After nearly 6 years in this industry, I sometimes wonder if there is anything new that we can spring on the surfer. We have moved from general porn sites to very niche specific sites; we have gone from glossy high tech porn to the rougher reality sites and along the way we have also introduced escort sites, swinger sites and variations on every theme.
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"The longer this industry exists the more rigid it becomes in its structure and methods." |
Of course that does not mean that we have run out of candidates for title of 'the next big thing', those sites are still out there in the fertile imaginations of people who are still to surface in this industry. It does mean however, that it may be harder for those people to bring their ideas to fruition because the longer this industry exists the more rigid it becomes in its structure and methods. New webmasters with unique and potentially lucrative ideas may not have the patience to work within that rigid environment.
The point was driven home to me the other day when I looked at a TGP gallery that had been posted for review on a board where I hang out. The URL for the gallery is:
http://www2.xfreehosting.com/amateur/charlie/
There is no doubt that the concept is very different. The niche involves dolls and it is something that I have never seen before. The effects were stunning and it could quite possibly be the next big thing for this industry. On the other hand it could be a total failure because the industry has already become rigid in its approach to porn.
The industry looks for images of naked people having real or simulated sex, I doubt that the majority of traffic sources could cope with a submission that not only showed no nudity but also failed to show a real person either. If TGPs reject galleries because there is not enough nudity, I can't see a gallery that featured dolls, no matter how stunning the presentation, ever getting accepted.
Should that mean the end of a great idea? Not necessarily, but it certainly does mean a far greater challenge for the webmaster who is developing the concept than most of us face.
Not only does that webmaster have to develop the concept and produce content but he or she also has to learn the fundamentals of this industry so that they can apply those fundamentals to their own concept.
For example, as I have said before, to succeed in this industry you need traffic. There is no magical incantation that you can chant to generate traffic, instead there are only so many ways to get traffic to your sites and webmasters need to learn the fundamentals before they can move on to generating their own traffic.
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Somebody working in a niche that does not fit within the rigid bounds of the industry needs to learn the fundamentals within those rigid boundaries before they can start directing traffic towards their niche. They need to sample the surfers who surf past our sites to see which type of surfer is most likely to be attracted to their new niche.
For example would an erotic doll site ever appeal to a TGP surfer? Would such a site ever attract much search engine traffic?
The webmaster who is developing 'the next big thing' is never going to know the answers to those questions until he has tried the fundamentals for himself. Now that may mean that he or she has to spend some time working in the more common niches simply to get a feel for traffic and the specific type of traffic that would be attracted to the new niche.
It may be that there is no niche currently available that would give a webmaster enough the experience he needs for his new area. I am certainly at a loss to suggest any niche that might give a webmaster a feel for the sort of traffic would be attracted to dolls. Even if there is no similarity, it is still worthwhile spending time learning the fundamentals.
I know it can be very frustrating to be tied down with the turkeys when you really want to soar like an eagle. Fiddling around with pimply amateurs may seem to be very boring when your favourite niche is glamorous dolls but sometimes the basic lessons have to be learnt before you can leave the turkeys, the pimples and the amateurs behind.
I am not saying for a moment that you should not dream and explore new areas of the industry. By all means bring on 'the next big thing', unsettle the rigidity of the industry, shake a few foundations and make all the money you want.
Just be prepared to spend some time learning the fundamentals before you launch your idea. The key factors never change, regardless of the niche or the idea, and it is the people who know how to exploit these factors who make the money. No matter how good you may think your version of 'the next big thing' might be it won't get off the ground if you can't get the ""fundamentals"" to work in your favour.