IamA porn site owner. AMA!

How was that username not taken?

No idea.

What's one weird trick that will help me last longer and/or increase the size of my dick?

From personal experience? More foreplay.

If you've ever been given blueballs and afterwards pulled out your wang, you'd be surprised at how much bigger it can get. Freaked myself out once after a heavy petting session that wasn't advancing.

This user has provided proof to the mods.

How big was it?

We'll just say he's not the king anymore. ;)

I think that question was an allusion to the kind of bullshit advertisement most porn sites display.

I know. :)

Almost a third of the votes on this submission are downvotes. Tough crowd. :)

Does anyone ever actually click those share buttons?

Share to... what? Facebook?

and reddit, and google plus, etc.

I wouldn't know. I don't have them on our site.

Good man.

You mentioned good integration with Twitter earlier. That's for marketing? Like you have a twitter account for the site?

I have a twitter account for the site, but the twitter integration I spoke of is a feature that lets studios connect their twitter account and have it auto-post a link when their video goes live.

I'm looking for porn including a walrus with a tooth brush and their trainer. Do you have anything?

EDIT: Of course THIS has to be my highest rated comment...

Checking the archives.

Will an elephant seal and a tourist work? Also, do you care if the tooth brush is motorized?

That depends does the elephant seal have control of the motorized tooth brush?

Checking...

No, he doesn't. Sorry.

Do you ever visit other porn sites to get off? Or do you stick to your own?

I never get hard on my own supply.

Pretty much, the content on my own site isn't for me. We have some very attractive women on the site, but there isn't much traditional porn on the platform.

Hello. Interesting AMA.

Do you make enough to live comfortably?

Do you ever have any ethic concern?

Does your family know?

Can I have a free pass? ;-)

Edited a word

Hello. Interesting AMA.

Hiya. Thanks.

Do you make enough to live comfortably?

Yes. I grossed just shy of $300,000 last year. I drive a Mercedes and live in a luxury apartment in an expensive area of the country.

Do you ever have any ethic canceren?

Not really. My only concern is with legality and VISA/MC's "BRAM" violations, since they could blacklist me and prevent me from ever accepting credit cards again.

Does your family know?

My sister knows, but my mother doesn't. The rest of my family has passed away or never existed.

Can I have a free pass? ;-)

Hah. Would if I could, but my site sells clips individually. There are no subscriptions... yet. :)

What does your mother think you do?

I went self employed a year ago, but I have another website (which doesn't do as well) that I can point people to. As long as they don't examine it too much they probably wouldn't notice the lack of activity.

Awesome. What is the site name? :-)

lemonparty. ;)

(note: I'm kidding, of course.)

Dad?

Grandpas.

I wonder if that site has any serious profit. Everyone knows it.

I doubt it... accidental ad clicks, maybe. The thing about advertising is it works best when you sell it to people in your market. I would assume that not many people go, dicks-in-hand, to lemonparty. But if its one thing owning a site like mine has taught me, its to not make assumptions about what materials people look for while "firing the surgeon general".

yay, a foremen fan!

NICE! I was wondering if anyone was gonna get that reference.

You say what you grossed but what's your margin? And would you accept outside investment?

Net profit margins on clips are between 20% and 30%. Tribute margins between 10% and 20%.

So by my math you're making around $75k/yr. if you're grossing 300k--surely a comfortable life, but by no means the lap (or crotch, in this case) of luxury.

That sounds about right. Maybe less. Sometimes I'll work web contracts to supplement my income. It also helps remind me why I much prefer working for myself. :)

Can you elaborate on not having any ethical concerns? What measures do you have in place to make sure the performers in your videos have good working conditions, aren't being coerced or manipulated into performing, aren't victims of human trafficking, etc.?

I have no measures in place to prevent those, really. It's more policing them after-the-fact.

The only thing really in place is the ability to report a video, which then flags it for the review of an admin. If the video looks like it could be illegal, we take it offline until the studio can provide proof the video is legal.

According to the DMCA, content platforms cannot be held liable for the content posted by the user to a reasonable extent.

What I meant is I don't have moral concerns about the content of my site. A lot of it is pretty revolting, but it's not my job to judge or deny anyone for their fetish, as long as its within the bounds of the law.

