According to Morgan Sommer's calculations, 99.9 percent of what Cybersocket does revolves around the adult industry. Funny, considering how things started.
"Initially, we didn't think we would be reviewing porn websites all the time or writing about them or having them as advertisers. It just so happens that's how it evolved," says Sommer, who co-founded the company with Tim Lutz and also serves as the advertising director.
"Ninety-five percent of our advertisers are adult, half of what we write about is adult. But the other half of what we write about isn't. We are still writing about all kinds of other stuff on the internet, it just so happens to all be supported by adult."
It all started ten years ago last December, when Sommer and Lutz (also the art director) sat around and started brainstorming about things they could do to best utilize their talents. That's when the Cybersocket Gay Net Directory — the company's first project — was born, with an annual edition hitting the shelves each year. The directory reviews 2,000 of the best websites.
"We decided to come up with a name for our company and our product that had never previously existed in the world and that didn't have any real meaning in nature," Sommer says. "Because in our minds, the best brand names don't imply the product… they do later."
A year after the book debuted, Cybersocket turned its database into a search engine to create its website. A year after that, the company expanded again to create the nation's largest freely distributed gay print magazine, with a monthly circulation of 70,000 copies.
"We wanted to make the Internet more approachable to surfers. What we saw, even in the beginning, was that the Internet was a very confusing place. So we felt we were simplifying that for people," Sommer says. "Then later as the Internet gained in popularity, there was too much information for people to distill themselves. So we feel that by offering a monthly magazine suited to gay consumers, and an annual directory — and even a hand-picked search engine, if you will — we're distilling from millions of websites a few thousand that we think are part of the best."
The company also produces several email newsletters, and this year will mark the 8th annual Cybersocket Awards, which were created to recognize Web leaders. Each year, surfers and industry leaders select winners in the Surfer's Choice and Industry Choice categories, totaling 40 in all. The award has become a badge of honor for winners, who proudly display their triumphs each year.
"It's a popularity contest to some degree, which is a criticism that some people like to throw at it. And I like to say, 'Well, what's wrong with a popularity contest sometimes?'" Sommer says. "Popularity has market value. Products and services that sell in the marketplace generally sell as a function of popularity. We want to gauge a sense of popularity from consumers and webmasters. We want to know what our audience is thinking."
It all helps the company strengthen its role, which has been to analyze, categorize, comment upon, and popularize gay- and lesbian-oriented websites, allowing Cybersocket to become a leader in news, resources, and original content for the community.
"We understand our market better than ever, we're more focused in what we do. In addition, we also do a lot of B-to-B networking events. We have nine scheduled for next year, and in those nine there're probably going to be twelve to thirteen separate events."
And after a decade of life in both the online and adult avenues, Sommer has found the old adage to be true: The more things change, the more they stay the same.
"What we saw ten years ago was that the Internet was a lot of adult and a lot of other junk, and then for a few years lots of people started trying to make a lot of nonsense that all went out of business, and now what's left is a lot of adult still. Corporate America has still not really properly embraced it. They're all still trying to figure out how to maximize the Internet to apply to their business models. Meanwhile, all the rest of us have been inventing an industry and plowing forward every day."
For 2007, Sommer wants to simply get better at what they already do. He notes they may launch some new versions of publications, but Cybersocket's main objective is always to refine the processes it has in place and provide better customer service.
"We both felt a deep compulsion to do this," Sommer says. "This wasn't just an idea, it was actually something that we both felt a very strong conviction for, that this is what we were supposed to do. And I have to say that for ten years, I haven't felt a compulsion to really invest myself into anything else besides this."
Contact Info: Cybersocket.com; 323-650-9906.
