The Future of Internet Porn?

[Spaceporn]

With all these tube sites that give surfers virtually unlimited porn, along with sites like myfreepaysite.com, which gives members tons of content in exchange for an email address, I worry that we're all on the losing side of a trend in which we try to get people to pay for porn that they simply no longer have to pay for.

Logic would dictate that we grasp onto our niches, knowing that people will still pay for material not readily accessible. But, it won't be long before the youporns and redtubes become shemaletubes, etc. offering niche material. Paysites are stuggling with this new landscape, and unless something is done about shady tubesites, we are all asking something of surfers that is unrealistic: "please pay for your porno?"

So, the question I'm asking is how do we adapt? Rather than being on the losing side of a downward trend, and rather than creating blogs for ever-increasing, yet limited, niches, like "Pregos with strapons who fuck trannies in barns," how can we adjust to a new reality where full scenes and full movies are available to surfers completely free?

[NaughtyGirl]

I dont think selling Porn will ever Die, in my opinion! Also helping the free porn places by adding there link and the names of them will not help the scandle either! But why put all your eggs in one basket, you can always invest a portion of your money into different ventures other the porn if you truly think it wont last!

[Tiani]

I remember agreeing with a post like this a few months ago and a very experienced webmaster - blackbunda2 - said something like this:

"You've got to remember that many people who surf for porn want to buy it."

And in many cases, that's still true.

People who actually want to buy porn want the whole works - proper porn site membership and being able to download their porn in safety and in their own time.

Sure, thousands and thousands of surfers will be looking for a free taster (because that's all they will often find), but they never intend to buy anything anyway.

And many surfers are worried about picking up viruses from free sites, so they are often scared to download anything 'free'.

As to going for ever more complex and minute niches, I tend to agree. It's still the main niches which sell for me. What matters (for my surfers anyway), is not so much the niche, but the quality and originality of the porn they can get.
Not everyone will agree with me on that, but what works for one of us doesn't necessarily work for others.

But yes, as NG so rightly says, why put all your eggs in one basket?
Many of us on this board sell in mainstream too (different rules and sometimes much harder though), but it covers more options, just in case!

[webpimp]

I agree that there will always be a market for porn. In fact I believe the market will only grow as this generation of young adults grows up. These are people who grew up with the internet and don't know of a life without it.

But all the free porn is a problem though, no doubt.

The tube sites give away free porn, but the illegal ones will fade away in time as lawsuits become more common. The producers and paysite operators are trying to stay on top of the trend by allowing their promo clips to be uploaded to tube sites (according to their terms of course). It's just the next logical step of competition between the paysites - allow webmasters to give away more free porn, give them RSS feeds so they don't have to do the work, offer huge PPS payouts, etc... in order to attract more webmasters to promote their content. If it gets out of control (some argue it already has) then the net will be so saturated with free porn that it will be nearly impossible to cash in a sale.

But I agree with your feeling Spaceporn that the tides may change, and you'd better get with the program if you want to last. The future is a gamble, so you decide where to put your efforts. Some people think the future is in mobile devices, some people focus on growing regions of the world, some people are banking on social networking. Or maybe you have what it takes to be a trend setter???

[Hacker Jack]

there has always been free porn, i get literally thousands of free images and movies sent to me daily to give away in promotion. its just that its more prevalent now tubes are around. as others have said here the illegal tubes will not survive as the adult content producers close in on them.
i do beleive the paysit eowners give away far too much free stuff but then thats their business and im sure they know what theyre doing. After all, its not difficult for most surfers to actually go out and get laid so the question really is why does the porn industry make so much money in the first place lol

as webpimp pointed out, adapt and overcome

[Bakdoor]

Yes, HJ, but free porn IS killing us.
An example. Almost 7 years ago, I was looking for something to sell via the Internet, as I had sold almost everything I owned on ebay, and had a lot of fun doing so. As we all know, Sex and Religion have always 'sold'. I preferred the 'sex' part! LOL. My research kept coming up with 'gay porn' as a big portion of the 'sex for sale' venue. My Gay Porn DVD site was born and business boomed! Doubling sales every year! Then, in March of 2007, it simply died. I went from a first quarter record sales number, to NOTHING! I think, since March, I've grossed less than 500.00 in DVD's and I had been on track to gross over 50k in 2007! The reason? FREE PORN. Why pay for something when you can get it free, very easily, anytime. I did a survey of many of my past customers, and the ONLY reason given for not buying from me anymore was the complete saturation of FREE PORN.

So, I moved into the sponsor/affiliate areas. (the place most of us here are) I've built well over 100 sites and have seen revenues sloooooowly increase yet I'm noticing early signs of a change in this area as well. My hits are increasing dramatically, but my sales are not increasing with regard to the increase in traffic. Again, I blame the ever increasing, easy availability, of FREE PORN and the over saturation of blogs/splogs/sites trying to 'cash in'.

