Is innovation in adult dead? And why?

[Hell Puppy]

The adult side of the web used to be extremely innovative. There have been lots of new concepts and inventions for both types of sites, business methods and marketing done in adult over the last decade plus. Think about how many you can quickly name, both good and bad?

Picposts
TGP's
Pop-ups
Blind links
Free trials
Limited trials
Pop-unders
Cross sells

Now how many can you name that have been invented in the last 2 years? 3 years? Heck, even 5 years?!??

Meanwhile, mainstream seems to be kicking our ass over the last couple of years. There's constantly some neat new idea for a site out there from Digg to Twitter to Jaiku to all of the cool stuff that Flicker has been adding. And let's not forget Myspace, Youtube, etc.

Why?

My theory is most of the innovation right now is being driven by "Web 2.0" (i hate that term by the way). But for community and collaboriative user participation sites like these to work, you MUST have the trust of the user and not just try to slip your hand into their back pocket and take their wallet. That's something most of the companies currently driving the economics of the adult web do not understand.

[psl]

We have just developed some software for download to own, I know it's not that new but we have been looking at offering it to webmasters as a package, so they can allow their members to download scenes and movies and burn it to DVD so the customer can watch their porn on whatever player they wish.
The basic package would be, webmasters get to license the software and store content on our servers and we cover all bandwidth etc.
Webmasters have already taken the customer subscription so the webmasters will just pay us a flat fee per month for the service.
We are going to roll it out after we have had some more feedback and can tweak the system to suit both parties.

Innovation isn't dead just on a slow down. Things will get interesting if and when Google launch their mobile phone, couple this with the iPhone, more people can access porn via thier mobilesin a user friendly way.Fast moving webmasters will embrace this opportunity and use the mobile platform as another means of driving traffic to sites and/or providing limited content sites specifically for mobiles and using these mobile sites to upsell to the main website.

[Rcourt64]

I think a major problem is everyone is still thinking inside the Internet's "Web 2.0", and if we continue this route, I sincerely believe "as if it's almost not already" allot of the Internet adult industry is doomed:
Picposts
TGP's
Pop-ups
Blind links
Free trials
Limited trials
Pop-unders
Cross sells
Thats all olds school tools.
Mainstream is eating adult industry up in the creativity and idea department. and if we don't start looking "outside the box" well... I won't need to repeat myself again.
Gaining the trust of the user in adult department is easier said than done HP. I'm absolutely aware that you HP have tons of experience in gathering and retaining customers. So I'm not attempting to challenge what you say sir. But I'm just expressing my thoughts of how I see my world and it's involvement in the adult porn world.

I recall about a month or so ago, GonZo posted a "10 reason list Internet porn is dying". or "something along this topic" I'm not hunting this thread down right now, cuz I'm busy. But I believe adult porn innovation is not on the top of the major Internet Adult Industries list.
We lack creativity, and we all should step outside the Internet and maybe take a peek inside.

[Rcourt64]

opps I almost forgot:

[Toby]

Adult has always been the first to embrace new technology when it comes along. That's not going to change, and innovation will continue to occur around those new tech tools.

[gonzo]

Mobile has already been unsucessfully tested as a major revenue stream for porn.

Phones are nothing more than a bitrate for VOD delivery.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Rcourt64

Mainstream is eating adult industry up in the creativity and idea department. and if we don't start looking "outside the box" well... I won't need to repeat myself again.
Gaining the trust of the user in adult department is easier said than done HP. I'm absolutely aware that you HP have tons of experience in gathering and retaining customers. So I'm not attempting to challenge what you say sir. But I'm just expressing my thoughts of how I see my world and it's involvement in the adult porn world.

I recall about a month or so ago, GonZo posted a "10 reason list Internet porn is dying". or "something along this topic" I'm not hunting this thread down right now, cuz I'm busy. But I believe adult porn innovation is not on the top of the major Internet Adult Industries list.
We lack creativity, and we all should step outside the Internet and maybe take a peek inside.

You're exactly correct here.

This is why I've always griped about people who would "strip mine" the industry. Others would say "let them be, pay attention to your own business, they dont impact you". Uhm, actually, they DO impact me as my best sites DO rely on surfer trust.

How do you fix it? Well, you dont really. You just try to work around it. I keep my traffic nets very closed for this reason. If all of my inbound and outbound links are going to/from my sites or those I trust, then I dont have to worry about my surfers getting jerked around....or at least not jerked around for anything they'd accredit to any of my entry points.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by psl

Innovation isn't dead just on a slow down. Things will get interesting if and when Google launch their mobile phone, couple this with the iPhone, more people can access porn via thier mobilesin a user friendly way.Fast moving webmasters will embrace this opportunity and use the mobile platform as another means of driving traffic to sites and/or providing limited content sites specifically for mobiles and using these mobile sites to upsell to the main website.

