So how does one make a porn website

[River]

These questions are more for those that developed there own commercial websites.

I gotta couple ideas rattling in my head. Just got to get a jump off point. Where do I start. Like how do I line up the talent? how much do models get paid? Could I offer them a piece of the pie so to speak just to get started? What equipment do I need? Stuff like that. Maybe any good references would be great. Thanks.

[Ecstatic]

Short answer: it's a ton of hard work for little pay. Way too much to go into here and now, but here's a few things to think about:

1) Get organized, identify your niche, make sure you have something original and compelling in that niche.

2) Talent comes in many flavors: site design and development, artwork, photography, and, oh yeah, models. It's a lot of work to line up models, and it really helps if you have an "in" (as for instance my partner Aubrey for piladyboy.com, who knows virtually all the girls in the PI).

3) Payscale depends largely on location: obviously you'll pay a lot less in Thailand or the PI than you will in Chicago or LA. You can expect to pony up $500-$1000/shoot or more, especially for a name performer. I don't think many would want to work for "a piece of the pie" nor will the pie be big enough to split among many models.

4) High quality digital camera and video camcorder, studio lights (built-in flash won't cut the mustard), sets, PC, etc. I'd say at least a $5000 equipment budget to get going (minus any you already own).

5) Server, hosting (with tons of bandwidth, not cheap), advertising and promotion.

6) You should have six months of material in the can to start, or at least three months with a steady flow of new material. Or buy either exclusive ($$$) or non-exclusive ($) material.

7) Invest in real estate instead, you'll make a lot more money.

:)

[River]

Thanks Ecstatic...wise words indeed. Maybe I should hone my computer skills and just work for a porn website :)

[AngelOrtega]

HAHAHAHAH Real estate, Love it! LoL Hmmm mI should become a model..... Maybe not sure yet, Im waiting for laser to be complete and my hormones to kick in a bit more :D

[kalina]

Thanks Ecstatic...wise words indeed. Maybe I should hone my computer skills and just work for a porn website :)

But then the site isn't your own. Wouldn't it feel better to you, as an artist, to produce your own product than work on someone else's?

I had a site not long ago that I was proud to call my own. I emphasized the one thing I did tremendously well that nobody else emphasized, I used top-flight equipment to capture images and video, and ran through vigorous quality checks to ensure that I put up only the best pics and not just any pics like many sites do, and I'm glad to say I competed very well with the "big girls" (that is, the famous ones) by charging just as much as their sites.

While it was fun for a while, it was also a lot of work updating the site each week, answering fanmails, learning more PHP programming to add more details to the site. It's also hard being so critical of oneself, but by doing most of the criticism myself with the help of a trusted person I became a better transsexual because of it. That's what I gained out of my experience.

I really don't think porn sites pay their employees that much for programming work. I think better money would be had by becoming a well-known photographer, but I may be wrong. And, yes, real estate is a much better investment. Or stocks. Watching my one share of Berkshire Hathaway B go from $3500 to $4900 in a year is nice.

[River]

Well I always had a love of photography, I won 1st in State in high school for my black and whites at a V.I.C.A. contest, I was kind of looking to get back into it and combine my interests. I'm a little old school i loved taking the shots and developing them see the image show up through the chemicals. Now it seems robotic, digital. Heck I don't even know where to start these days with that equipment.

[kalina]

Well I always had a love of photography, I won 1st in State in high school for my black and whites at a V.I.C.A. contest, I was kind of looking to get back into it and combine my interests. I'm a little old school i loved taking the shots and developing them see the image show up through the chemicals. Now it seems robotic, digital. Heck I don't even know where to start these days with that equipment.

Ah, I'm finishing up a black and white photography course (Photo I) this semester at Penn. Everyone went nuts over these pics, which were printed in black and white 8x10 processed on an enlarger station, 8 seconds, f16, no filter (because the exposures were spot on). I know what you went through and I appreciate what photographers have to go through to get their black and white enlargements.

I'm taking Photo II next semester which goes into more creative techniques in the darkroom.

