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


Quote 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.