THe State of the Industry, IMHO
op/ed
by Heidi Hanson of http://heidihansonxxx.wordpress.com
Ok, so I have been kindof putting this topic off, because I don’t want to seem cynical, or negative about the “business” but since everyone and their aunt, brother, and cousin keep asking me my two cents, here goes. AND yes, its just MY two cents!
As y’all know I model and produce xxx content. I have been doing so for about 5 years now.
In the beginning, one could shoot nearly anything / subject and sell it. I had seen things from huge glued on tits, to fake dicks on chicks, to fart fetish (no joke) sell, and sell well. BUT, things started slowing down along with the decline of the economy, and really noticeable within the last 2-2.5 years. RedTube emerged. YouPorn emerged.. free sites and piracy, torrents emerged.. and they were picking up steam.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a place for everything, and everything has a place. I would be a liar if I said I hadn’t visited and watched free porn in one way or another. I don’t think that is the root of the problem, actually, but a consequence of desperation and self fufilling detriment.
Let me explain:
About 1o years ago, when the internet really started picking up steam, it opened a new doorway to the accessability of porn to everyone. When you used to have to buy videos, magazines, etc – risking embarassment, or privacy, now you had access to porn on your computer, which could be easily downloaded in the privacy of your own home, at your leisure, and at your discretion. Awesome! I truly believe the whole growth of the internet had 80% to do with porn.
But, as you know, greed and shortsightedness, come with Capitalism for which America is both so successful, and hated for. So with the emergence of this new venue for sales in porn, the industry exploded. Soon everyone was making it, selling it and posting it on the WWW and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Ok, fine.
Bringing us up to about 5 years ago – Now the fierce competition and greed started to rear itself : soon companies were posting “TGP”s (as we call them) which are free thumbnail galleries of porn, meant to entice the viewer into seeing stuff they liked and then on to joining the site. Ok, good idea.. to a point. When you post say, 10-15 images of a girl, then you have done the right job.. when you start going for a full set, to “outdo” the competition, you just went the opposite direction, because you screwed yourself. (pun intended) .
Within the last 3 years — Then after TGP’s, the companies started posting teaser videos, then full segments..Now the viewer is completely satisfied FOR FREE. Why join some site when you just spunked your load off what was given out for free? Maybe there are other gals you would like, or maybe another free TGP will be released and you will just wait and see. Initially, the first was true, but as the economy started getting worse, the latter was the rule. And, still is.
Bringing us to current — Instead of companies pulling back, they gave more. Big mistake. Not that I don’t understand or even empathize with saving a buck or what have you, but its a simple rule : if porn is free, where is the money coming from to make more? Not off of free content, that’s for sure! There is such a thing as giving a deal, then there’s giving away the farm…
Soon, companies started folding, and then on top of that, the content from their membership sites, DVD’s and other promo materials out there started getting pirated left and right. That added to the initial problem of the porn company’s mistakes, not only were they giving what they wanted out for free, other hackers are taking it, without permission, and ran with it. (which as a non-programmer I really don’t understand, because friends who DO program told me there are watermarks available for content that only allow that downloaded content to be played on ONE computer.. oversight anyone??)
Initially, now, this seems like no big deal. So, there is tons to view and maybe you will take 5 years to see it all. And, you figure, the porn companies are rich enough already..But that’s not the point. Eventually, the stuff is hashed and rehashed, and I am seeing that now. The same stuff in different cut down versions. But its too late for most companies, they are already gone. With that, dwindles the viewer’s / consumer’s choices. Pretty soon, only the moguls will be still around, and you will be forced to watch what they want to produce, not what you want to see. Take me, for instance. I do not work all that much because I do not have big bolted on fake tits. The big companies, have never hired me, and probably never will (boo hoo, whoop de doo! I am losing so much sleep over it ..NOT!! LOL) . They do not take risks, they do not produce anything less than what they think 75% or more of the public prefers, and that they think will be consumed. Granted, I have thousands (yes scary LOL) of fans, but they think more along 100′s of thousands. So they are not going to be doing anything but generic stuff they are sure will sell (or will it?)
So, if you were into bush, or small tits, or petites, or anything else not mass produced or mass consumed, within a short time here, you will be out of material to watch. UNLESS you support your niche sites, like ATK which I nearly exclusively model for. (And, incidentally, are the only ones other than Anilos who seem to be doing their advertising correctly/smartly, that I know of.. suggest others if you have them!)
Where does this leave the industry? Some are going 3-d, some are doing parodies, but all these gimmicks are also short lived, the “finger in the dyke” (again pun intended LMAO) theory. Once the shine wears off, its back to basics, folks.. then what?
