The roots of pornography are often thought of as the first sexy drawings that appeared on cave walls from the time man first appeared on the face of the earth, and the first sex toys seem to have been created not long after. The oldest-known and the first officially recognized dildo was created during the Upper Paleolithic period over 30,000 years ago. Made of siltstone, the 20-centimeter (approx 8") toy was uncovered by archaeologists in Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm, Germany. History has also shown the widespread use of sex toys in ancient Egypt, Greece, China and the Roman Empire. The invention of moldable plastic in the 1940s set the foundation for the mass production and distribution of a veritable smorgasbord of sex toys.
James Medina is the business development director of BoyzShop.com, a division of NicheShops.com, a company specializing in the seamless co-branding of online adult novelties to adult sites. When asked how the online adult toy/novelty business had changed overall in the past five years and especially how had it changed in the gay market, he said, "If (the gay consumers) feels they're being taken for granted, there's nothing stopping them from shopping at female-oriented sex toy stores; gay men are in no way confined to gay-oriented stores." But, he continues, "As with most sex toy sales, consumers expect more from gay-oriented retail websites. They expect better products, images, shopping carts and more."
It comes as no great surprise that gay men would be the most educated about which products and categories will have the most appeal to his "fellow man." The biggest stumbling block to entering that very lucrative market is simply knowing where to start.
"The easiest thing to do is to add a co-branded store in their members' area. With the tools that sites like BoyzShop.com and others offer, you can have a well-customized store," Medina said, and suggested also offering a shrewd B-side to the A-plan...
"The other easy way to pick up extra revenue is to look at your videos. Is someone using an interesting toy in that video? Include that toy or something close in your online store and you're looking at a great opportunity. You can put up a link by the video saying ‘Get that dildo right here!' and send them right to it. You may as well monetize any product placement if you happen to have it."
Hindsight is always 20/20 and when queried about what mistakes gay webmasters have made when taking their "toy stores" live to their members, Medina freely shared what he's seen work or what fell flat. "Female-oriented items or box pictures with women on them and/or a straight male-oriented sex toy store simply reskinned for a gay audience looks like a half-assed attempt," he says. "Also, having a shitty store is bad. There's no other way to say it. You've seen stores that you can't believe anyone ever bought anything off of. Is it really a big surprise when they don't convert? It's really not that hard to do things right, but it makes all the difference in the world. The biggest mistake is trying a terrible store and then being surprised when it doesn't work"
As for what is hot in the market right now, Medina reported that while cock rings and lubes continued to sell in 2007, penis plugs and penis jewelry, along with more advanced and sophisticated anal toys, were best-sellers too. With the first quarter, and that all-important Valentine's Day, of 2008 now also history, Medina noted some new entrants to the top-selling categories: "Prostate toys are one of the big growth categories. It's actually surprising that toys made to maximize male pleasure aren't already topping all the charts, but as education catches up with the category it's starting to show more growth. The primary gay objection has been: ‘How's that little piece of plastic supposed to satisfy someone who's used to big cocks?' As a result companies have come out with bigger prostate massagers and dildo manufacturers have followed suit."
While many of today's high tech, high-end novelties bear little resemblance to their crude forefathers, they are selling better then ever. Think of it as a little lemonade stand you can add to your exhibiting properties for a complimentary revenue stream that will make your bottom line anything but child's play.
GayVN
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