Your Thoughts On Adding A Non-Adult Section To GWW?

[Lee]

The last few days i have been talking to a few people that i know who work in non-adult and, whilst they read the board on a regular basis, they dont participate in the discussions because they feel they dont know enough about the 'adult' aspect of the online world.

A couple of people even suggested that we should add a more 'mainstream' section on GWW as there is a lack of places online that cater to individuals and business owners maintaining gay business outside of the adult industry.

I actually thought that was a good idea but, before i go changing and adding things to the community i wanted to ask for your input.

Do you think a non-adult section of GWW would be worth having and, if we added such a section, would you participate in it also?

Regards,

Lee

[tombarr]

Definately..!!!

I think the shared knowledge would go well both ways..

I notice many webmasters here, including myself that have non adult websites, business models in development or as long term plans as a hedge against being totally exposed to the adult market whims.... so having that would be a great resource for existing webmasters as well.

Also, the name, GayWideWebmasters is very inclusive of this ..

AND, it is about community, after all, and to have a gay board resource that is inclusive of this side of our community as well simply becomes more of a community..

it opens up a whole new set of marketing choices for you, which not only expands your reach into the new market, but also will increase board traffic on the present board through wider word of mouth coverage.

ALSO, and a BIG one from a business point of view, i think in the long run it gives you lots of financial growth room for GWW with increased banners, pages, sponsorships, etc.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Buck Angel]

Thats a great idea! I also have some non-adult business and would love to talk abouy that with others, Good way to network as well. You should totally do i would participate!

Buck

[longboardjim]

sounds good!

jim

[curiousbunny]

I don't have any porn pay sites but I still like to chat on here
and enjoy talking 2 people and learning new things. I think it's a great idea!

[Dzinerbear]

I think it's probably a good thing to have going here, I just wouldn't want to take any grief from people there if there was some cross over from time to time. I'm not ashamed to be in the adult business and I hate it when I go to an SEO board and I have to talk in riddles because you can't come right out and say, "I'm trying to get a good ranking for 'big cock'."

So I think it's a good idea in principle, it'd be interesting to see if you could get any of those people to post to an adult board with a mainstream section.

dzinerbear

[JustMe]

Greetings:

Why am I always the one that disagrees with the common opinion on here? HAha. I think this is a BAD idea, for several reasons:

1. For a website that's community based to be successful, it needs to be focused. I've seen soooo many online communities start to take a nose dive when they tried to expand and generalize into areas that are outside of their original scope. The thing that makes a community work is a common thread that binds all of its members, and on GWW, that thread is that we're all adult webmasters working in the gay marketplace.

2. Most of your advertisers will absolutely hate the idea. Again, it's about getting your ad in front of your target market. Even if you rotated different ads in the "non-adult" forum, you're still building a segment of the userbase on here that has nothing to do with their demographic. Many advertisers also intentionally want to keep their ads away from the eyes of those that aren't within their target group. What does this mean? It means that if you start heading into non-adult, adult advertisers will become less and less interested. On the other side, good luck getting large mainstream companies to advertise on a adult gay webmaster board, even if it is in the "non-adult" section.

3. With all of the problems lately, I think GWW would be better served trying to go after new adult webmasters to participate on here, to build back up its traffic. Again, I think trying to build up traffic by heading into different market segments is a mistake.

4. I think you're going to get a lot of bleeding from the non-adult to the adult forum. The end result will probably be something very similar to the adult webmaster boards that have been virtually taken over by surfers. Off topic conversations, rantings, and the asking of questions by someone that doesn't really want to know the answers. The adult forums will be like the circus sideshow for the mainstream forum.

To quote a wise old oriental man:

You must have focus Daniel-san.

[longboardjim]

I don't have any porn pay sites

i would be most honored to photograph "you!" for your personal porn site!

sincerely ~ ..."pick me! , pick me!"... :goof:

[robin]

Hmmm I have mixed feelings about the idea. On the one hand I think it would be a good one but on the other JustMe has voiced the parts that readily come to my mind as why its not such a good idea. 1 :thumbsup: 1 :boo:

[Squirt]

I've never seen a mainstream site that has an adult section :juggle:

[tyrain]

Gosh Darn. When I first started posting here I made a comment having confused two member names. "JustMe" has the faulted one and he slamed me against the wall verbally.

Over time, since I have continued to read, I now know that "JustMe" tends to write youthfully, yet many times has spoken as the devil's advocate, writing thoughts needing to be written.

This is a gay board. There should be gay ads. The straights come here to learn how to make money from the gay people.

If additional advertising is needed... be careful, would be my opinion. We have women webmasters here.. I suppose sites like "justmysizebra" would be understandable.

But when of pill-herbal advertisers, or a casino is considered... I would grow concerned.

[Bec]

JustMe: The thing that makes a community work is a common thread that binds all of its members, and on GWW, that thread is that we're all adult webmasters working in the gay marketplace.

I have to side with JustMe's opinion. This is a community of men and women working in the gay porn marketplace, and opening it up to include mainstream only webmasters would not work and keep the community feeling as it does now. There is a level of "safety" that has been created here, and I see that threatened by what you're suggesting.

I also have NEVER seen anyone here post a question asking for an opinion, help, script, programmer, designer, links, or any other component you care to name on their mainstream interests - not get a response! A good portion of us still work in or are starting to develop mainstream interests. I would find it strange if we DIDN'T seek help here from our GWW community of friends and contacts on all of our internet adventures.

But the fact remains, the original premise of the board is the thread that binds us, and that is that the members here do work in the porn industry. If you wanted a seperate forum where our community can discuss mainstream issues, then perhaps that's doable if you feel the need to seperate the two marketing venues.

[Lee]

I think the shared knowledge would go well both ways..

Not only the shared knowledge but, in my eyes, it could potentially result in some great business relations between gay adult and gay mainstream.

I mean, who wouldnt like to have an 'in' with places like Gay Times?

I notice many webmasters here, including myself that have non adult websites, business models in development or as long term plans as a hedge against being totally exposed to the adult market whims.... so having that would be a great resource for existing webmasters as well.

Yep that is another aspect of things to, i know a lot of us have mainstream sites and arent totally porn.

it opens up a whole new set of marketing choices for you, which not only expands your reach into the new market, but also will increase board traffic on the present board through wider word of mouth coverage.

True enough, a greater presence in the mainstream i think could be good for everyone.

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

Thats a great idea! I also have some non-adult business and would love to talk abouy that with others, Good way to network as well. You should totally do i would participate!

Buck

Cool stuff

I know a few people at Bizarre to btw in their advertising dept rom when i lived in the UK so that is the type of individuals i think we could attract if we did have a dedicated mainstream marketing section on GWW.

Regards,

Lee

[Lee]

I think it's probably a good thing to have going here, I just wouldn't want to take any grief from people there if there was some cross over from time to time. I'm not ashamed to be in the adult business and I hate it when I go to an SEO board and I have to talk in riddles because you can't come right out and say, "I'm trying to get a good ranking for 'big cock'."

So I think it's a good idea in principle, it'd be interesting to see if you could get any of those people to post to an adult board with a mainstream section.

dzinerbear

Haha yeah the cross-over issue IMHO isnt as big in 'gay' mainstream as it is in predominantly str8/vanilla mainstream so i dont forsee that [talking in riddles] being a problem at all.

Oh and i know we'd get some non-adult people posting because they were the ones that originally suggested the idea to me

Regards,

Lee