I want to try taking things to a different direction, it is clear to me that the traditional model of porn is a dinosaur as is the traditional idea of a “porn star”
What I want to do is showcase the performers doing it themselves. I want your ideas on how I might do this among other things maybe review clips4sale stores (or manyvids), maybe girls or guys who have stores can submit articles or even become authors. It gives you a chance to reach A LOT of readers and expose them to your personality and your products. I think it would be interesting to understand how you grew your fan base in this day and age. What can MikeSouth.com do to help you and to help others? This site gets a high amount of traffic and more importantly a lot of mainstream attention (that is about to go up exponentially) so what you share or write here will convert to money no doubt.
If you are a store owner selling your own product or if you are a customer of these sites how can MikeSouth.com provide you with information that would have value?
comment here or send me an email
I want to be on the cutting edge and Porn Valley ain’t it….
12 Responses
A good porn business model is Angela White. For years she worked her own site in Australia (or New Zealand). Shot her own content involving her and she made out pretty well by all accounts.
Hit the Mat’s been on Clips4sale and around the clipsite clone game for awhile, and we can provide some insights to trends.
A few things about all these new type sites like ManyVids (and others) are:
– They are geared towards Camgirls and individual models, Studios almost feel like an afterthought. Seems like all the featured stores are models/camgirls too.
– They don’t have anywhere near the reach Clips4sale does. If you update on the regular with C4S (this is crucial), there’s a high chance of sales. With the clones, you pretty much have to drive the traffic yourself still.
Thanks Jeff, your thoughts on this or any related topic would be awesome….I have the first one going live tomorrow by a girl who has done it all on her own, she tells her story and its a good one, I think you will recognize what she did….I am kinda jazzed about this because you guys really are the future of the biz, And in doing it this way you build a much closer relationship with your customers…kudos to you!
I’ve dealt with some LA people on this topic several years ago. They just don’t get it. They want to put up the standard content they have shot for years & then say C4S is bullshit.
These same people also relied upon affiliates to do all the marketing. So they don’t have a clue how to market their own content in today’s world. On twitter & such they do not chat up their fans, nope, they all just tweet each other. They have NO clue as to what the fans want, the disdain for the people who pay for their products is apparent.
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NONE of them take the time to really study the site & how it works.
NONE of them bring passion to what they are filming and trying to sell. Top stores on that site are usually by those who didn’t find what was getting them off in regular porn. So they started a c4s store & had PASSION which the buying crowd there understands.
Many of the niches that sell don’t include sex. I can tell you from experience MOST of the LA & Miami MEN shooting porn would NOT be doing it if they were not using the female or male talent to get laid off camera. A girl showing up to shoot balloon popping scene is NOT going to suck their dick.
Especially since most of them don’t have any original ideas or an ounce of creativity in them. They are lazy & made lots of money relatively easy. Especially considering how many of them just copy each other.
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There is no fame in the game at this level. They aren’t making big budget movies & a part of the A-list by LA standards. Doing a c4s is below most of them, by their own standards. Even though lots of them are buyers of that kind of content.
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Competition…… Why would a girl who says does balloon popping videos & has a devoted following of her own store shoot for someone else & only get paid one time? When she can continue to shoot it for her own store?
Normal porn stars are clueless in how to do most fetish shoots unless they are getting fucked. For a clip to sell, the people in it must be really into it. Hard to fake it enough for the buying customers of that c4s base.
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There are so many niches, finding one that will sell if a puzzle. Yes, you can look at the top list, but doesn’t mean you will have a single clue as to what makes it get guys off.
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Mike you are into Bukkake, you love it. Of course your stuff will sell well, but even you may have to get more dirty about it. Really dig into the mind of guys who are also into it. Find your tribe.
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I love blowing bubbles. Bubble gum bubbles, I have since a little kid. So some of my first vids on it were blowing bubbles. Now what sells n that niche us HUGE bubbles, which I can’t do. BUTTTTTTTT, I can blow a bubble in a bubble up to 7 times over. Which none of those people have seen before.
I set the bubble blowing world on fire. LOL Those 5 to 7 minute videos would make me $100 each. Crazy right. Until I got my first cavity at 42 and that ended my bubble gum blowing days for me. Not ever getting another one of those.
– Moral of that story is that you never know what will sell & be a money maker for you. LA people for the most part only good at copying each other. They have forgotten how to take risk & follow their passions.
Sam
The downside to cam shows vs. Studios is that most are just using a stationary camera on their PC and the scenes look small, grainy, and far. If a girl wants to make money camming she needs to invest in a separate camera and someone with skill to film it (like Porno Dan does).
I agree on the camera, but not on the need to have someone else to film it. The rest can be learned, and fairly quickly if need be. Lighting is the most critical, regardless of what camera is used. Mounting the camera on a rolling stand solves the stationary problem without needing someone to handle the camera. It also provides a place to keep toys, wipes, etc. that is handy but out of frame. Add a remote control mount on the camera to pan left, right, up, down and zoom in or out and the model can do it all with no one else in the room.
