...

Maybe their sites are still up and after some period of neglect and declining profitability are in need of an overhaul; or maybe their sites are no longer online and either need to be rebuilt or replaced — in any case, what may have worked even one or two years ago may not work today, so these folks, despite whatever knowledge and experience they might have once had, are now among the new newbies.

As for me, I've been poking an old website and trying some new approaches, techniques and technologies. While old school webmastering can provide a solid foundation, there are an extended array of issues and minutiae to modern web presence creation that can drown a solo operator in a sea of data. Thank God for Google and the W3C — boons to us noobs...

Many operators are faced with satisfying impossible demands without having the proper resources available to them. Sometimes the difference between success and failure comes from "the missing ingredient" — that little tip, trick or tidbit of information that provided the key to solving a particular problem. Trust XBIZ to be your source for the hands-on information you need, and regardless of how long you've been a newbie, you'll be on the right road to profit.

Got a problem, business issue or confusing area of operation that's making you feel like a real newbie? Post your comments below and we'll try to address it at XBIZ!