inside the mind of a yahoo group pic trader

[Dawgy]

(long post, grab a beer & a notepad)

there has been a bit of discussion about yahoo groups, both on & off the board. we all know they are good sources of traffic, but not many people see the other side of the groups - that is, the surfer and/or customer. so i thought id share something...

the last couple of weeks i've been staying with a friend in ottawa, we'll call him adam. he's not in the business, he's just a regular unemployed 25 year old twink. at first i wasnt too happy to be staying with him, he's a bit annoying. but after a couple of days i noticed that he has a quality that i could observe and learn from: he loves porn. better yet, he KNOWS porn. very well.

see adam trades pics in yahoo groups. hundreds of them. i dont mean hundreds of pics, i mean hundreds of groups. 218 to be exact. i asked. his apartment is littered with cds, zip disks and floppies. all of it is porn he's downloaded from emails, yahoo groups, etc.

at first i thought he was crazy. he literally spends hours every night going thru 100s of emails from the various groups he belongs to, looking at 1000s of pics and downloading the ones he likes. then he sends pics out to those groups. he knows what every group is about, what niche, what the people like and dont like, and even which studios and/or web sites people prefer to see pics from.

adam recognizes photographers. he can tell you who shot who, what site the pics is from, and if the guy is a pornstar or an amateur. and he almost never downloads or sends out a duplicate picture. he knows what he's got, even if he never goes back and looks at any of it.

yah thats right. he never goes back and looks at anything he saves. the only thing he uses the pics for is to trade and send to the groups.

so thats a lot of free porn. youd think he would have enough to spank it for the rest of his life. but nope. it gets better.

in the two weeks ive been here, adam has joined two paysites and bought three DVDs based on pics that he got in yahoo groups/email & liked. and this is an unemployed twink. they werent trial joins either. he's still a member and says he likes the sites & will stay a member as long as they keep updating with the stuff he likes.

which brings me to why he joined. he saw a couple of pics that he liked from each site. the site's url was on the bottom of the pics, and he went to check them out. seeing more of the same model on the tour, adam decided to join. as soon as he was inside he found those models and downloaded every pic of them in the site. of course, every pic was labeled with the sites url. so the cycle begins again...

--------

so i asked adam about all this. i mean he literally spends 2 or 3 hours a nite doing this. he's giving out tons of free porn, spending lots of time on it, and doesnt get anything out of it. he says he enjoys giving people what they want. he gets some satisfaction out of sending out free porn to the masses, and getting some back himself. i dont entirely understand, but then again im on the other side of the business. i prefer to get paid for the porn i show & the time i spend.

now, obviously i think adam is a bit toward the extreme when it comes to this stuff. the average yahoo pic trader is not this into it, at least in my opinion. however i think there is much we can learn from what ive observed the last two weeks. im not going to spell it all out for you, youll just have to read and interpret for yourself. i havent mentioned everything, but ive hit the high points.

so thats about it... i could go on a while longer, but i think ill cut this short and just see what everyone says. id love to hear some feedback. i just think its so rare that we as an industry get to observe our customers and potential customers like this....

and no, you cannot hire adam. he's mine.

cheers.

[Ounique]

You know, the one thing about the yahoo groups, well mainly the ones geared for a particluar fetish or niche, is that they are made up of several people who really know thier stuff, and thousands of lurkers. But the thing that really attracts them is that the members can talk to each other about thier lifestyle, thier fetish interests and such, maybe hook up, maybe do a little online roll-play for fun, but they get into it because they are communicating with others who share their interest. A lot of them shy away from paysites because often times the paysite blindly posts a few images that go along with the idea, but does not include that feeling of closeness or community that the yahoo groups do. That's why I always pust the idea of knowing your niche before designing a site. People can tell when you're faking it. Plus, people who are really into a specific fetish will want more than just galleries. It's all about the headspace of the thing, not just the images. If you can design a good site, with great content, knowledgable text, and a strong community members area, you may have something. I don't know if it will roll in millions, but I would guess it would be pretty consistant. Anyone actually run sites like this that can give us some insight?

[Rainbo1956]

Originally posted by Ounique
You know, the one thing about the yahoo groups, well mainly the ones geared for a particluar fetish or niche, is that they are made up of several people who really know thier stuff, and thousands of lurkers. But the thing that really attracts them is that the members can talk to each other about thier lifestyle, thier fetish interests and such, maybe hook up, maybe do a little online roll-play for fun, but they get into it because they are communicating with others who share their interest. A lot of them shy away from paysites because often times the paysite blindly posts a few images that go along with the idea, but does not include that feeling of closeness or community that the yahoo groups do. That's why I always pust the idea of knowing your niche before designing a site. People can tell when you're faking it. Plus, people who are really into a specific fetish will want more than just galleries. It's all about the headspace of the thing, not just the images. If you can design a good site, with great content, knowledgable text, and a strong community members area, you may have something. I don't know if it will roll in millions, but I would guess it would be pretty consistant. Anyone actually run sites like this that can give us some insight?

I think that was very well said. Knowing as little as I do about it...

[gaystoryman]

It is an interesting insight, and i think one of the keys that has gotten me thinking is that we, webmasters, tend to look at things from the selling point instead of the buying point.

Don made some bang on comments too, many sites today fail to have the 'personality' that will attract the buyer.

Thanks for this thread, it has me thinking even though that is dangerous or so the other half keeps telling me.

Ian

[Ounique]

LOL! Glad to help out guys. Before I worked in content I was a surfer myself. I'm also a member of dozens of yahoo groups, so I have a bit of a perspective on that side of the industry.

I think Dawgy and I make a great team. :woof:

[Dawgy]

Originally posted by Ounique
I think Dawgy and I make a great team. :woof:

hmm im having naughty thoughts now :angel:

[Ounique]

Originally posted by Dawgy
hmm im having naughty thoughts now :angel:

GOOD! :devil:

[Bell]

I'll bet we are a member of ALLOT of the same yahoogroups...
LOL...

I belong to hundreds as well..

with a private eMail that you all don't know though...

LOL...

~Bell

[studpuppy]

I have several friends who are just like that guy. However they spend a bit more time each day on the net. I used some of them and their friends and their yahoo group or pic exchange clubs in gathering information for my gay porn survey. Amazing much how you can learn from them about the gay internet porn business. While many of the members of these groups are just looky-lou's wanting the free porn, many others actually do join avs and paysites. A pic or two from the sites actually brings membership buying traffic to the sites. Of course if a site is a shitty, never update site, etc..., the word does get out also.

I know that many webmasters just hate these sort of sites as they feel they are stealing their traffic and money. I agree that sometimes it gets out of hand, but now a days most moderators will try to curve down too many abusives to avoid liabilities.

I feel that success in the adult internet world is directly proportional to the webmasters ability to think as a "surfer" and provide what they want. This mindset will lead to the monetary rewards that is what motivates MOST webmasters. I have seen on many boards and in personal conversations with hundreds of webmasters over the past 5 years. Most have the atitude of getting a customer's cash and get them off their site (hoping to sponsor upsell). This is especially true with avs sites. The webmasters don't want the surfer in their content area - upsell them and let them get their porn elsewhere. I think this attitude as resulted in some of the problems we are experiencing now - even with VISA.

[Lee]

Awesome stuff thanks for sharing that info Dale :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee