Ive noticed a few large image content providers (including Ounique) lately that are looking to sell their stores and wondered if this was because of a falling demand for pic content when compared to movies and DVD content which seems to be rampant in the marketplace right now.
Do you think image content is going to die out shortly as we move towards a more media rich content driven industry?
Regards,
Lee
I've never heard anything as ridicilous. Sorry, but there is much better chance of letters disappearing than images. Image is everything. Videos are just moving images.
Jesus Lee!
Interesting, im not aware of any paysites that launch with solely images anymore, further, i cant think of a single company that has had exclusive content created that was just image content either.Originally Posted by hotporn
Surfers also seem to be more interested in movie content than image content, which would account for almost every major sponsor in the last 4 years launching new sites with MOVIE previews on their tours.
Regards,
Lee
An extremely interesting topic to me. As I review paysites, I have indeed noticed that video seemingly is being given far more attention, with an offering of screen caps. Gosh, with newer computers available, I see better screen caps of half-naked men on television USA soap operas in blogs than the "caps" made available in some paysites.
Quality photography, with staged lighting and the perfect "come-fuck-me" smile on the model's face seems to be greatly lacking the past 6-9 months.
WHY?
I personally think a market still remains for quality photos, as compared to screen shots. There are some that don't start a subscription just to get immediately off, but are addicted to collecting porn, as if it were art. I would not be surprised that those types are the long term recurring subscriber.
With many paysites offering photo content for use, I would suspect not many buying the stale old image sets. Also I have noticed several well known gay male-oriented photographers opening their own paysites.
Not quite sure if I understand your question Lee. Will many image content providers go the way of the horse and wagon? Yes.
Will there still remain a desire for quality image content? Yes. It may though become a parting of the waters in the Adult industry. The video or livecam sites versus quality artistic photography.
Perhaps a site like UKNAKEDMEN is an example of a paysite that currently bridges those seperated waters, providing quality video (introducing a new video with a story theme) and high quality photography.
I'm certain that image content will never die. The problem with it now is that it is too washed out in the TGP sites. You can see porn photos everywhere and in pretty acceptable quality.
However with video content, the small video clips in the MGP galleries are so short that they can't finish the surfer off before the 20 sec clip is over. The video quality is usually awful as well.
I believe this is a major reason why it is easier to push video content to paying customers.
Maybe this will change when more of the porn youtube clones flood the market and more balance will be reached between photo and video content.
we get emails all the time asking if models featured in photo sets are also available on video or if there are any other photo sets with them, so we know for certain they are being enjoyed.
Magazines still sell quite well...just walk by a newsstand...of course, with broadband being the standard now video content is quite popular (hello look at youtude.com)...but stills are still in demand...I mean, who has not watched an hour long porno only to fast forward to their favorite scenes skipping 98% of the video! If you can give them what they want to see in stills they are happy.
We concentrate on a combination of high resolution stills and video clips.
Lee
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Images are very popular on our site. The biggest problem we have with images is the tendency to 'count'. We have pretty much stopped submissions to review sites because they count the quantity rather than the quality of images. The most verbal surfers seem to have a similar reaction. From a shoot with 200 images, you will likely get 30 where the model, both face and the body all look great. Add in the factor that the image needs to be substantially different than the other images in a set and you cull them out pretty quickly. We have checked the popularity of high quality unique sets vs those that have a hundred images that are just slight variations and the the sets that have fewer images get more clicks for sure. So we are back in our comfort zone of far fewer images that are each hot and high quality. Our member behavior is very different then what the convential wisdom seems to say. I believe the quality of the images must be as good or better than the quality of the video. Having high quality photography is well worth the money in my book.
We do!
Gosh thanks! We take great pride in the quality of our photography and feature it on our tours as well as the member's area. And our members do appreciate the photos as well. Screencaps are merely bonus content for our members. But we do see the importance of having great videos too.
For me personally, I actually prefer to linger on a photo of a hot guy then see him in action in a video... call me old-fashioned. But I just find it more arousing.
Great point xander....cause until we are in Jetsons-ville the highest quality image will always be clearer than the best quality video. Of course it may be that I am suffering from the porn curse...
Alex... well written. As I review sites, I *DO NOT* give points for number of images if presented set of images was seemingly just a rapid-shooting camera.
Some review sites are set in their format on ranking.
To my dismay, when reviewing a particular site yesterday, I read all of the other review sites, not wishing to copy anything said as personal comments. I see a tend, still being amazed, that many famous sites were reviewed once - a year or two ago.
Let me assure you, some paysites get better. Some no longer change their formula or GASP... get worst. Many are dead in the water, generating chargebacks and effecting affiliates and paysite owners.
With a small new site or a niche site, like yours Alex, QUALITY of still photography available far outweights quantity, in my personal opinion.
Last edited by wnc; 06-20-2007 at 07:34 PM. Reason: minor edit
Low quality images are on the way out. Surfers are sick of seeing pictures that are 800 x 600 pixels in size which were shot by some 'tard with no ability. Look at some of the biggest websites in the straight market right now: Met-Art, Femjoy, MC-Nudes, Hegre-Art, FTV Girls.. Yeah they all have video (high quality video at that), but people join those sites because of absolutely beautiful photography. Some of those sites offer pictures as large as 4000 x 3000 pixels in size (literally 25 times larger than the typical 800 x 600 pixel pictures). So no, pictures are not on the way out by any means.
WNC...I should have been clearer. We very carefully review the sort of reviews that are being done. If the emphasis seems to be on the quantity of material rather than the quality and if points are deducted because we embed our video (we want to control the size of the image and hence the quality of what they see) Then we pass.
The comment about the huge images on some adult sites is really interesting. For a while our images were at minimum 2048 wide and we got tons of complaints from folks that did not use IE, and those that did said the images were grainy. Hell we even had a couple complaints that the thumnails showed a 'naked man' and the 'pic was only his head'....scroll bar anyone? We did these because we wanted those who chose to print them to have a blast...but folks don't do that. Many asked but almost none did. So we went back to 1000 wide. (resizing all this from the orginal psd...man oh man....I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon). We have a great out source, but until we settle on exactly what we are going to do (probably two sizes) seems goofy to put him on it.
4000x3000
ARE such size images available in the straight world? No wonder straight men sell so well. Oversized (smile).
That allows a member to fully print something worth hanging on the wall.
You will NEVER see such in the Gay market.
Wish you asked in GWW. 1024 is the current standard width in use.
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