Do You Think Attitudes Are Changing Towards..

Gay webmasters and the gay marketplace in general in the adult industry?

I know there seems to be a higher rate of posts on many message boards these days about working the 'gay niche' from more and more straight webmasters on boards ranging from GFY through to our own GWW community.

Has the adult industry finally realized that we have a peice of one of the most profitable areas on the net and do you think they are truely interested in marketing to the gay surfer / webmaster or are these new interests purely driven by the lack of profit currently being made in the various straight markets?

Actually speaking about the lack of profits in the straight arene, do you think that we will start to see a decline in profits from the gay market as more and more webmasters enter our realm in search of that elusive pink dollar and, if so, why? I know i personally feel that within the next 1-2 years there is going to be a lot more primarily straight companies looking towards gay surfers but, with this increase in attention will the gay market also become saturated with the same burdens as the straight one? By that i mean are we going to see an increase in low cost, low maintenance sites that offer nothing of worth and, in time is this going to have an adverse affect on the way we all do business? Also what about the 'shady' business practises that seem all to apparent in the straight market? Spyware, viruses, redirecting, se spam etc etc is this going to start to effect our peice of the interweb too?

Would be good to see how you all feel about some of the comments made above.

Regards,

Lee

Over the past 6 months, webmasters have grown above their sexual differences. As a result, people have started meeting from what used to be the 2 sides. People have discovered that they can learn from each other.
Today, the "straight webmaster" is catching up with the retention on gay sites. That's attractive, more money less work ;)
Straight webmasters are also catching up with honest business models..:wacko: that's a new concept ;)
So, we're now working all together, learning together, and the whole industry is growing together to deliver a quality product to the mass population.

That's my 10000 feet point of view.

a few months ago, Bedfellow relaunched our affiliate program, renaming it "Bedfellow Cash" (see the banner below).

To promote it to affiliates, Karl had a whole bunch of 70s looking T-shirts printed up saying things like "You'll Jerk Off To Anything" and "You're Just Another Niche". They were pretty popular.

I'd like to think that none of us here (save for one or two people who left if a huff) are stupid enough to think that gay people can't market straight sites and straight people can't market gaty sites. Quite a few of our most successful members here, for instance are either straight men marketing to gay men, or gay women marketing to gay men. Go figure.

I do worry, however, that the gay market will turn into the cheater/slimebag-ridden cesspool that the straight market is getting dangerously close to becomming.

Although redirecting, virus dowloading, scamming and spamming are ceratinly not unknown in the gay side of the market, i think that once gay sites are "just another niche" not only will quality fall, and therefore rebills, new signups, etc but I think the gay crowd is savy enough to stay away from a market that rips them off. They may turn away from the internet to another medium.. DVD, Sattelite... who knows what will be invented two years from now.

Of course, we can run around yelling that the sky is falling all we want, there's not a whole hell of a lot we can do about it, other than go out of our way to treat our traffic the way we'd wanna be treated. As people get more and more net-savy, they become more aware of being scammed... let's try to give them the best product we have and try to keep them.

I think the word is getting around that there's money on this side of the fence... so yes, I'd be watching for those wanting to make a few fast bucks, and that translates into the same sort of sites they think work on the straight market.

Personally, I feel that too many come into this biz thinking it's toss up a site and sit back and cash checks. So when that doesn't happen, they jump to another niche or market looking for the goose that lays that proverbial golden egg. Realistically speaking, any niche can make money if one is willing to learn the niche, learn how to market it, and put the time into developing it.

I would say it’s because of the lack of profits from str8 sites. I see the same thing in videos that I sell. Str8 movies I can get for $1.00-$8.00. Where as gay stuff is always more.

It’s because gay people have more disposable income then straight families. I don’t think they really care much about the surfer. It seems to be all about making their bank account grow. I don’t think that there will be lack of profits; however, I do think that they will go up and down more as new sites come out and new companies come into play. You can already see this in some of the older companies. They are either changing what they offer or coming out of their caves and trying to get more hands on to increase sales.

Good example of this is when I answer someone’s post about streaming content I always get 1-3 emails from companies about their products, and what they can offer me. Something that didn’t happen much before to me, however, now it happens with every post I make about videos, and streaming content.

