How should we have adapted?

[Paul Markham]

So how should we have adapted?

Opened an exclusive paysite? They must think that content producers we had the hard part mastered and doing the webmaster part was easy. Then where is their great website?

Close the magazine set side of the business and done what so many online content producers did. From home because who could afford studios and staff? Not AmazingContent.com who is quick to tell us how we failed.

Become an affiliate? Which must be very easy in their opinion.

Become a programmer?

[Ferus]

Like the native people on Greenland, put the elders outsider and let the polarbears eat them.

Evolution happens one death at the time

[CaptainHowdy]

It's too late, Paul . . .

[CurrentlySober]

Re-read your OP, but pretend it was written by someone other than you.

Then reply with a huge wall of text explaining exactly what they did that was wrong.

Re-read this new reply, as if it was written by someone else, and reply again, explaining how they don't know what they are talking about...

Repeat adnausem. A normal day on GFY...

[Ferus]

Originally Posted by CurrentlySober

Re-read your OP, but pretend it was written by someone other than you.

Then reply with a huge wall of text explaining exactly what they did that was wrong.

Re-read this new reply, as if it was written by someone else, and reply again, explaining how they don't know what they are talking about...

Repeat adnausem. A normal day on GFY...

You are mean....

[King Mark]

^but he's right...

[Ferus]

Originally Posted by King Mark

^but he's right...

Would be more exact to say it was not wrong, but a good caricature

[notinmybackyard]

We adapted and we're doing fine.

[wankawonk]

if content is king perhaps you should have made better content?

[notinmybackyard]

Originally Posted by wankawonk

if content is king perhaps you should have made better content?

The better looking the content the more it'll be uploaded on tube sites and also pirated.

Plus in a lot of cases a hot girl is looking for more work so every idiot with a camera that she can find is going to film her and destroy any exclusivity you might have.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by notinmybackyard

The better looking the content the more it'll be uploaded on tube sites and also pirated.

Plus in a lot of cases a hot girl is looking for more work so every idiot with a camera that she can find is going to film her and destroy any exclusivity you might have.

Which is why we spent so much time, effort and money looking for new faces. Also 90% of the girls we shot would not do boy girl.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by wankawonk

if content is king perhaps you should have made better content?

What would you say was "better content"?

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by CaptainHowdy

It's too late, Paul . . .

I know. Bt as it's been said to me for decades I'm wondering how and what I should have adapted to.

I'm assuming someone has the brains to tell me.

[tony286]

If I did it again, either started a hosting business or became a programmer.

[King Mark]

What are your plans for your content once this life journey is done?

Got anything set up? Or you just going to let it all fade away?

If you were to set up an https://OnlyFans.com page showcasing your old school stuff, I'd subscribe. No joke.

I'm sure you'd gain a decent social media following if you shifted your old vintage porner tirades over to where the people are for promo. You have potential to be an influencer.

It's definitely not too late.

[notinmybackyard]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Which is why we spent so much time, effort and money looking for new faces. Also 90% of the girls we shot would not do boy girl.

Fat ugly pigs are cheaper and almost always exclusive.

Plus if you film it with a phone the dumb ass punters will believe it's both real and taboo and they'll be willing to pay for it.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by notinmybackyard

Fat ugly pigs are cheaper and almost always exclusive.

Plus if you film it with a phone the dumb ass punters will believe it's both real and taboo and they'll be willing to pay for it.

Tell that to Met Art, Brazzers, Fake Taxi or anyone of the thousands of sites who getting attractive girls, shooting them on expensive equipment and with people who know what they're doing. They could be saving millions.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by tony286

If I did it again, either started a hosting business or became a programmer.

Two things I wouldn't know where to start.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by King Mark

What are your plans for your content once this life journey is done?

Got anything set up? Or you just going to let it all fade away?

If you were to set up an https://OnlyFans.com page showcasing your old school stuff, I'd subscribe. No joke.

I'm sure you'd gain a decent social media following if you shifted your old vintage porner tirades over to where the people are for promo. You have potential to be an influencer.

It's definitely not too late.

If you think it's worth doing buy my content and do it. For me it requires actual work.

[MaDalton]

At our most busy times we had an office, 2 locations and we were 10 people. Just saying.

Clueless as usual, Paul :D

[MaDalton]

Then again we shot in HD in 2005 and I still get money for that content while you sell for 0.75 per piece.

