Adult Video Producers Whine

[gonzo]

Heres an excerpt from my buddy Mike South's blog from yet another one person from the video side of the business bleating about FREE Porn.

In case you haven’t noticed, this business now sucks beyond belief! Making a decent living from it, especially for many production people and others, is more difficult than ever. Yah, some companies and the people who make their content for them will survive. Some will even thrive. But for most, it’s Judgement Day.
Why would any jerk-off pay for porn to jerk off to? It’s all free on the net! I see lots of sites with 100s of 20 and 30 minute clips for free–you don’t even have to register. The clips are high quality, their screen size is big, and they stream almost instantly. The only way I can see any of them making money is they have ads for adult dating sites and such. There’s that much money in that shit? Do these sites pay for the clips? I don’t know. I don’t care. It is what it is. Much of the industry is being brought, financially, to its knees. Anyone who says that ain’t so is either a liar or delusional. Why worry about obscenity prosecutions or 2257? Free content is Porn Enemy #1. Here’s another way to look at it: We’ve seen the enemy and it is us.
Those who figure out how to make money from “free” are the ones who might make some money. Unfortunately, I’m a production guy and I can’t figure out how to offer my production services for free (i.e., shooting stills or video) and still make money from doing so. Advertiser-supported production people? You think someone’s gonna pay me to shoot while I’m wearing a sandwich sign advertising their company or products? I don’t think so. If you know how I can get paid by working for free, please let me know.
Retailers must be hurting too. Many of them, I hear, are converting to soft-core-ish stores: Remodeling, carrying lots of toys and lingerie, appealing to couples and chicks. The raincoaters never had it so good! They simply get their fix on the net… for free… and they don’t even have to don the raincoat!
I heard the show was a joke. They gave away booths for free just so it didn’t look like a ghost town. Everyone said the crowds seemed smaller. Maybe. Or maybe the aisle space was so wide (with such fewer booths) it just seemed like the crowd was smaller. I didn’t go. Didn’t go last year either. Why would I go? There’s no business to book there. I can speak to anyone who might book me while I’m right here, in LA, without spending the dough to go to Vegas. I also got tired of risking my health from some god-awful colds or flus that almost everyone is guaranteed to come home with. Going to the show ceased being fun years ago. These days, going to the show is practically a textbook case of masochism.

Heres my comment and please add yours....
Judgement day is right. Anyone that didnt take the time to learn the economics of using the web as a markeing and promo tool will soon be looking for insurance jobs.

I make more money now than I have ever made in my life. I turned off my pay sites years ago and now that all the shit is starting to die off Im rebuilding them all again.

You can whime about free porn all you want. The fact remains that it is here to stay and those that use it as a tool can make a good living.

Those that dont bother with it better lube up those Harleys and grease down their hair.

http://www.mikesouth.com/reader-mail/jimmyd-updates-us-on-porn-valley-1848/

[EmporerEJ]

Yes, I think I've said this at least a 100 times.....
At some point the "video" side of the industry, and there is a "video side of the industry," as Gonzo clearly points out and draws a line...is gonna suddenly wake up and see what's happening over here.

Let the fallout begin.
Best time to be in a part of the business that is not affected by supply side economics.

[2MuchMark]

Gonzo,

Where you may see "Judgement day", others are seeing opportunities. Expand your scope a little and perhaps those opportunities will reveal themselves to you as well.

Regards,
Mark Prince, 2Much Internet Services Inc
http://www.2Much.net
http://www.LiveCamNetwork.com

[gonzo]

Gonzo,

Where you may see "Judgement day", others are seeing opportunities. Expand your scope a little and perhaps those opportunities will reveal themselves to you as well.

Regards,
Mark Prince, 2Much Internet Services Inc
http://www.2Much.net
http://www.LiveCamNetwork.com

Mark... save your advice for your paying customers.
Im not interested.

[2MuchMark]

Alright.

It's clear that I'm not wanted here so this will be my last visit to this website. Goodbye everybody. I wish everyone the very best of success.

Mark Prince

[Sexyteaser]

Well we hired and intern that showed me a lot of the free porn that circulates the college scenes and it was interesting but we used her knowledge and resources as we developed our sites and in time we will see if it pays off. Traffic is huge and offering anything for free even Porn can generate a lot of traffic that could be useful in upsales on other sites and product lines.

We all know times are changing and money is tight for business owners and users. Look at the great and not so great talent available within this industry right now. There is a lot of people looking for work.

I think this is a good time to consolidate and adult video producers could and should align themselves with companies that can give them a contract. Using what you have for viral marketing would be really smart. Think more mainstream business wise.

I think that the market is saturated and there is a lot of good content available right now for next to nothing and nothing so how do you compete with that? First thing I will say is branding and then second get ahead of the curve make some smart moves now so you don't have to come from a place of desperation later. If you want some ideas or to brainstorm I would not necessarily do it on a board but post the need and then go offline and discuss.

[Hell Puppy]

If you want some ideas or to brainstorm I would not necessarily do it on a board but post the need and then go offline and discuss.

