The .XXX issue has raised its ugly head again. ICANN will vote on the proposed TLD on March 9th. ICANN cannot approve a request if there is no support from the industry; so hearing from YOU is critical to the defeat of this proposal.

The FSC states .XXX is a very bad idea because:

• It “ghettoizes” the industry, making adult entertainment an easy target for anti-industry extremists and government intrusion.
• It will add, unnecessarily, to the cost of doing business. At $60 per URL per year, the cost to a member could reach tens of thousands of dollars annually. Many in the adult entertainment industry will purchase and park addresses, realizing no benefit to this added expense. Finally, there will be countless battles for names, and the resulting arbitration will be costly.
• If a .XXX domain becomes available, it is likely that the United States and other countries will try to make it mandatory and subject to trans-Internet filtering that could effectively eliminate much of the adult content currently available on the Web.
• The .XXX option could enable the industry’s enemies to convert even a voluntary .XXX domain use into an effectively mandatory requirement by pressuring private parties, such as credit card processors, to require .XXX use and compliance. In this way, ICM through unchecked rule making could “back door” all the governmental regulations that we have beaten back. If that happens the industry would not have its most potent weapon, the First Amendment to challenge ICM because ICM is not a governmental entity.
• The ambiguity with which ICM plans to establish its governing board is of grave concern, as there exists strong potential for censorship, which is clearly not in the best interest of the industry or for ICANN.

To voice your opposition, send an Email to ICANN and simply state, “I am in the adult entertainment industry and I oppose .XXX”. If you are a webmaster, state that you are a webmaster in your Email as well as how many websites you manage. Email your comments to: xxx-icm-agreement@icann.org. (Once sent, you must also look for the confirmation Email and respond to that as well.)

Public comments can be viewed at: http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-icm-agreement/. Comments received on or before March 9, 2007 will be considered at the next scheduled Special Meeting of the ICANN Board.

Protecting your business takes only 5 minutes of your time!

Tri-Tech has announced the launch of GayLounge.com, a free GLBT dating site. Tri-Tech reports they have been testing the new site for months, and are confident it will perform well. They’ve also been advertising in all the major search engines for months and claim to have received positive response from their members.

The cash program offers its webmasters a 60% payout on all sales. In addition, webmasters are paid a $1.00 bonus for every free profile that gets approved. The $1.00 bonus allows even small sites with little traffic to earn revenue.

They have a small selection of free hosted banners, or you can host them yourself. Be careful…the link provided for hosting the banners on your server has the wrong ID in it.

Check you information after signing up, as their system appears to be storing the wrong state for US postal addresses.

For more information about promoting this site, visit Gay Lounge Cash.

Falcon Entertainment, a provider of gay adult content, launched its new e-commerce site today. According to Falcon, the site features a sleek new look, state of the art merchandising and an innovative range of products including a la carte, web-only content - live sex shows, amateur sex scenes, hot solos - previously available with a subscription to Falcon’s membership site.

“Our mission is to enable our customers to buy the Falcon content they love in the ways that work for their lifestyles, and provide them seamless access to all of our web properties,” stated Todd Montgomery, CEO of Falcon Entertainment, “our new web store is the gateway to everything that Falcon Entertainment has to offer: our latest movies on DVD, our entire library on Video on Demand, the highest quality sex toys available, monthly subscriptions to our exclusive members-only site, live sex shows, and a growing library of web-only content available for purchase by the show or scene.”

The studio also reports, in the next few weeks, affiliates will have a broader range of Falcon Entertainment products to sell. Falcon’s new e-commerce platform integrates DHD Media’s Revex affiliate management service, enabling Falcon to offer affiliate payouts on all Falcon Entertainment products.

“Affiliates in our Falcon Bucks programs have asked for a broader range of products to enable them to convert customers in every price range. That was a big priority in our considerations for the new web store,” said Cliff Rhodes, Webmaster for Falcon Entertainment, “Membership subscriptions will continue to be the most lucrative product for affiliates, but with the addition of payouts on products and content sold through the e-commerce store, more affiliates can benefit from the Falcon Bucks program and our current affiliates will expand their earning potential.”

Rainey Stricklin has announced she will be leaving PrideBucks at the end of this month to pursue another opportunity in a different sector of the adult market. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with both the PrideBucks crew and all of the wonderful affiliates we have. I will sincerely miss working with everyone,” said Stricklin.

