The Mystery Of Licensed Content Woes

Well, I'd honestly say at least 10% of the webmasters out there are thieves and another 10% easily are not following the guidelines of their licenses or bothering to ensure that whois information matches the license or that domains are listed...

The 10% thieves is really conservative, I'd be willing to say that number was a lot higher with the amount of C&D's that we issue along with how many I know other companies issue, it's endless.

programs offer free content so the affiliates don't have to buy content to promote program's sites.

I would say... It's because 90% of webmasters don't make any money... If they spent $50.00 on a set of photos, they would be in the hole.... I can tell you this fact: I have had 106 webmasters sign up for my affiliate program and 4 of them have sent traffic... And two of the four are paysite owners...

Alot more than 10% theft I must say.

People are getting hooked up by the sponsors - especially for the reality sites.

They money still wasnt hiting the providers well before sponsors were handing out content left and right, and a hell of a lot before this "reality" crap hit the market.

oh that theft rate is way higher, just go take a look at any TGP's listing, TGP owners are complicit in that theft, though they'd never admit it.

but even with a big thief factor there should still be lots of biz around.

sponsor content? there are hundreds and hundreds of sponsors -surely content providers aren't stupid enough to have given away those rights?

wait it's like the AdultLegal fiasco, you license a DVD and then you figure you own it to give away as free content and to hustle up new affiliates.

well it looks like it's about half the content guys own fault and the other half thieves and those who enable them.

oh well - custom content biz is strong for the time being, who knows what the future brings.

Have any models with puffies mutt?

Sorry had too.

hmmm......... i'd have to think. There is a cute little Latina with awesome breasts and i think puffy nipples. I'll go get some pics.

cool thanks.

just checked, her breasts are great but the nipples really aren't puffies like i thought they were.

i'll look out for some puffy nipple models and let u know when/if we get one.

Damn, and thanks.

Why does the Afghan farmer harvesting opium poppy in his backyard only make 0.1% of the revenues in the value chain? This industry is about selling & marketing, not producing.

It is simple economics, the law of supply and demand. As the cost of production and entry to market decreases, so does the amount of content produced. I've had untold numbers of photograhers contact me who have 10's or 100's of thousands of photos that have never before been seen but they don't release them because they can't get what they think they are valued. I remember something my dad taught me 15 years ago: price is not determined by cost but by the market's willingness to pay.

This supply and demand is part in part the reason for our development of ImageAuction. We feel that content producers should at least make their money back and a little profit before releasing their content. The problem with the current broker model is that if a producer puts up a set, it may sell once for $20 but thats no guarantee that it will sell again or in any reasonable time frame. So they are sitting on their investment in the model, lighting, equipment, location, etc. So at ImageAuction, the sellers don't release the content until its made money.

this is the world of commercial intellectual property, not farming farming opium for the illegal drug trade, and it's completely fucked up - producers of film, television, books etc do not make 0.1% of revenues. A large cut of the pie goes to the producers. You have to sell and market a product - well in this business it has been possible to market crap or almost nothing and be successful. that is another one of the factors. but empires are being made with custom content now - would TopBucks be where they are without it? Nasty Dollars? OxCash?

Mutt, what became of that HOT red head with big boobs and freckles? She looked like a single girl site gold mine.

Mutt I see this business from three sides, Internet, Magazines and Video. Yes the Internet side is down, due to a few reasons. Two being Visa and sponsors giving content to affiliates.

So is business over all down?

Would not think so for those who run good quality sites giving a good experience to their member. Let's face it we are in the business of selling hours of porn for $1 a day, how hard is that?

Well for some, who have the wrong viewpoint, it?s very hard. You hear them constantly saying ?Too much free porn? ?Why would anyone pay for it? and ?Why should I pay $35 for set when I can buy a set for $5??.

To sell you have to empaphise with the buyer, you have to understand what motivates them and know what their "Hot Button" is. If you're a free surfer or looking for the cheapest deal you can get, how do you expect to sell a quality product to someone looking for a good time?

The adult Internet is coming out of the early days and showing growing pains. The days of putting up 500 sets and throwing traffic at it are over. The days of conning a surfer into a free or $1.99 trial are coming to the end. The days of giving a good experience to your members and keeping them with you month after month are here.

