trends

Gay Niches

Thanks to the Internet sexually explicit gay material has never been more plentiful or more diverse than it is today — and one of the things that is making the gay adult Internet so diverse and eclectic is the popularity of niche marketing.

Madame Watson, co-owner of the gay-friendly adult company BlueToon Media, noted that because gay Internet erotica has become so competitive, more and more adult webmasters have been turning to niche marketing as a way of standing out. The gay adult market, Watson stressed, is not a single niche but rather a field in which webmasters are exploring a wide variety of niches and themes.

Indeed, the list of different gay themes on the adult Internet is endless. Bears (hairy gay men), twinks (young, boyish gay men), daddies (more mature gay men) and musclemen are popular gay niches, and gay ethnic niches also are quite prevalent; it isn't hard to find gay sites focusing specifically on black, Latino or Asian men.

And those ethnic sites have many variations. Some black and Latino gay adult sites feature men who look like soap opera stars; others favor more of a gangster rap/hip-hop-themed approach — Flava Works' ThugBoy.com, for example. Military themes are another niche in gay adult; GayGreenbacks' AWOLMarines.com and TopBucks' GayMilitaryXXX.com are two examples of military-themed gay sites. There is even a cult audience for gay hentai, gay erotic Japanese animation — TopBucks' GayHentaiXXX.com is an example of a gay hentai website.

Watson is no stranger to niche marketing. At BlueToon Media.com, one finds gay sites catering to specific tastes ranging from Latino twinks (TwinkLatinos.com, a BadPuppy.com site that BlueToon promotes) to BDSM leathermen (LeatherBound Sex.com).

"When you identify a site with a particular niche," Watson said, "you have to be consistent about what you give your audience. TwinkLatinos does well, but you aren't going to find twinks on LeatherBoundSex. If a site is called LeatherBoundSex, the men had better look like they belong in a dungeon."

Stiff Competition
Allen Adamski, administrator for the Los Angeles-based GayGreenbacks.com, pointed out that gay-friendly adult webmasters are not only competing with established gay membership sites, they are also competing with free gay sites. Creative niche marketing, he said, can help a webmaster make a name for himself/herself in an increasingly competitive market.

"There are tons of free sites out there," Adamski said, "and the free stuff tends to be the same stuff over and over. So with niche marketing one of the goals is to offer something that the free sites are not offering. An important part of niche marketing is having content that is exclusive to your website."

The amount of BDSM/fetish niches on the gay adult Internet is endless. From flogging, caning and spanking to tickle torture to CBT (cock and ball torture), just about every BDSM activity imaginable can be found in gay erotica. Gay BDSM sites can be incredibly specific; one might focus on steel bondage exclusively, while another might cater to rubber fetishists.

Andy Fair, the New York City-based president of DirtyBoyVideo.com and StraightBoysFucking.com, noted that gay sites catering to specific fetishes can have extremely loyal customers because fetishists can be downright obsessive about their fetishes.

"People who are only into certain things are so into them that they are willing to pay more for them and are willing to come back again and again," Fair said. "That's where the profit comes in. I believe that one of the things about having a fetish is that you are never satisfied — you always want more. And with fetishes, it isn't necessarily about the climax, it's about the process. You can never be satisfied because you are hooked on the process and not just on the climax."

Fair added that if an adult webmaster is going to market something really esoteric to gay customers, he/she needs to make sure that enough people will be into the subject matter.

"If nobody is interested in your particular interest or fetish," Fair asserted, "you're not going to sell. But if you can find an audience that shares your particular interest and find the right content, you can be successful with niche marketing."

Related:  

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

opinion

Best Practices for Payment Gateway Security

Securing digital payment transactions is critical for all businesses, but especially those in high-risk industries. Payment gateways are a core component of the digital payment ecosystem, and therefore must follow best practices to keep customer data safe.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

Ready for New Visa Acquirer Changes?

Next spring, Visa will roll out the U.S. version of its new Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program (VAMP), which goes into effect April 1, 2025. This follows Visa Europe, which rolled out VAMP back in June. VAMP charts a new path for acquirers to manage fraud and chargeback ratios.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Siren Obscura

Siren Obscura grew up in Arizona, surrounded by rugged beauty and desert landscapes that she describes as having a quiet power to them. That environment strongly shaped her appreciation for contrasts and natural light, which plays a significant role in her work today.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

How to Thwart Holiday Fraudsters With Finesse

The holiday season is a prime time for shopping. Unfortunately, it’s also peak season for credit card fraud. With increased transactions both online and in-store, fraudsters have more opportunities to exploit vulnerabilities — and they are getting better at it every day.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

How to Halt Hackers as Fraud Attacks Rise

For hackers, it’s often a game of trial and error. Bad actors will perform enumeration and account testing, repeating the same test on a system to look for vulnerabilities — and if you are not equipped with the proper tools, your merchant account could be the next target.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

VerifyMy Seeks to Provide Frictionless Online Safety, Compliance Solutions

Before founding VerifyMy, Ryan Shaw was simply looking for an age verification solution for his previous business. The ones he found, however, were too expensive, too difficult to integrate with, or failed to take into account the needs of either the businesses implementing them or the end users who would be required to interact with them.

Alejandro Freixes ·
opinion

How Adult Website Operators Can Cash in on the 'Interchange' Class Action

The Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement resulted from a landmark antitrust lawsuit involving Visa, Mastercard and several major banks. The case centered around the interchange fees charged to merchants for processing credit and debit card transactions. These fees are set by card networks and are paid by merchants to the banks that issue the cards.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

It's Time to Rock the Vote and Make Your Voice Heard

When I worked to defeat California’s Proposition 60 in 2016, our opposition campaign was outspent nearly 10 to 1. Nevertheless, our community came together and garnered enough support and awareness to defeat that harmful, misguided piece of proposed legislation — by more than a million votes.

Siouxsie Q ·
opinion

Staying Compliant to Avoid the Takedown Shakedown

Dealing with complaints is an everyday part of doing business — and a crucial one, since not dealing with them properly can haunt your business in multiple ways. Card brand regulations require every merchant doing business online to have in place a complaint process for reporting content that may be illegal or that violates the card brand rules.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

Girlsway Celebrates a Decade of Acclaimed Sapphic Erotica

When Girlsway launched back in 2014, Bree Mills had a plan. As head of production for Gamma Entertainment, she set out to up the stakes of all-girl content with the new imprint — and to continually, proactively reinvent the brand and its offerings along the way.

Alejandro Freixes ·
Show More