From Joe the Millionaire - to Joe the Porn Star!
By Kath Blackwell, for SEXMoney.com

The American public has been swept away by the concept of reality programming on television. It's everywhere you look. It started with crime-based shows like Cops and Unsolved Mysteries and then moved on to more comedy-based features like home video giants: America's Funniest Home Videos and America's Funniest People.

Today's world of "reality TV" has taken a step more towards watching nobodies become 15-minute somebodies as they get humiliated on the little screen. Most viewers realize that the "real" in reality has been somewhat twisted, err scripted - in order to make the program more entertaining. Shows like Survivor, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, The Surreal Life and many, many more flood the airwaves, as Americans continue to crave this kind of entertainment.

Reality programming has hit the Internet as well, and can be seen in the overwhelming interest in the amateur niche. Amateurs have been popular for a long time - just look at the continued success of Homegrown Video over the years. But the interest in the amateur genre has sort of been a grass-roots style movement until just recently. Now, surfers are looking for everything "reality" based that they can get their hands on, and the amateurs are doing very well.

But moving on from the reality of amateur-style content, today's surfer is looking to not only be turned on - but to be entertained. The kind of reality programming that we see on television isn't just about showing real people, but it's about showing real people in strange or humorous situations, doing crazy and outlandish things that they themselves would probably never do. It's about taking sex - in the case of the online porn industry - to the extreme, a real "shock" video concept.

The Ins and Outs of Reality Porn

Like anything else that you want to "make your mark with," you need to have a micro-niche within the niche of reality content - something that screams originality and lures the audience in, hopefully hooking them on for months and months of recurring membership. We've already seen the reality-based M.I.L.F. (Mom's I'd Like to Fuck) niche, the sex-in-public theme, the Dirty Debutantes video series that features girls who want to be in porn movies… there are a million offshoots that someone could take in order to get in on the world of reality porn.

But finding the one that really catches the attention of not just the porn-seekers - but of the dedicated and devoted reality TV fans - is what you should really be after here. It's not just about "slapping up another reality porn site," it's about trying to create an online adult phenom! The SexMoney developers have been hard at work building a brand-new adult-based reality site for the SexMoney.com affiliates to promote. JoePornStar.com will bring the world of interactive reality programming to the Web, giving visitors new ways to become involved with the site and capture their interest.

Webmasters who promote this type of reality-based content need - more than ever - to make sure that they understand the niche, know what it is that their surfers are wanting to see, and be sure that they are properly promoting or marketing the site. For example, if they are promoting a reality-based site for a sponsor, they should take a good look at the site - perhaps even contact that sponsor's Web support team and ask to take a tour of the site and its membership area. You do not want to be improperly promoting the site, or over-stating what is available on the inside.

Truth in advertising - even in simple site promotion with banners and text - is becoming more and more important these days, to help prevent charge-backs and potential accusations of reseller fraud. Today's affiliate program owners are working hard to ensure that their webmasters have all the tools necessary to properly promote their sites, including fresh banners and available support staff. Today's webmasters need to make sure they are properly promoting their programs, as many affiliate owners are being forced to close down webmaster accounts that have unusually high charge-back ratios, in order to comply with the new credit card regulations.

Shock Them - But Be Honest!

One way to prevent being accused of reseller fraud is to make sure that your banners are fresh, and properly reflect the trial or paid membership rates that the sponsor currently charges. Another way is to make sure that the text you use to describe the program is accurate. Don't say that there are 500,000 videos in the membership area, when in fact there are only 500…and don't claim to have some celebrity home movie, just to get clicks when it's not even available on the site. Simple common sense and knowledge of one's affiliate program can really go a long way to helping you build a powerful - yet accurate - promotional site.

Reality-based Web sites are very profitable, generally have high conversion ratios, and are well worth the extra effort to promote properly. As with any other niche-based site, webmasters who do well targeting their traffic and filtering them through to such a specifically focused niche, will also enjoy a longer retention period - a must for webmasters who enjoy working with partnership/revshare programs.

JoePornStar.com Raises the Bar

A brand new XXX reality site will be born in 2004, combining the reality-programming phenomenon with the type of viewer interaction only available on the World Wide Web. Visitors can submit applications to be considered in a nation-wide search to find a regular guy and turn him into a real porn star. Visitors will also be given the chance to vote for their favorite applicant to be chosen to begin filming in Hollywood, California as the first Joe Porn Star!