Where do you think the future of porn on the internet is headed? all the sites like Redtube/youporn etc... all giving away porn for free has to make a big dent into your profits?

Where do you think the future of porn on the internet is headed?

The same direction the rest of the web industry is heading. HTML5 / Javascript MVC frameworks. High scalability platforms. The only advantage is there's a serious shortage of talented developers in the adult industry, so those of us who do know these technologies have an upper hand.

all the sites like Redtube/youporn etc... all giving away porn for free has to make a big dent into your profits?

We do find our studios' clips on some of these sites. Sometimes a DMCA notice works, sometimes not. However, since the bulk of my customers are into financial domination, they prefer to pay for the clips. We also make a good amount of money from "tributes", which are simply cash donations. Not sure of the legality of tributes, but they're an industry staple.

What is this "financial domination" stuff? Sounds real kinky! I searched for it on a competitors video site but couldn't find anything..

EDIT: oh god it's a real thing

It is indeed a real thing. I've come to learn about some pretty crazy fetishes people have.

FinDom (financial domination) Fart porn / flatulence Hiccups Giantess (look this one up. you won't believe it.)

What is financial domination? "A real thing" isn't really an answer and doesn't really help. Pls describe in further detail

Financial domination is a fetish where men, who are usually in powerful corporate positions, want to give up control. They're usually in charge, but this lets them not be. Sometimes it's via video chat, sometimes its just a video they purchase, but every time it has to do with being called names, told they're not good enough or just worthless "pay piggies". The girls will demand the men give them money, and they do. Usually there's not even any nudity unless its the man getting naked. I've seen some crazy shit with FinDom. Guys with broomsticks up their asses and womens clothes on... whatever the girl wants to do to humiliate the guy.

Sometimes they let the girls control their computer remotely with access to go through their email, send themselves money, etc, while they just watch with their dick in their hand.

It's odd and I don't understand it, but again, I'm not here to judge. I'm here to make money.

One studio I know demanded a man buy her a brand new BMW M3 convertible, and he did. He gave her $10k in cash per month until it was paid off. That's an $80k car.

I wish I was a hot girl...

They make pills for that.

That's really crazy, you're basically just giving money away to someone you don't know at all..

It is interesting, but it exists, so I don't question it too much.

What is your technical background? Are you a programmer? Do you manage the tech of the website yourself or is it 'outsourced'?

I've been programming full time for professional corporations and agencies for 15 years now. I do manage the tech myself, but I make heavy use of Amazon web services.

is it legal to post that kind of content on AWS ?

It's not not-legal.

Who moves more content than porn sites? AWS would be missing out on a large large profit if they didn't allow adult content.

[deleted]

My last gig I made $135k. Before that, $120k.

Why did you make this AMA anonymous when you could have used this as a marketing campaign?

How long have you been in the industry?

Do you still find porn appealing or is it all pretty run-of-the-mill now?

Why did you make this AMA anonymous when you could have used this as a marketing campaign?

I'm not really looking to profit off of this. I've read a bunch of awesome AMAs and figured I could contribute and answer some peoples curiosity. When I tell people in person they always have a hundred questions for me.

Besides, I find it difficult to believe anyone could be into some of the things on my site. I doubt it would boost sales.

How long have you been in the industry?

About 3 years.

Do you still find porn appealing or is it all pretty run-of-the-mill now?

I'm not turned on by many of the videos on my own site, so it hasn't changed porn for me much at all. I stick to beeg and motherless, personally.

Do you ever get approached by angry moms or family members asking you to take down their loved ones from the site?

Not yet.

Do you produce original content or do you buy content and resell it?

What's the average net profit of a typical clip, from a popular performer(s)?

Do you produce original content or do you buy content and resell it?

Neither. We grant studios the access to upload their own clips and add their own meta data, set the price, etc. They get a majority % of the sale.

What's the average net profit of a typical clip, from a popular performer(s)?

A couple of dollars. Most girls sell clips around $10, and of that they get to keep apx $6 - $7. Our net income for the clips are around 25%-40%. We give better rates to the better performing studios, to keep them interested and using our platform.

Me and my roommate have been toying around with the idea of starting a pron site, I have around 30k saved up, Would that be enough to start a redtube-ish website? Also whats the most expensive part of building a porn site? I.E. Licences , hosting, hardware, Hiring someone to build the website.

