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Thread: Exclusively Gay?

  1. #1
    RainGurl
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    Exclusively Gay?

    Morning everyone!
    Question:
    When you are looking for sponsors for your gay sites, do you prefer to work with an affiliate program that is exclusively gay or does it matter?
    I'm looking at creating a special sub-domain for our gay sites. We currently have 10 and will be adding another 6 in the next month or so. Do you feel it would be beneficial to have a separate sub domain exclusively for the gay sites, marketing materials, etc?

    thanks for your input.


  2. #2
    You do realize by 'gay' I mean a man who has sex with other men?
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    A good question

    Im going to wait until a few others have replied before i give you my opinion on the matter

    Regards,

    Lee


  3. #3
    Patrick
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    Hye "Rain Girl"

    I have no comment but I love seeing your face.

    Pat


  4. #4
    GWW Community Member mardigras's Avatar
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    I go for more how a sponsor promotes their site. I use free content and hosted galleries a lot to send traffic to a sponsor so if a sponsor with primarily straight sites and a few gay updates more often than an exclusively gay sponsor that never updates, I would go with them. Too many sponsors just add a gay site then go off to update only their straight sites.


  5. #5
    Have an idea and make it come to life! Gary-Alan's Avatar
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    Excellent question Rainey!

    Honestly, it comes down to what works and what doesn't for me. It has never mattered to me who owned the company, whether it was a mix of straight and gay or not. It's about the site(s) and the and whether it converts, retains, and such. Now, don't get me wrong if the affiliate program had sites and the company was clearly anti-gay, it made a difference in my thinking.

    With Stud Money I've made the conscious decision to keep it all male oriented. And that's simply because it's what we do best, not to keep anything separated.

    My two cents

    Regards,
    Gary-Alan


  6. #6
    Moderator Bec's Avatar
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    I don't feel a subdomain is necessary for obtaining the marketing materials ... but do feel the category needs "grouped" for lack of another way to say it. So two sections, Straight and Gay -- click gay to gather up the banners, text promotionals, fpa, links, tours etc for the sites you have for that market.

    I do like being able to see a preview of any sponsor offered sets, and a date as to when they were put online as a quick way to see what's newest for making tgp's with and so on. One thing that does bug me is sponsor content in zips -- that have broken up a series. Most tgps want a series ... not 10 dif guys in the gallery. I spend a lot of time downloading zips, to discover I have 8 of one guy, 15 of another, 3 of another, 40 of another and that has 38 of him still clothed/or all too hardcore with no softcore fillers ... arrrgh! And that's after going thru and resorting the lot! I also get frustrated with sets that aren't obvious about which site they best represent.

    One comes to mind that has a wonderful collection of male ebony, but they don't have an ebony site ... so, which site would my potential member find these guys on? So maybe an even deeper sub selection by site to gather zip downloads that have the guys used on various paysites would be a big help as well.


  7. #7
    RainGurl
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    thanks for the feedback, everyone. i appreciate it!


  8. #8
    chick with a bass basschick's Avatar
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    i don't really care who owns a program, and i don't care about a subdomain. i only care about two things:

    1. does the site really work within its niche? most sites don't - designers don't know about every niche, and neither do program owners. how many twink sites have i seen with guys well over 25, and how many older women sites have i seen with women under 35?

    2. does the site provide promotional content?

    other than that, i care of they pay on time and i like stats that show referring urls of sales. ;-)


  9. #9
    You do realize by 'gay' I mean a man who has sex with other men?
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    Okay as promised here is my take on the topic

    *Pesonally* i agree withe most of what has already been said int he thread however, the instance where *I* would choose to seperate gay from straight and, even then i wouldnt seperate it completely, would be in the instance whereby perhaps either one of the gay sites or, one of the straight sites might unjustly effect the sales of the other markets sites.

    For example, if the sponsor has a bunch of teen orientated paysites for the straight market yet, professes to have a 'bear' site in their gay portfolio i think in an instance like this it would benefit the sponsor to seperate the different markets and, specifically, the site offering on each.

    However, on the other hand, it may be just as easy (for all intents and purposes) to throw in a 'mature' site to the straight mix.

    I guess ultimately it depends on how the affiliate program is going to be marketed to the webmaster community, will it be marketed as straight only with a gay site or two in which case, there shouldnt be any need to seperate the two markets however, if it is going to be primarily marketed as having gay sites with some straight ones thrown in then i would almost certainly seperate the two as a business choice.

    However that said, if there is no need to distinguish between the staight and gay sites then why make the extra workload for yourself?

