Gay forums/events?

[Jasun]

I'll say this...

the gay end of the business has come into it's own.

We've blossomed into a big man-eating Venus Fly trap, and we've come to the point where we can do this on our own. Many independent gay webmasters don't bother using the gay cross-over sites and just go with gay-run programs that produce better content and understand the needs of people advertizing to gay customers.

We know that as the straight side gets more and more crowded they're going to try to get us to come back and sit at the kid's table at shows.

We're not biting.

I don't mean to be hard on you, and I get it that the straight companies have no problem with us being gay. (well, for the most part)

But we've out-grown the need to have straight companies helping us out and inviting us to their shows.

:jasun:

[XXXWriterDude]

But we've out-grown the need to have straight companies helping us out and inviting us to their shows.

I know what you're saying, Jasun, but the problem with this is that you're looking at it as a gay-and-straight thing, where he is really just looking at it as a business thing.

Personally, I think that the gay and straight sides of this business have a LOT to learn from each other, because there are strenghts and weaknesses on both sides, and I think that a little more interaction between the two would be a lot more cool.

I think anytime you start to segregate businesses, you run the risk of falling into a rut of homogeny. And to perfectly honestly, that's already started to happen in the gay community. We're seeing WAY too many sites of the same nature and a lack of ingenuity in how to run gay businesses. It's become a very safe, very NON-creative zone where nobody is taking serious risks anymore. A lot of the leaders in this business are leaders only because they achieved financial success, not for any particular originality or cleverness in the products they are offering.

I would really like to see this business get shaken up again, so that people were kept on their toes a little more regularly. Because when I look around, I see an awful lot of complacency among gay webmasters, and honestly, I think some of them could use a little more input from outside sources.

[fabianb]

[QUOTE=XXXWriterDude;181339]I know what you're saying, Jasun, but the problem with this is that you're looking at it as a gay-and-straight thing, where he is really just looking at it as a business thing.

Running a site or a company is a business. The ones that start off with one small site and grow are in this game for the money.

I believe UK statistics are somewhere around the number of 1:8 guys are gay, have gay feelings or would like to see gay porn. This for me was the reason 8 years ago to open gay sites even tho I am straight. It's just a business.

Once people stay in their comfort zone nothing is to be learned anymore.

Michael:
I think most of the issues you address are 1998.
A straight program has to compete hard these days to get the traffic and no way that '10 sets with some content' will retain and thus payouts will suck.
Simple economics these days.

I will give you some perfect example as to what bigger straight programs discuss:
averagedicks(.com). Design is 1998. Fonts are so small that they are almost impossible to read on a 17inch laptop.

Hit members button, try to login 5*.
No 'oops you're not a member yet?' screen. Very clean procedure.
Not a member click here to buy .. click here if you forgot your password.
Guess what? have to find a customersupport link with a big invite to cancel to retrieve a password.

Hit 'instant access'.
Damn .. I have a US credit card but I live in Panama.
Ccbill denies me. Where is your fail-over?
Your 'phone' option only allows to call from within the US.
In 2006 alone 20.000 Americans (with creditcard) move to Panama, small country but those Americans happen to live all over the world and they keep buying porn.

Join page: default to a $ 69.95/90day trial?
Why do you think straight programs run a $ 4.95 trial (with upsell button for full access? )

Every little tweak is worth a few points. This is what you can learn from bigger programs and for the record: many smaller niche players have excellent retention numbers, this is what the big boys started to understand. Smaller niche players play in their own little world but aren't aware of some of the procedures to add % points revenue.

Jasun:
It's a two way street. Many straight programs are afraid for gay (believe it or not). Tons of traffic deals to be done there ...
I know owners of very big programs that will not touch any gay traffic and at their scale they leave at least $500k/mo in revenue on the table. Simply adding a text link 'gay sites' to an exit console would do miracles for small/medium size gay operator.

Only AEBN offers it in a smart way to allow a surfer to browse back and forward between gay and staight movies and in both they offer bi-sex..