Because you considered SD the superior format.

[wankawonk]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

What would you say was "better content"?

you misunderstood me--you made great content but great content doesn't sell itself like it used to. learn internet marketing or die. you've said "content is king" 1000 times but it's useless w/o the right marketing and biz strategy...and it seems you were either unable or unwilling to adapt to tube-era marketing and strategy. I suspect it's unwillingness more than inability; I can imagine how shitty it must have been to see your profits destroyed by tubes. I might have withdrawn to my jigsaws too.

There's techies and SEO experts half your age making great money in adult without producing or owning content.

[thommy]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Which is why we spent so much time, effort and money looking for new faces. Also 90% of the girls we shot would not do boy girl.

yes much money indeed, paula

https://web.archive.org/web/20050312...otoagency.com/

[candyflip]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Close the magazine set side of the business and done what so many online content producers did. From home because who could afford studios and staff? Not AmazingContent.com who is quick to tell us how we failed.

Didn't Stefan move to CZ because he could no longer afford to produce in Germany? The woman in Czech were cheaper to exploit?

[candyflip]

Originally Posted by notinmybackyard

We adapted and we're doing fine.

What's the point of the giant retarded sig display?

[King Mark]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

If you think it's worth doing buy my content and do it. For me it requires actual work.

Lmao...

[Rochard]

Paul... You failed to adapt. You tried, but you failed.

In our industry some of us are "webmasters". This is a general term that covers everything. For example, I am a webmaster. I can do almost everything in the industry. I can build a computer from scratch, hire models, shoot content, build a website from scratch, hook it up to a multiple billing companies, maintain the servers, create an affilaite program, market it all.... There is a lot more to it too, the entire bro club, making friends, making contacts, the shows.... It's all part of it.

Paul, you are not a webmaster. You are a photographer. And that's fine, there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us are photographers, others work only in billing, others only do graphics design. Some of us are only affilaite managers.

I am not sure who you hired for your program, but they did a bad a job. Not a horrible job, but a poor job. You also didn't have someone to market your program. I remember one time we launched a website with purchased content similar to yours... I'll never forget that day actually. I spent all of two or three days on the site, purchased content, launched it on GFY, went out to the pool for three hours, came back and we had over 100 sales. It was comical.

What I am saying is... You should have hired someone who had experience in running a program - someone to make sure the site worked properly (no magic join links), someone who was much better connected than you who knew all of the affiliates, and someone that could have handled the damage from your problem there. You should have been making sales from the first day you launched the program.

And... You should have opened up a program a lot sooner.

There are other things you could have done too. Why didn't you partner with a program to shoot content exclusively for them, sharing the profits?

You played your role in the industry and you should be happy with that. It seems like you are questioning everything you did. You didn't fail; You just didn't move into online as effectively as you should have.

[notinmybackyard]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Tell that to Met Art, Brazzers, Fake Taxi or anyone of the thousands of sites who getting attractive girls, shooting them on expensive equipment and with people who know what they're doing. They could be saving millions.

I can get a butt ugly fat ass troll bitch fucking her Joe Dirt boyfriend for less than 100 bucks and blow it out the door for a few grand.

Hell you can pay broads $25 bucks to let you film up their skirts while they walk down the street. Slap together a 90 minute video for $500 and upskirt masturbate'rs will have spaz attacks wanting to see it.

As for production value.... Fuck it. Don't even bother.

Originally Posted by candyflip

What's the point of the giant retarded sig display?

There's no fucking point. I just fucking like it.

[NatalieK]

Originally Posted by wankawonk

if content is king perhaps you should have made better content?

we´re doing alright, content is king


set up a pay site, a blog, some back links and film regular, good quality footage with exclusivity, as the old saying goes, build it and they will come

[thommy]

Originally Posted by GspotProductions

we´re doing alright, content is king


set up a pay site, a blog, some back links and film regular, good quality footage with exclusivity, as the old saying goes, build it and they will come

you can not bring this argument in a discussion with paul.

you say: i am fine
and paul say: no

so where shall that lead to?

[Rochard]

Originally Posted by notinmybackyard

As for production value.... Fuck it. Don't even bother.

"Meh". Not sure if I agree with you.

The site I mentioned above in my post was created with purchased content that was rather shitty. It was really filler content. But it still sold and made money. But these days I think the average surfer expects a lot more. Some of the content being produced today is freaking awesome.

