I have a few original solo j/o scenes I filmed several years back when I toyed with the idea of starting a paysite. It recently occurred to me that rather than just sitting on my hard drive doing nothing maybe I should put these videos on a pay per download site like Clips4Sale and see if they generate any income. A few questions come to mind:
I was reading the Lance Hart blog and he says he made on average about $3,000 a week from his clips on C4S. For those of you who use C4S, do those income estimates sound too high, low, or just about right?
Do you think plain old J/O scenes have a chance of doing well on C4S or must you look for some untapped niche subject? My initial impression is that fetish niches seem to do the best on sites like C4S so I’m wondering if I should even bother with “normal” j/o videos.
Is C4S the best place for gay scenes? Another poster in this forum said several years back that clips.com is better for gay scenes.
So who knows? Maybe if I put up the scenes I have on C4S it will motivate me to shoot more and actually start a full paysite in 2016, something I ruled out many years ago.
I don’t doubt Lance’s numbers at all, but I do know a number of C4S Clip store owners, and I have several clip stores myself. In general, the big bucks are most likely going to be coming from straight fetish material, not gay. Within gay, if you have something “out there” that can’t be found easily on paysites or VOD, then you definitely have a chance at making some good income, but I would note that this is highly dependent on driving your own traffic to your C4S store(s).
I’ve found that a clip store is a great “testing ground” for new concepts and ideas, and it is certainly useful in that sense. With a modest amount of traffic you can see what might be a seller and what might be a dud.
I have a clips store, and an image store that serves me well. Video will sell better than images, but in your case you’ll need a certain amount of scene to qualify to open one, then it’s wise to update with new clips and not let it stay dormant for too long.
Another good thing about C4S, everyone and their mother are using them now, so consumer confidence it there and if you have unique clips that will interest surfers, then you will fare well. My personal feeling is J/O clips may not be that hot a commodity, primarily because so much is available for free.
Thanks for the info. The C4S business model I had in mind that is peaking my interest is this: pay a model $500 for a solo j/o video, then sell that on C4S. If I can make $10 profit on each sale that means I only need to sell 50 downloads before breaking even. Anything beyond that could be re-invested in hiring more models and eventually building a whole pay site. Easy way to a million dollars, right?
Of course, in this day and age when sites like Sean Cody and others pay guys two grand for a solo I’m not sure what kind of quality I’d get by only offering $500.
[QUOTE=naked;163846]Thanks for the info. The C4S business model I had in mind that is peaking my interest is this: pay a model $500 for a solo j/o video, then sell that on C4S. If I can make $10 profit on each sale that means I only need to sell 50 downloads before breaking even. Anything beyond that could be re-invested in hiring more models and eventually building a whole pay site. Easy way to a million dollars, right?
Of course, in this day and age when sites like Sean Cody and others pay guys two grand for a solo I’m not sure what kind of quality I’d get by only offering $500.[/QUOTE]
You’d be wise to go back to your calculator on this one. Firstly, assuming you’re not film pro performers, five bills is way overpriced, especially with your platform being C4S. Your logic may be more sound if you ran a paysite, but even then the profit margin is still cut a lot thinner. Secondly, to profit ten bucks per sale would mean you’d have to set the sale price at fifty bucks or more (doing math off the top of my head). And it’s a safe bet no ones paying that much for amateur stroke scene, surfers interested in that are already in chat rooms and other free venues.
The realty of what you’re trying to do would be to pay strokers fifty to a hundred dollars per shoot, you’re going to need a minimum of six scenes (think that’s there min). The system sets the price for you and is based on length and size of your clips, you have the option to set you own price, however do the research on the site and see what movies of similar type are selling for first. Then you’ll have to market the shit out of it and try to get as much targeted traffic as you can, however it’s like going to be a long stretch before you reach your ROI (return on investment), let alone profit.
Try speaking to Adult Centro - they are light in their gay offerings, and are seeking to expand. Saves you the time and trouble of selling on a per clip basis, they are EXCELLENT to deal with.
Housekeeper, here’s my math: sell a clip for $17.00 on C4S. The C4S share is $6.80 (40% of $17.00) so my take is $10.20. Am I missing something here? True, not all solo clips sell for $17.00 or higher, with most of the ones I’ve seen selling in the $9.95 range. But many producers break up videos into three parts, the solo, an interview and something else like a shower or massage. So I think getting at least $17 for three videos is a reasonable expectation. But again, if I’m forgetting something please let me know.
As for the going rate for models, you guys that are saying $500 is too high must not be in America. When you have Sean Cody flooding Craig’s List across America with ads where they offer guys $2,000 and a trip to California… for a solo(!), prospective models see this and won’t even consider anything less… unless they apply to SC and get rejected.
When I dabbled in this a year or so ago I tried offering somewhere between $300 and $500 for a solo j/o scene and got very few high quality applicants. Several asked about the Sean Cody ads that ran along side mine and I had to explain that I was just starting out and didn’t have their budget. I got a couple guys willing to do a scene because they got off more on the experience than the money, but I think the really hot college age guys now know that they can probably demand a high rate by applying to Sean Cody, Corbin Fisher, etc.
I signed up with CS4 many months. Every day I do sales on XTube, AEBN, and MyDirtyHobby… to date I’ve had exactly ZERO sales with CS4. If they have any gay customers, I don’t know how you would reach them.
I’m in America, the going rate of a solo is $100. If you have a gorgeous, buff, Sean Cody type then you might consider paying the $500 but I seriously question any ability to sell gay content on Clips4Sale… especially at $17.00 a clip. People know they could buy a DVD or a site membership for that.
I seriously question any ability to sell gay content on Clips4Sale… especially at $17.00 a clip. People know they could buy a DVD or a site membership for that.
This was exactly my thought also and the reason I started this thread. I’m kind of amazed that anyone makes any money on C4S, but then again, I’m also amazed that people spend money on cam sites like Video Secrets when Cam4 offers the same thing (or better) for free. On C4S you have sites like Red Hot Straight Guys and Slow Teasing Handjobs that seem to have built their business around the C4S business model so there must be something to it.
I think if you want to make money there you have to provide the traffic to your store thru other web properties and advertising… but if you’re going to do that, you would probably want to just set your site up and bill yourself. Especially if CCBill is still offering that no fee for the first $15,000 or whatever they posted about a while back.
