

How to draw viewers into Web Video - lessons from porn - thenomad
http://guerillashowrunner.com/2011/02/why-a-good-porn-site-makes-our-web-show-pages-look-like-amateurish-crap/

======
dotBen
I know a lot of the people at Kink.com _(they're a solid part of the local SF
tech scene, regardless of what people think of the content)_ and they have
some interesting technology across the board.

However I wouldn't actually use their websites as good examples of best-
practice in this vertical. Having disrupted the traditional DVD-based content
houses, Kink.com is now getting disrupted themselves a little by the 'tube
sites' and they really are not on top of this new era for that industry.

The main issue for video sites - of all content genres - is discovery. The
author's premis about 'drawing in the viewer' doesn't really allude to this
greater issue. YouTube doesn't really do a great job of discovery - relying
only similarity clustering and string search.

I'm not going to link to sites from here, but there are a number of adult
content tube sites that have some really quite excellent taxonomy,
categorization and deeper search functions - surfacing the content that each
viewer wants is a unique experience for each person.

Many of their video player experiences and social features are excellent too -
ones that YouTube should really take a look at (in fact I know of YouTubers
who gone to work for these sites).

For me, the tube world is yet another example of where the adult website
industry is once again leading the R&D in the space.

~~~
davidmathers
_there are a number of adult content tube sites that have some really quite
excellent taxonomy, categorization and deeper search functions - surfacing the
content that each viewer wants is a unique experience for each person_

 _Many of their video player experiences and social features are excellent
too_

Please name names.

~~~
dotBen
_Responding to this cos it got a high vote..._

I don't feel comfortable linking to such sites on Hacker News or really
talking about them here in any more depth.

Feel free to contact me offline from HN if you want me to suggest some leading
examples. _(details in my profile)_

UPDATE: turns out the original author discovered all of these sites via my
partner Violet Blue ([http://guerillashowrunner.com/2011/02/why-a-good-porn-
site-m...](http://guerillashowrunner.com/2011/02/why-a-good-porn-site-makes-
our-web-show-pages-look-like-amateurish-crap/#comment-293)) -- so the circle
is complete. Lol.

------
Vlasta
After reading the article, I am not convinced, we should copy the techniques
employed by porn sites when building all "ordinary" sites. On a porn site, the
content variability is low - it is easy to pick one video, promote it, and it
would probably satisfy all viewers to some degree. On a normal site, each user
wants something else and pushing one video may annoy 90% of viewers, because
it is not what they are looking for. On a less emotional and more informative
site, you have to be less pushy.

~~~
thenomad
I agree, this technique is definitely not for all sites. I'm specifically
talking about web series, where there are usually some fairly obvious entry
points. For a bigger content aggregation site or similar, you'd need another
approach.

------
nickl
Basically: Put something interesting on the landing page.

~~~
jamongkad
I think the rabbit hole goes a little deeper than that don't you think?

------
AlexC04
I've never heard of Guerilla Show Runner before - but really like the site.
Thanks to whoever posted this. I've picked up the RSS feed.

------
CoffeeDregs
This is a bit harsh, but, based on the author's site design and the design of
his other sites, I'm not sure why we should take the author seriously.

~~~
JonLim
I honestly don't think it's harsh - his websites for his shows are groin-
grabbingly ugly, and it should be no surprise to him as to why they do not
attract viewers.

Want to pull people in to your video content? Look at some of the better video
sites on the web and see how they do it.

I can think of one off the top of my head: <http://epicmealtime.com/>

~~~
thenomad
I think you may be under a misapprehension here. Every major series I've been
involved with has been very successful indeed - Google 'em. ;)

But they could have been even _more_ successful - for example, if I'd
implemented the techniques I talk about in the article. That's my point.

(Perhaps they'd even have been more successful with visually slicker sites -
but the belief that a prettier site automatically equals better conversions is
a reasonably well-known business fallacy.)

------
radioactive21
I am pretty sure Porn as an advantage in one aspect. People went out of their
way to seek it.

In a aroused state, it wouldn't matter what you're watching, it could be
someone just running a hand over their other hand and you'll get viewers, it's
just enough to get off on.

~~~
thenomad
Ah, but these days, as a porn site you've got to compete with thousands of
others.

It's not "will the audience look for porn", it's "Why will they choose your
porn over someone else's?"

(Likewise, it's not "Will the audience look for an action-adventure show",
it's "Why should the audience choose YOUR action-adventure show?")

~~~
chopsueyar
That site caters to a specific fetish, female domination. There are not
thousands of sites competing with it.

Most successful porn sites cater to a specific fetish, instead of a bucket of
random porn.

He needs to find his target market. Not sure who it should be, though.

~~~
Unseelie
Please google your tagword. Better yet, google Female domination Porn. You're
going to get a lot. If you go out and use the actual jargon, Femdom Porn,
you're going to get quite a lot as well.

Point being: there may not be thousands of sites competing, but when the
search returns over a million sites and its nearly straight femdom out to the
thirteenth results page (and likely beyond)...I'm going to wager that you
didn't do that very simple bit of research, a google, before making such a
declaration.

~~~
chopsueyar
"hacker news porn" returns over 286,000 results...

As you yourself said, the actual jargon is "femdom porn", not "female
domination porn", or even simply "femdom".

By adding "porn" to any keyword search, you will get many extraneous results
(see "hacker news porn" above).

Most importantly, these "alot of results" all have affiliate banners to the
same handful of "femdom" sites.

Next time, try looking at the actual content, not just the Google results. I
should have taken you up on your wager!

~~~
Unseelie
Femdom being one of my fetishes, I rather beg to differ on the statement that
there are only a handful of femdom sites.

I will cede that there are a few fantastically successful ones, like I suspect
in most media, which are rather strongly linked to...