[SilentKnight]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Paul... You failed to adapt. You tried, but you failed.

In our industry some of us are "webmasters". This is a general term that covers everything. For example, I am a webmaster. I can do almost everything in the industry. I can build a computer from scratch, hire models, shoot content, build a website from scratch, hook it up to a multiple billing companies, maintain the servers, create an affilaite program, market it all.... There is a lot more to it too, the entire bro club, making friends, making contacts, the shows.... It's all part of it.

Paul, you are not a webmaster. You are a photographer. And that's fine, there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us are photographers, others work only in billing, others only do graphics design. Some of us are only affilaite managers.

I am not sure who you hired for your program, but they did a bad a job. Not a horrible job, but a poor job. You also didn't have someone to market your program. I remember one time we launched a website with purchased content similar to yours... I'll never forget that day actually. I spent all of two or three days on the site, purchased content, launched it on GFY, went out to the pool for three hours, came back and we had over 100 sales. It was comical.

What I am saying is... You should have hired someone who had experience in running a program - someone to make sure the site worked properly (no magic join links), someone who was much better connected than you who knew all of the affiliates, and someone that could have handled the damage from your problem there. You should have been making sales from the first day you launched the program.

And... You should have opened up a program a lot sooner.

There are other things you could have done too. Why didn't you partner with a program to shoot content exclusively for them, sharing the profits?

You played your role in the industry and you should be happy with that. It seems like you are questioning everything you did. You didn't fail; You just didn't move into online as effectively as you should have.

That's as good a reply as we'll see. Think you nailed many aspects.

[notinmybackyard]

Originally Posted by Rochard

"Meh". Not sure if I agree with you.

The site I mentioned above in my post was created with purchased content that was rather shitty. It was really filler content. But it still sold and made money. But these days I think the average surfer expects a lot more. Some of the content being produced today is freaking awesome.

Obviously there's some great quality stuff being made that's making money.

But in my own round about way that's not the point I'm trying to make. My point is that there's no fucking formula for adapting. Everyone has to use their own brains and figure out what to do for themselves.

In our situation we ended up making low end garbage for slobs and the mentally warped.

[AmeliaG]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Paul... You failed to adapt. You tried, but you failed.

In our industry some of us are "webmasters". This is a general term that covers everything. For example, I am a webmaster. I can do almost everything in the industry. I can build a computer from scratch, hire models, shoot content, build a website from scratch, hook it up to a multiple billing companies, maintain the servers, create an affilaite program, market it all.... There is a lot more to it too, the entire bro club, making friends, making contacts, the shows.... It's all part of it.

Paul, you are not a webmaster. You are a photographer. And that's fine, there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us are photographers, others work only in billing, others only do graphics design. Some of us are only affilaite managers.

I am not sure who you hired for your program, but they did a bad a job. Not a horrible job, but a poor job. You also didn't have someone to market your program. I remember one time we launched a website with purchased content similar to yours... I'll never forget that day actually. I spent all of two or three days on the site, purchased content, launched it on GFY, went out to the pool for three hours, came back and we had over 100 sales. It was comical.

What I am saying is... You should have hired someone who had experience in running a program - someone to make sure the site worked properly (no magic join links), someone who was much better connected than you who knew all of the affiliates, and someone that could have handled the damage from your problem there. You should have been making sales from the first day you launched the program.

And... You should have opened up a program a lot sooner.

There are other things you could have done too. Why didn't you partner with a program to shoot content exclusively for them, sharing the profits?

You played your role in the industry and you should be happy with that. It seems like you are questioning everything you did. You didn't fail; You just didn't move into online as effectively as you should have.

This is a really good post

[AmeliaG]

I put this in another thread, but maybe this is the right spot for it. Maybe we can talk about the best ways to adapt now.

Print publishing is having a bit of a resurgence, but I'm just going to say that I did writing and/or photography for pretty much all the big magazine publishers in the 90's -- Playboy, Penthouse, Flynt, AVN, Magna, Crescent etc. plus publishing Blue Blood -- and my jaw fucking dropped when I got my first membership site check.

Admittedly, I started off online with the advantage of already having an offline following, but I feel very qualified to say that content online, at least for many years, paid exponentially more than successful offline did before it.

