Hey guys....I have been running my site since April of 2004. I have seen many ups and many downs in this business. I have been shooting porn since 9 days after I turned 18 back in 1998. I have worked for nearly everyone relevant in this business so I have some experience on several subjects in this industry. Piracy has nearly killed the porn business and yet no one on our side of the table has done much other than threaten to sue and bitched a lot. So after some thought and consideration I have decided to take it on myself and hopefully others will follow. I have lowered my site membership to $10 a month. Plain and simple. No long term membership required and no increase after the first month. $10 for unlimited access. I have a few friends who have followed this idea and their business has increased in multiples. $10 is the same price as a membership to a file sharing site. $10 is what it costs to be a premium Youporn.com member. So now you get much better quality directly from the producer for less than 30 cents a day. Its time the porn business world stops bitching and doing nothing and rolls with the changes. Website prices have NEVER gone down...even with the huge increase in piracy, the thousands of new sites being added all trying to sell the same surfers a membership. So if you want to see what a real value is to a great site with quality content, checkout my sites. http://mariahxxx.net and http://fuckedwithastrapon.com both only $10 a month for full access! Peace and love and happy surfing to all of you here at ADT! xoxo Mariah Milano xoxo Mariah
I wouldn't say that prices haven't dropped. Between longer-term memberships and access to more sites with one membership. But that second phenomenon hasn't encouraged greater output and quality from the content creators of individual websites on site networks, if it's letting more people see each component site on a network without each component site seeing any of the membership money from people who joined the network through another site.
Hi Mariah, I can appreciate your theory, but I think your information is off, nobody pays any money for filesharing. There might be some "premium" membership somewhere, but nobody buys it. why would anyone pay for stolen content? The whole idea behind Piracy is to get content for free. I think $10 a month is fair, that's about the max I would pay for internet porn as primarily a DVD buyer. I think what really needs to be done is find these pricks like Brazzers and cut them out of the circle of industry recognition until they address their relationship with tube sites. A company who has stood accused of operating the biggest piracy network on the web for years, and the industry just keeps giving them awards? There's an embarrassing example of how little the adult industry has done to fight piracy.
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Lord Lucifer Deactivated User
Sins of the flesh 1378 Posts 7/10
Posted - Nov 9 2010 : 12:15AM
^ It would be cool if the rest of the industry also followed this trend & see what happens as a result. Audrey Bitoni's #1 Fan
Fat bottomed girls make the rockin' world go round! 1551 Posts 5/09
Posted - Nov 9 2010 : 12:47AM
Here's my solution to this "theft" problem...hire an attorney to obtain subpoenas for the IP addresses of every computer that has downloaded illegal tube or torrent videos. File suit against grampa, (if he's one of the thieves). Who cares if grampa doesn't have any money to pay for damages? Yes, it's like getting blood out of a turnip. The deterrent is when the attorney informs the media about the lawsuit. Word gets out, and people will think twice before they steal and risk having their names listed in the media.
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Solar4 Deactivated User
183 Posts 10/10
Posted - Nov 9 2010 : 6:58AM
Yes, this strategy has worked quite well for the MPAA and RIAA in ending filesharing worldwide. And this is a good strategy Mariah, particularly in the challenging economic environment many are experiencing.