Nice! Good luck with it. It's a challenging industry. Things that would take 20 minutes on a normal business can take days in the adult industry. (finding a payment processor, for example)

A redtube-style site would be quite a challenge, financially, I think. Policing it could also be pretty difficult.

The most expensive part, for me since I did all of my own design and programming, was getting VISA/MC approval for a high risk account. VISA has a $1000 annual fee and MC has a $500 annual fee, at least through my payment processor. Fees are also ass-rapingly high.

You can make use of Amazon Web Services to lower costs substantially.

How much would you guess it would cost to design and program a video hosting website? Also how hard was it in the beginning to get studios to sell their clips on your site?

If I calculated it in hours spent on it myself, looking at around 3 months, so we'll say 500 hours. I charge $65/h if I ever take on freelance clients, so looking at about $32000 for someone at my rate. I'm expensive because of my extensive experience, so you can probably get it done for less.

It was very difficult in the beginning. Luckily my consultant, the girl who convinced me to start the site, is a studio herself and knows a lot of the top studios. We went after the top studios and offered them better %s and it worked. We now have:

751 studios 19,138 videos Apx 5000 visits per day - A good number of which are sent directly from the studios to purchase on the site or send a tribute.

Thanks for the replys, Its giving me a valuable insight. One more question, How many people do you have employed? And what are their roles?

I have myself, a consultant (she gets a profit split), and an assistant. Other than that, everything is fully automated. I didn't want to have to spend all my time on the site, so everything but customer support is automated -- all the accounting is done through Xero's API and I even have a porn-specific accountant/CPA.

Thank you again for answering my questions. :)

No problem. I'm an open book. Feel free to keep asking questions.

Of the 5000 visits per day, approx. how many actually purchase a clip?

Are you able to track repeat purchases (do they have to make an account to buy)? Or do you track another way?

A dozen orders, maybe 30 on a good day.

Can you give us a rough description of your architecture? What OS/Web server/language do you use... Do you use a CDN to serve up the videos or do you host them yourself? And what bits of AWS do you use? How many EC2 instances?

Thanks for your AMA, I'm finding this very interesting. I'm a developer (.net) who is looking for a niche where I can start up my own business... I know I'm not going to get rich working for a someone else... Congrats to you for doing this, and being very successful!

Thanks! I'm the same way. I couldn't see myself becoming wealthy as an employee, even though my last paying job as a developer was $135k salaried.

The site itself runs on a single server, a VM actually. It runs PHP with CodeIgniter for the framework and MySQL as the database. I make extensive use of CodeIgniter's caching abilities.

I have an FTP server setup where the usernames and passwords are powered by MySQL. Each studio gets their own FTP login. I have a cronjob that will run every few minutes and pick up files that are finished uploading and send them to Amazon S3 after gathering some basic meta information.

Once the video is safely on S3, the studios can complete the meta data, pricing, and choose when the video goes live.

All the video previews and gifs are uploaded to S3 and served through AWS Cloudfront CDN.

That's about it. Pretty simple.

[deleted]

Nope. The entire site is completely automated. All I do is approve the invoices in our online accounting software and handle customer support, which takes maybe an hour a week. :)

[deleted]

Start a porn site. :)

For me, it made sense as a money generating asset requiring little effort beyond the initial build.

[deleted]

Again, it goes back to money generating assets. Getting money for doing nothing is exactly what you should be aiming for if you want to make lots of money. I can't see myself becoming wealthy while working for someone else.

What types of porn will you not let on your site?

Spanking, anything that says "forced" or "rape", even if its clearly labeled as theatrical. Obviously nothing illegal... and no "hypnosis". Those are restrictions VISA/MC places on me. I've considered taking bitcoin on the new platform, but now I'm going to wait and see how this senate hearing thing plays out.

What is hypnosis porn?

You're getting horny. Verrrry horny. Look into my swirly eyes. Give me your monies. Giiiive me your moniiieees.

How did you get started in the biz?

I've been building websites for fortune 500 companies for 15 years now. Several years ago I reconnected with a girl I knew from IRC who did "financial domination" clips and cam shows. A few years ago (3 or so) she began suggesting I build a clip site. After a few months of this, and running numbers on what potential profits could be, I decided to do it.

why are there "Like" buttons and share buttons on porn sites?