Another trend I've noticed, and this directly relates to the over saturation of blogs/splogs/sites, is that many of the experienced webmasters no longer post here and at other forums. I think many of us have realized, even if only subconsciously, that we have 'given away the farm' so to speak. We have made it too easy for anyone to get involved, and I believe that in the end, this will hurt us tremendously. Don't get me wrong, when I first came here, I needed all the help I could get, and was grateful for it, but with sooooo many people now trying to 'sell porn'........ It's becoming more and more difficult to make a buck or two.

Webpimp pointed out, and rightly so, 'there will always be a market for porn'. The problem I see is the over saturation of available porn. Basic laws of supply and demand apply to this business just like any other. It is becoming a market, and I'm looking at it from an affiliate standpoint, where many make a few $$$'s as opposed to a few making MANY $$$'s.

Rambled enough.
ps. Anyone want to buy 4000 Gay DVD's cheap! LOL

[honeywest]

It's easy to get down reading this thread, but it's something we all have to face. I never went into this thinking I'd get rich, but geez, making only one sale in a year on a blog isn't what I had in mind. I think affiliates will have to augment their blogs with actual goods and/or services, tangible items that can't be gotten for free electronically such as adult toys, etc. And gear those items to your particular blog, ie. bondage, sell bondage toys/items or whatever.

True, people still like going to a good paysite if it delivers what they want, but in hard economic times, I would think pay porn is a luxury item, the first thing to be cut from a person's budget :-( especially if they can get loads of it for free. Or, they'll pay for porn that's so taboo that it's either illegal or borderline, and who of us wants to get mixed up in that? Again, I would be happy to make even $100-200 extra bucks a month out of , say, 10 blogs combined. Even in the free environment, I would think that's still doable. If I can't even do that, I'd have to rethink. Again, I feel that selling tangible items as an affiliate is a wise move. I'm sure no one realized the free boom would happen, but that's the Net for ya...totally unpredictable. As has been pointed out, you have to evolve and always think one step ahead. Right now, I sorta feel that my blogs are simply giving free porn for surfers and unless they just HAVE to get in and pay for those particular sites, they're happy to hang out and see the free pics every day. So, there has to be something else at my blogs that WILL bring in cash.

[Hacker Jack]

this is shaping up to be a good discussion

yep free porn everywhere, thousands of bloggers chugging out blogs, now even the tube sites giving it all away.
yep agreed less people are giving advice and sharing their knowledge and experience for whatever reason. ( i suspect its part having to work harder and part trying to minimise the competition)

the fact is that if you have been in this business a few years then you probably have a bunch of free sites, a fat network of blogs and a heap of submitted gallys already out there. If thats the case then sales will be down it s only to be expected because the majority of your established stuff is using old or overused content pushing galleries which were once premium material but which are now so old the sponsor plasters them all over the place.
its a natural progression, TGP's used to convert like crazy but then along came blogs. Last few years blogs converted well but now we have tube sites. Early last year DVDs flew off the shelves then video on demand sites really spread with their cheapness, instant gratification, and no brown parcels landing on the doormat. Tubes are not killing the industry they are just making the bloggers suffer.

keeping pounding away at a formula that worked well for you two years ago is just sticking your head in the sand with your fingers crossed hoping things go back to how they were.

you need to adapt and look for chinks in the armour. some things can never be given away free and have to be paid for. things, as honey says, such as tangible items. then there are other things like online dating, live cams, full length video on demand, phone sex etc etc. you can change tack and target mobile users (many of which cannot use tube sites). you can use fresh content the tubes havent discovered yet.
tubes need a mass of traffic and as such tend to cover more general niches. those micro niche blogs can still hold up against them, especially if you can tie them in with some kind of community/participation element. people will pay if they have a micro niche preference and kind find good quality material in one set location instead of trawling thru countless sites to find the odd movie.
my sales are up way more than my traffic is, i like a little healthy competition lol

one other thing - in the last year in particular, many sponsors have closed down or been bought up by larger ones such as Deecash. Many sponsors have made the switch from ccbill to nats and quite a few solo girl sites have changed ownership or the models have moved, (sandy summers, chloe dove). Thousands of fhg's have been dumped ditched or simply moved to new servers. In many cases this leaves a mess of dead affiliate codes and broken links on a zillion webpages all over the internet. I would be surprised if every experienced webmaster here with TGP and free site stuff still has more than 90% of their stuff actually working.

as always - my 2cents

[Bakdoor]

Excellent points HJ and Honey.

Yes, we are working MUCH harder to keep ahead of the game, and yes,' minimizing the competition' was my main thought as to why the regulars have all but disappeared.

