Ask the Pornographer.

[Soilwork]

What are the biggest mistakes that porn sites make?

(Aside from getting so bored with their jobs that they can't even make good porn anymore *cough* CF *cough*)

Aside from shitty scouting and buying into the DRM lie...


There are two HUGE mistakes that porn sites make.

1) NEVER listen to the opinions of people who are not paying members of your site. I appreciate all the suggestions I get in PMs but I seldom bring them up in production meetings and it's even more rare for us to listen to them.

People are always giving us ideas of how we could make Fratmen "better" so they'd join.. except those ideas would almost always alienate our core fans that have been dedicated customers for years.

People tell us that we need "more of this" or "more of that."

For example...

If people want to see hardcore "gay for pay" action, there are plenty of other sites that they can see that on.. it's not what we do and nobody joined Fratmen to see it. It would make little sense for us to change our focus to please people who aren't members when staying with the formula obviously IS what our members want.

One member here is constantly prattling on about how all our models have small dicks and that our site is "lacking" hung models. He also suggests that we should hire him to scout for us.

Yeah, not so much.

First, he's just plain wrong that we don't have models with large dicks... we have lots of models with huge dicks and plenty with regluar size dicks and some with smaller than average dicks. But dick size isn't the focus of our site. If you want a big dick site, go join hisfirsthugecock.com or some other "big dick" site.

Take a look at the men on our site and you'll know that we're about hot men with amazing bodies jacking off... if you can't see that and realize that we've been hugely successful doing it, you're probably not going to be able to deliver models that we want for our site.

OH.. and it's not limited to people not in the industry. I had someone in the industry recently tell me that we should try to feature an F2M transexual on our site since "gay men are much more sexually curious and that's why they all want to have sex with women. So you should have an F2M on your site because he would have the hairy chest and the abs and pecs but with a bonus vagina."

Anyone who tells you that a vagina would be a bonus on a gay site is a moron. So I told the guy he was a moron.

which brings us to

2) DO NOT stray from the formula. EVER.

We've had our mistakes.. and it's one we've made... guys with too may tattoos.. guys with a more off-beat look.. guys who looked too young or too thin or hair that was too long. They were all hot guys.. and bloggers and JUB members loved them but the core Fratmen members didn't.. and membership suffered for it.

We've gone out of our way to deliver hot young college age athletes every week and we'll keep doing it.

 

[Soilwork]

How closely DO you listen to the members of your site?

We listen a lot more... members of Fratpad know that if they all dislike and complain about a guy at the pad, he's not going to be there long.. if there's something that was said or done that they loved or hated, we'll either never do it again or do it more.

The DVD customers have told us what they like and don't.. we try very hard to keep their comments in mind while not straying too far from John's vision of what he wants.

Fratmen.TV members asked for different faces on the live shows and we delivered a whole new roster for live shows this year, they asked for more "behind the scenes" stuff so we created a blog full of bloopers, previews and lots of really good, edited and polished video that's not just "the crap that got cut out of the movie" but was actually shot with the blog in mind. Members didn't like certain types of guy and we stay away from them.. if we shoot a guy that they really like, we'll try to work with him again.

We tried a few duo scenes last year as an experiment which worked out well. We don't ever plan on becoming a guy-on-guy site but the odd blowjob every few weeks seems to be something that members are liking to see... not TOO much but just every so often. They also loved stuff like the Muscle Man scene with Payne and Max working out together and the wrestling movie, so we'll bring them more stuff like that.

When we did the Greatest Shots, it was a very divisive thing... some members hated it and some said it was the hottest thing they'd ever seen. We tried to make everyone happy by releasing Greatest Shots 2 the same week that we released a bunch of behind the scenes video with jack off races and guys being silly in the shower and running around naked.. just about everyone got something that they liked that week.

We still fuck up but listening to members will always help us get back on track.

What do you think was the best idea that was done so poorly it flopped?

I mentioned NakedNewsDailyMale.com for it's complete mess up using the drag queen on page one (although now that they went under and just run as an archive site with a $6 per month membership, Enza has been taken off the front page..).

Another idea I thought could have been good was a dating site called "Find a Flamer."

