Economics of free internet porn?

[Reply]

@Terrifel

In all seriousness, this is probably where my confusion stems from. It’s difficult for me to appreciate how such ‘free samples’ encourage people to pony up their cash. The tactic obviously works in a grocery store because each sample is far too small to make a meal, whereas if the store gave out an entire free sample of every sandwich, beverage and sundry on display, there would be much less incentive for anyone to actually buy anything. Given that there are apparently several billion competing sites which advertise ‘free porn,’ it seems like people could easily flit, hummingbirdlike, from site to site until sated, without spending a dime. Obviously this is not the case, however.

IANAPE (porn expert), I’m just an, erm, loyal user…

Not all porn is made equally! Sure, you could surf from free site to free site until you’re satisfied, but that’s not always enough. It’s like going to a supermarket and getting free food samples from every booth versus sitting down at a nice restaurant for a real meal. Or picking up those free, throwaway magazines versus reading something you actually like. As a general rule, you get what you pay for… without financial incentives, why would anyone want to make good porn available to you? They don’t do it as a public service.

Speaking purely from embarrassingly extensive personal experience, paid porn really can be “better” in a lot of ways:

[ul]
[li]They’re better organized, offering better browsing and searching features.[/li][li]They offer straightforward downloads (which are usually faster as well) without making you jump through hoops like email signups.[/li][li]There are less distractions like pop-ups and ads.[/li][li]You’re not limited to censored pictures and limited tours.[/li][li]Production values are higher – photography/cinematography is better, angles are better, lighting is better, etc. But there are lots of paid “amateur” sites too, if you prefer that to the professional stuff.[/li][li]Pictures are higher resolution.[/li][li]Movies, likewise, are usually higher quality, higher resolution, better compressed, and longer / more complete. They don’t end right before the climax the way some free ones do. Or, they don’t only show you a 10-second clip of the very end of the affair.[/li][li]The picture and movie sets are often more complete, and the most popular models may come back for repeat sets – whereas it’s harder to find the same model again on free sites.[/li][li]You can download entire sets of pictures at a time if you’re intending to build a collection.[/li][li]Models can be more attractive overall, though of course that’s a subjective thing.[/li][li]The acting can be better.[/li][li]There’s customer support for the rare occasion that something doesn’t work right.[/li][li]If you want services/content beyond just pictures and movies, you almost always have to pay. Live chat? Live video? Forums? eBooks? Behind-the-scenes stuff? All harder to find for free.[/li][/ul]

I guess it boils down to two very basic things: Usually, the paid stuff is just higher-quality and more convenient. That’s not always the case, unfortunately, and there’s lots of craptacular paid sites too. That’s where porn review sites come in handy.

Something that’s kinda in-between paid porn and the free web stuff is the porn on filesharing networks or Bittorrent. They often have the advantages of the paid stuff (since a lot of IS the paid stuff, downloaded and shared by a paying member), but the bits about organization, searching, etc. still apply. Depending on the type and quality of porn you’re looking for, it may or may not be easy to find it on peer-to-peer networks.

This isn’t to say that all the free stuff sucks – some of it is actually very good – the paid stuff just has a better goodporn-to-crapporn ratio. If nothing else, bandwidth demands alone usually kill the really good, free sites. It can get very expensive to host porn, which is why most of the good stuff is on paid sites (which can afford it) or on the filesharing networks (where bandwidth is distributed). This applies to just about every form of porn (pictures, movies, games, sound clips) except text (erotic stories).

One last thing to consider is the hypothetical effects of pornography addiction. The more porn you look at, theoretically, the pickier you get and the more hardcore you want your content.

Hmm.

I can’t believe I just sat here and wrote all that. Pretty sad, heh. But you asked

[abby]

Thanks for the kind words guys, appreciated.

@Terrifel

Given that there are apparently several billion competing sites which advertise ‘free porn,’ it seems like people could easily flit, hummingbirdlike, from site to site until sated, without spending a dime. Obviously this is not the case, however.

It’s not the case, for a few reasons. There are a zillion sites out there with free porn on them, but there’s a limited number of companies that actually produce porn (a few hundred significant ones, and maybe a thousand in the long tail).

But, they all need to sell their stuff. So most sites have a heckload of affiliates - hundreds or thousands, and it’s the affiliates sites you’ll be referring to. for every one pay site, there’s probably a few hundred “free” sites - affiliates trying to get people to join.

