Porn Industry: Common Misconceptions
 

Over the past few months I have had some interesting conversations. Whether industry vets, those kinda new, or those who are just looking to invest in adult.

In those various conversations and reading boards what are some of the most common misconceptions you come across? Whether friends and family, board persona's, or people in 'da biz'?

Here are some that give me a chuckle....


1. Clip stores are not worth the effort.
2. You can't make real money on content that is not HD, high end, super models.
3. You must have a pay site, DVD, VOD, to make your money back on content.
4. Niche or fetish is overrated.
5. The message boards are how you gauge the health of 'the industry'.
6. No real business gets done on boards anymore.
7. TGP's are dead.
8. The pay site model is dead.
9. Programmers or designers that are high end are worth every penny.
10. No industry 'ballas' read the boards anymore.

What are yours?

agreed on most points

My #1 and #2 always has me laughing...... all the way to the bank mind you.

I get bashed on the boards now and then about our content is crap because we are not HD, nude, girls are not super models or whatever. At the same time, we only make like a 1000% profit on our content. We make our production costs on shoots back from clip sales ALONE in 30-45 days.

Membership, DVD, and anything else is just gravy. We already made out money back and everything else is profit. I am not in this business to be a Dean Capture, or JimGunn or Markham. I am in this business to MAKE MONEY.

I know my niche through and through. I have shown some friends, who we've had these conversations, forums and message boards where members are talking about what they like in scenes.

Not a single time in all the years. All the boards. All the discussions has lighting, HD, or countless other things that are discussed endlessly on the boards ever mentioned (cool down Markham, I am not saying they are not important. I am saying knowing your niche trumps the rest).

They, that being the potential customer and target audience, talk about the ACTION. Angles, if they can tell the camera person is into the market/material/niche or not (keep in mind, I am referring mainly to my markets. Not every market in the industry).

All of the one's I listed give me a laugh, and I am sure there are plenty I am missing as well.

11. Sex sells. Adult online is a gold mine.
12. You sit around in your underwear all day and money just rolls in.

...things like that.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

13. free porn sites do not make money.
14. do not rely on PPC or CPM ad networks.
15. do not use blacklabelads.
16. do not use adultadworld.
17. do not buy traffic for hopes of conversion.

these are the lesson learned since i started out 8 months ago. :(

Those are some good one's as well.

Some more...

17. Solo girl sites do not/can't make any real money.
18. Non-nude sites do not make money.
19. TGP submits, link lists, free sites are worthless
20. Throwing (any kind, unfiltered) of traffic in volume at a site will generate sales.
21. You must have exclusive, never seen before, content.
22. Site design is the most important thing for converting sales.

4. Niche or fetish is overrated.
That's a good one :1orglaugh


9. Programmers or designers that are high end are worth every penny.
yeah, shitty cheapo programmers and designers is where it's at.

Always good for a laugh. All the way to the bank.

You taking offense to that is also always good for a laugh... chief.

I couldn't care less. I just enjoy your view of the world probably as much as you laugh at mine boss. :1orglaugh

Fairly accurate assessment on all counts.

Including the 'caring' bit going either way sport.

Okay maverick

My thoughts exactly ace.
:2 cents:

Anytime daisy

I like your stuff, you shootin gorrilla style man, luv it!

i think you just made john clarks day there :1orglaugh

Thanks mang. Appreciate it.

No offense to the professional photographers who've been around for decades and earn every penny on their high end productions, super models, and HD,... but I am not trying to do what they do. Nor do I plan to ever do content outside of my interest(s). I know about my market and niches only. That is really all I care to know. Have traffic for. Invest in.

The fact I can shoot 8 scenes per photo shoot. Recouping my expense money in a month. Make 1000% profit on the content is what BUSINESS is all about. High fives on my material from the 'industry', message boards, or BROS doesn't pay my bills.

The fans, patrons, repeat customers and members do.

Here is more info on the CLIPS STORES for those interested in testing that, or not "leaving the money on the table". That line always cracks me up.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I think the biggest misconception is that people think making money in porn is easy. I think it's just as hard or even harder than mainstream. People tend to think that because "sex sells", anything you create in the biz is going to bring in loads of cash. I'm talking about people that aren't in the industry themselves.

Agreed.

I, like many have posted here over the years, have had that conversation with models, our friends, some stranger who finds out what you do or some newbie. You are talking about business, and in the middle somewhere you hear that "sex sells" and all you need is some naked women, a camera, and throw it up on the net.

It used to make me LOL out loud, now I just smirk and tell them, 'good luck'.

I also can think of ENDLESS examples of newbies or people who want to get into adult, and give up in 3/6/9 months because they are barely making any money. Or think what it takes to generate QUALITY, FILTERED traffic is too hard. So they would just rather buy it from some broker, and then wonder why they can't sell shit.

23. Online business is no different then the real world. It requires WORK.

Are these the misconceptions or the truths?

24. Perfectly glossy unreal HD content stuff does not mean good content: but the action itself and how you arouse/promote it matters far more if you want to get sales out of it.

:2 cents:

so true :)

It's usually something like: "how can you even compare my business to yours... I mean, you make money from porn which is way easier than what I do..."