    Many affiliate programs do a fantastic job of maintaining one site for both gay and straight websites whilst still marketing them both seperatly.

    Just my $0.02 on the matter anyway

    Regards,

    Lee


  10. #10
    RainGurl
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    Thanks for the input!
    I tend to agree, that it doesn't matter if the program is exclusively gay or not, as long as the content, marketing, tools and support is there. In Vegas, however, I heard quite a bit of rumbling about gay webmasters want thinsg "separate." So, thought I'd check in with you all and see what you thought.
    Thanks!!


  11. #11
    You do realize by 'gay' I mean a man who has sex with other men?
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    Originally posted by RainGurl
    I heard quite a bit of rumbling about gay webmasters want thinsg "separate." So, thought I'd check in with you all and see what you thought.
    But were they talking about affiliate programs or the parties

    Regards,

    Lee


  12. #12
    DamianPPVNetworks
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    I think the attitude of "keeping separate" stems from the fact that many larger straight content providers and affiliate programs are now trying to cash in on the gay market. Makes sense, financially. Problems can arise, however, if these new purveyors don't love and coddle their gay content like we do. Unless they have a gay content manager and a gay affiliate manager, they may be off track promoting lame content with a lack of knowledge of gay niches.

    So my 2.5 cents is, it depends.

    D


  13. #13
    Bishop
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    Lee and I were just having this conversation and he pointed this thread out to me.. so here are my two bits..

    AEBN has AEBN for straight webmaster traffic and Gaystreams for gay webmaster traffic. However most if not ALL webmasters I know think of AEBN as AEBN regardless of whether its a straight webmaster or a gay webmaster.

    Most of the promotions I do for AEBN are targeted at webmasters in general. Not specific to the type of sites they build. With a few exceptions when I have ads that are running on primarily gay webmaster sites.. like this one.. the ads will be both Gaystreams and AEBN. Everyone knows its AEBN. Same people work on the straight, gay, and fetish accounts and products. One big happy family regardless of what we do in the bedroom.


  14. #14
    GWW Community Member mardigras's Avatar
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    What webmasters want and what they get are often widely separated things

    My suggestion is if you are building a site for webmasters make it something you would promote yourself if you happened along it.


  15. #15
    Dzinerbear
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    I tend to take a harder line on this issue.

    I know nothing about straight sex, I've never had straight sex, I would never dream of putting up a straight site. Basically, I think, in most cases, people should stick to what they know. If a bunch of straight people run programs for the straight market, what makes them think they can branch out into the gay market?

    I'm not saying they can't, but I just don't think they can throw up a couple of sites that scream "big cocks" and expect to grab some marketshare. If you're going to do it, then at least hire some who is gay to work on that market segment. Throw some of those "gay" dollars back at the gay community.

    I get angry at companies who just try to capitalize off the gay market, the perceived huge disposal incomes. Ever year, straight hot dog venders invade my downtown Toronto neighbourhood for Pride weekend; every Monday morning I walk the neighbourhood and see all of the hot dog bun plastic skids left behind: "Fuck them, we've made our money, let them clean it up" seems to be the attitude.

    Likewise, when I'm looking for content and a provider claims to have gay content. Three heroin addicts you grabbed out of the back alley and hosed off is not gay content.

    If I'm asking my visitors to buy lube or dildos, I don't want them greeted with a pair of tits, I want them to see cock.

    I don't think I'm that unusual. And I think the attitude you experienced in Vegas isn't all that unusual.

    And please, please, please ... bears are not any man with body hair, and generally speaking, a "daddy" should probably be at least 40 before you refer to him as such. (I saw a "daddy" site the other day where the "daddy" was 25, maybe.) And not all gay men are looking for "boys."

    I used MANcheck because it is gay owned, and partially gay-operated. They've remained true to their gay sites. They have not gone off and created a straight branch to expand their market.

    I used Hot Desert Knights because they do barebacking, leather, and fisting very well.

    I promote William Higgins because he focuses on eastern European men and that fits in with one of my sites. He's also gay and is the grand daddy of gay porn videos. He knows what turns men on.

    Having said all of this, I would promote you as a sponsor if I felt that you were making the effort to create a quality, gay product. I have dumped gay sponsors because their product was crap, so sexual orientation is not my main determining point. Do you respect me and my people? Do you have a good product? Or are you just paying lip service for the almighty dollar?

    I will re-iterate, I would highly recommend that you at least hire a gay consultant to give you some ideas and a heads up of certain issues. And I would create a totally separate area for your gay market, both webmaster and joe public.

    Good luck
    Dzinerbear


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