Mike is the bukkake king, I think he was the first person in the US to make such content (Jeff Steward took it further with 75 person bukkakes and gokkun scenes but he has said recently — paraphrased — that it is too expensive to hire 75 men to cum on a woman’s face due to piracy — and the resulting reduced revenue). I don’t know how much “dirtier” Mike can get and still make a profit. If I remember correctly I estimated it costs Mike about $20K to film a scene as-is, taking it farther with more men in the scene similar to what Jeff Steward and Jim Powers used to do would push that up past $50K per scene assuming Mike used 50 guys. A Wikipedia article claims Jeff used to pay $100 plus paying for their VD test (another claims $35 plus VD testing, I suspect that was in the early days of his bukkake movies) to his guys but that was people answering a newspaper ad wanting a night of fun in LA County and also was six years ago, the price in Atlanta would likely be closer to $500 per guy plus the VD test assuming no penetration, if penetration is necessary you can at least double that figure.
I think “lesbian bukkakes” where a director gets 75 women that squirt to deposit their “squirt” on another chick would attract interest just as it did ten years ago when Ashley Blue was directing them (if you can call her work “directing”, in the BTS I have seen Ashley was drunk off of her ass and would have been thrown off my set and poured into a waiting taxi — director or not, Jim Powers had to take over directing that day) but again, with piracy eating away substantially at sales can anyone make a profit with it. Maybe a 10 person version would be profitable but you would still be looking at about $9K just in talent expenses and VD testing alone. Put four of these scenes in a movie and you are at $36K just for talent (a C4S site might not need to put multiple scenes together to make it work).
A smart performer would do things to drive traffic to their C4S site anyway. How much does it take to post a couple of pictures, a brief description and a link to a Twitter account when the scene becomes available — not much.
Hi Mike!
I’ve been with Manyvids since January 2016 and have had a satisfying experience. My studio is currently ranked 9th out of 904 studios and I’ve reached a whole new audience with both new and old content. Here’s what I’ve learned: social media is crucial and you build your following one supporter at a time; customers appreciate quick notes of thanks and interaction — you can’t pirate that.; find ways to connect with fans of all orientations, kinks and fetishes (I offer store items that cater to gay fans and appreciate the support); distributors’ power and influence has been reduced and sites like Manyvids empower all performers to express their creativity and be their own boss; everyone loves getting a deal — use promo codes and offer free items. Many paying customers return the favour after receiving a gift/discount; quality outsells quantity — use the best camera you can; I started offering 4K UHD content and will not go back for new shoots; lastly, use all available tools to raise awareness of your brand. Manyvids offers single clip sales, membership options, custom videos, Fund Me links, contests and daily traffic breakdowns. Take advantage and create multiple streams of income. Monthly bonuses are paid to the Top 20 Monthly Earners and I’m proud to have been included on the list.
Many of my customers are collectors. When they see a video with their favourite star, they buy it. I deliberately set my price point to be affordable and give what I consider good value. Interaction is one crucial way to combat piracy and fans respect someone who is also a fan. Like recognises like.
There is light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not an oncoming train.
Cheers!
Brandon Iron
brandoniron.manyvids.com
twitter.com/BrandonIron
Congrats Brandon on your successful business venture.
I do have to note that Brandon has been in the industry for years and has probably built up a large fan base to sell his videos to. I will admit that he and I have got into a couple of arguments on adult fora in the past but I am glad he has found a way to survive the drastic change in the industry. An advantage with C4S or Manyvids is he can make his videos anywhere that adult film making is legal. Brandon can make his money while living back home in Canada, somewhere in Europe or maybe even in cheaper countries such as Brazil or Jamaica (although I for one would not want to shoulder the extremely high risk of VD that exists in Brazil but producers have made porn there in the past), he doesn’t have to live in Chatsworth anymore to make a living. All jokes (which for once weren’t made by me) and arguments aside I wish him the best.
Thank you for the kind words! You are right about any performer being able to live in the place of his/her choosing. You can run your own business from any place with an internet connection. Power to the people!
One more comment, Brandon. Producers running their production companies in far-flung areas also bring new talent into the business. Some remain in their hometowns while others use their first scenes as a way to enter the Miami or Chatsworth adult industry but the C4S/Manyvids method of distribution offers the industry fresh, new talent and hopefully some more mature, level-headed talent that would not normally think to enter the industry but once exposed through a C4S or Manyvids producer do well rather than the 18 year old drug-addled talent that somehow finds its way into the biz (no, not all 18 year olds entering the industry are drug addicted, immature idiots but unfortunately the biz sees more than its fair share of them). Look up Tanner Mayes on Google for a clusterfuck in action, incidents on set involving her are legendary in their idiocy and drug fueled rage. I would rather have ten Bobbi Starrs, Veronica Avluvs and Kasey Warners (yes, Kasey smokes some pot but about 60% of the industry does nowadays and many function fine, it is the meth, cocaine and heroin that causes problems) than one Tanner Mayes or Terri Starr. I would even rather have Bonnie Rotten on a set I was running than Tanner — that is very telling as to what I think of meth addicts and their antics on set, by all reports Bonnie was at least reliable and sober when she came to work even if she looked like a grizzled California three time loser felon.