A DIY Original: Interview With Clips4Sale's Neil

These days, it’s becoming more and more common for adult performers to make their own content. But before 2003, it would have been much more difficult to get that content out to consumers. That was when Clips4Sales.com first came on the scene. The original clips site, it’s still a top creative outlet for producers of downloadable video clips.

The site features more than a thousand niche categories, and thousands of clips are added every day. Producers and sellers benefit from its high traffic volume, which Clips4Sale reports as generating more than 1.3 million daily page views and 20 million visitors each month. Neil from Clips4Sale took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about his company—and about the adult entertainment industry at large, and where it’s headed.

As a longtime exhibitor at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, you’ve seen the industry go through many changes: the mix of exhibitors, the type of performers who are active, even the fan base for adult entertainment. What have been some of the biggest changes for you and your business?

In my opinion, the biggest change would be the cam industry and how popular it has become. As far as our business, we have had our ups and downs like all businesses, and we have been working hard to adapt to any new trends or technology that can be integrated in to our platform. We have also seen a lot of piracy in the industry, and we are very proactive to fighting this without our producers incurring any fees whatsoever.

What are the basics that a new producer needs to start selling content on Clips4Sale.com?

When a new producer comes on board, we try to make it as simple as possible to get started. They need a valid ID to prove their age, and something to prove their address. We do ask them to sign a 1099 if they are based in the United States. Once we have the proof of who they are and where they live, then all they need to start is provide 10 unique clips and we can then turn their studio on for the world to see. We do ask that they have more content ready to go because you want to stay relevant on Clips4Sale.com, and the best way to do this is by adding new clips.

Can you tell us about some of the studios that have been around the longest?

Extreme Feet Clips was the first studio on C4S and has been there since Day 1. A few other longtime studios that have been in the Top 20 studiosn from the beginning: Silver Cherry ProductionsTickle Central and Fetish Fusion.

Are there certain studios that have consistently been top sellers the whole time?

The one that stands out is Grappling Girls. They have been around since the start and have always been in the Top 20 of all the studios.

Are there ever-changing trends in what sells best? What’s the hot seller currently?

The categories that are popular change often. Sometimes, there will be a category that is top-selling for many years and then something new comes around to top it. Blowjobs, Mixed Wrestling, Tickling, BBW, Farting, Female Training, Bondage, Foot Fetish are all popular categories and most of them remain popular over time.

Is there a particular type of content demanded by fans that is in short supply?

This is hard to answer because the individual studios are the producers of the content, and fans would contact them as far as what they want to see more of. If we ever get customer requests, we simply pass the info on to all studios. Some might take it and run with it, and some will simply continue on with what they are interested in shooting.

How about demand for certain types of performers? Anything from appearance—say, ethnicity, body type, age—to personality?

We do see a lot of BBW (Big Beautiful Women) content taking off. I don’t think there is a certain demand for particular types of performers, because there is something for everyone on Clips4Sale.com and customers will always find what they are looking for.

Like any other site with original content, piracy must be a big issue. How does Clips4Sale work to protect the content of its producers?

Piracy is a big issue and we have a DMCA takedown service that we provide to all our producers free of charge. If they ever find their content out there, they just provide us the links and we get it taken down ASAP. We are also getting into digital fingerprinting, which will block content from being posted on the most popular tube sites, and will also be free to all our producers.

You also have Images4Sale.com, Videos4Sale.com and C4SMembers.com. How do those sites complement C4S?

Back in the day many producers asked us if they could sell videos as well as image sets, so we built these sites for them to have one place to load their content and make life easier for them. Same with the members site. Many producers didn’t want to deal with bandwidth, billing, support and so on, so we decided to try to make a one-stop shop for them. These sites are currently being revamped and will soon all reside inside of Clips4Sale.com, making it easier and faster for customers to find the producers’ content.

Of the innovations that Clips4Sale has added over the years, which one has been the most important in keeping C4S in its place as market leader?

To be honest, we have been slow to upgrade in the past, but we are starting to make a lot of changes to improve the customer and producer experience. We will be adding a new admin with more reporting programs, as well as a customer user account to make it that much easier for customers to purchase, search and watch the content. The one thing that we have done since Day 1 that others just don’t do is buy traffic. We buy a lot of traffic, and not crappy traffic, but good traffic that converts. We do not hound our studios to do all the work—we want to be able to provide them with a platform that is ready to go and where they can make money simply by putting up their content. Sure, it always helps if producers to send traffic to their own studios, but it’s not something we require them to do. Another thing would be searching—search is most important to me, because the better the search, the faster and easier it will be for customers to find the content they want to buy. We are in the process of upgrading to a new improved advanced search that should be rolling out in the very near future. One more thing to add to this, which is equally as important, would be support—studio support and customer support.

We have by far the best support in the industry, which is 24/7, 365 days a year. When I started Clips4Sale.com in 2003, I said to myself that this must be done better than what is currently being done out there. Other sites take 24 to 48 hours to get back to you, but we set the standard at less than 15 minutes, and sometimes even faster. I even put my own personal cell phone number out there for all producers, so they can have a direct line with the owner of the site, which is also a first of its kind. You will never get to speak directly with the owners of adult sites, and I made this possible on Clips4sale.com. I am the sole owner, no partners, and no one to answer to, so I can listen to people and make split-second decisions. I love hearing from people—good or bad, it doesn’t matter—because I want to make myself available to them for whatever the reason.

How important do you think it is to expand into virtual reality or interactive/immersive content?

This is a great question. We have already partnered with a few companies in the interactive world and we intend to bring this content and experience to our platform. For example, imagine a producer shooting a clip with a model doing a hand job or even a solo model shooting a jerk-off instruction clip while a hand moves up and down—and the user at home is wearing his interactive toy and his toy is stroking him up and down with the movement of the girl on the screen. Add in VR to this and you’re in heaven. There are many ways we feel we can increase revenues on Clips4Sale.com with interactive content. This would also work with live cams, and the users will experience this live one-on-one with their favorite models.

Based on your years in the marketplace, what’s the next frontier for online adult entertainment?

Well, this is not an easy question, since it is basically predicting the future of adult. To me and for Clips4Sale.com, I think adding cams, paid times lines, white label and affiliates would change the clip download game in a good way. Adding more social aspects to the platform would take us into the next 20 years. Of course, we will always adapt to what we feel is beneficial to the platform, because we want our customers and producers to have the best experience possible and producers to earn as much money as possible. It’s also important to remember that Clips4Sale.com is not just a site for models to sell clips or production companies to sell clips, but we built this platform to serve everyone from the amateur guy or girl sitting at home wondering how they can make money online to the professional models who already are out there shooting content, as well as the production companies that hire those models and give them a job. Clips4Sale.com is for everyone.