It’s taken me a very long time to launch an official Bright Desire newsletter. I’m well overdue, especially as it’s one of the few ways left to get the word out about the site. Social media continues to censor and ban adult content and the search engines are dominated by tube sites full of pirated content. A newsletter is a great way to talk directly to people who are interested.
I’ve held off for so long because I’m old on the internet. I’ve had to overcome a deeply ingrained idea that email promotion was wrong wrong wrong.
This comes from the early days of online porn, before spam filters, when unscrupulous porn producers would hammer email boxes with crap. When I started making and curating porn, NO SPAM was a cardinal rule. Me and the other female webmasters who were making porn wanted to make sure we did things right. Yes, we’d advertise on our sites but we all followed some basic rules:
- No spamming
- No pop up ads
- Make sure every front page had a warning to say our content was for adults
23 years later, I’m still following the porn webmaster’s code.
Unfortunately the rest of the internet doesn’t follow these rules. Every site out there bombards you with popups, often demanding you sign up to their newsletter (spam!) before you’ve had a chance to look at the content. No doubt you’re like me: you instantly close any popup, never read it and silently swear at the assholes who designed the site like that.
Not only that, but if you provide your email to a site for any reason you’ll find yourself automatically on their mailing list whether you wanted it or not. And then the emails will come every day, or every three days, until you angrily find the unsubscribe button.
I refuse do this to my site visitors and members. I hate popups and I refuse to use them (though I’m forced to have a window advising about cookies thanks to European laws). I do not add members or anyone to a mailing list automatically.
When it came to organizing my newsletter, I’ve ensured that the signup form doesn’t pop up. Instead, it’s just there as part of the page, available if you’re interested. If you provide your email via that form, you have to OPT IN by confirming your email address. And the emails will not bombard you. I’m aiming for a monthly newsletter and maybe, just maybe, an occasional extra email if there’s a sale. I’m not going to compile a database of user habits or info about you. I just want to wave a small flag about Bright Desire on occasion.
I don’t doubt that I’m breaking all the standard marketing rules by doing this but I don’t care. I want to take a small stand against the ongoing enshittification of the internet, where it’s increasingly difficult to just find the information you want without being bombarded by ads or harvested for information. I want to treat you the way I’d treat myself as an audience.
With some godammed respect.
Bright Desire is a porn site so I suspect most emails will automatically end up in spam. If you’re subscribed to the newsletter, you’ll need to check the spam box and make sure you whitelist the newsletter.
And maybe the newsletter won’t interest you and you’ll hit unsubscribe. It’s easy to opt out. And I won’t be keeping your email or re-adding it without your permission later. Once you’re unsubscribed, you’re gone. Which will be a shame, but oh well, thanks for your interest, have a nice life. Maybe you’ll come back later. And if you do, I want you to think well of me and Bright Desire. Because if I’m going to say I’m an ethical porn site, part of that is treating you the audience with dignity and respect. If you are going to be so kind as to buy my porn, I want you to feel good about that.
So that’s my little rant about newsletters. Thanks for reading.
– Ms Naughty
Oh, and if you haven’t yet signed up, use this form and get a free movie when you do.