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But I Like It Too: Building Sites Especially for Her
The adult Web has been, by far, e-commerce’s greatest success story.
And its market has consisted almost exclusively of horny males—who
represent less than half the market. Most of the potential (and willing)
market is female, yet few seem interested in seeking this business.
Is there something wrong with this picture? Of course there is. Just
one catch—you will have to understand women...
Can you say “opportunity cost?” A growing number of other webmasters
can, and they are finally starting to worry about missing the boat:
“Perhaps the largest untapped customer base still left in the erotica
business is that which is made up entirely of women. With the vast
majority of adult sites geared towards men, half the population of
the entire world is left with little online designed specifically
to get them turned on.” [Marachino 2002]
With the exception of rare success stories, like purve.com and nerve.com,
there are very few adult sites especially for women. The Erotica for
Women Webring has only 21 sites, and not all of them are winners.
An enormous opportunity exists, but few seem to have noticed, and
fewer still have managed to do it right and profit so far.
Web Sites for Her
Webmastering and business skills are transferable to different content.
A good salesman can sell any product, and it’s the same with selling
adult erotica in any of the various niches, but “That doesn’t mean
that you can just march straight in and start churning out sites and
making sales... you need to understand what you are selling.” [Marie
2003] Unfortunately, in this case, that means understanding women—a
daunting prospect, sometimes even for other women. But, “When building
your sites, understanding women is key.” [Marachino 2002]
Female feedback is absolutely necessary. The English philosopher Bertrand
Russell thought it significant that Aristotle maintained that women
have fewer teeth than men; and that although he was twice married,
it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his
wives' mouths. (Impact of Science on Society, 1952). Duh… If you are
a guy (or even if you aren’t), ask, and also solicit any necessary
help: “If you are a man building this site, talk to women and ask
them what turns them on… perhaps find a woman partner to help you
write the text.” [Marachino 2002] Everyone agrees on this:
What do women want? What would she pay to see? Now if I could give
you one answer to this, I would, but there is no one answer. One of
the best resources to answer this question is sitting right beside
you. That’s right, look around your office. Are there women working
with you? There you go.” [Cathedra 2002]
“If you ask several of your female friends and acquaintances what
turns them on, you should be able to build up a good cross-section
of what women do and don't find appealing. Although women's tastes
are just as individualistic as men's, you should be able obtain some
useful information, some of which is likely to come as a surprise
to you.” [Southern 2002] “You must have female input. Without it,
you're only producing what you think—or wish—interests women.” [Edwards
2001]
Over the past couple of years, a number of webmasters have solicited
that female input and their findings are remarkably consistent. What
emerges is a pretty clear recipe for success with women—in the online
marketplace.
What Women Want
Women are different from men. What’s good for the goose is not necessarily
good for the gander, so you will have to chuck out most of what worked
so well before: “Many a company has tried to appeal to women with
the same formula that has worked for men. They have substituted male
bodies for female bodies and assumed women would be interested. These
companies are not taking into consideration that a woman has a different
experience of sex than a man does--both physically and emotionally.”
[Zebroff 2001]
Women are not gay men, either. Trying to flog gay images to women
simply will not work: “Perhaps I should label it The Prime Directive
of Women’s Erotica— the most important thing you need to remember—and
it’s this: women are not gay men. The upswing of the Prime Directive
is this: do not offer galleries that are simply part of your mainstream
gay collection.” [Jackson 2002]
The customer is always right. “Women’s erotica is about women’s pleasures
and women’s fantasies—not men’s. So, it helps to remember that women
probably won’t get off on a chick smiling through a face full of cum.
And forget those anal sex videos that promise ‘painful first time
ass ramming.’” [Jackson 2002] The bottom line: “To sum up: if you’re
going to market a women’s site, for goodness sake, make sure it is
a women’s site.” [Jackson 2002]
Focus on women's pleasure. That’s what they’re going to be paying
for, and what must be delivered: “This means featuring plenty of cunnilingus,
acknowledging the existence of the clitoris, and paying attention
to non-genital erogenous zones as well. It also means that you must
set the tone of the site, stating that women come first, and making
a woman's needs and desires paramount.” [Sassy 2002] “Always present
them in a sexually empowering way. I believe that is the key to success
with the female demographic.” [Duvall 2001]
Show some respect. “Female surfers are looking for ‘for women’ sites
because they find the tone of many mainstream adult sites insulting
to them. A site that is disrespectful toward women treats them as
whores or sex toys. It doesn't care about their pleasure.” [Sassy
2002] And ,“The problem with the majority of hardcore produced for
men is that women are usually featured as little more than sex toys
in them… In order for hardcore material to be a turn-on for females,
the women shown in the pictures usually need to be seen as equal participants.”
[Southern 2001]
No unique female fantasy. Just like men, women have a variety of tastes:
“I thought to myself ‘This should be easy, I am female, I surf the
‘Net, I look at adult content and I know what women would like to
see.’ Well once again I was wrong. After talking with other webmistresses
and women that I knew, I found that their tastes and needs varied
so much that I can see why there are so few good sites out there geared
toward women. [Bestat 2002] This key point is echoed again and again:
“Perhaps one of the main factors that is missing from adult erotica
for women is variety.” [Cathedra 2002] And, “As far as the material
itself, diversity is grand. There is no one true thing guaranteed
to work for every woman, just as there is no one type of picture that
does it for every man.” [Duvall 2001]
Women are “visual”—if they like what they see. It is a common and
potentially costly misconception that women are not visually stimulated.
“One reason may be that many pictures are taken with a male eye, not
a female eye, in mind. Often the pictures are gay male glamour shots
that have been recycled to a female site. Some photos are indeed taken
with the intent of showing them to a female audience. All too often
these are taken by heterosexual men guessing at what a woman would
like, based on the tried-and-true formula of what turns men on.” [Zebroff
2001] It will be clear from the rest of this list what kind of pictures
women want to see.
But they’re strongly situation-oriented. This makes narrative content
important, even with visuals. For static images, it means providing
context or even text commentary: Ideally, “There would be some solo
galleries of men, but predominantly there would be photo series of
couples and groups having sex with a narrative quality, something
that tells a story that builds.” [Marachino 2002]
PART TWO: What
Women Want...
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