Most annoying thing about our business model

Blame it on the tubes.

You have to thank the assholes who started the whole "free porn" tube movement for most of this.

If you are a producer with a decent website, or a network of sites, and you are charging $30 a month for access, you are right - in today's market it is very tough to make sales when competing against "free".

Think about the numbers: If your site or network offers 300 videos, then that $30 monthly fee = 10 cents p/scene.... if you offer 600 episodes at $30 p/month each scene drops down to 5 cents p/scene, etc.

Even iTunes charges 99 cents p/downloaded song, so subscription porn has been a great deal for a long time.

Do you think it costs a producer 10 cents to film a scene? Think about how devalued porn is now, thanks to the scumbags who are simply giving everything away, all under the guise that traffic = sales, regardless of how many sales are actually being lost thanks to this shortsighted stupidity.

For every $100 some asshat is making off of their legal or illegal tube site, the industry is easily losing $1,000+ in subscriptions.

The "adapt-or-die" motto will kill off most of the people in this business. Many producers will stop or reduce their shoots because their overhead fees exceed their return, coupled with their affiliates finding themselves in the same losing position. Over time this will mean less producers, less affiliates, less NEW content, and ultimately a major shrinking of the adult industry overall.

Niche content can still yield some sales, but it really depends upon the niche. If you are a surfer who likes gangbangs for example, you can find thousands of free gangbang scenes for free now, throughout hundreds of tube sites. If you produce midget gangbang scenes then your content may be specific enough to gain and retain some fans, but the smaller the micro-niche, the smaller the fanbase.

These threads are just useless however, as those who agree with this information can't do much to change the conditions, and those who are making a few bucks in the free porn biz are not going to stop what they are doing very soon either, until conditions change.

If you PRODUCE content it is impossible to respect the folks who take your work and distribute it for free, like your work is virtually worthless, and just good for increasing the size of their industry-killing free sites.

A terrible economy + too much free porn = a very bad time for non-thieves in the adult biz.

Its some hard time to come

Careful what you wish for!

Imagine how much you would make per sale as a "lowly affiliate" when programs start charging $9.99 for access.

I don't run a tube so I have absolutely no first hand knowledge, but I would think running a tube would actually cost more than it makes?

Are they making enough money to keep doing business?

The shakedown continues... the next target is the exorbitant fees the models/agencies are charging, which will come down a lot, or else there won't be much work for them anymore because no one can sustain paying those fees and losing on the backend anymore.

I don't run a tube site, but I'll answer your question anway...

Oh yeah, tubes are the way to go man! Adapt or die!

Surfers LOVE to PAY for porn when they are on my FREE tube sites!

FREE... it's the new prophet dude! Worship the Prophet!

I think youporn was the first. Was he an industry vet? Did he run free sites/tgps prior? I don't know anything about the founder.

You think youporn was the first? Maybe you are correct, but for some reason I thought it was redtube. For history's sake it would be very interesting to know the exact launch dates of the top 10 porn tubes. Anyone know?

I understand that lower monthly prices aren't the answer, either, because it's been tried. And they obviously cannot offer much at that price point, probably why it doesn't work.

I've never seen a business like this before.
Adult is the most interesting business THE WORLD OVER right now.
Half of the set in stone traditional RULES of business DO NOT APPLY here.

Fuck content,

focus on the packaging.

Make it "fun and cool" for them and gain more consistent retention rates.

Content only goes so far, why not make everything super sharp and desirable down to the join page itself? Make the site a status symbol, or a nifty gadget with multiple purposes like a community they belong in?