Juan Figueroa will be filling Rainey’s shoes. Juan has years of experience working in the adult affiliate market and is a wealth of knowledge in all areas of affiliate sales and marketing. He’s already stepped in as Director of Affiliate relations and can be reached at juan((at))pridebucks.com or by icq at 423-888-611.

Best of luck to you Rainey!

PrideBucks Sites:

Boys Gone Bad
Circle Jerk Boys
Extra Big Dicks
Men Over 30
True Twinks

Gay cash program Gunzblazing.com has just released another pay site, www.collinoneal.com.

The site, which is a joint venture with well-know star and shining new producer Collin O’Neal, features video and photographic shots by Collin as he travels the world in search of hot, new and previously unseen talent. According to the sponsor it’s fresh, exotic and captures a previously unexplored niche in the gay market.

Gunzblazing was founded by Brian Randall of Pistol Media in 2003. It is the online content delivery network and affiliate marketing engine behind the gay production powerhouse, Raging Stallion Studios. Premium quality pay sites on the network cater for a wide variety of gay interests, and include Sex Gaymes, The Rear Stable, Hairy Boys, Bang Bang Boys, Xtra Inches, and more.

“We’ve released a new site with an arsenal of promotional tools on the month, every month for the last 6 months.” says Randall. “Gunzblazing.com is now the only gay program offering affiliates the opportunity to promote a wide variety of exclusive content, hi-performing pay sites and DVD shopping cart sites”.

The Euro twink sponsor Siberia Cash has announced the addition of Twinks Empire to their growing collection of sites. Webmasters will find plenty of promotional materials, including free hosted galleries.

In addition to Twinks Empire, Siberia Cash has the following three properties for webmasters to promote:

Siberian Boys
Stroke My Cock
Guy Foot

Latin Cash has just announced a new bonus program for the month of March. Webmasters that send 30 sales throughout the month of March will receive and additional $1000 bonus. Those that can send 50 sales, in the same period, with get $2000 added to their checks.

Participating webmasters can promote the following Latin Cash gay properties:

Latin Boys
Latin Gay Lovers

KM Bucks is a new sponsor program wrapped around their flagship site KeithManheim.com.

Keith Manheim is an all gay porn video site where members can download every porn image or video to their hard drive. The videos are specially formatted to fit on the iPod, playable both with iTunes from Apple Inc., and their portable video device iPod. Members can also watch these porn videos directly on the site with either Windows Media player or Flash Video 8.

Affiliates earn 70% on all sales and 50% on all rebills, plus 5% on webmaster referrals. Promotional tools include, free hosted galleries, free content, blog tools, RSS feeds, ready-made text descriptions and much more.

$100 New Webmaster Bonus
Beginning February 6th, webmasters that refer 10 sales in the next 90 days will receive a $100 bonus on their paycheck.

Visit KM Bucks for more details.

Joan Irvine, Executive Director of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP), will speak at the upcoming GAYVN Summit in San Francisco.

Ms. Irvine’s talk is entitled “Protecting Children, Protecting Yourself” and will take place on Saturday, February 24 at 1:45pm.

The session will feature an update on bills now pending in Congress, which could make labeling mandatory for adult entertainment websites. These include the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, and the Internet SAFETY Act of 2007. Ms. Irvine will also report on ASACP’s new RTA website label, which launched in November.

The discussion is intended to increase awareness of the labeling issue, and to help adult companies understand the seriousness of the situation and their options.

“The adult industry has an opportunity here to help protect kids online, and also head off possible new regulations,” Ms. Irvine said. “That’s a win-win situation. We hope a lot of companies will step up now, just as so many already support ASACP’s efforts to fight child pornography.”

Alex Boys is a Euro twink site that launched in 2002. Recently they have been making a lot of changes, in an apparent effort to become more attractive to affiliates. The sponsor has a new webmaster area with a nice selection of promotional materials, including FHGs and videos. They even have promo texts, rare at any site.

Alex Boys has traditionally used Verotel, but recently switched to CCBill as their primary processor. Unfortunately they continue to use Verotel as an alternative processor, but do not employ cascading billing - a typical practice with most Euro sites.

With all their efforts to become more attractive to affiliates, Alex Boys missed the most important component - traffic leaks. Like the majority of Euro twink sites, Alex Boys is riddled with them. No serious affiliate will touch a site with traffic leaks, yet these guys don’t seem to understand that.

If Alex Boys ever cleans up their traffic leaks they’ll be an attractive site to promote.