Why can't a woman be more like a man?
Men are so decent, such regular chaps;
Ready to help you through any mishaps;
Ready to buck you up whenever you're glum.
Why can't a woman be a chum?
- A Hymn to Him My Fair Lady by Lerner and Loewe
** Continued From: How To Handle a Woman! - Part #1
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"We need stories. We need community. We need to be marketed to as women instead of as objects. Different things turn us on. Our sex switch is in our brains, not our eyes." |
My Fair Lady is a musical based on Shaw's classic Pygmalion. A man takes a woman he believes is imperfect and perfects her. Unfortunately, after the woman becomes the ideal, she no longer needs the man. The man is left behind, alone, while the woman faces a hopeful future.
In the lyrics of the song, A Hymn to Him, the man (Professor Henry Higgins) asks:
Why can't a woman be more like a man?
Higgins goes on to complain that men are better because they don't get upset when one doesn't listen or pay attention. Men aren't emotional and they react to situations predictably. The Professor is confounded by the fact that his protegee, Eliza Doolittle, remains - after all his tutelage - a complicated human being.
Bummer.
In part one of this two-part article I explained that adult webmasters are convinced that women do no buy online porn. I also explained that women not only make up the majority of the human population, they're also the majority population online as well as the majority when it comes to online purchasing. Women on the web outspend men 60% to 40%.
It is my belief that women are subscribing to adult entertainment and purchasing adult-related products on the Internet. The problem lies in our collective concept of the female porn customer and her buying/surfing preferences. Our industry either ignores the woman visitor or we refuse to understand her. Some of us might think like men but on the whole, we tend to think like women. Henry Higgins is right about one thing, we are complicated.
What Women Think of Porn.
For men, porn is simple. To guys, porn means pictures and videos of people naked, fucking and getting fucked. Granted, men have preferences when it comes to choosing niches, but the definition of porn as a visual medium is pretty much an accepted standard. On the other hand, women are often more cerebral in their tastes. Women like to imagine. They enjoy an erotic story. They are inclined to buy sex toys and sensuous-smelling goods. Women become aroused whereas men are almost always aroused. Show a man a porn video and he gets a hard-on. Show a woman a porn video and she'll probably want to talk about it.
If you want to lure women surfers, you have to understand the female mind. We're complicated. Those tried -and-true methods you use on men aren't going to work with women. As an adult webmaster you have to redefine the meaning of porn to fit the psychological and sexual needs of your lady visitors. You aren't going to win us over by promising - 50,000 HOT PICS! GIGS OF NASTY VIDEO! HOURS OF FUCKING AND SUCKING!
This is not to say that we gals don't like photos and movies of sexual situations. What I'm trying to convey is that women require more. We need stories. We need community. We need to be marketed to as women instead of as objects. Different things turn us on. Our sex switch is in our brains, not our eyes.
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In recent studies, researchers found that men and women surf the net differently. Men hit sites in a static fashion: One visit to check stocks. One visit to analyze current sports statistics. One more visit to look at porn. In other words, men tend to perform one task at a time while on the Internet, whether it be for porn or for other activities.
In those same studies researchers concluded that women tend to multi-task while on the web. Women execute many actions while online. A woman will pay bills, shop for shoes, look up information on an over-the-counter drug, read the news, and maybe enjoy a hot short story and download some hunky wallpaper, all in one sitting. Women chat, write email, research prices and products. Women need websites where time can be spent acting proactively. If these studies are accurate that means that men are passive on the net while women are dynamic.
As an adult webmaster you've got to give your female customers something to do, things to buy, articles and stories to read and imagine from. We'll buy your vibrators, bustiers and herbal supplements. We'll pay to access your member's area as long as you give us member areas worth the price. We want to chat and to read and to shop and to gossip and to giggle and to see dirty smut.
Why can't a Woman be More Like a Man? Because we're not men. We're wired in a whole other way. If you would like to start researching the minds of women with an eye on marketing to them, try this site:
This is a wonderful blog. The writing is smart and humorous. The company that hosts this blog is called Dick Less. How can you not love it? What you'll find there is a better overview of the female market as well as articles and features centering on what some have called the most powerful buying force in history: Women!
There are more women on this planet. There are more women online than men. Women buy more than men do. Women buy more online than men do. If you take the time to understand us, if you take the time to build sites for us, if you market to us instead of at us, you might just make money from us!