The stuff you see on free sites is incomplete - An affiliate might use 20 images from a 300-image set (or, 30 seconds from a 10 minute video) - and of lower quality; smaller pixel size on images, higher compression of images, and a lower bit rate on videos so they look all fuzzy.

For most porn consumers, that kinda stuff is a tease, not satiation. For others (like you, perhaps?), it’s more than enough.

So it puzzles me how a site can offer both extensive ‘free samples’ of porn, and also advertisements which are presumably also for porn.

and:

Then again, it’s entirely possible that my palate is too unrefined to properly appreciate the distinction between ‘porn’ and ‘really good porn.’ By my standards, if her limbs are intact and the skin is relatively free of scar tissue and wattles, then it’s all good. Color me vanilla, I suppose.

Illustrate my next point. Some people are not that picky. But most people (and certainly all of our customers) do have specific tastes (refined mostly from being disappointed with the mess of schlock that is out there). Around 60% of our stuff is available freely on the internet by affiliates. But it’s a massive pain to find it all - wading thru thousands of crappy websites to find a few badly designed web pages with awesome pics on them.

Plenty of people are happy to pay for the convenience of having it all in one place, well organised, being able to interact with models, have a range of options (like choosing WMV or MPG videos), be part of a community. And there’s the aspect of, “doing the right thing”, supporting a producer to do more of the same.

Additionally, more and more, porn sites are focussing on niches. I hope SamClem won’t put the kibosh on me for defining my niche as an example: amateur Australialian models 18 to 24, natural, pubic hair, regular clothes, healthy, happy, having sex withe achother and masturbating to orgasm.

There are not many sites like ours (or, other sites that cater to other niches), so we’re lucky to get a lot of customers (no matter how bizairre you think our fetish is).

[abby]

@Reply

I guess it boils down to two very basic things: Usually, the paid stuff is just higher-quality and more convenient. That’s not always the case, unfortunately, and there’s lots of craptacular paid sites too. That’s where porn review sites come in handy.

Review sites are affiliates as well, of course. Some are more objective than others, but their goal is to sell subs to punters, not just to be good samaritans for the porn-hungry.

Our biggest affiliate is a review site, actually.

[Reply]

@abby

Review sites are affiliates as well, of course. Some are more objective than others, but their goal is to sell subs to punters, not just to be good samaritans for the porn-hungry.

Our biggest affiliate is a review site, actually.

I was just about to ask you that. And I can’t believe you’re actually the Abby Winters! Seen your site a lot… not my niche, but you’re definitely famous. Probably because of those very same review-affiliate sites

Anyway, where’s Porn Consumer Reports when you need 'em?

[dropzone]

She’s MY niche: Normal people.

I am TOTALLY sick of what my generation called “plastic people” and realizing THAT is the NORM these days.

[chowder]

@Wee Bairn

my e-mail to you kicked back as well

My e-mail changed, I’ll update my profile.

Sorry

[chowder]

@chowder

My e-mail changed, I’ll update my profile.

Sorry

Consider it done

[abby]

@Reply

Anyway, where’s Porn Consumer Reports when you need 'em?

One of the largest porn review sites called The Best Porn have a new site called Porn Users that’s entirely punters posting their experiences of porn sites.

[treis]

What are punters?

[abby]

@treis

What are punters?

Sorry. Aussie slang for “customers”. They “take a punt” (bet) on buying something.

[treis]

Oh you wacky Aussies.

[naita]

@Chronos

OK, but which would you prefer? A ten-second video clip of that intact and unscarred woman, at 300x200 resolution, or a 90-minute video of the same woman, at 800x600? Obviously, one of these products is worth more than the other. The 10-second clip may be enough for you to decide whether it’s the sort of thing you like, which would inspire you to pay to get the high-quality one.

I prefer the 10 second clip at 300x200. Of course there are lots of other arguments, such as those listed by reply, but considering my preference for short, straight to the point, clips, and the insane price increase from “free” to “huge monthly fees”, free porn is good enough for me.

[Hostile_Dialect]

@Terrifel

it seems like people could easily flit, hummingbirdlike, from site to site until sated, without spending a dime. Obviously this is not the case, however.

Wanna bet? I’ll give you three guesses as to how much money I’ve spent on the gigabytes upon gigabytes of legal porn I’ve downloaded in the last seven years.

