A New Direction in Gay Pay-Site Design?

Are you guys noticing a change in the direction of Gay Pay-Site Design? Are more and more gay pay-sites going the glitzy flashy way?

Used to be that a few years ago gay sites were all very custom designed (seancody, corbin fisher, jake cruise, amateur straight guys, straight college men, fratmen.tv, etc) but newer gay sites are looking more and more like straight porn sites that have always been very flashy and streamlined (ie cumonherface.com, all topbucks sites, etc) and all pretty much follow the same format (two or three preview pages with about 6-9 episodes featuring free trailers. ie papi.com, boysfirsttime.com, brokestraightboys.com, etc).

We're trying to design our new site featuring exclusively shot amateur photos and videos and we don't know which direction to go with the design.

We've always been thinking about going with the old format custom design (where the tour pages mirror the members area), but recently we've been considering going the more mainstream route like the sites i mentioned above.

What are your thoughts? Should be go ahead and design our site the “new way”? or keep with the old format? Which do you guys think converts better?

Thanks guys!! Really appreciate any input

Allan

You know Allan, that's a very good question. We've been grappling with the very same issues on building our endeavor.

I've turned away from the adult industry and to my roots in architecture, design, marketing and advertising to try and flush out the fundamentals of design development.

One of the challenges for us has been navigation, which we see as equal to the essential look and feel of the site.

We're torn between the cleaned up and "fresh" look of some sites, vs. the nasty dirty, back alley look of others....after all, so many, for so long, have kept their little dirty secrets very secret re: buying and using our adult products...

but on the other hand, mainstream and hightened "design awareness" by the masses has also upped the level of appreciation for many. In other words, the Martha Stewartization (is that a word) of KMart has increased the demand for a cleaner, design conscious home invironment, thus renovation in kitchens and home improvements on the rise...Home Depot Outlets everywhere, etc...

Will this carry over into the adult industry?

Colt and Playboy always presented material on a hightened level and I think, personally, that we may see a return to basic and fundamental presentation of pornographic arts...but that's only my opinion...

and of course, we live in a complete vacuum and are isolated from the real world by choosing to live and work here in Beverly Hills! where plastic surgery is as prevelant as the nose on my face!

Well I think what you're noticing is perhaps more a product of circumstance than any identifiable trend.

Sites like SeanCody and CorbinFisher and JakeCruise and Fratmen and such are not part of a large sponsor program with a network of sites. They are programs whose focus is on the one, title site. They are launched, and grow through the development of that main and primary site. Thus the custom design to that particular site, their own look and feel, and what not. They don't launch a new site every couple of months, and instead focus on the development and growth of that main, primary (and oftentimes sole) site.

The examples you mentioned on the other side of the coin - the flashier sites with the 2-3 page tours and so on so forth - are more often than not sites that are part of a large sponsor program that has under its umbrella a number of sites, all probably designed by the same people (per program). These larger sponsor programs tend to release a new site every few months, so that is why you keep seeing all these flashy sites coming along.

The programs that tend to use the flashier, 2-3 page, templated tour designs just happen to also be the programs that release a new site every few months. The programs that tend to have the custom, branded site design tend to be the ones who don't release a new site every few months and instead just stick to the advancement of that one single site.

And so that's why you'd see what would appear to be a trend in the release of those flashy, bright and blinky 3-page tour type sites.

I think what you see in many of those larger sponsor program sites is a kind of... same recipe, different ingredients approach to things, as an analogy.

Which isn't to say that what they come up with can't be mighty tasty upon completion, just that the reciple (template being a sign of it) is the same.

very cool explanation CF, thanks.

so, if our goal is to have one main site, with our complete focus on that one site, until that site has grown to a point where we could see ourselves starting another similar site with the same level of commitment and dedication, would you suggest that we go with the full custom design of sites such as seancody, randyblue, corbinfisher, etc like we originally planed? Or do you think it even matters? Does our "flagship" site have to have a very unique look? i know establishing a brand is very important to us...but don't you think that that could still be achieved with a template-type design? I don't know too much about the straight porn market, but i think cumonherface.com has become a brand and their design is your typical template format. I'm not disagreeing with you at all btw...just want to get my head around this design issue :)

What are some straight sites that would compare to the seancody's randyblue's and corbinfisher's of the gay market? are they following the same design ideas that you mentioned? don't all straight porn sites pretty much follow the template technique (even the mega sites)?