Ahh, here we go! First reply was someone looking at mobile as the next big thing.

Would that open up a ton of new innovation? You bet, as it's a new world again.

But, mobile has been attempted. GonZo was correct to put it in his hype that went nowhere list. Companies with solid bankrolls, technology and content have tried it. It was met with a fizzle at best. To figure out if it EVER will take off, you have to ask yourself WHY?

Is it speed? If so, that will be fixed with time. But even on 3G and other high speed transports, the take rate has been just as low.

Is it the size and quality of the phone displays? Possible, but quality these days isn't bad already. And if size of display matters, doesn't that means guys are more likely to view it at home on large LCDs and projection?

Maybe guys just dont wanna spank their monkey with one hand in a semi-public place and a phone in the other. I'm betting this one is the real answer. I cant say I've ever been standing around a bar or restaurant and thought, "wow, i'd really like to go rub one out while looking at my phone".

[Hell Puppy]

To continue a thought...

The type of analysis I was just kind of walking thru on mobile is something that is a key skill set if you really want to innovate and be successful. I think the most creative people in this business are those who still can put themselves in the position of a surfer and see our world thru their eyes.

You'll hear me refer to "psychology" a lot especially if someone asks me to review their tour. That's what I'm talking about, you have to get inside that surfers head and know how they think. And when i see a cookie cutter tour, I just roll my eyes and dont bother to send a single click.

Best recent innovation I can think of? Geo-targetted ads.

Why? Psychology.

Whether it's a dating site, cam site or whatever, it tickles what I jokingly call the "availability gene" in the male. If the girl is close, there's a better chance you might actually meet her. "Hot blonde" isn't near as appealing as "Hot blonde down the street". Amateur sites have known this for ages, it's the "real girl" appeal versus "glam model".....the glam model is just a model, thus more inaccessible. Amateur girls like Carol Cox who have parties and invite surfers, do huge bank.

On the other end, wanna take a solo girl site and see your sales cut in half? Let her put in her blog that she just got married.

And the worst thing you can do is totally lose site of your ability to surf your own sites with the eyes of your would be customers. Some of the large companies in this industry have done this. I shake my head when I see them coming up with nifty new twists on their sites but their programmers have done a minimal job and gone home leaving bugs in place that drive surfers crazy. It's flushing money down the toilet.

[Rcourt64]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

To continue a thought...

The type of analysis I was just kind of walking thru on mobile is something that is a key skill set if you really want to innovate and be successful. I think the most creative people in this business are those who still can put themselves in the position of a surfer and see our world thru their eyes.

You'll hear me refer to "psychology" a lot especially if someone asks me to review their tour. That's what I'm talking about, you have to get inside that surfers head and know how they think. And when i see a cookie cutter tour, I just roll my eyes and dont bother to send a single click.

Best recent innovation I can think of? Geo-targetted ads.

Why? Psychology.

Whether it's a dating site, cam site or whatever, it tickles what I jokingly call the "availability gene" in the male. If the girl is close, there's a better chance you might actually meet her. "Hot blonde" isn't near as appealing as "Hot blonde down the street". Amateur sites have known this for ages, it's the "real girl" appeal versus "glam model".....the glam model is just a model, thus more inaccessible. Amateur girls like Carol Cox who have parties and invite surfers, do huge bank.

On the other end, wanna take a solo girl site and see your sales cut in half? Let her put in her blog that she just got married.

And the worst thing you can do is totally lose site of your ability to surf your own sites with the eyes of your would be customers. Some of the large companies in this industry have done this. I shake my head when I see them coming up with nifty new twists on their sites but their programmers have done a minimal job and gone home leaving bugs in place that drive surfers crazy. It's flushing money down the toilet.

Ya I forgot bout the GEO thing. Thats gotta be the biggest idea in a long time It's absolutely a zoom right in your face thing people notice on web pages right off the bat, A really great creation.
But I still feel everyone is zoned into the web still to much, And to a point in certain areas we're heading in the wrong direction in a sense. Like GonZo mentioned earlier about .mobi's, actually it's a great innovation, but not for porn. I mean who the fuck is gonna watch dirty clips or movies while on the bus to work or wherever. that mobile crap is for a younger generation who are more into ringtones and cool screensavers and other gadgets. but it's not the place for adult content.
New ideas are out there. but all the pieces haven't been put together yet for Adult content world yet. The pornotube? there's no real shit to be made there. it's fallen into the "To much Free stuff again" category. That's exactly one of the biggest problems in Adult Industry is that innovation is so bad that they can't come up with any creative ideas, So they figure the next best thing to do is just give porn all away since no one can thing of anything better to do to promote it thats sad man.

[Hammer]

The page peel ad I'm using on Hammer Uncut is a small innovation and I have my flash designer working on some very cool variations that will give life to banners again.