The central core of most good magazines is their monthly subscription list. 25% are sold before they?re printed to "Members" some have been members for years and loyal buyers buying every month. This industry looks at retaining a member for 3 months on average. Even though this is a different branch of the porn industry, why is this when a site can contain 1,000+ sets and a magazine has 10?

Quality is the answer. Anyone with a pile of magazines can look through them and compare an hour spent looking at them and an hour looking at your average site. The difference in the quality of the experience is the reason why we are suffering.

The problems are with the content providers who 3 years ago were in another business. Paysites that simply do not convert or retain as they did. Because the standard has risen and now no matter how cheap the content and much traffic you throw at a site unless the site promises and delivers quality worth $1 a day you are not going to prosper.

Paysite owners calculate now that 75% of your PAYING TRAFFIC has been a member of a site before. Then look at what you offer and ask yourself if you would spend $30 to look on it. If the answer is no, then you have the reason you?re doing so badly.

We are holding our own and business could be better, but it could be far worse. Because like Mutt we supply a quality product and buyers are locked into buying from us on QUALITY not price. Quality is the route, giving crap away is not, buy bad content and you will not have the money to buy more. Trust me, some of the content providers out there are suffering because they are not good enough for the SURFER and he?s the guy we all sell to. Pornography is not pointing a camera at a naked model, I said this here over 2 years ago and still saying it.

IF YOU BUY ON PRICE, EXPECT TO SELL TO THOSE BUYING ON PRICE.

Only point I disagree with is custom being better than non-exclusive, find me buyers prepare to buy content at the price we can sell it 10 times non-exclusive and we will think about it. And 10 sales is not hard for us.

Yes it WAS possible to sell crap, but those days are over.

Would Paul Raymond, Hustler, Score, Crescent, Karups, and many many others be where they are today without non-exclusive?

The difference is the QUALITY of their porn and the marketing.

Hi Mutt,
For staters i want to say I always enjoy your posts. Very imformative and thought provoking to say the least.
I think I may have an answer, or at least explain where a certain percentage of lost revenue has went. I think there is a trend as of late where webmasters are shooting content themselves. Granted it's not the quality of your stuff, but it's good enough to spank too.. Thats really all that matters to a surfer. I mean, anyone can buy a gl2 or a vx2100, a 5 mega pixel camera, some tungsten lights, a few 500 dollar hookers and slap together a pretty decent site. It's not really rocket science to produce a good gonzo scene. By the time someone has filmed 10 scenes they pretty much got the jist of how lighting works, soft light/hard light, etc. Why pay someone to film it for me when I can do it myself.
The hardest part about filming content is finding the girls. Once you have that cracked the rest is all blue skyes.
Cheers
Duke

But wouldn't that mean that said content still would be bought only by a smaller group of people.

And since they give it to affiliates they have to buy more and more to keep it fresh.

I don't think that's the answer to the mystery.

No wonder so many are doing so badly.

To shoot it yourself the costs will be over $100 a set and the quality of the porn low. Now if you think that turns on a guy who is willing to pay $30 a month for membership good luck to you. Good enough for a free surfer to spank to, not good enough to convert.

Plus the 2-3 days a week it will take for the guy to shoot it.

Hang on maybe you were joking and forgot the

Webmasters just buy on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...tem=3817716410

2000 pics, best quality, "matrix-like" :-) Why to buy expensive sets when they can buy it so cheap (shipping and all rights to resell the content to other webmasters is included).

I wish I could read German, anyone here who can write to Ebay and get this item checked out.

Why webmasters should not do this is simple, we find them and we send their sponsor and hosting company a C&D, they lose their hosting and the money they made.

Soon the situation could be we will be earning more money from people stealing content than we do selling it.

Have you ever tried to reach Ebay...? Impossible...! Nobody is really interested if you want to tell them they sell something illegal... There is just one way to kick those guys who sell stolen content: bid on it :-) And don't pay :-)

This is an industry plagued by people who are shitty businessmen. I don't think the mystery runs any deeper than that ;)