OK, seriously. it was an international dating site. Cool idea. Probably could have flown but it was done so haphazardly that it was almost unusable. Broken down by country in Europe might make sense.. in the USA you need to be broken down by state... even region for big states.. nope... just one.

Of course, the name "Find a flamer" was a deterrent too... who wants to date Chris Crocker?

It's now been done right a million times.. but had they gotten in on the ground floor...




Oh.. and I can't NOT mention gay.com.

What a disaster. Gay.com should have been a no-brainer, but their boxy design, their unusable chat boards, their spam-happy chat room and their boring content made it a no-surfer.

It's still around and looks like they're clawing their way back. Let's cross our fingers.

 

[Soilwork]

You mentioned before that someone in the industry told you that you should have an F2M model on your site because gays are fascinated with that. Is there any other advice you have gotten from someone in the industry that you just thought, man that's terrible advice?

- "You guys should try to have the guys fucking their bitches on camera.. that would be hot"

- "How about we do a sort of trade.. I'll send you some of my models and you send me some of yours.. we'll do like a cross promotion thing?" (this was from the owner of a site that featured what I will politely call "Hungry-looking emaciated crack whores." OK, I guess it's not that polite.)

- A rep of a pay-per-view theater company didn't really understand that we only feature content that WE produce so we can have 100% creative control. He showed us a theater he'd made by just plugging the term "FRAT" into a search engine and the titles were HORRIFYING... There was a bunch of titles called "FRAT BOYZ" which looked like Snoopy Dog Dog's posse on GHB, there were lots of "Frat Boy Cum Orgy" movies, there were "Twinks in the Frat" movies and lots of disgusting dollar-porn with "frat" in the title. Not a single solo movie, no guys that looked anything like our models and not a single guy who looked even like he'd had anything but coffee and drugs for a few days.

- "You should get a girl to hang out at the Fratpad with the guys... it would really spice it up." (this from someone who I guess didn't think that the male-only atmosphere filled with jack off races, group showers, naked twister, naked workouts and endless jacking off is "spicy" enough)

- "I've always thought your site should branch out to bring in a whole new audience.. like shoot a bunch of older men."

 

[Soilwork]

What are your thoughts on shaved men in gay porn?

I understand that it's a niche and that some people like it but we won't shoot a guy if he's shaved his pubes off and we don't allow it at the Fratpad.

We feature naturally hot men, and men have body hair.

 

[uncuttboi]

can i get a job keeping guys up and hard. and does the job have a title?

 

[Soilwork]

can i get a job keeping guys up and hard.

no. that job's already taken.

and does the job have a title?

"DVD player with porn in it."

 

[glo-unit]

But to answer the question, a guy once asked me to stop making any noise because he was pretending I was a girl and my grunting was killing the mood.

threw him out into the hall naked.

Can you please expand this story, I'd like to hear the full version. Also you only threw him out naked, no punching multiple times in the face or kicking in the balls? You really restrained yourself didn't you.

 

[Soilwork]

Whenever I hear the term "porn convention" I imagine a bunch of horny men and women getting their freak on with whomever their partner of choice is in some huge convention center. What really goes on at the events?

Well ok.. first of all it's not QUITE as dirty as you might think. We do have seminars with the major software companies and symposiums on new technology. We talk about billing, Digital Rights Management, content production, legal issues, piracy..

There are also barebacking round table discussions, seminars on how to get into the gay market, the future of the industry and more.

But yes.. the parties can get kinda crazy. There have been parties where there are guys paid to have sex in bed.. you can shoot the action and use it on your site as content and there are signed release forms by the door... people stand around and watch or just have free drinks and food, talk about work and yes.. even get laid.

I've been to parties where lots of debauchery goes on but oddly enough, most of the people just get a chuckle at it and do what most people do at convention parties.. try to make a few business contacts and get some networking in.

 

[Soilwork]

Can you please expand this story, I'd like to hear the full version. Also you only threw him out naked, no punching multiple times in the face or kicking in the balls? You really restrained yourself didn't you.

I'm not sure I understand the sarcasm of your post.

Are you suggesting that upon finding out that I was really just being used as an automatic cock sucking machine that I should have kept it quiet so he could have pretended I wasn't in the room?

Sorry, but I can't imagine anything more disrespectful than to tell a sex partner that you're thinking of someone else so can they please try to stop enjoying themselves so much?

