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Internet Adult site?

Dan-O

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Seriously. I'm entertaining the thought of starting one. Anyone here have experience with this? What types of permits would I need? Are they governed by state laws? (I live in Utah :nonod: )

This venture will be a very short time commitment and my side of things will be the business side, not the smut part. Seems very lucrative. Thoughts? Advice? Rants?
 
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PEERless

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My dad works with a guy who seems to make quite a bit in this business with three sites, I think. Internet porn has been in the news lately, though, for the fact that free content is meeting or exceeding the quality of paid content. It is hard (not impossible) to compete with free stuff. I think if you can find a niche and get momentum before competitors pursue your model, you could do very well for a short time.

But your questions about permitting and record keeping are out of my league. Good luck.
 

Dan-O

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thanks for the input. I'm tryong to understand how the free sites operate. I'm assuming it's the ad space they profit from, not the content?
 

Jito

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It can be very lucrative if done right. However the market is saturated, and if you want to carve out a niche for yourself - I hope you have the stomach for it.
 
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Jito

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Free sites also make money by up selling to paid sites via affiliate programs. Many sites pay out 30-60 per customer referral, recurring billing splits or a combination of both.
 

Redshft

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"Reality" sites seem to be the cash cows right now with fetish sites right behind. Mix the two together and you have a gold mine! The "milf hunter" is a great example of that. Even though most girls in these "reality" sites are actresses anyway and the scenes are usually staged. Start up something like "Big Butts and Big Cars" and mix in a bit of reality/situational twist and you got a hit!! :moon3:
 

Andrew

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Seriously. I'm entertaining the thought of starting one. Anyone here have experience with this? What types of permits would I need? Are they governed by state laws? (I live in Utah :nonod: )

This venture will be a very short time commitment and my side of things will be the business side, not the smut part. Seems very lucrative. Thoughts? Advice? Rants?

Ignoring everything else.. "This venture will be a very short time commitment" is generally not the right way to get started off.

As for the adult side, right now things are tough. Theres money to be made, but you need to be at the absolute top of your game or we are talking making peanuts or just pissing money away. I'm not involved but have business associates who are. Verse mainstream business the profit margins are completely unimpressive.

As for the legal side, there is a reason many of the producers live in California. Its typical for individuals to be harassed by local governments and even be thrown in jail on trumped up charges. I'd be going through newspaper archives of your area and seeing if there is any kind of past history with local law enforcement harassing adult book stores, strip clubs, and the like.
 
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M&T

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Dan-O
It's been done over and over so much so that the internet has been almost ruined.You can't even type in dick's sporting goods and not have to worry!Why not use your creative abilities and build something new and usefull that the majority of the public can use. It would not be as easy but the benefits could be so much bigger! Just my two cents...
 

PEERless

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Build something...that the majority of the public can use.

HA! The majority of the public DOES use porn!
  1. 55% of Americans use pornographic videos and magazines to enhance their sex lives. (LA Times)
  2. Annual US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC. They also exceed the revenues of all majorleague sports franchises in the US. (MotherJones.com)
  3. 55% of porn DVD consumers are now female. (Digital Playground, 2001)
  4. ...I could go on.
There are PLENTY of customers and LOTS of money, but the market is saturated and fragmented. Solve those problems, and order your Lambo.
 

slim_jim

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As a former sys admin at a web hosting company, we had customers who had porn sites. Some were small and on a shared hosting server, others were on dedicated servers and/or multiple dedicated servers.

Things to consider:

Dedicated server or shared server? It is like drag racing - How fast can you afford to go? Will you use a managed server or will you manage it yourself? Do you have sys admin skills? If not, what will it cost for a sys admin? Linux or Micro$oft? What about software licensing costs? Are you a web developer? What are the costs of developing and maintaining site?


