Vive le Difference
The gay market is more varied than some may think.
It was just another glamorous Tuesday night in South Beach. I had a date with a box of detergent, a washing machine and a high-maintenance pile of natural fibers. I was busy folding when a guy came in, noticed I had a few minutes left and wondered aloud why I didn't wait for the cycle to complete. I told him that taking clothes out a bit early minimizes wrinkles, and he looked at me as if I were first to postulate the Earth is round. "Damn. You gays know all of the tricks!" he said with a mix of bemusement and discovery that I mirrored with my reaction to his comment.
As with many adult entertainment issues on which I offer the rainbow viewpoint, taking clothes out of a washer early is not a secret handshake of the gay mafia. It simply is a classic case of working smarter, rather than harder. The gay and straight markets are much more alike than many think, but their distinctions often are overlooked. Many issues causing us all to reach for an extra pint of green brew on St. Patrick's Day have nothing to do with sexual preference, and anyone who thinks they do will disappear by April Fool's Day and find the joke is on them.
Which webmaster shows offer the best return on your investment? Who has the best comprehensive international billing solution? What will happen next with 2257? How do we effectively combat piracy while maintaining viral marketing efforts? Where have all of the affiliates gone, and how do we motivate the ones who are left? For anyone who splits his or her time between a keyboard and a camera, "To go high-def or not" joins the list of questions we wish the Magic Eight Ball would really answer. We all wish we had the solutions. We can, however, shed some light on a matter in which many are more in the dark than they realize: the gay market.
The term "gay market" is where the trouble lies, and it's in the methodology, not the terminology. Since the biggest stumbling block in entering the gay sector is thinking all gay men like anything with a penis, cock-laden sites are hastily thrown together and heads are scratched when the sites fail to convert. It's said that retention is better on the gay side, and we all know the profit is in the rebills, so who doesn't want a piece of that pie? The problem is not with the pie; it's with the recipe.
Start by taking a look at your own market and the countless niches and sub-niches: If there was not a specific audience, the sites would not exist. From teens to mature, BBW to Latinas, and the most vanilla to the most extreme, most programs have dozens of sites trying to lure as wide a cross section as possible. This is because it is understood that different folks like different things to stroke to. When they find it, they will buy. When they don't, they will look elsewhere. While only 10 percent of the population is gay, we are a microcosm with sexual appetites just as varied and specific as yours.
Like
with men and women, the ties that bind often are more numerous than one may
think, and the exceptions often are overlooked. Gay
and straight webmasters and affiliate programs share many battles in a world
that privately loves our products but publicly would have us all swept under
the rug. When it comes to choosing who to target and what to market to them,
the straight sector often ignores its own rules by painting the entire gay
population with a single broad stroke of pink. Remember: You will never have a
bank account that is over the rainbow if you are oblivious to how many shades the
rainbow contains.
Harlan Yaffe is a co-owner of PrideBucks.com.
This article originally appeared in the March 2008 edition of AVN Online magazine. To subscribe to AVN Online, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscriptions/ .
