anybody remember a content provider named Butterball something?

[Mutt]

what happened to that guy? he had nice content i remember. and what happened to Scott from Cloud 9 Content and BeTheMask.com?

where did everybody go!!!!

[Paul Markham]

Some opened paysites, some went over to custom and some are flipping burgers for a living.

8 years ago some of the shooters were awful, today the standard is a lot higher.

[stevo]

Butterballs McFadden - I think I only noticed him update the store one or two times. I bought all of his Asian content 8 years ago: Teanna Kai, Jade Hsu, Miko Smiles, etc - loved it. He also shot Crissy Moran and a bunch of other amateurs. Updated one time with a hardcore scene and then disappeared. I think Acacia probably took him out or he just quit...

Cloud 9 - Was probably my favorite content provider. I was kinda pissed because i spent thousands on a fraction of the content and then at the end they sold everything in one huge package deal for dirt cheap.

Is there like no money in content production? Why did almost all our favorite producers close shop? If you do the math it seems like a relatively profitable business. Nude models work for cheap, you only need a few buyers to pull a profit. I'm surprised more people don't do it, there seems to be a big market for it. If you think about it, there are very few "American" internet content sellers.

[NaughtyRob]

Its not as easy as it sounds.

[stevo]

Originally Posted by GetNaughty

Its not as easy as it sounds.

Yeah, i bet. I just started shooting my own softcore content last month. It's amazing how many little things can go wrong and how much i've learned about photography in such a short amount of time. I was ready to quit after my first photoshoot, it's a lot of work! The tedious part is the photo editting. I'll probably kill myself if i have to photoshop another image!

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by stevo

Is there like no money in content production? Why did almost all our favorite producers close shop? If you do the math it seems like a relatively profitable business. Nude models work for cheap, you only need a few buyers to pull a profit. I'm surprised more people don't do it, there seems to be a big market for it. If you think about it, there are very few "American" internet content sellers.

American content sellers sold themselves down the river - when hosted affiliate content was invented most of them didn't even know what was happening - affiliates no longer had to buy their own content, and the dumbasses didn't even make anybody pay extra for usage as hosted affiliate content.

cheap DVD licenses pretty much killed off shooting videos for licensed content.

Nude models are cheap? 500-1000 a day isn't cheap.

[JP-pornshooter]

one of the photogs on my team used to shoot for cloud9
think the owner moved to spain and got a different outlook on life..
he is a talented photog..but not much business sense which is where i come in;)

good money in content shooting still. but not for everyone.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by stevo

Is there like no money in content production? Why did almost all our favorite producers close shop? If you do the math it seems like a relatively profitable business. Nude models work for cheap, you only need a few buyers to pull a profit. I'm surprised more people don't do it, there seems to be a big market for it. If you think about it, there are very few "American" internet content sellers.

Some people plain lied. They kept telling the business that non exclusive content was saturated. It was a lie based on them trying to get affiliates to sign up to the "exclusive content" program. Think about it for 1 minute and you can see why it's a lie.

Solo girl exclusive set and video at $300 to $400. That's 6 sales at $60 or $80. You don't saturate a main stream niche with that few sales over the life time of a set. Not in members areas. And if you did you would be signing people up in truck loads.

Add the possibility of selling the set to magazines, video to DVD and the pair to mobile phones and you can see that the number of sales on non exclusive is very low for all those shooters to have left the business. Or gone to shooting exclusive for peanuts.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Mutt

American content sellers sold themselves down the river - when hosted affiliate content was invented most of them didn't even know what was happening - affiliates no longer had to buy their own content, and the dumbasses didn't even make anybody pay extra for usage as hosted affiliate content.

No sponsors sold themselves down the river when they insisted on buying cheap content to give to affiliates that ten other sponsors were doing the same with. They drove down the prices which forced us to sell the scenes many times. Then blamed us for selling the scene many times.

Originally Posted by Mutt

cheap DVD licenses pretty much killed off shooting videos for licensed content.

Cheap DVD licenses also killed off paysites. Why sign up to a site again when the last one was full of cheap DVD content? Yes I sell cheap DVD content because sponsors buy it.

Originally Posted by Mutt

Nude models are cheap? 500-1000 a day isn't cheap.

It is when you realise their brothers will be seeing the content on a gallery in a few weeks time.

There is still money in shooting content but not in putting it up on a content store. We found we earn more by discounting old content than releasing new. Sad reflection on the market and maybe another reason Tubes are a better deal for the surfer.

[stevo]

Originally Posted by Mutt

Nude models are cheap? 500-1000 a day isn't cheap.

$500-$1000 for pornstars or hardcore. So far im finding tons of nude amateurs for $100-$150hr.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by stevo

$500-$1000 for pornstars or hardcore. So far im finding tons of nude amateurs for $100-$150hr.

1 day = 6-8 hours.

He's getting a better deal. LOL

It's not down to the price it's down to the quality. There was a saying in the Rag Trade, the Jewish one in London, back in the 70s that is very apt for today.

"Never mind the quality, feel the width."

This industry has largely become obsessed with the price and numbers. Recently I was told by a major sponsor he could get boy girl for $800 a scene, set and video. With any two models wanting $500 a day, good looking and performing boys are not cheap, that's $1,000 on models alone. I've not included the agents 20%.

So what can anyone shoot 2 hardcore scenes for $600? Stick a girl on a sofa, go through the same old motions as 1,000 other scenes and hope for the best.

OK I can work with boys who will only charge $250 and hope he can get it up, keep it up and cum on time. Plus he knows what to do, does not piss the girl off and not making the whole shoot a nightmare.

OK I can get girls who will work all day for $300. How well will they sell?

And this is the crunch. Many sponsors have reduced the costs and profits of custom shoots to the point where any crap from a Tube site is better than what costs money and requires the hassle of joining is better value for money.

There are those who have not and some have even increased content budgets to shoot better, not just better visually. Better models, story lines, action, settings, lighting and the things that set them apart from the other sites. The sponsors who convert better, retain better and probably have loads of affiliates. I'm not one of them.