So now the huge upserge of porn production is off the cliff, just like the housing market- eventually the bubble pops and you start over. Good for me, because I am a super small producer and do not have the overhead big companies do. Good for me because I still actually talk to my friend/fans, and ask them what they want. Good for me because… the future of the industry.. in my honest opinion.. is going to be all about interactive content. Something studios and moguls and huge companies cannot produce, but something solo models (ie, me) can. So its back to grass roots. Sounds fine to me. All good things come to an end, but that doesn’t mean its a bad thing, its a new beginning, and a chance to start fresh with new ideas and let some of the little girls and guys get a chance to make something great. Good riddance monopolies.
Anyway, thats just my opinion, and I think I am pretty accurate, but only time will tell, as will your membership to my upcoming site.. tee hee!
Until then, keep in mind the more you take, the more you are giving up, so please do not support the tube sites, or torrents, whenever possible, voice your opinions (yes, do write the companies) and support the sites you love and talent you love. That will really make a difference, believe me.
So, ’nuff said? I dunno.. feel free to comment me and lemme know!
Cheerio!
Heidi
Don’t forget that the American porn industry is chock full of silicone implanted, tattooed, and pierced sluts that very few people wanna see any more. When my friends and I talk about porn we are all avoiding the skanks that the big companies are popping out like they on an assemby line.
More and more you are seeing gorgeous naturally busty euro girls dominating the scenes people want to see. Clean looking girls that will still do IR, Anal, DP, GBs and such. Girls like Jane Darling, Monica Sweetheart, Angel Dark and others.
Again some excellent points made. Over-saturation became a huge problem, that isn’t news, nor is what the tubes sites have done to firmly place their spike in the coffin. What many don’t seem to think much about, is the fact that the so called “Born Digital” generation is now coming of age, they know all too well that there is really no need to sign up and pay for anything, they are totally web savvy and know where and how to find what they desire, or at least enough of it to fuel the spank until next time. That too will run it’s course though. An attractive young thang with a laptop and a $60 web cam is where they are turning. And you cannot, no matter how clever or web savvy you are, get that interactive porn for free.
Seems the future is in offering free stuff and getting your money from advertising.How can you explain there’s so many tubes sites…if they don’t make any money?How come a guy like Mark Zuckerberg became billionaire with Facebook.Does Facebook sells anything?Have you ever bought anything from Facebook,Myspace and such?They do their money from traffic,advertisers.
As a webmaster I can tell you that unless you are in the stratosphere of a Facebook, Myspace etc. you can’t feed a house cat on the revenues generated from advertising on the web, it’s a bloody joke. Even for the big boys it’s not what it should be as compared to other mediums, there are just too many sites. Those guys profit from partnering up with the likes of Google or the big mobile companies to run apps. Do you see a speck of advertising on Twitter?, no. They will sell that domain for a small countries GDP when the time is right. That’s where the big boys are doing it, I don’t see a T mobile / Tube site deal happening any time soon. Again, giving it away for free, is just giving it away. More saturation, more domains popping up daily to post it, more death.
Off subject…I real wonder how the real Luke earns a living out of lukeford.net ???
Repent and prepare, 2012 is coming, and don’t it feel apocalyptic? Porn is being relentlessly attacked and destroyed from without and within. Greed is enough of a form of collective suicide. Add to that the government gestapo 2257 laws, the pursuits against Buttman following Max. Also self-righteous religious and other advocacy groups who have contempt for porn and pornstars (as reps like Joe know show, adding insult to injury in the name of “protecting us”) are all sinking this porno ship pushing condoms or legislation which will shut porn down for good. Many porners are floating in the cold waters on life preservers.
But I guess there’s enough content out there to beat off until the world ends, anyway. I never cease to be amazed how many people have done the dirty on camera, although on average, they don’t last very long.
I work on several solo girl sites. About 2 years ago we killed all the affiliate sites. We went to encrypted video download. We redid the sites entirely so that the tours where semi lean on nakedness and much healthier on written content and mobile media types of things. Such as mini updates from the car or dressing or eating their cherrios. These are no more then 20 seconds and rather entertaining. The girls send them directly to the server from their phones. We also started to radically promote though search engines both with PPC and cross promotion. Each page of the site is also SEO and SEM done for max exposure. In doing this we also dumped close to 75 girls off of our work load. We only kept the very hard workers.
Honestly we bring in 3 times what we did with 1/3 the sites. Women like Heidi are so east to deal with. We have close to zero headache any more.