Industry woes or...

[TheLegacy]

I have seen alot of threads based on the topic, "is the industry dead or slowing down". Personally I don't think its as dead as many are to believe as I just recently had a conversation with some investors who were planning on creating a site but feared all the rumors that adult was dying on the net - after hearing this I realized something.

The industry isn't as much dead due to lack of signups but because of lack of originality. What I feel has happened is not the financial woes and economic bad times but that we have all stolen as many ideas as we can now off of each other, and with nothing new - no new marketing or creative websites - we simply have lost the touch to start something original.

New employee's are being hired to only steal webmasters away from competitors or merely hire other reps to get their lists instead of tapping into markets or new concepts that would entice surfers. So companies now are selling off to others or moving away from big budget parties as seen at trade shows - and honestly we have lost the idea to put adult back into adult conferences instead we look like an accounting group with wild women walking around for eye candy.

Do we sit back and wait for technology to catch up so that we can milk it for everything it's worth hoping for more sales? Or do we wait for the next new webmaster who has an original thought and say, "wtf why didn't we think of that?" Seriously, as year after year go by we've milked our competitors ideas and have to start coming up with our own.

[Cyndalie]

I don't know, I think there are several factors hurting our industry beyond faults in the products being offered. Tube sites and free content is hurting the biz. Before free pics and video trailers constitued 'free porn'. Now it's full length movies and rampant amateur porn. Sure we have to get super creative to suck in customers curious enough to pull out their wallet, but the 'fill a need' gap that paysites used to fill are now filled by free porn.

Another thing I think has hurt adult is the downturn of the number of credit card users and the increase in the number of debit card users. Debit card users check their balance online all the time, so they can dispute charges as they appear, rather than wait a month or never open that credit card bill. They can remember quicker to cancel, and they have less funds available on their balance.

Economy makes people frugal as well, entertainment budgets are first to go.

You could look at it as TV is full of free shows and movies, why subscribe to pay channels or get movies on demand? Those special nights you want something fresh and new to watch - it sure is nice to have those pay options without leaving the house. But which movies do you watch - low budget films that never hit the theaters, or that movie you wanted to see but didn't and waited to come out on TV, the blockbusters. Not only studios but programs as well could serve to advertise their brand further rather than just relying on affiliates to create a buzz. There is a lack of creative marketing just as much as a lack of quality content in this biz.

[Rochard]

Cyndalie, I think your wrong. In times of stress people turn towards two things - vice and entertainment. Times are tough, but sure enough they are keeping their cable TV turned on and keeping their Internet on.

The problem is deeper than the current economic situation. Certain aspects of our industry are crashing pretty hard. It's only a matter of time before you see companies going out of business. But other aspects of our industry.... Are doing very well. And that's because they aren't selling the same old crap.

[M O]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Cyndalie, I think your wrong. In times of stress people turn towards two things - vice and entertainment. Times are tough, but sure enough they are keeping their cable TV turned on and keeping their Internet on.

The problem is deeper than the current economic situation. Certain aspects of our industry are crashing pretty hard. It's only a matter of time before you see companies going out of business. But other aspects of our industry.... Are doing very well. And that's because they aren't selling the same old crap.

I spoke to my TERMINIX guy ( exterminator) today and he told me that he is loosing 8to 10 clients a month.

My friend who works for Dish Network told me that most of the people keep the basic package but they cancel the Pay channel, HBO, Cinemax ,etc.

IMHO like Roch says Niche product will be able to take the hit.

[Rochard]

In the past few months I've trimmed a lot of fat, and the silly stuff is the first to go. I just decided we were spending too much money on a monthly basis on stupid shit.

First up was car insurance - We shopped around and got our insurance dropped.

Pest control? Do we really need that? Do we have so many pests that it's a problem?

The alarm company...... Do we really need 24 hour monitoring? We shut that off. I want it mostly for at night when we are sleeping - I don't want someone snatching my kid.

Even my landscaper.... He was coming every week and charging me $20 a visit just to trim my lawn. I turned down the water on the sprinkler system (saving me yet more money), which caused my lawn to grow slower, so now he comes every other week.

Next up is power. I live in Northern California and this time of year is pretty neat. It's cold in the morning but yet warm in the late afternoon. We haven't run the heat or the AC in the past two months. In the morning we open up the windows, let the house remain cool, and then when it heats up outside we close everything up. By the time the house gets warm again it's dark out, and we open up the windows again.

All of this must have saved me about $500 a month......

But one of the main problems with our industry is that it's run on credit - and credit right now has taken a crap.