That said, it is trickier to figure out the best ways for a webmaster to monetize today. For example, I'd love to just produce quality exclusive content and post it for free and monetize with ads and affiliate up sells, but the reality is that content wouldn't be exclusive for a minute. Even my non-adult publications have to compete with Facebook and such for eyeballs and knowing basic programmatic advertising doesn't change that.

Nobody expects the secret sauce recipe for free, but it would be nice to see more implementable suggestions than just, "FFS, don't follow Paul's example."

[MaDalton]

Originally Posted by candyflip

Didn't Stefan move to CZ because he could no longer afford to produce in Germany? The woman in Czech were cheaper to exploit?

Look who showed up: Jason Beradi the thief and scammer...

Want me to look for the email where you beg me to stop mentioning that you tried to steal my money when I was a noob and you sold me some useless SEO work and then didn't even do that work after I paid you?

And for the record: we moved to CZ because we were going from shooting one girl solo for 2-3 days to doing 2-4 BG scenes a day and it was impossible to have the girls come to Germany for that. We almost never shot with German models and if so, they did get the same as the Czech girls. Sometimes even less.

Idiot.

[mce]

Gotta love these Paul Markham threads about WHAT COULD HAVE been....

How far back do you want to go?

Should people not have RAPED altavista so badly with porn so Google would not have gotten big?

Should people not have faked clicks so rampantly that early adult PPCS would have lasted a few more years?

CHANGE is part of any industry, my man.

ADAPT or DIE

It's harsh, I know. But it's reality.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by StefanG

At our most busy times we had an office, 2 locations and we were 10 people. Just saying.

Clueless as usual, Paul :D

Bollocks. You claimed to employ my ex employees, so I would know who you employed on the content side.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by wankawonk

you misunderstood me--you made great content but great content doesn't sell itself like it used to. learn internet marketing or die. you've said "content is king" 1000 times but it's useless w/o the right marketing and biz strategy...and it seems you were either unable or unwilling to adapt to tube-era marketing and strategy. I suspect it's unwillingness more than inability; I can imagine how shitty it must have been to see your profits destroyed by tubes. I might have withdrawn to my jigsaws too.

There's techies and SEO experts half your age making great money in adult without producing or owning content.

Agreed I've been marketing my content for 30 years.

I retired at the beginning of the tube era. But there were so many who failed to adapt to it.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Rochard

Paul... You failed to adapt. You tried, but you failed.

In our industry some of us are "webmasters". This is a general term that covers everything. For example, I am a webmaster. I can do almost everything in the industry. I can build a computer from scratch, hire models, shoot content, build a website from scratch, hook it up to a multiple billing companies, maintain the servers, create an affilaite program, market it all.... There is a lot more to it too, the entire bro club, making friends, making contacts, the shows.... It's all part of it.

Paul, you are not a webmaster. You are a photographer. And that's fine, there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us are photographers, others work only in billing, others only do graphics design. Some of us are only affilaite managers.

I am not sure who you hired for your program, but they did a bad a job. Not a horrible job, but a poor job. You also didn't have someone to market your program. I remember one time we launched a website with purchased content similar to yours... I'll never forget that day actually. I spent all of two or three days on the site, purchased content, launched it on GFY, went out to the pool for three hours, came back and we had over 100 sales. It was comical.

What I am saying is... You should have hired someone who had experience in running a program - someone to make sure the site worked properly (no magic join links), someone who was much better connected than you who knew all of the affiliates, and someone that could have handled the damage from your problem there. You should have been making sales from the first day you launched the program.

And... You should have opened up a program a lot sooner.

There are other things you could have done too. Why didn't you partner with a program to shoot content exclusively for them, sharing the profits?

You played your role in the industry and you should be happy with that. It seems like you are questioning everything you did. You didn't fail; You just didn't move into online as effectively as you should have.

You talk as if everyone with a program made a success of it. I think you meant paysite when you say program.

Yes the problem was I couldn't find someone I knew and trusted to run a paysite. Why didn't you or someone like you approach me to run a paysite? Big failure on the webmasters side.

But again you speak as if I had the hard part finished, content production. And opening a paysite was the easier part. The truth is the opposite, many paysites failed mainly because the content wasn't good enough. In truth most made less than 10-20 sign ups a day. Something our paysite passed easily because of the sheer size. Imagine what a webmaster could have done?

