How Deep is Too Deep?
Posted On: 2016-03-29
So you've come into the adult industry because you want to escape from a life where you work hard, get treated like shit, and don't make much money?
That's a worthy reason for coming here but I have to say that there are plenty of people in this industry who are probably wondering why you bothered to make the change. There are plenty of webmasters in this industry who would suggest that there is really no difference between where you have come from and where you have come to because similar conditions apply in both places.
Maybe they're right, maybe you have made a change that really isn't much of a change at all but you're here now so what are you going to focus on to make money? Even if you have given that question a lot of thought your basic answer is probably going to be that you are going to make money by selling porn.
I guess that is a reasonable response for a beginner but sooner rather than later you're going to have to refine your answer or you're will fail miserably. Sooner rather than later you are going to have to think about changing your focus from something as wide as "porn" and narrow it down to something with a sharper focus.
You are going to have to start thinking about niches because that's where the serious money really is. Back at the beginning of the Internet you could have made a lot of money from a broad focus but these days, as one well-known guy over in mainstream says, "The riches are in the niches."
He goes even further than that. He suggests that, in mainstream, you have to narrow your focus even more. He likes to tell people that you have to go "one inch wide and one mile deep rather than one mile wide and one inch deep" if you want to make serious money these days.
Why do you have to do that in mainstream and does that really apply here in adult? Back at the beginning of the Internet our market, the people we sell too, were just blown away by the Internet and would accept almost anything you put online but these days the people who buy mainstream products ... and the ones who buy porn too ... have matured.
The people that we sell to have changed from being wide-eyed and awe struck to being much more savvy, much more selective. They might have been interested in porn back when they first arrived online but now they know that they can find the specific type of porn that really turns them on.
They also know that they can find porn that not only fits their niche but also focuses even more on sub-niches. In the past they might have settled for porn in general, then they found that they could have mature aged porn and now they can drill down even further to mature red-heads, mature red-heads outdoors, and even further down to mature redheads outdoors with midgets.
But then you have to begin to wonder how deep is too deep. How much content is there that might feed your market's desire to see redheads banging their brains out with midgets outdoors? Probably not a lot so somewhere in that drill-down is a point of diminishing returns.
Somewhere in that drill-down is the point where you stop making money because you have just locked yourself into an area that just doesn't interest most of your potential buyers or reached a point where people are no longer prepared to pay because there's not much to see.
So how do you find that not-so-sweet spot where you pass from making money to making none?
Have a look around and see what others are offering. If you have an idea for a sub-niche then see if anyone else is offering it and if they're not then the chances are that it is a step too far.
That isn't always the case though. There was a time when no one was offering bi-sex sites but a few of us took a gamble and made a heap of money before everyone else rushed in and flooded the market.
You may just find something similar so don't be afraid to take a gamble and test the waters. Just don't get in so deep that you can't get out again if you find that your potential market is either too small or just not interested.
Be a little bold, try your luck, just don't totally commit yourself until you know that your deep-down niche has real potential.