I have no idea. Who would share the porn they're watching? Kind of a personal thing.

is it true all the talent is now moving from Cali due to the condom laws and going to Las Vegas?

I haven't heard too much about it from inside the industry. We do have a good amount of studios in Las Vegas, Florida, and England.

England

How is the industry over here?

Strong on the seller side. The buyer side is particularly weak.

Have you ever met some of the girls in the videos from the professional studios? If positive, have you done anythign whit said girl/s?

I know a few of them personally, but have only met one of them -- the girl who convinced me to build the site. She sleeps in my bed when she's in town, but I don't make any moves. Not sure how I would react if she did.

It may be worth noting at this point that personally, I'm into good girls. Risque women or "bad girls" don't do it for me, generally speaking.

[deleted]

Good question.

Although it's fairly common industry practice, I don't participate in it. It's odd, but I try to run my business as professionally as possible. No ads, no link exchanges, no share buttons, no privacy violations. Also, I treat my studios with respect as any normal business would to any partner of theirs. It's surprisingly easy to stand out in the porn business when you abide by those rules.

Have you noticed any issues with piracy?

Occasionally. I've found most people who spend money on the site either don't want to share something they've paid for, or would have an incredibly difficult time doing so.

What I mean is, a good portion of our demographic are middle-eastern men proxying through misc servers all over the US. They'd have a rough time uploading clips to another site.

Interesting demographics. People living in the Middle East, or just from there?

Any idea if this is normal for other sites as well?

Living in the middle east. Places where this kind of content is more than banned.

From what I understand, it's common for clip sites, financial domination sites and religious fetish sites.

Maybe a weird question, but do you have to do a lot in your day to day life or is it something on the background where you have a lot of time?

I don't have to do much at all. The site runs itself. I answer between 1 and 3 customer support emails per day and approve payouts to the studios once a month.

Other than that, I spend my time on my other business ideas and websites. Or I'll just sleep all day... Whatever I want to do, really.

Thats the dream

And probably the only reason I run my site. :)

ever thought of taking a second job? i mean with that less stuff to do you can add another job for more money.

I could, but my freedom to build my own businesses means more to me than income. As long as I can pay my bills and have my freedom, then I'm good.

Interesting read, thanks.

Honestly you shook have done this for advertising as this ama has been pretty good. More hits couldn't hurt.

Thanks, and no problem.

I appreciate the gesture, but I doubt any of you want fart porn.

... right?

How many times have people in videos sued or tried to take any legal action against you?

None.

My biggest competitor did threaten to sue me, though. And they've gone after my top studios, trying to get them to leave my site... slandering my business in the process.

Can you sue for defamation or slander?

You can.

I don't need to lose in court, I just need to be lawyer-fee'd to death. :(

I know which website is yours :P Other than the people uploading clips, how many employees do you have and what are their jobs?

:)

Just myself and my consultant (she also runs a studio). I have another "employee" who is helping me on another endeavor with the same parent company, currently uncompensated, whom I referred to as my assistant in another answer similar to this. Don't tell her that, though. She's much more helpful than an assistant.

Who did you have to bang to get that job?

I had to bang keys for 12 years to teach myself how to program. From there it's just about having enough fortitude to start a business, and even moreso with an adult business. There's a certain stigma involved. Most people know me as "the guy with the porn site".

Since you've been doing this for only a couple of years and it has been so financially successful for you, have you considered branching out into different types of porn sites? Or is this "buy a clip" the best business model you have found?

I wouldn't want to do other types. The buy content/sell subscriptions never really worked for me as a customer, and the redtube style sites don't work for me numbers-wise. I'm very anti-advertising, so I wouldn't want to rely on that as a source of revenue. My consultant has tried to get me to create a thumb-gallery style site, but I'm not fond of the idea.

We are working on a new platform, though, which will require customer accounts and lets them stream the videos they unlock through HTML5 video. We've also reorganized the new platform into fetish verticals so we can try to capitalize on that. Our current discovery process admittedly sucks. There's a lot of videos on our site that are in the dark.

I have always wanted to put my skills as an interaction designer to good use, by simply creating such a site as yours, especially for mobile devices or wearables. Augmented r porn ftw.