Allan

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Originally Posted by CorbinFisher_BD

Well I think what you're noticing is perhaps more a product of circumstance than any identifiable trend.

Sites like SeanCody and CorbinFisher and JakeCruise and Fratmen and such are not part of a large sponsor program with a network of sites. They are programs whose focus is on the one, title site. They are launched, and grow through the development of that main and primary site. Thus the custom design to that particular site, their own look and feel, and what not. They don't launch a new site every couple of months, and instead focus on the development and growth of that main, primary (and oftentimes sole) site.

The examples you mentioned on the other side of the coin - the flashier sites with the 2-3 page tours and so on so forth - are more often than not sites that are part of a large sponsor program that has under its umbrella a number of sites, all probably designed by the same people (per program). These larger sponsor programs tend to release a new site every few months, so that is why you keep seeing all these flashy sites coming along.

The programs that tend to use the flashier, 2-3 page, templated tour designs just happen to also be the programs that release a new site every few months. The programs that tend to have the custom, branded site design tend to be the ones who don't release a new site every few months and instead just stick to the advancement of that one single site.

And so that's why you'd see what would appear to be a trend in the release of those flashy, bright and blinky 3-page tour type sites.

I think what you see in many of those larger sponsor program sites is a kind of... same recipe, different ingredients approach to things, as an analogy.

Which isn't to say that what they come up with can't be mighty tasty upon completion, just that the reciple (template being a sign of it) is the same.

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I'm not saying you can't brand a templated design, just saying that it's most often the case that templated designs come from larger programs that offer a number of (not necessarily related) sites and come out with new sites on a regular basis. That's simply the approach they've taken, and one would assume it has the potential to be a very successful one given how many are doing it. Probably saves them a fair amount of time and energy using the templated approach as opposed to designing from the ground up everytime.

I'd imagine that a lot of the single-site gay programs that have been mentioned might also have some other site launches in the works, and they'd likely look similar to the original, flagship site. So... in a sense templated from that point onward; just a different starting point.

At CorbinFisher, we're launching a new site - www.AmateurCollegeSex.com - shortly, and it's design will be similar to a redesigned CorbinFisher.com. All part of a branded identity and network of CorbinFisher sites, but all based on a custom design that is also original.

thanks for your inputs guys.

we've been thinking about this and considering that this site is going to be our "flag-ship" site where we'll be establishing our brand for everything else to come, we'll design the site from the ground up with a completely custom feel. It will be glitzy and fresh, but it wont looks like all those template sites out there. It'll have to be very unique basically. Thanks again

Allan

What is up with the god-awful video player inteface on cumonherface.com? I've seen the same interface on a number of other gay sites but I can't remember where. It is the ugliest piece-o-crap I've every seen.

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

What is up with the god-awful video player inteface on cumonherface.com? I've seen the same interface on a number of other gay sites but I can't remember where. It is the ugliest piece-o-crap I've every seen.

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I'd go to the site to check out what it is you're talking about but the last time I went to that site I almost lost my lunch (and then, after recovering, made sure to send the link to every gay friend on my AIM buddy list so that they could almost lose their lunch as well and every straight friend on my buddy list to see if they'd either lose their lunch or go "AWESOME!") and so I don't much care to visit it again. lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CorbinFisher_BD

I'd go to the site to check out what it is you're talking about but the last time I went to that site I almost lost my lunch (and then, after recovering, made sure to send the link to every gay friend on my AIM buddy list so that they could almost lose their lunch as well and every straight friend on my buddy list to see if they'd either lose their lunch or go "AWESOME!") and so I don't much care to visit it again. lol.

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Haha! Too funny! Yeah, sorry about the link to cumonherface.com. But now if that was a sexy bearded daddy with cum all over his face... I would be whistling a different tune. :honest:

haha what's amazing is that all the cum you see on that site is real! i could've swore that it was fake until i met a guy who performed on those shoots. :egg: