I promised an update for every Friday. Unfortunately this week there is nothing positive to report. Our developer has tried to put together a budget that would arrive at an amount we could reasonably ask for, but even doing that, considering our needs, the development budget comes to a minimum of $100,000. Oh, we could do the development in phases, but the first few phases would give contributors nothing they could actually see, and then we'd find ourselves asking for more, and possibly more after that, so no one would be happy.
A number of people have suggested we start out "lean," but for us lean would be just making our full archives available. Those archives consist primarily of well over 1,000 great stories and tens of thousands of photos. But how many of you would pay for those things alone? None of you? That's what I thought.
Nobody will pay for stories and pictures anymore. In order to make money—and sorry, everybody, but people need to make money even on labors of love—there are only three ways internet porn can be profitable nowadays: 1) through videos, 2) through live action shows in which paying members participate by suggesting or even directing the action, and 3) by providing social networking. Unfortunately, way number 1 is not as profitable anymore as it used to be: according to recent statistics, adult video profits were down 50 percent last year over the years before, thanks primarily to the number of hackers who grab new videos as soon as they come out and make them available for free. Furthermore, video distribution is expensive. It requires a site to use a lot of costly bandwidth. That's why smaller video makers have to go with large streaming companies, as we have done forever with AEBN, for which we've never earned more than a 30 percent return
Our website wants—needs—to do the three thing I mention above, but to do them it cannot start out lean. It has to work right from the start at full capacity; anything less would only net us a lot of grumbling from a lot of irritated customers. What to do? I await suggestions. (I had no response at all to last week's update).
Oh, one last thing. A reader did suggest that perhaps we merge with some other small bondage website. That's not a bad idea—assuming the particular website is legitimate, has no debts, and shares our "philosophy" of what male bondage is all about. I welcome suggestions. What are your favorite paying bondage sites. And do you know the people who run them, and whom you might ask to contact me? I'd be happy to work something out with one or even several bondage websites, to create a conglomerate of the best out there. Something like that might work for all of us.
What do you think?
Can you try the Kickstar, or co-work with some of the major porn industrial company, I knew you mentioned the Kick-star before but I cannot remember what kind of problem you were having with them，
the thing is when you are collecting donation, it's really hard to show a legit side of your production and determination of what you going to do, all we could see is your weekly blog entry, not a long-term website alert or links to your donation pay way. if you have something hunging in the head of your blog and every one who opens will see it at the moment when they are checking, I think you are going to slowly pick up money.
Also I think bondgods could be a better choice if you want to start, of course they are not exactly small and based in SanFrancisco. but I do think your philosophy will make a difference for their production.
I wish you all the best, and I really like to hear more from the Eric Tide saga very soon. could inform the author he is eagerly anticipated. Keep hunging there body, I am confident about what you are doing
Posted by: Taitanium | March 01, 2014 at 02:49 AM
boundguys.com and capturedguys.com are probably more the sort of material you're looking for. The former focuses more on roleplay, the latter more on cute guys getting tied. Boundguys already has a story archive as well. The problem is I don't know how strongly either site is doing. They both seem to have survived for years, now, at the very least.
Posted by: Joe | March 02, 2014 at 12:36 PM
Kink.com is the largest BDSM producer in the US right now and on their gay side they already have 6 different websites: Bound Gods, Bound in Public, Men On Edge, 30 Minutes of Torment, Naked Kombat, and Butt Machine Boys. These six sites each have a different focus but so far none focus on full-length BDSM movies with a major story line, which was exactly Bound & Gagged's strength in the past and why people really loved it over other porn productions. This approach to gay BDSM porn is still unique even today and with B&G's history and reputation I believe people are still going to be drawn to new B&G movies, shot in high definition and hosted on ultra-fast websites.
So I think B&G could consider joining the Kink.com family and become its 7th gay site that focuses on producing full-length high-quality gay BDSM movies with appealing stories. All Kink.com websites share resources so you will have access to all their infrastructure, employees, not to mention today's hottest male BDSM actors - some of them really can act too - I've always imagined Christian Wilde would be a great fit for a B&G movie. If gay vanilla porn can have those big-name, full-length productions that go on to win awards, why shouldn't gay bdsm porn have the same?
Just an idea.
Posted by: Steve | March 03, 2014 at 03:48 AM