 

[Soilwork]

Is there a good mixture of people at the conventions and parties or would say, a straight woman life myself feel extremely out of place, even when trying to schmooze and make business contacts?

no, not at all... there are a lot of women who work in the industry. you'd be amazed at how diverse the industry is.

 

[Soilwork]

Did you ever see or hear about porn that involved sex with plants?

ugk..

yeah.

You just brought back a horrible memory of a video gallery submitted to be back when I was running a little TGP site.

It was an old couple.. straight.. fat... in their 60s... probably Russian... dressed like dirty, poor old people.

He was fucking her and rubbing her with a branch that looked like it was ripped off a tree.

Like..

yow.

 

[Soilwork]

Did you ever get angry or irritated during a job interview, and what did you do about it?

no.

But if I did I'd probably just put up with it and then not take the job.

My interview with Fratmen was a funny one. I spent about 5 minutes on the phone with John and he hired me.

I then hung up and was struck with the fact that I had to move in a new country in two weeks.

 

[glo-unit]

I'm not sure I understand the sarcasm of your post.

Are you suggesting that upon finding out that I was really just being used as an automatic cock sucking machine that I should have kept it quiet so he could have pretended I wasn't in the room?

Sorry, but I can't imagine anything more disrespectful than to tell a sex partner that you're thinking of someone else so can they please try to stop enjoying themselves so much?

Actually I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, I really did want to hear a longer version of what happened. Also the last part was more of a joke because it seems someone pretending you were a woman would get a guy a lot more than just being thrown out naked.

 

[JOHN B]

Are there any Fratmen, (or even male porn artists that you can think of) that may be total nerds in real life, but come across hot and sexy on camera. I AM a nerd myself, so this question isn't geared toward making fun of nerdy guys, I'm just curious about onscreen/offscreen personality contrasts.

 

[Soilwork]

Actually I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, I really did want to hear a longer version of what happened. Also the last part was more of a joke because it seems someone pretending you were a woman would get a guy a lot more than just being thrown out naked.

Ok... it sounded kinda sarcatic in my head.

And no.. I just threw him out in to the hallway. Not much else to the story. I lived with two other guys and he had to stand in front of them banging on the door asking for his pants.

I opened the door, threw them at him and told him to go fuck himself.

(and never ever dated or shagged a bisexual guy again)

 

[Soilwork]

Are there any Fratmen, (or even male porn artists that you can think of) that may be total nerds in real life, but come across hot and sexy on camera. I AM a nerd myself, so this question isn't geared toward making fun of nerdy guys, I'm just curious about onscreen/offscreen personality contrasts.

meh.. maybe kinda.

For the most part they have to be a least a BIT athletic to get those bodies. But yeah, a few of them are into comic books, video games and Star Trek.

 

[Soilwork]

Have you ever found a Fratman that had lied about his background just to get onto the site?

not sure what you mean.

you mean "have we ever shot a guy and then found out that he was on another site?"

Yeah.. happened a couple times.. If the movie hadn't been released on our site yet, we just tossed it out.

 

[JOHN B]

Is the fact that porn is taboo also the thing that keeps it popular? Do you hope for, or fear, the time when porn becomes commonplace and acceptable---whether it be in movies or on T.V.? My feeling is that it will be harder to sell the idea of "porn" when it becomes too commonplace and mainstream to be exciting.

 

[Soilwork]

How do you feel about Arthur C. Clarke's work?

I've read three or four of the books. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I didn't know much about him until recently when I read an interview with him. Fascinating man and I do plan on reading more of his work.

I think I'm one of the few people that really "got" 2001.

 

[Soilwork]

Is the fact that porn is taboo also the thing that keeps it popular? Do you hope for, or fear, the time when porn becomes commonplace and acceptable---whether it be in movies or on T.V.? My feeling is that it will be harder to sell the idea of "porn" when it becomes too commonplace and mainstream to be exciting.

No, I don't think so. Porn really isn't "taboo" anymore. You can buy Playgirl and Hustler magazine at Barnes and Noble, Britney Spears can writhe about the floor in a video at the age of 18 wearing a thong and singing "I'm a SLAAAAVE." Porn has become mainstream.

To be honest, I think that Fratmen is going to last because our movies are good.. because we care about our product and our craft.