GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - 10 years

loster · 08-31-2008, 05:54 PM

I was just surfing some sites that have been around a while. Went to Cybererotica...noticed their skin said "10 year anniversary". Got me thinking.

What has changed in the last 10-12 years in adult? What is driving sales? What sites really convert, and what methods are they using? The adult industry was pushing the internet forward 10 years ago, is that still happening today?

I haven't been directly involved in the adult for a while now. I've been on the edge, dealing with hosting and other online services. But I remember a lot 'firsts' coming from the adult world back in the day...and I saw some of those make big traffic and or big money.

Here are a couple things adult pushed forward over the years...

- AVS (adult verification services) - I don't know how to say that AVS's weren't somewhat of a sham, but Validate some of those other shops were a lot of people's first check they received from an online business. I know several people who kicked off their online career with some little bootleg AVS site on Geocities, or something similar.

- Affiliate Programs - Now affiliate programs are everywhere in the mainstream. You want to promote a dating site, or insurance, or mortgages, or forex signups, just become an affiliate and get some folks to convert. A decade ago, it was just beginning. Be it Seth bouncing checks at IEG for $.03/click, to Cybererotica and Playgal paying per signup, the adult industry had some of the first players to build the interfaces and deal online with a third party to send them sales. They laid a lot of the groundwork for all the programs that followed. The affiliate software systems, the payout methods/rates, and general procedures haven't changed that much from the beginning. More details, and better stats have come with faster computers and bigger harddrives, but that's the main difference. Later Epoch and CCBill allowed easy recurring payments, so affiliates could easily build on their income instead of only getting paid one time amounts. Who knows how much money some of these guys would be making if Jeff at Busty Amateurs hadn't found Jesus.

- Link sites - Link sites have been around since the beginning of the web. But the adult sites were some the first that really started getting hits. Of course, there was the primal sex drive that pushed the traffic, but the adult industry upped it by creating true bookmark traffic. They did this by scheduling updates on a consistent basis, whether it be each day or each week, but people would come back each day or each week to see new updates.

- Thumbnails - There was a time when a lot of the pages of pictures being linked to were just unprotected directories of pictures. Then people would add indexes with links to the pics, so they could incorporate ads to the pages. Inevitably this used more bandwidth than you would think. People would click on every link to see what the pic was. This lead to thumbnails! It was a lot more work incorporating thumbnails and linking them to every pic, but even though it hosted more images (thumbnails), bandwidth actually came down! And the people linking to the site (PersianKitty, the Hun, AL4A, etc) loved the improved user experience with thumbs.

- TGPs (Thumbnail Gallery Posts) - Like mentioned above, The Hun and AL4A, went beyond normal link sites, and cut straight to the chase. Bypassing the main pages of sites, they went straight to the gallery pages, and combined that with consistent updates, to accumulate massive traffic.

- Niche TGPs (and other niches items) - Beyond a standard TGP, some folks pulled out links from the TGPs that related to one niche or another. Such as only Teen links, or Big Tit links, and gathered a bunch of targeted visitors. This narrows down the traffic, and allows niche advertising with a much better chance for converting traffic.

- Pop-ups - Robin Nixon seemingly pretty much created the first pop-up. I don't know the details, but he used it to his advantage by building a pretty large abc123 link exchange, and having control of a lot of hits, before tackling other ventures. I'm sure he's been cursed many times since then, but it's just another example of how people were innovating back in the day.

- Interstitial - Or megastitial, or superstitial, whatever you want to call them. Most adult sites back in the day had a splash page, but the interstitial is a dynamically inserted page. The first people I know to really do it was Sexhound. They were an adult free host. They didn't have as many hits as PornCity.net or Sextracker's free host network, but they made a pretty good income. They inserted a splash page with ads anytime you came from a different domain than theirs.

- Selling 404s - Before control panels ruled everything, having custom server setups was more of a challenge. We used to run 100free.com, which was a free host as well. We had mainstream and adult. I remember getting banned from thehun.net for selling our 404s...sending our 404's to a page with ads...or redirecting them to a sponsor. We saw them as valuable hits. They might not have had enough information on the page, saying it was a 404, I honestly don't remember...but it was a change at the time.

Ahh..there are a lot of things where adult pushed the envelope. Live chat, adult friend finder, the beginnings of video, reality porn, flash creatives, image compression, toplists...

Or FantasyDate.com...not losing your traffic, and getting paid per click. Or the original layout of AmateurPages.com, teasing, teasing, teasing...and payoff at the end with a signup.

Which brings us to the present time...

What forward progress is adult making now? What front ends convert? Has new technology made any difference, or do the old front ends convert just as well? I know the tube sites have so much traffic, and I know their profit margins aren't that great. What happens from here? Does it take tons of focus on niche sites to compel users to sign up, or can you still tease someone with quality content and bring them on board?

The web as a whole has grown so much, adult industry included, and in doing so it has segmented greatly. Is there still a macro view that makes sense in this industry?

I just wanted to create some conversation on the state of things, see what it takes to convert people into sales now.

And maybe I wanted to take a little walk down memory lane.

Have a great day!