I know about the magic join links and everyone keeps reminding me. Astral Blue was a disaster.

But you talk like a one man jack of all trades person, because you never made enough to employ experts.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by GspotProductions

we´re doing alright, content is king


set up a pay site, a blog, some back links and film regular, good quality footage with exclusivity, as the old saying goes, build it and they will come

If I had time I would have done all the marketing required. Finding and shooting new hot talent took up a lot of our time.

Regular scouting trips to Prague and other Czech cities didn't allow us the time.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Rochard

"Meh". Not sure if I agree with you.

The site I mentioned above in my post was created with purchased content that was rather shitty. It was really filler content. But it still sold and made money. But these days I think the average surfer expects a lot more. Some of the content being produced today is freaking awesome.

Where is it now?

Imagine running a site full of new exclusive girls with the ability to update one scene a day. Shot well and performing for real back in the day when so much was shitty filler content. Even the custom exclusive content shot for $300 a scene.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by StefanG

Look who showed up: Jason Beradi the thief and scammer...

Want me to look for the email where you beg me to stop mentioning that you tried to steal my money when I was a noob and you sold me some useless SEO work and then didn't even do that work after I paid you?

And for the record: we moved to CZ because we were going from shooting one girl solo for 2-3 days to doing 2-4 BG scenes a day and it was impossible to have the girls come to Germany for that. We almost never shot with German models and if so, they did get the same as the Czech girls. Sometimes even less.

Idiot.

He knows fuck all about Czech and Hungarian girls and why so many came here.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by AmeliaG

This is a really good post

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

That's as good a reply as we'll see. Think you nailed many aspects.

So you both agree being a webmaster is easier than producing content and a guaranty of success.

It has to be something anyone can pick up in a short time. The actual marketing, describing, improving the product I already knew. The webmaster part I always thought was hard to get right as so many failed. I do know what a TGP gallery on The Hun could achieve, and similar sites, because we submitted them and made money from them.

But we left it to webmasters to do the webmaster part. If we didn't have the successful content production side of the business maybe we would have learned to be webmasters and hired a team of in house guys to do the grunt work. Would never of had an affiliate program because we saw too many sites fail by giving away too much to affiliates.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by King Mark

Lmao...

Don't understand. Are you saying you couldn't make a profit with only having to spend $500 on content?

[Klen]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

So you both agree being a webmaster is easier than producing content and a guaranty of success.

It depending on person, for some is easier to be affiliate , for some easier to be content producer. There is no universal recipe.

[CurrentlySober]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

For me it requires actual work.

And there is the crux of the answer. You needed to actually work. Not just rely upon people overpaying you for pointing a camera at a naked girl... 'Adapting' required actual work...

[adultinnovation]

Porn has to be the only industry ever that destroyed itself by giving away for free what it tries to sell.. haha fucking idiots.

Imagine if tomorrow there was not 1 single site on the internet that shows a porn video or picture for free.

Everyone would rolling in money instantly.

[Klen]

Originally Posted by adultinnovation

Porn has to be the only industry ever that destroyed itself by giving away for free what it tries to sell.. haha fucking idiots.

Imagine if tomorrow there was not 1 single site on the internet that shows a porn video or picture for free.

Everyone would rolling in money instantly.

Not really, there is a plenty of examples where same happened. For example, there is no more need for buying music at all, you can either listen for free on youtube or subscribe to some cheap music streaming service which cost almost nothing.

[AmeliaG]

Originally Posted by adultinnovation

Porn has to be the only industry ever that destroyed itself by giving away for free what it tries to sell.. haha fucking idiots.

Imagine if tomorrow there was not 1 single site on the internet that shows a porn video or picture for free.

Everyone would rolling in money instantly.

Tons of industries have to figure out the right amount of free.

The people who give out samples at Whole Foods or Costco have a number of metrics they have to hit, which mean they are incentived to give away a lot of food. Some people go to the store on a good giveaways day to basically eat a free lunch and some, while doing their regular shopping, like to check out new things they might want more of.

I'd love to be pulling in 2005 dough with 2005 work from only doing the couple of things I was doing in 2005. But I make money when a site puts up some of my photos with a link. Samples lead to sales when the potential customer likes the product.

In the era of tubes, I would say that my biggest problem is not piracy, but that most tube sites will not post photos with links; they will only post links with videos.