[DeliaTS]

Wow, great photos Kalina. I started out on digital and sort of fumbled my way through without any formal training in photography. So one thing I've always wanted to do is go back and learn some basic techniques on a "real" camera. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution this year ;-)

Trixie had an interesting post about becoming a pornograher in her blog a few days ago. It's more from the solo girl perspective though:

http://tastytrixie.com/blog/2007/11/guide-to-becoming-pornographer.html#links

[BeardedOne]

Everyone went nuts over these pics, which were printed in black and white 8x10 processed on an enlarger station, 8 seconds, f16, no filter (because the exposures were spot on).

Nice ears. ;)

[ottorocket]

WHy is it then so many websites have such piss poor image quality? Its like some shoot their models with 1994 web cam technology...

[kalina]

Nice ears. ;)

Thanks babe!


Everyone... it was B1 who took my Minnie Mouse pics in his hotel room :)

[kalina]

WHy is it then so many websites have such piss poor image quality? Its like some shoot their models with 1994 web cam technology...

Because a lot of those sites are in it for the money and just don't care about their customers. You pay your $30 a month thinking it's all that and get jaded when it's not and you might even assume that all sites are like that when they're not.

Here are some typical pics from mine just to show you that we don't all use crappy cameras... and mine is not even a porn site. I use a Nikon D70 with 18-200mm VR lens, SB-800 flash, Hoya 81A + ultrathin UV... easily $2500 worth of equipment... and I'm getting a Nikon D300 soon (another $1800)... because I want to give people the best pics of me.

[kalina]

Wow, great photos Kalina. I started out on digital and sort of fumbled my way through without any formal training in photography. So one thing I've always wanted to do is go back and learn some basic techniques on a "real" camera. Maybe that will be my New Year's resolution this year ;-)

Thanks babe! I just wanted to broaden my horizons and get a feel for what the film photographers did back in the old days (which was only like 10 years ago). It was almost like taking a hands-on history course. My advice, if you do take a photography course, is to take it with a teacher you respect. In my school, we had 6 teachers to choose from teaching 8 different sections of Photo I. I studied the backgrounds of each. The one I chose won a Pew Fellowship and did this very famous gallery of 100 heterosexual men's feet photographed at the point of climax (http://www.artnet.com/galleries/Exhibitions.asp?gid=423921915&cid=126058). I dunno about you, but I felt this was so unique and cool that I had to learn photography from this guy.

If anyone is in or near Boston, please check out this gallery at http://www.samsonprojects.com/ which is on display until tomorrow ( Dec 8 ).

[CaliBoy951]

Learn what TGP means, get Addweb, learn photoshop and Dreamweaver, and then go to Alexadotcom for traffic reports and see what the sites that have all traffic are doing and learn from them.

[BeardedOne]

The one I chose won a Pew Fellowship and did this very famous gallery of 100 heterosexual men's feet photographed at the point of climax...

What an interesting concept and point of view. :)

Everyone... it was B1 who took my Minnie Mouse pics in his hotel room

Thanx for the credit. I will add this to my resume'. :)

Is that a cross behind you? ;)

Because a lot of those sites are in it for the money and just don't care about their customers. You pay your $30 a month thinking it's all that and get jaded when it's not and you might even assume that all sites are like that when they're not.

Been there, bought that. Some very well-known and otherwise respectable gurls don't know diddly about web design or the quality level of their own sites. Not sure who set up one of them, but when I talked to the gurl about it she sort of shrugged it off, perhaps depending on her name recognition to pull through. The site hasn't been upgraded in a dozen years (Though it gets regular pic updates, but not of the gurl whose name is on the site).

I subscribed to Kalina's site for a bit (And will subscribe to her current one as well) and can attest to the fact that she is very concerned with quality. I recall some notes traded with Steve Pierce some time ago (Owner of the late Gayporncam.com) and one of the things he was very strong on was image quality. He even had a link to the ad site for the cameras he was using, so people could get the info about the high-end equipment. :)

<Thinking> Were you [Kalina] the person I asked about the Omega B-22?

[River]

Thing I dig about old school you didn't need thousands of dollars to get some quality photos, i'll call old school way analog phototaking I guess. I think it's like vinyl and CD's. Yes on CD you have digital quality, but vinyl there is something organic to it.

But I digress a kung fu movie is on I must watch it.

