NEW YORK -- There have been delicious moments in history when the sleazy became the sublime: When Parisian housewives hung Gaugin's Tahitian nudes in drawing rooms. Or when Tropic of Cancer became a must-read for horny undergrads.
It was clear this week from the collection of spruce, clean-cut men and women at a New York New Media Association panel discussion that "respectable" folks want to divine the business tricks of the online adult trade.
In 1998, consumers spent US$1.4 billion online, and $1 billion of that -- 69 percent -- went to adult sites, panel moderator and editor of @NY Jason Chervokas said Wednesday. "This is our opportunity to look under the hood and learn [why porn is so profitable]."
Panelists -- ranging from the editor of Nerve Magazine to a porn-publishing scion to an industry analyst -- agreed there are three essentials for turning a profit on the Net: The cost of creating content must be kept low, financial partnerships are key, and building brand and community is essential.
Profit, after all -- big profit -- is what adult Web sites are all about.
"The big boys [like Warner Brothers] are listening," said Mark Hardie, senior analyst with Forrester Research, referring to one of his clients. "What they can learn from the adult industry is that you have to develop trust and build brand with audience members."
"Remember, the Web is experiencus interruptus -- point and click, point and click. You have to learn how to create a compelling experience online," Hardie said.
Not all online porn is equal, said Jane Duvall, but mainstream new media professionals can learn from the differences.
What works for Duvall, the editor and founder of Jane's Guide, is getting to know her users.
"We did a survey of our audience that indicated that 20 percent of the people coming to our site have been coming every week for at least a year," she said. Duvall embeds her URL in a weekly newsletter that announces new features on the site, making it easy for visitors to return again and again.
Recycling raw material is another business trick often employed by online adult sites, said Hardie.
"Penthouse and Playboy do it. These days, because of the nature of the online medium, your assets have a shelf life they've never had before," he said. "Mainstream media has vaults of content they could [re]use that still has value."
Cyberporn guru Mike Tiarra, the 29-year-old president of the trade association of adult Web sites, United Adult Sites, said the mainstream media have a lot to learn about the cooperation and collaboration that works so well within the adult industry.
"I tell the clients who consult with me that people who are making money are those who work together," said Tiarra, who suggests that clients work together to create a network of entertainment and commerce sites that keeps visitors from leaving.
In a $1.4 billion industry, there's plenty of cake to go around.