[Vid Vicious]

the days of over night successes are over this much is clear.

though there is still a dollar and a cent to make in this bussiness ...

and this from a content producer. if you think your sales are down .. imagine what us exclusive producers are goin thru

[Cyndalie]

So Rochard, what you are saying is people will use generic brands, water their lawn less, and trim excess out of their daily lives, yet STILL buy porn when they can get it for free?

[thruma]

Originally Posted by Cyndalie

So Rochard, what you are saying is people will use generic brands, water their lawn less, and trim excess out of their daily lives, yet STILL buy porn when they can get it for free?

There is one sure thing about looking at porn.
Guys will get tired of seeing the same stuff over and over and will be willing to buy some new stuff as long as it is brand new never before seen stuff.
It doesn't have to be new concept just new freshly made.
That's why free porn won't ruin the biz in general but as long as we keep giving it all away even the brand new fresh stuff then forget it.

I have to agree with Cyndalie on this one. With everything that is free out there now it's gonna make it all that much harder to get a surfer to buy it.
They will only buy it after they get tired of seeing whats already free and that also means we would all have to stop giving out new fresh stuff and wait for them get tired of seeing whats out there now.
I'd like to see that happen but I'm not holding my breath.

I don't know how many of guys follow the mainstream IM world but something I have been noticing them do is they are giving away for free courses and programs that are normally $199 - $2000.
All they ask is a shipping and handling charge and you get their newsletter as well for free, then the newsletter rebills monthly.

So is this just a way to market their newsletter or is the economy so bad that they have to give away $199 - $2000 worth of material to get $9 shipping charge and hope they don't cancel the $20 - $50 a month newsletter subscription?

They've always given away a lot of stuff for free but it has always been crap that was worth nothing anyway but now they are giving away good stuff they used to charge mega bucks for.

That's what the adult industry was doing even when the economy was good so what kind of change do we need to make now that the economy has turned so bad.

Porn is a product in demand no matter how bad the economy and people will pay shitloads of money for it as long as we don't offer it all for free.

I bet if you go around to some strip-joints in your city and see how they are doing I'll bet they're full at the peak hours and probably will be through this whole recession.

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by Cyndalie

So Rochard, what you are saying is people will use generic brands, water their lawn less, and trim excess out of their daily lives, yet STILL buy porn when they can get it for free?

Yes.

When a surfer finds that one guy that looks just like that chick he loved in high school, or when he finds a website with his exact fetish shot with the types of chicks he likes... He'll buy in. He can get it for free but he's going to have to spend some time finding it, where as when he finds the right site he'll have access to a site full of exactly what he wants.

You need to look at us as less than a paysite offering up generic porn, and more of a service that puts all of the porn he likes in one place.

[dyonisus]

I have been in different aspects of this industry for many years. One of the things I have learned is that porn is a recession proof industry. People will still pay for sex, be it prostitution, strips clubs or pornography. The reason is exactly as rochard said people like to feel better in times of strife by increasing the use of entertainment

Of course sales have slowed down, where once you may have done 75-100 joins per day you may only be doing 65-80, or whatever. People are inspecting their credit cards more, people are using the free sites more, but when it comes down to it, they will pay when they find what they like. We all cut corners where we can, we all still get the things we love. (A new iphone, a new xbox, or wii a new car a motorcycle, etc)

We are less creative, skins are more popular, you can template a site and skin several faster then planning and building, you can copy business models and maybe change pieces, the bottom line is if your product is losing money or joins you need to find a creative way to boost the efforts to increase joins to make up for the loss.

I like that challenge and thrive on it. I watch traffic into our program carefully and ensure I am optimizing what is there and getting joins fromt he places that count. we have dropped but then seen stellar days. Its all in the traffic and the marketing material .

What's your pitch goign to be this week, something you saw on another site, or somethign you think will really spark the user's interest

[thruma]

Originally Posted by dyonisus

What's your pitch goign to be this week, something you saw on another site, or somethign you think will really spark the user's interest

I can fully agree with you on the marketing end of it. In times like these that's all we can do if we want to stay ahead is to market more creatively.

Lets look at it another way though.

Say this guy is a real ladies man and just has the skill to have a different woman in bed every night. Why would he hire a prostitute if he can get what he wants for free?

Today's surfer is a real ladies man. He can log onto the net and find whatever porn he wants for free.

The only selling point I think we have left is what Rochard pointed out, we can say yes we have the entire collection here on our site of the girl you love and can have instant access instead of searching all night over the internet.