LOL :)

Well let's not bash HD too much kids. Barefootsies is right by all accounts, you absolutely have to know your niche. I've said it once and I will say it again, some fetish sites are shit because the producers are not into the niche and it shows on film and to surfers. I hate mazda, I would be a shitty mazda dealer if I tried to sell it because my soul wouldn't be in it. If you have your own gigs and are just as pumped making it with a 200 dollar month as opposed to a 2k month, you will do well in the Biz. As far as technology, no, you don't have to have HDV to be successful, by any means, but it does make your content look that much more attractive for the potential consumer... and the fact that most pervs have ridiculous personal archives, yeah, HD is a selling point and it always will be. Shit, when holograms come out and you can jerk off to virtual girls instead of video, that will be a selling point as well. Good post Barefootsies, but quit telling people niche fetish secrets, dammit... kidding :thumbsup

I have to disagree, PPC is the the only stable and consistent sales/ratios in my short time in this business. I have put hours and hours into sites only to see 1/100th the return of a ppc campaign that took 5 minutes to setup. Then again, I have only been doing this a short amount of time.

great tips... awesone...

HAHAHA!

Well, I threw my Markham disclaimer in there about HD. :winkwink:

Like I said. I am not saying anything bad against HD. I am not saying you should not shoot in it if you want, feel the need. Most of the actual content producers do, and that is the way things are moving.

What I am saying is more along the lines of misconceptions that is MUST be HD or people do not buy. Or the chicks must be nude, or people will not buy. Which is wrong. People buy because you have good material. Good material being the action. Whether tickling, feet sucking, asshole raping, bellybutton licking.

That was all.

Yep. Followed by a remark saying you just sit around in your undies all day watching money roll in.

most of those don't seem very common to me.. 7 years ago maybe

:thumbsup

Good one. :thumbsup

Another.

25. Just because YOUR sales are down does not mean everyone else's are and they are liars, or newbies.

Good for you.

All of these on that initial list I have heard in the past 2-3 months alone.

Agreed on most of them.

That you have sex every day & are a swinger if you run an adult website

I think everything on your list is a potential money maker!! As you mentioned if you know what your doing and know your niche it's all relative...

Barefootsies knows his stuff. He makes good money in spite of the fact that his models aren't all that gorgeous, nor are they even naked. And his video quality and lighting are mediocre at best, but it just doesn't matter in his case. He knows his niche, he works hard, satisfies his customers and knows how to get traffic and convert traffic. What he is doing won't work for everyone, but there is something to be learned for sure from not only people on the upper echelons of the business but also from the niche players, amateurs and people who have their own ways of doing things.

Thanks for the kind words friend. :thumbsup

Looking forward to meeting up in Phx for more good discusssions.

[QUOTE=Barefootsies;15575262]Some more...
[B]
17. Solo girl sites do not/can't make any real money.

Yeah, that's a funny one :)

My favorites involve what it takes to start a program... I had one person tell me not to bother with a paysite/affiliate program if I didn't have $50k to invest. Well I did it on $1k, and that person is out of the industry.

That is a good one as well!

I remember hearing the same, although at the time (5-6 years ago) I was told $20k minimum for content.

We started on $3000.00, that included camera gear.

[QUOTE=AaliyahLove;15577661]I am sure that has you laughing, and your toes curling, all the way to the bank.
:1orglaugh

19. Hookers and Drugs will get you traffic.

Those are some good ones footsies, here's some of mine.

- TGP's are dead.....lol. (i know you said it already, I just liked typing it.)
- Since that girl is on my site because I am an affiliate to that company, I must know her.
- All the girls I've shot I've also fucked.
- My life could be a dear penthouse letter.



- Jon Clark is an industry pillar.


lmao, good thread.

Those are some classics fo sho!
:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

I always get asked if we all know each other. I do not think it is possible to know every single person that works in the adult industry. I also get asked if we all fuck each other. I guess they think we have giant fuckfests all the time. I have to laugh at that.

#178. You can't make money unless you have exclusive content.

Fucking nonsense. Firstly, there's no point in paying top dollar for exclusive content that is going to be uploaded to all of the goddamn tube sites within a month. Secondly, if the surfer hasn't seen your whored-out content yet, and they probably haven't, then they don't know the difference.

Agreed. But not for those reasons.

I have rerun our content on clip stores a handful of times, and people keep buying the old clips. Obviously you can have the same re-run tired, 1000 times sold shit. But with semi exclusive, you have some options. I was basically running an experiment.

The results are. Exclusive is not needed. How you market the shit is what makes a difference.

Yup, i agree with you and then some.:thumbsup

torrent sites are bad for the industry
tube sites are bad for the industry
you can't make money by giving your content away for free

Got 0day?

The reason people say not to use adultadworld or blacklabelads is because they frequently have spyware ads... and I have seen trojan serving advertisers on all of them. Noone said you can't make money from them... but personally I have ethics that motivate me not to fuck over surfers by promoting programs that rip them off or present a security risk to them. I think that using those ad services is akin to building your OWN network of spyware and trojan sites... what is the difference?