Tough times in the porn industry

[Greenguy]

This really is a great thread

My traffic is the same as it was about 2 years ago, but conversions are horrible & my income is down about 60-70% Each month I seem to hit a new low for income

There are so many things to take into account when you look at this. I just hope the economy gets a little bit better over the coming months so that we can all sell a couple memberships

[Ms Naughty]

With regard to free porn, my concern is that the kids of the noughties don't believe in paying for ANYTHING - even if it's independent and well-made and created just for them. It's all well and good to say that piracy has caused a much-needed shakeup in an industry that was stagnating and taking its consumers for granted (hello major record companies and porn studios) but I worry that people have become so used to getting things for free that they won't pay at all.

There doesn't seem to be an understanding of the idea that people can't create new, good stuff if it's not profitable (or even break even).

I'm trying to find the article that says Generation Z refuses to pay for anything... no luck so far.

[Mike-mijen]

The only thing I have that still selling is my real amateur sites. I feel people still want to feel like a voyeur and peek into the lives of others. I think MML had a OTB about this. How you do not see much real amateur fucking. A Guy and Gal making love for real. I also feel if the news started to point out more positive news on the economy and less about what is bad. Then the public psyche would start to change. Negative news to long can slow down this country fast. Just my half a cent worth.

[LD]

Originally Posted by Greenie

This really is a great thread

My traffic is the same as it was about 2 years ago, but conversions are horrible & my income is down about 60-70% Each month I seem to hit a new low for income

I jumped in a little over a couple of years ago and have seen steady increases in traffic over the last couple of years as I learn more about SEO and how things work in general. July was record for me in terms of traffic...but my sales are about 50% of what they were last year...

I had hoped to be thinking about doing this full time by now, but looks like it's not going to happen anytime soon.

It's probably a combination of things discussed...I think tube sites do reduce the amount of paid memberships people buy, and the economy causes people to spend less in general, particularly things like porn which you don't have to have. Together I think it has taken a huge bite out of money spent on porn. There's an awful lot of boring, same old shit porn produced, too. I think it makes the perceived value of porn go down in the eyes of the public. There may be people who want better quality, but don't want to wade through all the shit to get it.

Will be interesting in seeing how it all shakes out as the economy starts to recover.

[plateman]

Originally Posted by Greenie

This really is a great thread

My traffic is the same as it was about 2 years ago, but conversions are horrible & my income is down about 60-70% Each month I seem to hit a new low for income

There are so many things to take into account when you look at this. I just hope the economy gets a little bit better over the coming months so that we can all sell a couple memberships

thats where i am standing, but just different numbers $$

[stuveltje]

The last time i checked my yearly stats over a time preriode from 2004 to 2009, i noticed that since 2004 i could get away with less traffic and more sales, now i have 4 to 5 times the amound of traffic then in 2004 and hell i am way down with sales

[HowlingWulf]

Wow I didn't know there were drops of 60-70%.

When I started seeing the numbers slide early this year I buckled down and went from 2 TGP galleries/day to 5/day and submitting freesites almost every day, as well as working on some new sites.

Ratios are very bad, but with all the extra traffic my income is almost the same now, so for that I'm thankful. I'd be happy if things recover and this work really pays off, but I'm not sure if ratios will ever be what they were because of what this industry has become.

[horndog]

Originally Posted by LB

But, in 08 things turned around because I stopped doing the same old garbage I was pumping out in 2002 ... that stuff doesn't work anymore, and approached people I had helped in the past who were doing very well for advice on what was working in today's market.

So what are you doing these days that you claim is working so much better?

[LB]

Originally Posted by horndog

So what are you doing these days that you claim is working so much better?

Stopped submitting, learned to blog, run some tubes, changed my SEO strategy somewhat too which was probably the hardest thing. A few other things too

If I had kept doing what I was doing 3-4 years ago I would be really hurting this year which was my point.

[bart666]

I haven't been in this biz for as long as many of you and this is just my 2 cents but I think we should also consider the dilution of this industry's revenue among all those new paysites that pop up everyday.

I'm not sure the recession can explain the conversion ratios that seem to be dropping for years now (long before the economy crisis even started). It seems more correlated to the amount/accessibilty of free porn available to surfers.

