Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
Some good points.
To shoot content profitably you had to be good and have more markets than just the Internet. Without magazine sales we would ever of got to the size we were. They funded most of the boy girl ad girl girl shoots we did. Shooting 4 or more girls for the Internet is simply not profitable without magazine sales. Add the $4,000 we earn from magazines and it is. Which is why so few content providers will have these scenes. Some do, but not enough. Members love them, girls love doing them and they sell and convert.
To shoot good content you need certain things. A knowledge of the niche, experience handling models, budget and time. Too much content is shot to fill a slot in a site or on a shelf. The blame is simple to place, sponsors do not spend enough on content. The good shooters in the business are there, but not working for the money offered.
Plus being a good photographer does not make you a good pornographer. I'm a good pornographer and crap photographer. Seen some great single shots from boring sets and perfectly shot boring porn videos.
The industry started a lie and spun it out of all control. Non exclusive was saturated. It was told over and over again until all the affiliates believed it and the industry has suffered.
If it was saturated it would of meant it was sold over and over again and for photographers would of been very profitable. But so many of these shooters were unable to make a living shooting for a content store or even for brokering they moved to shooting custom for low prices or got out completely. If non exclusive is saturated in a members area it means the site is successful signing members and keeps buying more and more from the same suppliers. You can't saturate a product that does not sell. Unless you buy a blow out 20 others bought and give it to affiliates. Then it's saturated on TGPs.
So the money that could be spent by content providers shooting for themselves was limited and that hurt members area. Led to people who could not shoot pointing cameras at naked people. Not porn that sells.
Anyone who thinks shooting with a HD camera is a solution is IMO a fool or trying to push a fact that counts nothing to the porn consumers. For many niches HD is very wrong.
To get good sales you have to have something good to sell.
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I know many people uses to slam you on points I think they're quite valid. And these are quite valid points. I know nothing about selling content to magazines, but I assume that's a good aditional income. However, that applies to content (mainly), and even though content is key, the perception of what content is is one of the main factors to get out of the loop.
As for niches, as I mentioned and Naja-ram agrees, most content nowadays is crap, mainly because it's shot in bulk and the same people shots every single niche out there without having a slight idea of the niche itself. An example including myself: when I shot content, I was requested some smoking niche content. I said "sure, let's make the girls fuck and include cigarettes, blunts, whatever". Well, I was soooooo off base it was embarrassing. After that, with some knowledge about specific fetishes I decided to explore what's about every single niche I'd think off. I made a lot of research, made polls, studied consumer trends and noticed one of the main points business is falling is because most content is off niche. At least 50% of the paysites are selling ice to eskimos.
So I know when it comes to teens you're one of the best out there, no matter how much people slams you. Personally, I never understood the "exclusive vs non-exclusive" thing. Unless content shooters are shooting very "on niche" content, it's easier to find non-exclusive content that converts better, especially if we're talking of fetishes and some mainstream niches (anal niche sites are the first that comes to my mind. with just a couple changes they could improve conversions greatly). And shooting in HD isn't bad, if the content is good a better format will be better. If the content is bad, it's better to shot it with "amateurish" look, so at least it's explained by the amateur spirit.
Anyway, content is just the tip of the iceberg. I need to keep working for my clients, but if I find time I'll write something more complete since I can see many people is like "doh?" (Homer Simpson "absolutely lost" face)