Bandwidth for your site is a concern. How much bandwidth will you need to stream your video or pictures. Depending on your hosting provider and pricing plan, it can be costly. It is also something to monitor daily. If you go over your montly limit, you may be shut down until you make arrangements to pay for more. A down site is not what your customers want to see, especially paying customers.

I went back up and reread the whole thread again, if you are only the business side of it, then you will be giving up a large share of the proceeds to pay others to run, develop, maintain and produce the content. How will you get content? Handle releases that the models are 18? Make sure the pictures don't have copyright issues?

I am sure MJ could provide some insightful information, not about the porn business. LOL

Good luck. Please keep us updated.

HTH
 
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camski

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I hope Dan-O doesnt mind me jumping in here and asking a few questions, mainly out of curiosity. In terms of revenue do most porn sites make revenue from affiliates and ads or some other method? Do they produce their own content or do they obtain it from somewhere else? I would think it would cost some (?????) money if they were to produce their own content, although like Girls gone Wild some people will do anything for a T-shirt and to be on camera. Perhaps I am naive but I would think most people would expect to get paid in order to have sex on camera for the whole world to see. I am just curious as to how money is really made in this industry by both the people who perform and by the people who own the sites.
 

M&T

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55%- ok let's say that is true.Now... How many people say own a computer, or eat food, or drive a car? What I mean is if you create a system that the MAJORITY of the people use you will never worry about money again. Don't get me wrong I'm not on a high horse but think in terms of saturation and potential.Build something people NEED!
 
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Dan-O

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wow, thanks for the info everyone! Let me clarify a few points;

There are 4 parties involved in this venture:
Partner 1- owns the legal & financials of the biz (he's a lawyer)
Partner 2 (Me) - owns the marketing, talent recruiting and maintenance of the biz
Shareholder 1- owns the content, photography (he's a pro)
Shareholder 2- director of arts

As for our content, we definitely found a niche in the industry ;) It's rather innovative, I'll leave it at that. I pm'd MJ on a different forum about the site side of things. There are many responsibilities I didn't mention above but can assure all that we have our bases covered. Our site won't be considered too offensive, more on the art side of things so I hope law enforcement will leave us alone. I'm very close to Las Vegas if we need to take our biz that direction :) Thanks again for the feedback, keep it coming!
 

Z5 FILMS

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Perhaps I am naive but I would think most people would expect to get paid in order to have sex on camera for the whole world to see. I am just curious as to how money is really made in this industry by both the people who perform and by the people who own the sites.

There's tons of content providers out there. You can just buy from them for starters.
 
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Andrew

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You say one of your partners is a lawyer, but your original post asked about permits and state laws?
 

Dan-O

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original post was prior to his involvement. We've worked out that issue now just looking for advice/tips&tricks etc..
 

PEERless

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Peerless, 55%- ok let's say that is true...think in terms of saturation and potential.Build something people NEED!

So, porn fills a need, but because the market is so saturated it's hard for an entrepreneur to grab more than a minority share?
 
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Dan-O

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because the market is so saturated it's hard for an entrepreneur to grab more than a minority share?

not if you're doing it better/bigger/faster/stronger than your competition :)
 

Shawn

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Partner 2 (Me) - owns the marketing, talent recruiting and maintenance of the biz

Sounds like you'll be the one interviewing all the naked chicks:rofl:

My first biz was an adult related site. I later sold it cause I started it when I was a teenager and later hated the industry as I was getting older. A few things that come to mind...check your local laws first of all, but if you use your own models, make sure you have two forms of id, signed model releases to use their images, make sure they actually have full rights to their images. I'm sure your attorney partner will take care of all that.

As for the biz, unless you know search engine marketing, seo, have a crap load of money or have a clear cut idea of marketing it, I would think it would be very hard for you to compete. Some of the best minds in the industry run porn sites, making millions a month.
 

Dan-O

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Shawn, thanks for the response. I have a very clear cut idea of marketing as well as a demographic that is somewhat "untapped". Can you elaborate more on your previous experience? online or offline.. any experienced help is appreciated!
 
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