[kalina]

Thing I dig about old school you didn't need thousands of dollars to get some quality photos, i'll call old school way analog phototaking I guess. I think it's like vinyl and CD's. Yes on CD you have digital quality, but vinyl there is something organic to it.

But I digress a kung fu movie is on I must watch it.

Ahhh... you're talking to someone who used to produce all her music on vinyl :)

[kalina]

Is that a cross behind you? ;)

My prof always goes ape when he sees a pic with a cross in it or some other religious symbolism. There is a church behind me, but... the edges of the windows form an upside down cross, too. So there's this nice side/naughty side thing going on in the pic. The prof called one of his TAs over to look at the Minnie Mouse pic and both were drooling over it. I was drooling over the TA :)

I subscribed to Kalina's site for a bit (And will subscribe to her current one as well) and can attest to the fact that she is very concerned with quality. I recall some notes traded with Steve Pierce some time ago (Owner of the late Gayporncam.com) and one of the things he was very strong on was image quality. He even had a link to the ad site for the cameras he was using, so people could get the info about the high-end equipment. :)

<Thinking> Were you [Kalina] the person I asked about the Omega B-22?

Thanks babe!
My philosophy on pics is if you took 100 very good ones, then each pic you delete will only make the rest look stronger. There is the issue of continuity and flow in the series, but if you've taken enough pics, that's not a problem. That's how I approach every editing project. There is no shame in deleting half of the pics you take because of a model blinking her eye or making an unintentional weird face. So many sites out there just post everything and that's sad. There's no quality control. A site is a model's calling card or portfolio in a sense.

<Thinking> Were you [Kalina] the person I asked about the Omega B-22?
Yah, I think so, B1! You said you had an enlarger for me. :)

[Ecstatic]

Thing I dig about old school you didn't need thousands of dollars to get some quality photos, i'll call old school way analog phototaking I guess. I think it's like vinyl and CD's. Yes on CD you have digital quality, but vinyl there is something organic to it.

Actually, quality digital is much less expensive than quality "old school" film photography. For decades, I shot with a totally-manual 1968 Nikon F or a 1950 Crown Graphic 4x5 large format field camera, and a handheld Sekonic light meter. Film and development costs alone make film-based photography much more expensive than digital, when you can record 400 high-quality jpeg or 100 RAW photos on a 1-gig card--and use that card forever. (Compare than with 4x5 or 8x10 sheet film, which costs several dollars a sheet, never mind that the filmholders take only two exposures and you have to carry a dozen film holders to capture 24 shots--and a dark bag (portable darkroom) to change the film.)

Kalina mentioned the Nikon D300, which is my next camera. Yes, $1800 is a lot of bread, but you get so much for the money, and the only significant step up is 3x that (a Nikon D3 for $5000 to be precise). Good glass has always cost a lot, and ask any photographer: the most important element is the glass. Buy the best lenses you can afford. VR (vibration reduction) adds as much as 3 f-stops in range. My 4x5 (still an awesome camera) has a nice 90mm (normal focal length for a 4x5) Wollensack lens, nice, but I'd love to pick up a Rodenstock lens for, oh, about 8 grand, lol.

River, I think getting into the biz as a photographer is the best bet if you have the chops.

My philosophy on pics is if you took 100 very good ones, then each pic you delete will only make the rest look stronger. There is the issue of continuity and flow in the series, but if you've taken enough pics, that's not a problem. That's how I approach every editing project. There is no shame in deleting half of the pics you take because of a model blinking her eye or making an unintentional weird face. So many sites out there just post everything and that's sad. There's no quality control. A site is a model's calling card or portfolio in a sense.

Great pics; I love the b&w one. Nice chiroscuro! I wholly agree on deleting the lesser pics, though paysite members want volume, so much more gets passed through than would happen otherwise. The old rule of thumb was 1 good exposure in 24 (dating back to the days of the National Geographic edict: "f8 and be there").

Yah, I think so, B1! You said you had an enlarger for me. :)

Hmmm, sounds like you and B1 may have drifted to a different topic here....

[Jordan]

GREAT pics Kalina!!

[kalina]

GREAT pics Kalina!!

Thanks Jordan!