What is your biggest business struggle right now?

True dat top notch.

However, I am just talking from experience. Most of the adult domain related emails I see are junk boxed. Not because I put them there, the gmail filters do. I do try and check my spam folder every now and then to see if there is something in there that shouldn't be. But, not everyone does that.

The better solution as a business owner (you) would be to make sure your emails are hitting the inbox, and finding a way to track openers and such that way you know they are, or are not, receiving and reading them. You would then be able to follow up accordingly if your emails are not being opened or read. That would actually be a better solution for you if this is a major problem for you as discussed versus waiting on them, assuming they read and do not reply, etc.. It's a no-brainer based on your example.

In short, you invest in your business and take a more proactive approach if this is so critical in regard to them actually being able to receive and read your emails. Especially if it's costing you thousands or whatever was previously cited. For a few bucks, you could resolve this, and follow up by IM or phone if it was that important.

i started using Sidekick by HubSpot - The Ultimate Email Advantage for important emails to see whether they were opened

The better solution as a business owner (you) would be to make sure your emails are hitting the inbox, and finding a way to track openers and such that way you know they are, or are not, receiving and reading them. You would then be able to follow up accordingly if your emails are not being opened or read. That would actually be a better solution for you if this is a major problem for you as discussed versus waiting on them, assuming they read and do not reply, etc.. It's a no-brainer based on your example.

In short, you invest in your business and take a more proactive approach if this is so critical in regard to them actually being able to receive and read your emails. Especially if it's costing you thousands or whatever was previously cited. For a few bucks, you could resolve this, and follow up by IM or phone if it was that important.

Finding that drive, hunger and motivation again. That drive that made me lose track of time, work 18 hr days and realize I forgot to eat that day because I was so engrossed in what I was doing.

I miss this too.

I'm speaking mainly about dating sites, as I tend to spend most of my efforts in that niche. But in the adult arena there are really only 2 that I would ever consider dealing with....Ashley Madison and Adult Friend Finder. Sure, on AFF, the ratio is about 1 female to 20 males....but there are real females, which is more then I can say for the rest of the crap out there.

That right there is a HUGE responsibility, and I also am glad to be out from under it. A few years back I had 5 part timers, 2 full times, a handful of programmers and designers working on all of my projects. Between servers + programming + payroll I was carrying a lot of responsibility and monthly expense. It was very very stressful having these people livelihood in your hands.

In the past 18+ months, I have had a lot of change and people close to me or that I have known through the years pass away. It has given me a lot of perspective considering I will be 43 this year on how I would like to spend the last 1/3rd of my life.

I have cut almost all staff, server expenses by 90%, and scaled back and back and back to the point that through automation I can still attempt to live a decent lifestyle without that huge monthly recurring nut you have to carry on your shoulders. I am honestly very relived.

What I had thought I wanted a couple of years ago, is not really what I want now. I would much rather invest in life experience (weekend trips, vacations, traveling) and free time with a comfortable life and my friends versus working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, trying to be the next (fill in the blank). I am much happier now.

Yep. I simply had gotten so caught up in the chase, I did not realize that I could do most of what I really wanted now while I am healthy enough to do it (i.e. traveling). Why chase down $5 million dollar dreams that could be 5/10/20 years away when you can do them making a $100/200/300k?

It seems almost laughable now that I did not see I already had the keys in my hand to what it was I really wanted, and was simply not using them because I had built this prison of responsibility and took my eyes off the ball. I simply was spending 90% of my time on work, and little time on myself or my own happiness.

This is a brilliant post because it shows what can happen in this Industry (and I am assuming other online businesses as well). I too did the same thing building my little paysite empire. I started with 2 sites and now I have 88. LOL But I was spending 16 hours a day, 7 days a week doing this shit. I had resisted for years opening an office and hiring in-house employees EXACTLY for the reasons you outlined BF.

So now I take days off, travel, use the freedom online work gives you, etc. I am MUCH happier now. Do I still obsess over my business? Yes, every single day. But I found that balance so it's all good.

I had resisted for years opening an office and hiring in-house employees EXACTLY for the reasons you outlined BF.

If you do not have a good right hand person who can help you build your empire, you will find yourself building a miserable 16 hour/7 day a week prison you can't get out of. You could be making mad money, as I was doing, but if you never get to actually ENJOY IT! So what is the point?

Email marketing has a lot of moving parts. The application could be amazing, but you still have to worry about ip reputation management, delivery plus getting past spam filters, then there is just having good offers and conversions not to mention the source lists to mail. That is just the tip of the iceberg. All of those can easily be overcome assuming you have the budget and time to learn. But most don't.

Good luck on the venture top notch.