[GonZo]

Originally Posted by Cleo

I was at the gym yesterday and two different people that I know there came up to me asking how business is lately. The first one is a guy that runs HIV gay cruises and he was telling me how bad business is due to credit card declines. The second person is a woman who runs a well known mainstream book and magazine store that is located in walking distance of our downtown and a major hospital that told me the same thing about credit card declines.

While I'm sure tube sites and other sources of free porn hurt sales I believe the major reason that sales are so bad is we are in a major recession and credit has dried up along with very restrictive scrubbing by the credit card companies.

When times are good expensive bottled water sells well despite water being freely available.

Shhh Cleo. Let everyone chase after the tube sites while some of us quietly retool.

[bluechicken]

Originally Posted by Preacher

A real sign of the end of times...

HAHHA! that one cracked me up.
now seriously, I have personally make more money on mainstream (none porn) then with porn.
I didn't quit anything with the porn sites, just added more mainstream ones and invested more time and money in them (because they made me more money in less effort).
I recommend all of you to do the same, slowly gradually find internet mainstream products, it's time to move on, you are not "giving a fight", you are moving from a sinking ship to a more float able.
one day you'll have to move again.
it's not that big of a deal I think. think of me what you will. i'm here for the money and don't you forget it.

[LB]

Originally Posted by bluechicken

HAHHA! that one cracked me up.
now seriously, I have personally make more money on mainstream (none porn) then with porn.
I didn't quit anything with the porn sites, just added more mainstream ones and invested more time and money in them (because they made me more money in less effort).
I recommend all of you to do the same, slowly gradually find internet mainstream products, it's time to move on, you are not "giving a fight", you are moving from a sinking ship to a more float able.
one day you'll have to move again.
it's not that big of a deal I think. think of me what you will. i'm here for the money and don't you forget it.

I am hearing that more and more... porn ratios are not going well but mainstream continues to return some excellent dollars.

I have some mainstream sites, they do ok, but I am looking to give mainstream a decent push.

Adult is the victim of a pretty shitty economy at the moment, and personally for the 2 paysite programs I run I am convinced its a lot to do with declines (declines are 400-500% up!) .. I can't even get one of my 5-6 cc's approved for many products.

There is money in adult, hell a good living if you are doing the right things, but things are far from rosy. Funny thing is now my tube sites are making more and more profit monthly than my traditional sites .. strange

[petergg2]

tube sites, rapidshare's (& similar service's) + ccard declines that are reason's we make less ...

I have send with every month more & more traffic but get less signups


I think when some people can't join pay site - because ccard decline - they search for free porn - most site's have full free copy on rapidsharse etc.

[bart666]

Originally Posted by Cleo

When times are good expensive bottled water sells well despite water being freely available.

Back in the 90's, there was no free water, only expensive bottles... It does explain why ratios were higher, doesn't it?

[CaptainJSparrow]

Maybe we should be promoting companies that still issue credit cards. Are there any of those still out there?

[ArtWilliams]

On this page, XBIZ talks about the state of porn in an article from the influential Economist magazine.

[Mayhem]

Hmm.. interesting stuff
I took a temporary hiatus from adult a few years ago (been in it since 2000 and got serious around 2002-3) and have been pondering getting back in.. looks like I got some catching up to do

For the last few years I was strickly PPC.. hit the magic formula and was racking it in.. doubt I can be so lucky anymore.

[thefandango]

Are people using SEO backlink building now to get free natural search traffic, or is that still a "blind spot" for a lot of you?

[Senator_x]

Originally Posted by Senator_x

30% down from last year....

I have tweak my blogs, brushed up on my SEO skills, created more traffic, promoting heavy on webcam sites,.....I am climbing back slowly but surely.

The recession has forced me to become better at what I do. If you can survive this down turn you will emerge stronger. I have seen the mighty fall....adapt or die.

After the tweaking, adding APC to PHP and memcached servers. Cleaning up PHP code around my network of blog. Making sure every page served to user gets GZIPPED for instant page load. I have increased my revenue about 15% since I last posted. I have sought out new programs and higher pay.

I am hitting 500 dollar days again but not consistently. I still need to tweak my JW PLAYER to work with SWFOBject 2.2 to get 100% compliance with Google and Yahoo media sitemaps.


Anyway, here is a tip to see if your pages are being GZIPPED by your server. If not you might being wasting away traffic.

http://www.gidnetwork.com/tools/gzip-test.php