There-in lies an important truth and lesson of the boards. If you give away good ideas for free, the hoards will grab it and oversaturate it to a point where no one can make a penny. And it'll happen faster than you can possibly imagine.

I screw up from time to time, but I try never to screw up the same way twice. Way back circa 1997 I was a newb on the boards and thought it'd be a good idea to show the world just how clever I can be, I showed off one of my new site ideas that was an absolute traffic and sales machine. It was under a week before it was ripped off and all over the place right down to stealing the html design. Lazy bastards didn't even change the font or color scheme.

Now, I wont show anyone outside of the inner circle more than a couple of sites because I dont want people examining my traffic net. I treat this business same as I would any other. I protect trade secrets, I vigorously enforce copyrights, and I have even been known to file a patent or two. I give away very little info for free.

Does that hurt the value of the boards? Nope, you use it to look for would-be partners, and you learn to gleam valuable tidbits reading between the lines. And much like shows, they serve for inspiration if nothing else. I always come back from a show energized with all sorts of new ideas. You look at the pieces and figure out how to make them fit.

So few people in the business think in terms of things like marketing and branding. Too many people still hanging around looking to turn a quick buck with no regard to the future. Right or wrong, legal or illegal doesn't weigh into their decisions, only can I get away with it and make a buck. And we're in an industry that historically pays off on high risk high reward.

You refer to the college kids and how they move files and such. Now you're in my game. When I'm at my best, I'm well in touch with my surfer roots. And I am usually out on the bleeding edge trying to stay on top of the traffic wave instead of behind it. We were doing P2P with our own content before most people knew what it was. The numbers you could pull down, and probably still can, will melt your servers.

Anyone around me during that time has heard me bitch while I try to tune database servers, I was squeezing more transactions per second per server out of MySQL than even Yahoo and other huge implementations said was possible. The technical challenge was part of the fun. Problem is it is still a bear to monetize.

[Hell Puppy]

Alright.

It's clear that I'm not wanted here so this will be my last visit to this website. Goodbye everybody. I wish everyone the very best of success.

Mark Prince

Who are you again?

Are you the dude who was passed out at the pool in Miami a couple of years back with ketchup on his head?

[Jace]

Who are you again?

Are you the dude who was passed out at the pool in Miami a couple of years back with ketchup on his head?

OMFG, i remember that shit, hahahaha

[softball]

I have heard this shit so many times. I have even bemoaned it myself when I was a newbie...but then we all were back in that day. But the fact of the matter is, that if you have a serious USP, you will do well. Marketing is the key, but not necessarily the "board guru" marketing path. I know a lot of you guys make your money out of selling other people's product, like many other businesses, but the 50 per cent ++ model is not good for the people who actually create the content and if they continue to be lazy bastards and pay more than half their gross to traffic guys, then they are foolish. Nothing has changed. Affiliate marketing is a small part of our business, but it pays my travel expenses, which is nothing to sneeze at, but if it fell apart tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. That is the secret to producing and selling original content. Its not rocket science, it is just plain common sense business. The curious thing is that so many have spread the rumours of my demise, which I fear, were greatly exaggerated.

[gonzo]

I have heard this shit so many times. I have even bemoaned it myself when I was a newbie...but then we all were back in that day. But the fact of the matter is, that if you have a serious USP, you will do well. Marketing is the key, but not necessarily the "board guru" marketing path. I know a lot of you guys make your money out of selling other people's product, like many other businesses, but the 50 per cent ++ model is not good for the people who actually create the content and if they continue to be lazy bastards and pay more than half their gross to traffic guys, then they are foolish. Nothing has changed. Affiliate marketing is a small part of our business, but it pays my travel expenses, which is nothing to sneeze at, but if it fell apart tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. That is the secret to producing and selling original content. Its not rocket science, it is just plain common sense business. The curious thing is that so many have spread the rumours of my demise, which I fear, were greatly exaggerated.

When do you get back home?
We got some scheming to do.

[softball]

When do you get back home?
We got some scheming to do.
I am home now, but between my new snowshoing hobby, setting up a fetish cam thingy, and working my tail off to catch up with being a lazy ass for two months, I am a bit busy. But scheming is always fun.

[Hell Puppy]

I have heard this shit so many times. I have even bemoaned it myself when I was a newbie...but then we all were back in that day. But the fact of the matter is, that if you have a serious USP, you will do well. Marketing is the key, but not necessarily the "board guru" marketing path. I know a lot of you guys make your money out of selling other people's product, like many other businesses, but the 50 per cent ++ model is not good for the people who actually create the content and if they continue to be lazy bastards and pay more than half their gross to traffic guys, then they are foolish. Nothing has changed. Affiliate marketing is a small part of our business, but it pays my travel expenses, which is nothing to sneeze at, but if it fell apart tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear. That is the secret to producing and selling original content. Its not rocket science, it is just plain common sense business. The curious thing is that so many have spread the rumours of my demise, which I fear, were greatly exaggerated.

Agree.

Margins on some of my current favorite traffic mechanisms are way too thin to work with someone else's affiliate program. You need a full share and all of the recurring to make it worthwhile. Recurring is also a key, as always, that's usually where the profit comes from regardless of the source of the traffic.