Content.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no new content. Well, it's new for a minute, but with soooo many people with soooo many sites, that 'new' content is posted everywhere very quickly. It soon becomes 'old'. Also, original, new content, is quickly stolen and becomes prevalent worldwide almost immediately.

Micro Nicheing, ( I think I just made up a new word! ) is fine, and a viable concept, but I believe you can take this concept too far. After all, how many people are really going to be interested in Pregnant SheMales Pissing thru their nylons on the freeway with a dildo stuck up their.......? Why work your ass off to get a few surfers to a niche that may convert once in a year or two?

Adaptation.
Unfortunately, most of us, myself included, don't have the foresight to jump on, or come up with, a new concept quickly enough. Most, get in too late to make any real impact. By the time we have 'adapted', the smart ones have moved on. In fairness to ourselves though, we are mostly just small fry trying to make dent in a HUGE pond.
I have to admit, several of my latest projects (some of that 'adaptation' were talking about), have surprised me as to their viability.

I work extremely hard at this endeavor as I know you and many others do. It does get frustrating at times. It's going to take more hard work and determination to 'keep it up'.

The internet has become a basic item for almost every household, and as such, surfers are becoming much more capable than just a few years ago. High speed internet has made it possible to find ANYTHING quickly and at the best price, (or free), available with just a few keystrokes. As such, it can be a monumental task getting some of those keystrokes directed our way.

Honey, yes it is something we all have to deal with. The economic downturn is cutting into the sales of all leisure items including porn. It can be disheartening at times, but instead of 'throwing in the towel', I see it as an opportunity to spend this time to increase my mini empire substantially so as to be ready for the eventual upturn. I'm a firm believer in the Quality AND Quantity theory when it comes to the number of sites I have available. This slow economic time will give me a chance to further add to my empire while waiting for the eventual recovery.

Ok, who in the hell got me started on this thread I could have put up another 10 sites by now! I surrender!

[honeywest]

Originally Posted by Hacker Jack

this is shaping up to be a good discussion

yep free porn everywhere, thousands of bloggers chugging out blogs, now even the tube sites giving it all away.
yep agreed less people are giving advice and sharing their knowledge and experience for whatever reason. ( i suspect its part having to work harder and part trying to minimise the competition)

the fact is that if you have been in this business a few years then you probably have a bunch of free sites, a fat network of blogs and a heap of submitted gallys already out there. If thats the case then sales will be down it s only to be expected because the majority of your established stuff is using old or overused content pushing galleries which were once premium material but which are now so old the sponsor plasters them all over the place.
its a natural progression, TGP's used to convert like crazy but then along came blogs. Last few years blogs converted well but now we have tube sites. Early last year DVDs flew off the shelves then video on demand sites really spread with their cheapness, instant gratification, and no brown parcels landing on the doormat. Tubes are not killing the industry they are just making the bloggers suffer.

keeping pounding away at a formula that worked well for you two years ago is just sticking your head in the sand with your fingers crossed hoping things go back to how they were.

you need to adapt and look for chinks in the armour. some things can never be given away free and have to be paid for. things, as honey says, such as tangible items. then there are other things like online dating, live cams, full length video on demand, phone sex etc etc. you can change tack and target mobile users (many of which cannot use tube sites). you can use fresh content the tubes havent discovered yet.
tubes need a mass of traffic and as such tend to cover more general niches. those micro niche blogs can still hold up against them, especially if you can tie them in with some kind of community/participation element. people will pay if they have a micro niche preference and kind find good quality material in one set location instead of trawling thru countless sites to find the odd movie.
my sales are up way more than my traffic is, i like a little healthy competition lol

one other thing - in the last year in particular, many sponsors have closed down or been bought up by larger ones such as Deecash. Many sponsors have made the switch from ccbill to nats and quite a few solo girl sites have changed ownership or the models have moved, (sandy summers, chloe dove). Thousands of fhg's have been dumped ditched or simply moved to new servers. In many cases this leaves a mess of dead affiliate codes and broken links on a zillion webpages all over the internet. I would be surprised if every experienced webmaster here with TGP and free site stuff still has more than 90% of their stuff actually working.

as always - my 2cents

And as always, your 2cents are extremely well expressed and informative! About tangible items, certainly many bloggers have already discovered the necessity for having diverse choices for their customer and thus offer cams, webchat, toys, etc. And then the blog starts to look like a supermarket of porn, but maybe that's the only way to compete. I suppose the next step for desperate bloggers is a little coupon that says, "with every membership, you get two free hours of wild sex with the owner of this blog...." hmmm, I think that's already being done on webcams out there! lol....of course, not on any of my blogs, I'm an old fashioned sort of gal LOL