This month has been pretty bad for my sales, and since about the middle of the previous week I virtually didn’t get any. This worries me a lot.
My google organic traffic hasn’t changed much, but bing organic has dropped sharply since October 2nd due to unknown reasons.
I suppose people are worried about corona and have become stingy about their porn expenses (which they probably consider to be “luxury” now). If this trend continues I don’t know what to do. Strangely enough, this has been the only business I’ve ever done since I graduated at the university.
Mine have been actually doing better. I am not the typical situation though in that I mainly do custom-built galleries and submit them to old-school link lists like Link-o-Rama, the Hun, Elephant List, etc. I have my own growing network with dedicated TGPs and sponsor-clip driven tube sites (no user uploads ever, very little scraping the big guys). I even had a sale from my shemale tube site this month.
I think the US election tensions and Brexit have many people sitting on their wallets. I do see increases in traffic all over, so people are out there - they are just being a bit more selective about their purchases.
I have watched a lot of trends in my 20 years at this, and to me, it is just like the stock markets. Don’t give up. Look for a different way to get the word out there. I think it is all about having the interesting content at the right place at the right time.
This has been one of my worst months as well. September was actually pretty good, but October has been a nightmare. Very depressing. Hope it gets better soon.
The summer was pretty bad but a slight increase in October. Not enough to feel terribly positive though. During the first lockdown sales were better but I’m guessing as the virus dragged on people are more careful with their money.
Traffic is steady and increased a bit however that’s after putting in a lot of work on SEO. The general trend seems to be that Google is restricting traffic more and more. Previous adult terms are now classified as non porn and shows things like Amazon.
The virus and the economy is bound to have an affect on everything though, porn isn’t isolated from the rest of the economy.
It’s hard when it feels like it’s never going to go back to the highs of the past no matter what you do. It can’t really, it’s now more about long term survival than hoping for extraordinary sales or traffic gains.
Do you also accept old school galleries, or mainly blog posts? I used to blog but just have not had time lately nor do I expect to until after the first of the year.
Maybe we can come up with a new way of doing things, maybe more networking. To me, it is all about a quality experience for the visitor. All of my sites have very minimal advertising, so what is there stands out. I want to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by dozens of ads and links so that my visitors can relax and enjoy. Am I crazy?
Hello Bjorn, this is Paul from SeeMyBucks - Can we submit FHG to your blog? We have some hot galleries for WatchDudes and SeeMyBF – Please let me know.
Yes, I already submit to Gay Wired. Thanks for that, every little bit of traffic helps.
I also think that the virus and the US elections play a role in users’ porn decisions at this time. The elections will pass, though, but when will the virus go away?
For most of the gay galleries I build, I host the pics and video clip. For those few sponsors that give embed/hosted videos, I still host all of the pics. Oh, yes, and I always give recips. First gallery submitted, and I have my fingers crossed.