Its All About The Demographics

So Gary and I were sat talking to one of our friends earlier this evening and we started to talk about the type of surfers that go for certain types of content.

For example, do older men tend to lean more towards the twink looking guy? Do twinks themselves have any specific type of 'look' they are after when surfing porn online?

Basically we could come up with some stereotypes however, it then struck us, there are no real demographics available in the gay market to somewhat narrow down the type of surfer we should be trying to attract to our sites.

Then we really started to talk lol

We came up with the following based on our past experience and, we were interested in getting your opinions on this topic too so, if you have anything to add or take from the following please feel free to do so and explain why.

Bear Sites.

Should be marketed towards the peircing, tattooed and hairy surfer.

Twink Sites.

Should be marketed towards the older middle aged 'old perv' type of male surfer.

Jock Sites.

Should be marketed towards the 21-35 yr old crowd.

To be honest, that was pretty much all we could come up with LMAO

So our question to you folks is this...

Do you have a certain type of stereotypical demographic you aim to target your sites towards and, if so, firstly, what gay market niche is the demographic of? And, secondly, what is the demographic breakdown you think works?

Lets see if we can get a thread full of information that all of us can contribute too :)

Regards,

Lee

i know cute 18 - 21 year old guys and lots of them prefer other cute 18-21 year old guys.

over half of the men i know over 55 prefer jocks and colt-type models. of the rest, it's a split between bears, leather and twinks - and other niches like asian and feet.

i attempt not to aim my marketing at any one group as best as i am able since i suspect that to some extent most niches have all sorts and ages of surfers.

but that's just my opinion - i haven't seen any realistic demographics toward any straight porn, either. most of the people i know simply aim at people they believe are surfing their niche. the rest of the folks i know work niches they like and most assume the other guys who like that niche will be pretty much like they are in age and preference within the niche.

do you suppose there's a realistic way to do some research?

You know what? I dont think you can market a site at a demographic or age group. I just market a site to the people who are turned on by the subject. Doesnt matter what age they are if they are turned on by bears they are going to like my site. I think if you narrow it down and try to target a certain type you lose out.

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Originally posted by basschick
do you suppose there's a realistic way to do some research?

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A great reply Basschick :thumbsup:

You know, both Gary and I have thought about this for a few weeks, it just happened the conversation we had the other morning set our minds working lol

Personally, i think if we worked as a group and not on an individual basis im pretty sure between all of the community members here we could come up with some great figures and demographics for example, BadPuppy i know asks their member base to fill out polls and answer questionaires not only does this give Lisa and the gang a heap of information on what their member base likes it also helps them to improve their retention because they are giving the BadPuppy member base exactly what they are looking for.

I guess ultimately though, as mentioned above, this would need to be done on a much broader scale than just one or two webmasters so that we could hit the maximum range of 'demographicees' (i know thats not a word but it sounds cool LOL).

Now with that said, if we could get a site set up purely full of polls and questionaires, who if anyone from around here would actually link to it or send their surfers there so we could start getting this type of information?

Regards,

Lee

Well I have to disagree with you a bit there shelmal. While marketing type to whomever is looking for it IS the most important level of marketing, having the additional information on age groupings can help a lot. Right now, ‘Type’ is the ONLY information we have readily at available without analyzing membership data.

With the shear numbers of surfers out there, knowing the age groupings CAN help aiming them in right directions. Keep in mind the information we have all shared on marketing transsexuals… most everyone has commented that it’s not a gay niche, but those who DO market the niche say that most of there members are 55 and over straight men. I think in that case age factors matter. It doesn’t discount the curious 20 year old, but it does give an idea about who really is buying.

Knowing age groups, or any deeper demographic information for that matter, can enhance your chances of making sales.

Part of the conversation we had here, which Lee is talking about, was who has that overall data and can we trust the data we’ve collected through our membership base. Now the examples Lee mentioned are fast points based on a glimpse of what we’ve accumulated. What’s true and not true are yet to be determined. While I like using polls, I know personally I’ve messed around on tons of online polls just for the fun of it (goodness knows how many times I’ve been a 22 year old, skinny, blonde)

Marketing on ‘type only’ makes me feel like I’m picking up a hand full of pebbles and throwing them at a target - Some hit, many miss. Knowing more about who’s looking for what, gives me a sense that perhaps I can either bring the target closer so more pebble hit it, or I can throw fewer and hit the target more effectively. In any case, we all know that it is becoming more difficult to sell these days. I think arming our selves with as much information before hand can give us all the advantage.

There’s my two cents ;)

Talk to you soon.

My best,
Gary-Alan

but might there not be certain groups - perhaps age groups or something - who don't fill out polls? and if so, wouldn't that compromise our results?

i know that i ran this one panty site that we kept hearing fron the same guys over and over - and NOT hearing from the same guys over and over.

do processors ask for date of birth?

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Originally posted by basschick
but might there not be certain groups - perhaps age groups or something - who don't fill out polls? and if so, wouldn't that compromise our results?.....

.....do processors ask for date of birth?

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In all honesty i think it is going to be down to how we actually word the questions and present them to the gay surfers perhaps taking the 'we want to help you find your porn' angle may work although i would agree there is bound to be one demographic type that wont answer the polls however, im sure if would come up with a comprehensive list of questions and poll options a little information would be much better than none at all as of right now ;)

As for the processor question, you know, i dont think they do which, in itself kinda puts all this Visa stuff going on into perspective :boom:

Regards,

Lee

basschick,

That's a question we're waiting to hear back on from a couple of processors. We sent an email a moment ago.

Hopefully they'll post, if not we'll share their responses.

GA

This is an interesting post and worth exploring..

I have the option of adding a questionaire to the "check your email" pages on AE - So that when a surfer submits their email into a wms site, they could be presented with a quick questionaire to ask them exactly what they are looking for...

Im sure a lot wont bother to complete it - but Im also sure a lot would take the time to let us know their desires.. and considering that it wouldnt be taking signups away from the webmaster, I cant see anyone objecting to our adding it - and those that do could simply use their own custom confirm pages...

Thing is, getting specific, what questions would we want to poll - what results are we looking for and what to gain from it... obviously insider knowledge of a surfers mind, but you know what I mean...

The data would for sure make interesting reading, not only for the gay niches but also for the str8s too...

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Originally posted by basschick
do processors ask for date of birth?

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no, no processors that I have used colect that info on signup.

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Originally posted by Lee
I guess ultimately though, as mentioned above, this would need to be done on a much broader scale than just one or two webmasters so that we could hit the maximum range of 'demographicees' (i know thats not a word but it sounds cool LOL).

Now with that said, if we could get a site set up purely full of polls and questionaires, who if anyone from around here would actually link to it or send their surfers there so we could start getting this type of information?

Regards,

Lee

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Hey...did you get this idea from my Why Don't You Test Market?! thread? If so, go me and i'm glad you thought it was a good one. I totally had the idea of a site just for gay demographic collection in that thread. :P

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Originally posted by DigitalJay
Hey...did you get this idea from my Why Don't You Test Market?! thread? If so, go me and i'm glad you thought it was a good one. I totally had the idea of a site just for gay demographic collection in that thread. :P

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LOL you know what i have no idea where it came from LOL

We were just sitting around a few nights ago BS'ing and came up with the idea lol

Shows that great minds really do think alike ;) (modest arent i lol)

Regards,

Lee

To answer your question about if this kinda site would do well, 3 words: Hot or Not

People LOVE putting in their two cents on anything they are passionate about, and aren't most gay men passionate about porn?

:grin: