Are Your Porn Consumption Habits Changing?

[rawTOP]

You may or may not have noticed it, but I was a bit absent from keeping up my sites for about 9 months - from about October to June while we oversaw renovations on our new place. I'm now trying to get back into the swing of things. This site is my only site that's seen an increase in visits over the past year. rawtop.com has seen a decline which I chalked up to my neglect. But in talking with some of my sponsors who see "traffic" from a lot of folks like me they say visits are down across the board - on blogs, on tube sites - pretty much everywhere.

Thing is, no one seems to know where the "traffic" has gone... It's like a highway where one day you realize there's just a lot less cars than there used to be. It's not just affecting a few people - it seems to be affecting people across the board.

So, since you guys are representatives of the visitors that seem to be going missing - I've got a question for you - are your or your friends' porn consumption habits changing? Are you or your friends clicking on fewer banner ads? Are you or your friends just staying on tube sites? Are there community sites that are meeting your jackoff needs? Are you guys looking at pics on Twitter & Facebook?

In other words, the tech industry is one of those businesses where you adapt or die. Help me understand what you guys need and want - what you and your friends are doing differently so I can provide that for you and my business (and ability to meet your needs) can continue to grow.

[Belfast-Bottom]

Over the years my porn tastes vary between video/photographic and written. I like to switch between the two options to keep them fresh. Lately, I've been finding the written word less exciting. The rise of photo/video tumblr accounts means that I have lost interest in almost all blogs. I use xtube a lot as I like reality porn and I also visit those sites which offer FREE commercial porn clips. I might be wrong, but I think tumblr is taking a lot of traffic from blogspot. I'm looking forward to rawTOP's upcoming video site!

[AlwaysOpen]

In my opinion too many of the sites launch with great energy, and then the site admin looses some of his enthusiasm as issues keep cropping up ( like BNSkin, for example- they STILL have an apology for the site going down 2 years ago !!) Local sites get stale- the same guys are always online, 24 hours a day, looking for right now ( you want a laugh?? monitor BBRT Ft Lauderdale quick connect for 4 days- 1 guy is ALWAYS looking for a boi ( or boy, depending on his mood.) Another guy posts he has his sling up--and then it is usually followed by - out of town until Monday or some gibberish. The guys at BBRT should be seeing that and killing those ads, so the real ads seem genuine or at least likely to result in action. But I think BBRT is hitting that point in life where it isn't "fun" to be running the web site anymore for them. And I love the site- not trying to slam it- but ALL sites are like a garden and need daily tending, with lots of weeding.

I like this site because every day there are new threads, new input on old threads. (And whthole4U makes this bottom cum more than a roomful of tops with his stories <g>)

So Raw- pay attention to the site, groom it and tend to it, and I think the action will stay on here. You have already suggested a location option may be coming in an update- I think that would be great- to find other guys on here who are local. This doesn't have to be a hook up site, but it can be a good networking method for pigs to meet up at a sex club or bookstore-- the regional forum thing for what ever reason does not seem to really function- I think too many guys forget it is in the system. ( one of the guys who serve as an admin even forgot the birthday feature is on the front page- after making a post about posting birthdays , I msgd him and let him know it already was listed- just was buried)

[rawTOP]

So Raw- pay attention to the site, groom it and tend to it, and I think the action will stay on here.

Just to be clear - I'm absolutely going to keep this site moving forward, but it's not my biggest money maker and I need money to run sites and live life. My business is one based on volume of people I can get to see what I do. If I do a blog post and 100 people look at it I make a lot less money than if 10,000 people look at it - so I have to figure out where people are going and what they want and be at the right place with the right content. [And because Google controls so much traffic, I have to constantly try to make Google as happy as possible.] But absolutely, this site is central to my long term plans. I just need to make sure I'm staying current in other endeavors as well.

[spike-the-cat]

1. Tumblr: As someone suggested above: I think Tumblr is sucking a lot of traffic. Yes, most of the photo blogs are using imags they don't have rights to, but that's not what makes it suck so much traffic: It's the ecosystem: It makes it so easy to move from one person's blog to another, to start your own blog and get a feed of images from the Tumblr blogs you follow. You have all these separate sites--even refer to them as such--where the sorting and presentation are one way. One of the great new features with the recent upgrade here is the improved "What's New" feed. And your aggregation of the feeds from various external bloggers is great. But it's your choices. With both the "What's New" and the bloggers, you run through the recent posts and you're done. It doesn't lead you anywhere. This and your other sites are silos with ads, not part of an ecosystem of content, and that's affecting your traffic and will continue to. Frankly, this is a tough one, and I don't se an easy way forward. Pulling all your related sites together, allowing logged in users to build customized feeds by subscribing to various topics--these might help.

2. Mobile. This one *IS* addressable, and you aren't doing it. I was rather shocked that the recent upgrade didn't include either responsive design or a mobile alternative. I won't pick sides in the battle over which approach is best--at least not here--but the fact is people are using their computers less and their phones and pads more, a trend that will only continue. There is no good reason that a text-centric site like this one shouldn't be easy to use on a phone or pad. But it's close to impossible to read on my phone, muchh less navigate. Even the minimum width leaves text too small, and links aren't buttonized for the phone, so it's hard to navigate. If you don't have a plan to make all your sites mobile-friendly, if not mobile-first, within the next nine months, you will continue to bleed traffic. It is trickier (though not impossible) for image or video-based sites, but a site like this should be a no-brainer.