I do think the gay market will become saturated with the same burdens as the straight one. In some areas we are already there with running sites and coming up with new things. Our marketing a site differs then theirs, but still a lot of the same things apply to the companies themselves. They seem to throw a lot of content and a lot of traffic out there and hope it works. Where as a lot of the gay sites are actually working to make things the best they can be. Both the free sites, and pay sites. We already have the shady business practices, and sites that just throw something up there and hope it works. That will always be there. I know a few companies owners that have private sites that are nothing more then holes on the net for people to join, and get rebilled. Never updated, or done anything with.

I don’t think the virus’s part will work with our stuff though; we’re all to internet savvy and some queen will always be there to help. The spywear stuff works now in some companies that I will not name. However, when I try their products, my spywear blocker will not allow them to be installed.

I think that even now , alot more companies are starting to see that the "Gay Market" not niche is something that should be looked into. I also think that the old webmaster thought of well I am not gay but if I have a gay site people will think that I am , is dying out.
Overall the industry is changing for many reasons, so good , some not so good. For us in the gay community it is changing for the best!

Very interesting thread. I agree that the straight adult webmasters are finally realizing that there is money in gay. This is something that the general business world has known for years. Most of the best gay clubs, bars, and other service based industries are owned by straight individuals. I know many owners personally and say that if the straight market was as profitable as the gay they would definitely go to a straight business plan but it just isn't. Gays just love to spend money to impress friends, lovers and themselves. Even Dave over at TTI has stated when asked why the difference in pricing between UGAS and Cyberage admits that gays will pay more than straights.

As for the virus and other things Lee mentioned. Well I have two indivuals who surf the web daily for various reasons. Each does strictly Gay or Straight sites. Presently the malicious crap is coming up more frequently on gay sites -- tgps oh my God - have a good backup drive, set your zone to HIGH and pray your system survives!

I think the gay market is very far behind the straight one. There is so many different types of straight sites and not that many different gay sites. I have seen alot of the straight companies do gay sites and they are just horrible. Profits and conversions with gay sites are so much better than straight sites. The competition with straight sites is just incredible. Even though we have over 35 straight sites our focus has been the gay ones. Being gay ofcoarse I like to work on gay sites and I have been trying to add as many gay sites as possible in lots of niches plus it is just more profitable. I also love gay webmasters and doing business with them. Straight webmasters can sometimes have a huge attitude and be very annoying.

Mark

There always will be good and bad sites. If you don't know your market you can't build a good site. All a straight person building a gay site needs to do is get to know your audience, the same way a gay person would need to do with a straight site, and a vanilla person would need to build a kinky site and so on. I think that as more and more straight people start getting into the gay marketplace, they will learn though trial and error what works and what doesn't.

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Originally posted by Ounique
and a vanilla person would need to build a kinky site and so on.

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Don, do you have to walk up and lick a person to know for sure if they're vanilla or not?

I've always wondered that.

I think people are definitely finally starting to realize the gay market holds the potential for a very real and substantial ROI. I don't quite know if I'd go so far as saying attitudes are really changing, though. I'm not quite sure it reaches that far.

I think it's just purely a business decision. But not necessarily backed by any real shift in mindset. More of a "eh... well we gotta do it cuz the money's there but eh..."

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Originally posted by BDBionic
... I don't quite know if I'd go so far as saying attitudes are really changing, though. I'm not quite sure it reaches that far....

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Oh, I am sure the mentalities are changing. I know it first hand, from discussions with a lot of "straight" webmasters.

For myself, I tend to agree with BDBionic in that its financially driven and not a real change in attitude.

I think many pretend to be 'gay friendly' when in fact they are just putting on an act in order to curry favour and gain business.

Money seems to cross many barriers but when it comes down to actually accepting or being understanding of gays, i don't see the attitude changing but just my warped take on things I suppose.

Ian

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Originally posted by Jasun
Don, do you have to walk up and lick a person to know for sure if they're vanilla or not?

I've always wondered that.

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Who you been talking to? I had a really bizzare evening where I licked a guy for two hours. It's a long story, don't ask. But it's odd that you asked me that question. LOL!!!

well now, remind me to sit next to Don next time I'm in LA. :specs:

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Originally posted by Ounique
I had a really bizzare evening where I licked a guy for two hours.

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Originally posted by Ounique
I had a really bizzare evening where I licked a guy for two hours.

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Hmmm ... not sure this was the sort of "excercise" we were discussing to accompany that new diet Don ...:wtf: