The dirty little secret of most new media technologies is that the stories of how they became mainstream are rarely as wholesome and altruistic as people tend to think. That's true of the World Wide Web, too. In fact, things like email marketing, which, today, seems dull and boring, were originally taboo and avoided by most companies.

In this episode of Web Masters, we learn about how email marketing became mainstream by talking with Scott Maslowe, an email marketing pioneer who was originally using email to drive traffic to adult websites. He eventually took those same tactics to lots of other companies and showed them just how powerful -- and valuable -- email marketing could be.

For a complete transcript of the episode, click here.

Also, if you're interested in buying or selling an Internet business, be sure to check out our sponsor, Latonas.com, the Internet's best source for buying and selling  web-based, work-from-home businesses.