[rubio2001]

For me it's simply the fact that porn just isn't as exciting as it used to be. 99% of the porn out there is the same stuff, over and over. Just about every fetish has been done, and there isn't a lot of interesting new porn (at least in gay porn). It's been 10+ years of finding easily accessible porn on the web. It's not like back in the day when it was just so exciting to find porn on the web and you didn't have to drive down to the video store to rent some porn. It's just getting old. The 'gold rush' days of porn is pretty much over.

Also, it's just easier to get laid nowadays. I'll catch myself watching porn and I'll stop and ask myself, "Why are you watching porn when you can be getting the real thing?"

I think the reason this site has gotten more traffic is because it's not really related to porn all that much. It's about real life bareback fucking where guys can read about other guys who are cum whores like themselves.

[rawTOP]

Thanks for the comments. Responses are below...

1. Tumblr: As someone suggested above: I think Tumblr is sucking a lot of traffic.

I've now started to experiment with Tumblr. A bit late to the game, I know, but better late than never...

2. Mobile. This one *IS* addressable, and you aren't doing it. I was rather shocked that the recent upgrade didn't include either responsive design or a mobile alternative. I won't pick sides in the battle over which approach is best--at least not here--but the fact is people are using their computers less and their phones and pads more, a trend that will only continue.

There is a mobile app you can use to read the site... Forum Runner - look for it in the app store - it's free. There's so much complexity to the site dumbing it down for mobile would be extremely difficult - it's easier to just use the app. I just checked and the site used to tell iPhone users that the app existed. It doesn't anymore... I'll have to look into that... But it does exist...

Now that I'm getting back on track one of my goals for the next 6 months is to redesign/rework all my blogs. Those will be migrated to mobile-friendly Wordpress themes... And another goal is to get away from the .flv movie format and move to .m4v that can be viewed on the iPhone and iPad. And the new tube site will be iPhone/iPad friendly.

So good suggestions... Especially the mobile stuff is something I have on my radar...

[Belfast-Bottom]

Interesting that another poster has picked up on the photo/video appeal of Tumblr. Hopefully rawTOP's upcoming video site will meet that need. The draw will be that it is 100% bareback! Occasionally I sit through a longish video on xtube that has a bareback tag only to find a condom appear - VERY annoying! I have ZERO problem with the ads on rawTOP's sites. Many of the visual ones are HOT and they provide links to sites which are likely to have interesting content. I MUCH PREFER to have rawTOP's sexy and unobtrusive ads rather than pay a site subscription. rawTOP needs to get the site running costs from somewhere.

[fillmyhole]

i only view bareback amature tube sites now, gay 7 straight. commercial porn turns me off, i rarely click banner ads

[GermanFucker]

Is my porn consumption changing?.... yeah I think so. Ten years ago when bareback was new average guys swapping loads were so much hotter than greek-god-like porn megastar having safe sex. Over time this led to an avalanche of sub-par bareback porn, a habitat for jaded drug addicts and mediocre wannabes. If I want amateurs I don't need to buy a DVD or a website subscription for that. Millions of guys with iPhones give that away for free, and among these are thousands of hotties. Plus you can chat with them and if you friend them on Grindr you might even hook up for real.

It's like cheap reality TV: Fuck that scripted bullshit pretending to be the real thing. I want either the real real thing or high quality fiction. So as for porn: Sometimes I'm in the mood for real amateurs, then I'll visit CAM4 or so. And when I lust for scripted porn, I'll chose quality options like Sean Cody that have guys with nice bodies and great smiles who were made for doing porn. Bareback, of course

My rule of thumb: Porn should be at least as good as the memories I have of the last ten years barebacking. If not I'll jack off to to the porn in my head starring me.

Edited August 19, 2012 by GermanFucker

[HardhatBB]

a HUGE percentage of realley bad BB porn out there.

-i remember when it was the other way around...either had to get the old stuff, or a little few of current BB...

-original Breed Me, t island stuff..first time i saw that woooof

like bieng blind and then could see>

[bbfan74]

I don't know if this is helpful. But I think what the internet is missing is a comprehensive news site about bareback porn stars.

There is Queermenow which ignores bb stars most of the time (apart from the occasional mentioning).

Interviews with bb porn stars would be cool and I don't think you find too many on the net. And if you find them, they're either from the studios or REALLY hard to find.

I'm not sure if this is helpful and whether this will really bring lots of traffic, but I think it might.

[Tubesoxer]

Yeah, for me it is all about tumblr lately, pics and vids. Who needs a 40 minutes scene when all the cum and dump action can be seen in 5 minutes.

[Scruffy]

I've been addicted to porn since I was able to get into an adult bookstore when I was under age (17). VHS was just out and I had one. After I sucked some cocks off in the peep booths, I left with my purchase of "The Other Side of Aspen" and I have been hooked since. Call me a pig, but I love seeing a hot top with a big cock fuck a hot bottom hard until each of them squirt copius amounts of cum. Bare is best, but a good wrapped fuck can make hot porn too.

[subblkbtm]

Yes, our habits have changed and contrary to popular belief it is not the result of the end user. Porn industry stars and owners have unfortunately had disputes these individuals end of leaving the companies that made they successful. They venture of to create new companies explore interest based on there personalities thereby further fragmenting a market. Today, you can find raw porn in every fetish to twinks, blacks, bears, daddies etc. Porn consumption probably remains the same we now just have more choices making the viewing audience smaller for a particular brand.