Hint: You could divide it by seven and end up with the same number.

[chowder]

@abby

Sorry. Aussie slang for “customers”. They “take a punt” (bet) on buying something.

…and Britspeak, don’t forget the Britspeak

[chowder]

All 35 requests for the free site have received attention and info has been e-mailed.
What a bunch of pervs, I’m in good company here

[mhendo]

@abby

Plenty of people are happy to pay for the convenience of having it all in one place, well organised, being able to interact with models, have a range of options (like choosing WMV or MPG videos), be part of a community. And there’s the aspect of, “doing the right thing”, supporting a producer to do more of the same.

Just out of curiosity, what’s the re-sub rate for your subscribers? That is, what percentage of people who fork out for a one-month (or one-week, or whatever) subscription come back the next month and pay again?

Because one thing that strikes me as a potential problem for porn sites (and, perhaps, for any website that relies on paid content) is that the growing number of high-speed internet connections (6-8Mb, up to 20 or more in some parts of the world) mean that some people could, theoretically at least, download your whole website during a one-week or one-month subscription, and have enough porn there to last them quite a long time. Do you do anything to slow down the browsing or downloading process, or do you just accept this is one of the costs of doing business?

[abel29a]

@mhendo

Just out of curiosity, what’s the re-sub rate for your subscribers? That is, what percentage of people who fork out for a one-month (or one-week, or whatever) subscription come back the next month and pay again?

Because one thing that strikes me as a potential problem for porn sites (and, perhaps, for any website that relies on paid content) is that the growing number of high-speed internet connections (6-8Mb, up to 20 or more in some parts of the world) mean that some people could, theoretically at least, download your whole website during a one-week or one-month subscription, and have enough porn there to last them quite a long time. Do you do anything to slow down the browsing or downloading process, or do you just accept this is one of the costs of doing business?

Not that I have any first hand experience (oh a pun maybe?) of how the porn industry works, but I’m assuming the same holds true for porn as for other subscription services on the net - people forget/can’t be bothered to cancel things and keep paying for the subscription even if they dont visit very often. I know I have paid for 6 months to 12 months for various online game sites and such after I’ve stopped using the service. But then again I’m lazy.

[Tim_T-Bonham.net]

@mhendo

Just out of curiosity, what’s the re-sub rate for your subscribers? That is, what percentage of people who fork out for a one-month (or one-week, or whatever) subscription come back the next month and pay again?

Because one thing that strikes me as a potential problem for porn sites (and, perhaps, for any website that relies on paid content) is that the growing number of high-speed internet connections (6-8Mb, up to 20 or more in some parts of the world) mean that some people could, theoretically at least, download your whole website during a one-week or one-month subscription, and have enough porn there to last them quite a long time. Do you do anything to slow down the browsing or downloading process, or do you just accept this is one of the costs of doing business?

The good sites keep adding new! pictures or videos to their site, so subscribers keep coming back to see the new offerings each week.

Because there really isn’t anything new in the basic acts themself – they were all pretty much documented as far back as Greek vases or Roman wall paintings.

[abby]

@mhendo

Just out of curiosity, what’s the re-sub rate for your subscribers? That is, what percentage of people who fork out for a one-month (or one-week, or whatever) subscription come back the next month and pay again?

Because one thing that strikes me as a potential problem for porn sites (and, perhaps, for any website that relies on paid content) is that the growing number of high-speed internet connections (6-8Mb, up to 20 or more in some parts of the world) mean that some people could, theoretically at least, download your whole website during a one-week or one-month subscription, and have enough porn there to last them quite a long time. Do you do anything to slow down the browsing or downloading process, or do you just accept this is one of the costs of doing business?

We don’t do anything to slow down connection speeds, and in fact we’re in the midst of developing an EU mirror to increase our speeds to EU customers.

As t-bonham says, we add new stuff to the site every day, soemtimes twice a day, as does most of our competition. The back catalogue is huge and part of a person’s reason for joining, but the new stuff is what keeps them a member.

Most customers barely scratch the surface of the back catalogue (whihc is a shame, cos some of our best stuff is there!). Many people cannot keep up with the new stuff we add each day, let alone the rest (when I saw “we”, I mean most porn sites).

[Cluricaun]

@chowder

Stand firm Wee Bairn stand firm, ya never know yer luck,
.

Isn’t it such the shame then, you offering such things to just a Wee Bairn.