Welcome to advertising 101. The huge marketing and advertising machine churns day and night. Day and night we are bombarded with little ads. Luckily big corporate firms sink billions into research and development to exploit the habits of your average Joe Schmoe, which means if you pay attention to your environment you won't have to sink billions for your own research.

Turn on your T. V. and turn it to a local network channel and within 30 minutes, you will see several 30 second ads. Those ads are not just stupid commercials, they are designed for one thing, and one thing only TO - MAKE - A - SALE. For the most part they fill you up with a little mini story and push a product. They make you laugh, they make you feel sad, they make you angry. Some you forget, and some make you sing a stupid tune in your head all day, and they do it all in 30 seconds. But why are they only 30 seconds? Because some marketing research and a few psychologists have told us that the attention span of an average person is 30 seconds. So when you advertise your product, you have to make that sale within 30 seconds or less. The first paragraph of this article takes a little under 30 seconds to read, and if you are reading this, then it was enough to hook you.

So how does this apply to the adult world? In many ways. Take galleries for example, your gallery is the first chance you get at working your 30 second magic. Your images and your text have to be able to hook the surfer within 30 seconds. Your gallery content needs to be good. It needs to be what this surfer is looking for, but it has to leave him desiring more.

The gallery text can be simple and make sales, but like everything it takes some practice. First you need to have an objective. In this case it is to get your surfer to click to the sponsor, or if you are a sponsor, then your goal is to get them to buy. There is definitely a formula to the proper text. Here is what was taught to me, hopefully you can learn from it as well. There are a few basic rules to advertising, and they are:

1) objective 2) audience 3) approach 4) the hook

The OBJECTIVE. As a gallery builder your objective is to get a sale. Which means you have to get him to the sponsor, then hope the sponsor can sell him. If you are a sponsor, then your objective is to make the sale.

Know your AUDIENCE! Do not sale an ebony gallery to a surfer that is looking for blonde teens. Why do you think they call daytime TV, "Soap Operas", it's because they used to only advertise soaps, and detergents. Why? Because the only audience back then (when the phrase was coined) were housewives doing the dishes and laundry all day. Makes sense right? Your damn right it does. What is advertised during football games? BEER!! Think about it. If your surfer just clicked on a gallery link that said, "hardcore ebony freaks" then you know that is exactly what they are looking for so you can talk to them in a raunchier way, and show them hardcore freaky pics. If they clicked on a link that said, "soft ebony babe" then approach them a little softer, and show them a lot of tease type pics. Learn who your surfer is, so you can learn how to talk to him. Which brings us to number 3.

The APPROACH. The approach is a single thought or sentence that will best lead to your objective. Know how to approach your surfer. Don't just throw 20 pics on a page and say, "here jackass, look at these. If you like, you buy" Talk to them. They are human just like you, and quite possibly a little lonely, and so they are looking to get some porn to jerk off to. Your approach and your objective are one in the same. They have to work together. One can not live without the other. You need to have that approach stated in one well worded sentence. My objective is the sale, how I get him to the sale is the approach.

An example of selling sex to a "freaky ebony sex" surfer, would be something like this:
objective, to get a sale.
Approach: The only ebony bukkake site online with exclusive double anal movies updated weekly.
If you were selling to a soft ebony surfer:
objective, to get the sale.
Approach: The largest selection of ebony babes just waiting to fulfil your fantasies in live chat sessions.

The HOOK. Ever watch a TV show and just as before they go to a commercial break the main character is caught in a predicament? Ever look at a newspaper headline? Or ever watch the news because they keep promising to show some footage from inside Hugh Heffner's mansion, or some lingerie show? Ok, maybe not you, because you work in porn, but still your average guy would watch... hell even I have caught myself watching the news for that very reason. Well, that's called a hook. They hook you into watching, or reading, or listening, or whatever. Your hook will not only lead them to your objective, it's what will bring them to your gallery in the first place.
To find your hook, write down a one sentence answer to each of these questions:

What is the most unusual part of your content (or sponsor)?

What is the most interesting part of your content (or sponsor)?

What is the most sexually exciting part of your content (or sponsor)?

Now take your sentences and compare it to these questions:

Does it lead to your objective?

Does it relate to your audience?

Does it relate to your approach?

Does it excite or interest the surfer?

Can it be the first line in your short text message?

Whichever one works the best is your hook. Now you need to find out if your hook serves better as a question or a statement. I find that asking questions evokes a response, but that's just me. Just look at the first line of this article. ;P Both work well, so it's really up to you. "Would you like to see more filthy hardcore ebony babes stuff their face with cock?" "Click here to see ebony cock suckers".

The key is to use all of these in as few sentences as possible, but it's all very important and can play a vital role in making sales. Don't just toss up a few words and hope for the best. Really understand what your objective is and who your surfers are. And always fine tune your approach and hook until you find what works best for you.

In closing:
I'm a video editor, and I started out by editing the now famous CollegeFuckFest trailers. At first I was editing the trailers and they were well over a minute and a half. Some were even two minutes. Then I started to notice how commercials are only 30 seconds and even though they didn't have sex in them, they were still better than my trailers. So I started taking notes on how mainstream movie trailers and tv commercials were edited together. I got a couple of books on advertising, and studied. I applied these ideas to the CollegeFuckFest trailers. My editing is tighter now, it's shorter and really shows off the content but leaves them wanting more. I've seen some video samples that were only 45 seconds that felt like 10 minutes.

Now take what you know then build some galleries, and test them. And if you are a sponsor then learn that you need to get your message across in 30 seconds. Fine tune your sites to hook 'em. And sponsors, if you want some bad ass trailers, feel free to hit me up anytime.