However getting the content has always been the biggest issue (even in the netherlands)... If you never have met this girl that initially gave you the idea to start this up, would you've managed? Or is it near impossible to get enough good content to get started, without good contacts and, lets say, about 30k in cash?

You wouldn't need an intro, per se, it just helps. You could take out advertising on popular sites in your micro-industry and get some studios coming in. You could also tweet the studios directly, as they watch their twitter pretty well (it's how a lot of them communicate with their "pay-piggies").

I would not have built the site without my consultant. It took a considerable amount of nudging from her to get me to build the site.

Do you see free sites such as pornhub and redtube as a source of lost profit?

What day see's the most traffic on your site?

I don't see them as a threat. Some of the studios do, though. I've been told my new platform shouldn't have the video previews I'm planning (20 seconds of footage), as guys "jack off to the previews". I think it's better for the customer, though.

Historically, Tuesdays. No idea why. Sundays are the slowest, by far.

Fascinating AMA.

What music/drugs do you like/use when coding?

What do you think about 3D porn and virtual reality porn?

Thanks.

No drugs. Currently listening to Fun. Disappointing, probably, but true.

3D Porn is interesting, as is VR. I'm more interested in network controlled adult toys. I think its the future.

You have already mentioned the worry about BRAM violations and losing your ability to receive payments. On a slightly different note, here in Britain we are seeing legislation that makes ownership of 'extreme' pornography a very fuzzy area (anything that could cause harm to another person, which could arguably include fisting or CP liable to cause marks); rape fantasy porn will be illegal to own/host, too... This means that sites here could get taken down even for hosting content that's not theirs or is user-uploaded (though to my knowledge this has not yet happened except for kiddie and bestiality violations). The government also wants to introduce an opt-in filter for porno on all home Internet connections in the coming year.

tl;dr and question: In Britain certain extreme content is becoming potentially illegal and porn, especially of certain types, is being vilified by the government. 1) What personal rules do you observe in terms of content you allow? 2) Are there any censorship rules in America that do/could affect content you post of extreme porno, and how do you deal with them?

1) I don't have personal rules. If it's legal and BRAM allows it, I allow it. I try not to judge. I mean, I'm clearly judging... but I don't let my opinion sway my content.

2) As far as I'm aware, there aren't many rules about it. I haven't been gifted with too many "extreme porn" studios, though, so that's been a blessing. It makes me quite a bit uncomfortable.

[deleted]

Right? I was just as stunned as the next man.

How often do you fap?

No more than the average reddit user.

So all the time?

I may or may not be fapping right now.

wouldn't you make more money offering the clips for free and making money off ad revenue?

Probably not. That would require massive traffic which is both expensive to attain and expensive to pay for the bandwidth. My customers come to the site looking to spend money, and they don't get any big video files until they've paid for them. Additionally, splitting revenue with the studios would be considerably more difficult.

What's the difference between a website like yours and websites like the nsfw version of youtube?

My site sells clips. You buy a clip for a price, you download it and its yours to view over and over. We have a profit sharing split with the studios who produced the clip. We're essentially a video sales platform.

I know the AMA is over, but how is your username not already taken?

I was surprised, as well.

How does the whole licensing thing go? Just shoot an email to a porn studio and be like "hey can I use your videos on my website? You get 30% of the revenue (; (; (;" I've always wondered how this sort of stuff worked in the "entertainment" field

They have to sign up on my site. I send out 1099s to domestic studios at the end of the year.

do you own this site

I wish. They're the biggest competitor in the field.

edit: for the record, I won't confirm or deny any other sites than this one, which isn't mine.

thanks for doing this AMA

Is is awkward or embarrassing saying what you do to friends and family? What about in relationships?

Are you considering retiring soon or do you really wanna see your site take off?

If I were making millions, I'd be a little less "embarrassed". It's not so much embarrassing, I just understand that in current society it's frowned upon. For example, if I were looking for a job, some companies may not hire me because of my site. Some girls wouldn't date me because of it. It really depends on the person I tell.

I've gone back and forth on whether or not to finish the new platform, but its so cool from a technological standpoint. Plus, I'm sitting on 20,000 clips with full permission to sell -- how could I not make a better site and give it a real go?

How did you get started, what made you decide to run a porn site?

Do you have a fav porn star?

