If you're like most people, an avatar sounds like a creature you'd see at the zoo. And if you've heard of the place called Second Life, you might figure it's full of geeks who can't manage to have a first life.
Enough of that. It's time to get hip with virtual reality because there's real money to be made in that fake world. Porn companies and sex toy manufacturers are already exploring the "VR space," and you will miss out if you don't make the plunge.
"The adult virtual market has come of age," said Stroker Serpentine, CEO of Eros.
He should know. Serpentine — he's known as Kevin Alderman when he's not in virtual reality — was described by Wired News as "Second Life's porn mogul." After all, he made a cool $50,000 by selling Second Life's "Amsterdam," a digital city complete with a red light district.
Serpentine predicts that 2009 is going to be a banner year for virtual reality, with plenty of adult opportunities. In fact, he expects a third adult space to open its doors this year.
Currently, Second Life and Red Light Center are the two VR spaces that have adult components. Both allow users to create avatars — second selves, basically — and interact with others in the virtual world.
That's where you come in. "People go into VR expecting to interact with other people, and if you can find a way to make it easy to interact not just with each other but with porn stars, even better," said sex columnist and author Regina Lynn.
"There are plenty of opportunities to make money in VR," Lynn explained. "You can hold screenings (‘classics' night on Wednesday to leverage content you shot 15 years ago), debut new movies at in-world premieres, host virtual cocktail parties with porn stars as guests of honor, facilitate Q&As with really famous people in the business, set up a storefront where people can buy the movies with in-world currency, offer a streaming library that anyone in-world can pull into their virtual televisions when they tuck in with their avatar partners for a cozy evening."
These aren't far-out ideas. Dave Levine, aka SexToy Dave, has already found a ready market for his SexToy.com site on Second Life. He's been throwing weekly parties there for two years at a replica of his Hollywood home, complete with stripper poles.
"We are working with VirtuallyAdult.com and have developed virtual vending machines where people can buy sex toys in the virtual world and then the products get shipped in the real world," Levine said.
Sex toy manufacturer OhMiBod has also made its presence felt in Second Life. "We look at our compatibility with Second Life as an additional avenue and/or another reason for a consumer to purchase an OhMiBod product," said company founder Suki Dunham. "We are excited to have added this new twist to the OhMiBod experience."
How do you get started? Serpentine suggests that cyberporn webmasters contact the business development and marketing departments of virtual world sites. Billboards offer one kind of advertising opportunity, and webmasters can find others by creating accounts and exploring the possibilities, he says.
"Remember that these are social spaces," he said. "Feel free to ask questions of seasoned residents. A large portion of the market is run by amateurs offering galleries. There's plenty of room for motivated content providers with a little creativity."
The virtual world isn't for everyone, Lynn warned. "Online interaction is natural for some people and forced for others. You can't just show up in a virtual world and push content at people," she said. "If you don't have fun interacting in virtual worlds, if avatars and public versus private chat and teleporting and building virtual environments doesn't appeal to you - or worse, it confuses you and you can't figure out why anyone would bother — stay out."
Lynn emphasizes that webmasters need to think carefully about the wants and needs of women, who make up a large percentage of those who visit virtual worlds.
"Women drive a lot of the sex in virtual worlds — probably most of it," Lynn says. "They find partners and have cybersex, and they also set up businesses where they do virtual escorting, dancing, and other performances. They aren't going to beg a porn webmaster to help them or audition for roles or be grateful for crumbs. They'll be sensitive to condescension and disrespect and kick you right out of their communities if you don't measure up."
Her advice? "Porn producers will have more success if they see themselves as content partners rather than putting material out there and expecting anyone to care."
In other words, the virtual world is just like the real one: You've got to work to be a success.
This article originally appeared in the February issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe.
