|
I can understand this question being asked. Not too long ago, prior to the Net, about the only way the average person could view "porn"; especially the hardcore variety, was to visit the local adult bookstore or raincoat theater. I don't recall ever being able to sample, or get a free look at anything these businesses offered. You couldn't even "browse" the magazines because they were sealed in cellophane. If you wanted to watch a video for any length of time at all, you had to buy a token or drop a quarter in the slot. The point is, these businesses gave you absolutely nothing for free. Maybe that's why the average guy, at the time, didn't have much of a problem in spending $10 for a magazine that featured 50 hardcore images.
Contrast that to what we offer on the Net. I have one sponsor that boasts offering 35,000 FHGs. I don't know how many hours of porn viewing this translates to, but it's conceivable this one sponsor alone is giving away more product than the average bookstore or move theater of 10 to 15 years ago had in their entire inventory. Can you imagine owning a "brick and mortar" adult business that sees a couple of thousand visitors go through its turnstyles in a month, and not one of them drops even a dime in your cash register? Yet, as adult webmasters, we can see hundreds of "unique" visitors enter our online stores everyday, and the vast majority of them come and go without enriching us in the slightest way, despite the fact we spent our time, money and effort to facilitate their being entertained for free. As an industry, I think we've created, nurtured and are perpetuating a bad business model. Does anyone know how much product we give away compared to how much we sell? I'll bet we're one of the few industries, may be the only industry out there, that gives away more product than is purchased.
Spend some time cruising around the adult side of the Net. The case could be made fairly easily that adult webmasters are in a contest to see who can give away the most amount of porn. Somehow, we believe those who are winning this contest, are also those who are making the most money.
From the consumers' point-of-view, I can see why some, perhaps many, or even the majority of surfers place little or no value on online porn. I overheard a couple of college-age guys at an internet cafe recently remark that, "only a sucker pays for porn". Maybe they're right. They can go from TGP to TGP for hours every day, and take in 10, 15, or 20 seconds of video, sampling 2 to 6 videos per page... and have a great old time while never reaching for, or even thinking about what they have in their wallet. Yeah. I can see asking if it's really possible to make money in this business. It's not an unreasonable thought to have.
|