I had a friend who urged me to make it (She runs a studio). After about a year of constantly asking, and the timing was right, we ran numbers and it looked doable.

I don't really have any favorites. I prefer "good girls".

Hi, do you ever have any trouble getting developers and designers to work on an 'Adult' website?

Also, can you recommend an adult payment gateway provider?

I've never tried.

As for the payment gateway, I'd recommend Netbilling. They'll work with you to find a merchant account provider and a gateway partner (they don't sell direct).

Do you have a girlfriend or wife? What did they think of the idea?

I don't. But quite a few girls know and don't really care.

What are your thoughts on Live Jasmine?

I honestly hadn't heard of it until now. It looks pretty damn impressive from a technical standpoint.

Do you like the job?

How did you get involved in the business?

What's your story?

It's not much of a job, really. Everything is almost fully automated.

I got involved from a friend who runs a studio bothering me about it until I finally built a site.

Fortune 500 web developer for 15 years, minus the last one when I've been self employed. Consistently launching side projects. This one has stuck.

Do you watch your own clips?

For humor content, sometimes yes. Nothing like a gorgeous girl backing her ass up to the camera and ripping the LOUDEST, JUICIEST fart you can imagine. I have pulled stomach muscles laughing at some of the clips.

Other than that, the content doesn't really interest me.

Do you participate in porn conventions?

I've been asked to, and I may go this year.

What is the site name?

Do you meet an stars, or anyone from the videos, or do you do everything at home?

Are you a guy or a girl?

I'd like to remain anonymous.

I know earlier I said I've only met one of the girls from the videos, but thinking back on it I have met 2 or 3. It's never a big deal, though.

I'm a man.

Your username is about as creative as the average porno.

I'm sorry, Mr Inferno. I must have... dropped... something...

Do you finger your penis?

Not anymore. Haven't you heard of NoFap?

How do you get your porn? Do you buy it from companies or is it produced by your site?

Studios provide the content themselves. I just provide the platform for them to sell it on, and I take a cut of the sale price. This approach removes most of the liability from me for the content of the clips, aside from what VISA/MC decide I can't sell -- which is pretty much a made up list that they won't give me.

How do you market the site to potential content providers?

We have pretty good integration with twitter, and there's also JuicyAds and advertisements with blogs/sites in the same micro-industry.

Marketing major here, how do you make sure your site gets enough viewers? I honestly always wondered how adult video websites get their traffic amidst the saturated market.

We don't do much advertising. When we do, its with JuicyAds and direct to privately owned blogs.

But how do you get the desired traffic then? I am often baffled how this comes to be so if you would not mind explaining this I would be gratefully appreciated :)

We undercut the competition on rates when we first started, so the studios send their own traffic. That, along with some long-running partnerships with blogs. They'll write articles and feature a clip or two from our site.

Hello. How can you remain anonymous owning a site? Isn't it fairly easy to lookup? If not, how can one make one make money and remain anonymous?

Plsplspls respond, really want to know!

I can't. Hence my semi-anonymous wish. I just ask people respect my privacy. My anonymous wishes are with this AMA, not with owning the site itself. :)

People have to understand I'm giving out traffic numbers, revenue numbers... it's all competitive information. I'm trying to give insight to people on what it's like.

Have you heard of NoFap and if so how do you feel about it? Do you feel guilty at all?

I haven't. And no, I don't feel guilty. The content on my site isn't for everyone, so I kind of bundle the no-porn people in with the masses that aren't into financial domination or giantess porn.

You're gonna google that, aren't you?

What's your daily workout / nutrition regimen? D you have a boyfriend?

I walk to the car. Drive to a restaurant. Walk back to the car. if the elevator is taking a while, I'll walk down the stairs. If I'm stuck down in the garage waiting on the elevator then I'll just wait. My Fuelband numbers are disappointing.

Chicken and veggies, mostly. Sometimes pasta.

No boyfriend. I'm not gay.

is ....4sale.com your site?

Nope. And thats the only site I'll confirm or deny. They are my biggest competitor though.

[deleted]

Proof sent to mods via PM.

[deleted]

I've PMed the mods my proof. I appreciate the request to respect my semi-anonymity. :)

Can you buy me a laptop?

Sorry, all out of laptop funds. :)