celluloidferox that's not true at all! file sharing sites offer a free download option but you can only download 1 file every 3 or 4 hours and speeds so slow sometimes a 60mb file will take several hours to download. so if a file is split into several parts as most are, you have to wait hours to complete the download. according to rapid-share they have over 1 million premium members, and its 6.99 euro per month and is paid through paypal. The upgrade allows unlimited simultaneous downloads at much higher speeds. so yes, people DO pay for stolen porn! Youporn has a premium account option which offers higher resolution and faster download speeds Brazzers wins awards because they put out great content and that's a fact. they hire the top girls in the industry and they hire the girls with the highest ratings by their members. that's something the big companies rarely do, list to their members input but Brazzers does. They might be a lot of things but you can't say they aren't producing award deserving productions. xoxo Mariah
Mariah, i got to give you props. Simply because you're actively trying to find solution(s) to the problem instead of suing and lawsuits which i believe won't change anything. I also believe porn will adapt and change eventually though it doesn't seem anyone else ever thinks so based on all the argumentative posts. Point is, props for DOING something. ----Dread----
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A-ten Deactivated User
581 Posts 8/07
Posted - Nov 9 2010 : 4:06PM
Mariah did you forget about torrent sites that use programs like Azureus? And programs like emule? Torrents and filesharing programs like emule are as bad if not worse than tube sites. They are destroying the music and movie industry. They are certainly hammering the porn industry. They are completely free. Edited by - A-ten on 11/9/2010 4:07:10 PM
Lily Carter is the starlet of the year 174 Posts 9/10
Posted - Dec 9 2010 : 9:10PM
Guys I think what Mariah says here is yes, there's still some alternatives instead of fileshare sites. But the industry has to stop whining and at least try something. And Mariah here did what she could do best, finding a solution, not the ultimate solution but a solution nevertheless. Greatly adore you Mariah :)
Hi Mariah, What results have you witnessed since extending this offer? Good, bad, same? And guys, seriously, if such powerful entities as Hollywood & the music business haven't done anything to battle piracy succesfully, the porn industry will definitely fail. Audrey Bitoni's #1 Fan
Mariah, I think you're awesome but as good as Brazzers may be, I find my stuff on their tube sites every fucking day. They may produce quality product but their business model is to steal every competitor out of business. If I started a tube site, produced premium original content as an up-sell but used all of the content you spent your money to produce to drive my traffic, you would not have such high praise.
I don't disagree Mike. But the reality is that there isn't anything we can do about it other than making our product the best we can and offering it at a reasonable price. I HATE tube sites and torrent sites more than you know trust me. But I have accepted the fact that for the time being I am powerless over it. I have retained council and have started filing suits against torrent users with more than a 50% success rate. But the tube sites are all located in countries that don't recognize our laws and don't give a shit so that's a tough battle to wage. So I have taken an alternative route and lowered my price to try and work on a volume business plan and so far so good. The promo did end but I still offer it if you click this link I had 7 days in a row with more than 100 sign ups when my usual average was between 30 and 35. I have only had a cancel rate of about 15% which anyone in this business will tell you is very good. I still offer the $10 memberships to my strapon site FuckedWithaStrapon.com which is doing very well. Happy Holidays everyone! Mike I'll be back in LA on January 15 til the 3rd of February! :) xoxo
Fair play to you for doing this Mariah. Tube sites are just one problem of many. The reality is that many torrent sites offer unlimited downloads at high speeds. It's a huge problem, as you say.
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Solar4 Deactivated User
183 Posts 10/10
Posted - Dec 23 2010 : 2:50PM
This is a good response to free content Mariah. Hopefully other sites take note.
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Lord Lucifer Deactivated User
Sins of the flesh 1378 Posts 7/10
Posted - Jan 12 2011 : 11:58PM
So I guess lowering your price was paying off, right? Why don't more folks follow your example? Audrey Bitoni's #1 Fan
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Deftones Deactivated User
94 Posts 3/08
Posted - Jan 13 2011 : 7:43PM
unless your a producer of the content why would you care? you just shooting a scene and getting paid for it. I could see why Jenna Haze, Jules Jordan, etc would be mad.