08-31-2008, 05:54 PM
loster Confirmed User Join Date: Feb 2001 Posts: 120	10 years - what's changed? I was just surfing some sites that have been around a while. Went to Cybererotica...noticed their skin said "10 year anniversary". Got me thinking. What has changed in the last 10-12 years in adult? What is driving sales? What sites really convert, and what methods are they using? The adult industry was pushing the internet forward 10 years ago, is that still happening today? I haven't been directly involved in the adult for a while now. I've been on the edge, dealing with hosting and other online services. But I remember a lot 'firsts' coming from the adult world back in the day...and I saw some of those make big traffic and or big money. Here are a couple things adult pushed forward over the years... - AVS (adult verification services) - I don't know how to say that AVS's weren't somewhat of a sham, but Validate some of those other shops were a lot of people's first check they received from an online business. I know several people who kicked off their online career with some little bootleg AVS site on Geocities, or something similar. - Affiliate Programs - Now affiliate programs are everywhere in the mainstream. You want to promote a dating site, or insurance, or mortgages, or forex signups, just become an affiliate and get some folks to convert. A decade ago, it was just beginning. Be it Seth bouncing checks at IEG for $.03/click, to Cybererotica and Playgal paying per signup, the adult industry had some of the first players to build the interfaces and deal online with a third party to send them sales. They laid a lot of the groundwork for all the programs that followed. The affiliate software systems, the payout methods/rates, and general procedures haven't changed that much from the beginning. More details, and better stats have come with faster computers and bigger harddrives, but that's the main difference. Later Epoch and CCBill allowed easy recurring payments, so affiliates could easily build on their income instead of only getting paid one time amounts. Who knows how much money some of these guys would be making if Jeff at Busty Amateurs hadn't found Jesus. - Link sites - Link sites have been around since the beginning of the web. But the adult sites were some the first that really started getting hits. Of course, there was the primal sex drive that pushed the traffic, but the adult industry upped it by creating true bookmark traffic. They did this by scheduling updates on a consistent basis, whether it be each day or each week, but people would come back each day or each week to see new updates. - Thumbnails - There was a time when a lot of the pages of pictures being linked to were just unprotected directories of pictures. Then people would add indexes with links to the pics, so they could incorporate ads to the pages. Inevitably this used more bandwidth than you would think. People would click on every link to see what the pic was. This lead to thumbnails! It was a lot more work incorporating thumbnails and linking them to every pic, but even though it hosted more images (thumbnails), bandwidth actually came down! And the people linking to the site (PersianKitty, the Hun, AL4A, etc) loved the improved user experience with thumbs. - TGPs (Thumbnail Gallery Posts) - Like mentioned above, The Hun and AL4A, went beyond normal link sites, and cut straight to the chase. Bypassing the main pages of sites, they went straight to the gallery pages, and combined that with consistent updates, to accumulate massive traffic. - Niche TGPs (and other niches items) - Beyond a standard TGP, some folks pulled out links from the TGPs that related to one niche or another. Such as only Teen links, or Big Tit links, and gathered a bunch of targeted visitors. This narrows down the traffic, and allows niche advertising with a much better chance for converting traffic. - Pop-ups - Robin Nixon seemingly pretty much created the first pop-up. I don't know the details, but he used it to his advantage by building a pretty large abc123 link exchange, and having control of a lot of hits, before tackling other ventures. I'm sure he's been cursed many times since then, but it's just another example of how people were innovating back in the day. - Interstitial - Or megastitial, or superstitial, whatever you want to call them. Most adult sites back in the day had a splash page, but the interstitial is a dynamically inserted page. The first people I know to really do it was Sexhound. They were an adult free host. They didn't have as many hits as PornCity.net or Sextracker's free host network, but they made a pretty good income. They inserted a splash page with ads anytime you came from a different domain than theirs. - Selling 404s - Before control panels ruled everything, having custom server setups was more of a challenge. We used to run 100free.com, which was a free host as well. We had mainstream and adult. I remember getting banned from thehun.net for selling our 404s...sending our 404's to a page with ads...or redirecting them to a sponsor. We saw them as valuable hits. They might not have had enough information on the page, saying it was a 404, I honestly don't remember...but it was a change at the time. Ahh..there are a lot of things where adult pushed the envelope. Live chat, adult friend finder, the beginnings of video, reality porn, flash creatives, image compression, toplists... Or FantasyDate.com...not losing your traffic, and getting paid per click. Or the original layout of AmateurPages.com, teasing, teasing, teasing...and payoff at the end with a signup. Which brings us to the present time... What forward progress is adult making now? What front ends convert? Has new technology made any difference, or do the old front ends convert just as well? I know the tube sites have so much traffic, and I know their profit margins aren't that great. What happens from here? Does it take tons of focus on niche sites to compel users to sign up, or can you still tease someone with quality content and bring them on board? The web as a whole has grown so much, adult industry included, and in doing so it has segmented greatly. Is there still a macro view that makes sense in this industry? I just wanted to create some conversation on the state of things, see what it takes to convert people into sales now. And maybe I wanted to take a little walk down memory lane. Have a great day! __________________ Lost.