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It's no secret that the adult industry has been responsible for many of the online innovations since the early days of the Internet. Video and webcam technology, even payment processing have all benefitted from the industry's research and funding. You can also be sure that when a new technology becomes popular, adult is right there at the forefront pushing that trend as far as it will go.
Recently we have seen blogging, tube sites and social bookmarking adapted for use as promotional tools in the adult market. It should come as no surprise then that we are now finally beginning to see the mobile surfer catered for in larger numbers.

Whilst mobile users can access the Internet and World Wide Web freely from their devices, there are now also specially made sites configured for WAP access or specifically tailored for viewing with smaller screens. They can view pictures and video on their handsets, and even pay for services by having them added to their monthly cell providers bill. This is not limited to just cell phones either.  There are plenty of other handheld devices out there such as Palm Pilots, the PSP, and more recently the iTouch. Some of these are connected to the celluar system whilst others use wifi or bluetooth to access the online world.

These mobile users include businessmen on overnight stays using their palmtops, college students using their PSP's, and even construction workers working away from home and logging in via their cellphones.
To cater for this growing market, sponsors have come up with a variety of solutions to market to these specific users.

Online Billing To Handset

In many parts of the world it is not possible to accept to accept credit card payments for one reason or another. In these cases there are other billing solutions available but these are traditionally based around dialler scripts which many users are reluctant to use. With the prevalence of mobile usage though the option to charge paysite access to a users cellphone bill has become a viable alternative. Offering this billing option in your marketing to mobile surfers can open up your user base allowing other surfers to access your sponsors content.

Mobile Browser Specific Content

Various scripts and softwares have now been developed to automatically adapt web sites to the smaller screens and limited browsers common to handheld devices. The wp-mobile plugin for instance, sits on your Wordpress server and detects mobile browsers. It then automatically serves a version of your blog which is formatted in a way to make it more accessible from a handheld device.

Mobile Freebies

Screensavers, video clips and wallpapers are not hard to find for mobile devices. They are quite easily made as promotional tools and with the inclusion of a memorable url can become quite viral. Mobile users love to share these things with their peers and they can be a great way to launch new sites. The problem with these things of course can be including your affilate link in such a way as to make sure it gets used. In these cases using a blog or web page as an intermediate step can ensure you get credit for your traffic. Be careful though not to misuse your sponsors content in doing so.

Tailored Paysites

Aside from adapting exisiting content to mobile users, there are now sponsors which specifically and exclusively cater to those with handheld devices. SexGoesMobile have laid claim to being the world's first mobile adult affiliate program and offer a great package including a mobile page generator, quality content and worldwide billing links. They have everything you need and offer commission on video sales and live cam chat

RSS

Of course RSS still remains the easiest way for users to access your blog content through their handheld device. Most cellphones have built in RSS feed readers to provide your surfers with their latest updates. All the webmaster has to do is remind their readers of this and make it easy for them to add your feed url.

With such easy access, accessing the 'net from mobile devices can only continue to increase. Take the UK for instance. In an article in the New Media Age back in February Tim Barber claims the UK alone has nearly seven and half million mobile subscribers who access the internet via their handsets. With around 66 million subscribers in the country that's 12% of users. or just under one in eight, and it's growing. Gartner, the technology statistics specialists, forecast this years cell phone market to increase by 10%.
Clearly then this market is moving. In a press release in May this year, UK based Juniper Research predicted mobile 2.0 revenues to reach $22.4 billion globally by 2013, and if the pace in the East is anything to go by then it has a lot of potential to exploit. In his excellent blog Mashraqi summarises a panel discussion he took part in back in June. (I should point out that Mashraqi is Director of Business Operations and Technical Strategy for a top 50 web site.) In that panel the group discussed social networking in China and Japan through the use of mobile devices. They discussed three popular social network sites which have mobile access, QQ, Cyworld and Mixi. Cyworld has 35 million users, Mixi has 90 million and, get this, QQ have 500 million users. To put that in context a little, Facebook have around 200 million.