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Lord Lucifer Deactivated User
Sins of the flesh 1378 Posts 7/10
Posted - Jan 15 2011 : 1:20AM
If you're shooting content for your own website OF COURSE it matters! Why would ppl subscribe for $30/month when they can get it for free? ? ? ? DUH! Audrey Bitoni's #1 Fan
The real issue is more simple than what everyone on here is talking about. Free is not the end of this business. If it were, why wouldn't every couch given away on a street corner be instantly snatched up and put the furniture industry out of business. The real issue is that this industry has not provided its customers (and I say customers because that is how the product is first leaked) with the right value. Suing people will only make people less interested in porn and stop them from wanting to view your content. Why is free porn a better product right now? Here are a few reasons. People can get the content easier than going to a brick and mortar store without all the shame. Their credit cards do not show some skeezy website on the bill because they are not paying for it. The digital version of a file can be taken/transferred/reformated anywhere (home movie, ipod, streamed to any device). The quality is the same as at pay sites. The habits of many porn viewers do not match up with what porn providers think are in their monetary best interests. Many porn addicts are hunting for new porn and not consuming the content they downloaded beyond yesterday. These porn filesharing sites provide a better sense of community and provide a greater anonymous acceptance of their users habits. So how do you address these? It is simple. Provide a better overall product than the free option. Price is not everything. Let's use my example above. Why would I not take that free couch on the corner? Well....I don't know where it's been, who has had sex on it, how long it has been out there, whether it will ruin my floors once I have brought it inside, and what other people will think of me because of my new couch. I am willing to pay $1000 more than free to know that all of the factors I just mentioned are met. So you can see there are a lot of other factors that make the "value" of free not so attractive. How do you make free not so worth it when the digital copy is the same? Easy, you flood the market with bad versions and make it difficult and time consuming for anyone to find the good content. What if every porn provider uploaded 5 bad videos a day to all the sites they knew about? Videos that don't play, videos that switch to "Happy Days" reruns right before the good stuff, and claim that it is the real stuff. You have to make it take more time and be a worse experience than a more legitimate option and then you have to provide that option. Why would I take 4 hours of time to look for a free option when I could know about and access the latest a greatest new title of a star I love for $.99 in less than a minute. How about you all band together and create a pay service that will allow users to pay and keep their anonymity from you and from anyone else they want? How about trying to offer up more of a community and trying to foster that on your site? Not just with you but with others as well. Try not to make them feel like freaks for wanting to see you hump your bedside lamp or if they do feel like a freak that is okay because everyone on here is just like them. How about charging them according to the amount they download and not a monthly fee more along the lines of itunes? How about giving them choices of editing options? You can choose the 3 hour theatrical version with acting for $10 or you can choose the 5 minute hardcore cut for $1. How about they get access to additional free movie downloads of their choice for every video they buy to encourage them to buy more? What about if you offer them the option of downloading the movie in any/every format they want it in if they buy the movie license one time? Then they don't have to convert it to 50 other file formats if they want to watch it on their big screen or their ipod in the work bathroom. My point with everything above is that you all just have to provide a better service and think outside the box (no pun intended) a little more than just focusing on finding a hotter girl, rolling over and dying, or suing your customers into not watching your stuff. Was facebook the first website to connect friends together? No. It made connecting friends together better than any other site, gave people what they wanted, and continued to evolve with what its customers wanted. Anyone who tells you that today's internet access to more porn and different types of porn has reduced overall demand is a liar. There are more people interested in more porn than ever before and it has more acceptance in mainstream society than ever before. You just have to find a way to address the problems above and make a better overall product. If you want to know where to start, start by knocking off a torrent/sharing forum site design and figuring out what you would change that would allow people to pay you for it instead of using it for free. Maybe the answer is you don't charge them, but you make money off of legitimate advertisers on there for other items that cannot be copied (like dildos, t-shirts, etc) and you shut the sight down temporarily if your money goals aren't met. You don't have to be better than McDonalds. You just have to learn how they make burgers and add your twist. It seems to me that the market is telling you what it wants and you all are afraid to embrace it. Brazzers has done a much better job of mixing in paid content with free content and providing a better product. That is part of the reason that half this industry is suing the other have for the "tubes" content they are providing. one side gets it and has moved on and the other has not yet. Mariah - Reducing your monthly subscription fee is not the answer. In fact, if that's all you are going to do I would recommend raising it. You will make more money off of people who are leaking your content and you will only lose those customers that are the most sensitive to paying for your content. Try something new along the lines of what I mentioned above. Try creating something different that is harder to copy. What if you took new content to these torrent sites? You post that you are embracing the torrent community. You post a few screen caps in the forums section. You mention that you are going to upload the video to the sight and will distribute the content yourself, but that you have to reach $500 by anonymous donation before you will do it and the community has to buy it from you first in that manner. Tell them that you do not care how much they donate individually and will not sue anyone who gets or distributes the files after, but that your $500 must be reached before you will release the content. It could be a groupon for porn. I bet you would have much more success and it would drive even more people to your paid websites since I am sure the poorer members of the site unable to pay for your content would lobby anyone and everyone for access to your new stuff. Try creating a new video yourself that you know sizzles and try it. If it does not work, you have not lost much. Look at how much money you need to make. Figure out how long it will take you to make your asking amount on the site and set your asking price. It could work. Just my two cents. Good luck.
Mariah Milano @ AnalVids
Posted - Nov 8 2010 : 12:55PM
