LOS ANGELES — The face of the online porn consumer is changing. Gone are the days when surfers spent copious amounts of time searching for porn; and even then, deep searches only led to a thumbnail gallery or short video clip.
These days, the effort consumers put into searching for full-length, hardcore porn is limited to a few keystrokes. The rise of tube sites and torrent sites with dubious legality has swamped the surfer with free masturbatory fodder for decades. Therein lies the rub.
Easy accessibility to content has created an environment where webmasters work a bit harder at attracting, converting and retaining customers. XBIZ checked in with several webmasters to find out their impressions of the online nation and to help figure out what works as profitable content. Here’s some of what they had to say.
“Surfers are much smarter and pickier these days,” Art Del Gado, chief executive officer for ProducerCash.com , told XBIZ. “Niche driven sites convert best. Especially the sites with exclusive content shot in high-definition. With all the free stuff out there the only way for webmasters to survive is by offering exclusive, high-end content.”
Del Gado operates 15 adult sites within the ProducerCash.com affiliate program. In addition to niche-themed sites, he added that AdultVideoAccess.com is a popular converter for the program.
“Smaller micro-niches with exclusive content in the highest quality have always converted,” NichePay’s Media told XBIZ. “If there are a lot of sites out there using the same content, those sites split the share of the members. But if the site has its own content, members tend to stay much longer because of the rareness of the content. Shemales, female domination, bizarre, or anything else that is off the wall and not the norm are doing well right now.” Camel-toe themes and sites devoted to “wild hairy girls” are a taste of the type of content NichePay promotes.
Geography plays a factor in a program’s success as well. For instance, a micro-niche site that fares well in one region might do poorly elsewhere.
“Our granny niche sites get a much better response from surfers in Europe than in the U.S,” Steve, general manager of PimpProfits.com , told XBIZ. “The same can be said with other niches. Giving the consumer a lot of content to keep them busy always works. If they don't get bored and enjoy it, they'll keep coming back for more.
“There are so many places to get it free now that you really have to think ‘would I want to buy this?’ when designing a site and members area.”
CyberAge Gary who runs the LatinCash.com program believes that quality of content is a crucial element for customer-retention.
“In the past two years we’ve seen surfers interested in more high-definition and video-on-demand websites,” CyberAge Gary told XBIZ. “Consumers want to see cleaner images and more realistic sex. A lot of reality sites are doing better than the ones that offer up just staged sex.”
That theme was echoed in an article penned by Wired sex columnist Regina Lynn. In a piece spotlighting fetish network Kink.com and the Aussie amateurs at abbywinters.com, Lynn points out that originality and authentic sex are key elements in what online adult consumers want to use as masturbatory material.
“Newfangled producers like Kink and abbywinters are building successful businesses by creating content in which sex unfolds naturally, at its own pace,” Lynn wrote. “They still offer the content in every way possible, from short clips to features to making-of documentaries to live on-set streaming, but at the root of it all is pure, authentic sex.”
Real sex — what every adult consumer wants.
