Does any of you, especially from the professional side of things, have an explanation?
Yes. The most straightforward answer is that very few people are aware of just how little money there actually is to be made from selling clips, and as someone else mentioned all it really takes is an iPhone and an adventurous (girl)friend. With startup cost being near zero just to get on the board, there's no reason to not at least try. And if you're smart, it doesn't take much effort to turn at least a little bit of profit, so even if it's only beer money it's at least a fun hobby that kinda-sorta pays for itself after a while, even if it never goes beyond that. Sole Mates is technically profitable at this point; I make more money on an annual basis than I spend, but it's so little that the overall venture itself will never pay for my initial investment without some major breakthrough, like a rush of customs orders or another super-popular model like Mya or Kim (both of whom are no longer making any money, regardless). And that's
after having gotten my camera for free and my editing software on sale.
The second reason is, well, for a fetishist it's a fun hobby. I've made a lot of great friends doing this; there are over thirty women on the Sole Mates roster at this point and I still interact regularly with many of them. Kiki handles my finances. Dr. Elle and I get together to drink and play (she works at Fantasy Makers now and we can use the facilities for personal play whenever we like; I just shot a video of it recently). If you honestly don't care about the cash, (and in my case, enjoy trying to come up with new scenarios and such), there are worse ways to spend an afternoon. Tickle shoots are fun, especially when (as I am quite good at) you can generate good chemistry with the model. I like my girls to not look bored or just in it for the paycheck on camera, and I think I succeed. You have to be fun to generate fun.
Also, and this is just for me, but doing the editing and such helped me cut my teeth on doing "real" editing work and I now belong to a local media collective as an SFX consultant and general tech guru. We're shooting a music video soon.
it does not seem to bring in a lot of money to begin with. There must be other ways to make money selling stuff on the Internet that are far more profitable than this.
Oddly enough, the whole reason I started Sole Mates was because I was out of work and threw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall; I started writing apps, filming clips, and doing a few other things. The only spaghetti that stuck was this one (and the apps, but they're a far larger investment in terms of time). So even after I went back to work, I kept the business running, because why not? $50 a month is $50 a month. And now, after having expanded a bit, I have models approaching
me for work. So, things
have gotten better, but I'm never going to retire on this stuff. I can use it to pay my electric bill.
More than the sheer number of producers, I'm more puzzled at how similar most of them are.
It's true. The reason it's happening is because Monkey See that Tickle Abuse is raking it in with their endless "oiled feet in stocks with hairbrush and arms overhead" videos, so Monkey Do hoping to get in on that action. But, as has been said, there's only so much of it to go around and TA's already perfected that format so you're not taking it away from them. Unfortunately, and this is going to ruffle a few feathers...
Can't we bring back some of those previous producers? Or find new ones like them?
We're out there, but quite frankly, no one seems to give a shit. When I first started Sole Mates, I had a particular "vision" for the kind of content I was going to produce. I'll spare you the gory details unless you want to hear them (and oh boy, is it
far different than the original idea I had like fifteen, twenty years ago), but what I quickly discovered was that none of that extra effort generated sales. More specifically
nothing that I shot that didn't involve tickling generated sales
at all, so I dropped all of it and shifted focus. Now I'm Indie Producer #5833 struggling to get noticed, same as everyone else.
And it's not for lack of trying; I used to come in here constantly and point out to people that whatever they were complaining no one was offering, I was offering. Not only did it not result in any upswing in sales as those people came to check out my store, but
no one even came to check out my store. Eventually I just got the idea that they were complaining for the sake of it and didn't actually want the material they were crying about.
Here are some of the things I've done over the years in order to try and stand out from the pack, in terms of content.
Firstly, that old saw, "genuinely ticklish girls". None of my girls fake it.
NONE. I tell them flat out "Do not exaggerate. Do not act. I want to capture YOU, your personality, so just relax and act naturally." I also don't work with fetish models, except on rare occasions... so all of that shit about "real girls next door"? I get them. I've gotten over twenty of them, of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. Dude just posted right above this thread "where the black women at?" when like a month ago I just posted a compilation featuring FOUR of them. Barely legal, MILF, black, white, Asian, Latina, BBW, even the elusive Indian and Goth, including a model
from this very forum. You can't get more diverse than that. I can get a girl screaming the safeword in thirty seconds if I put my mind to it, and I have the video to prove it. So, no fakers. None whatsoever.
And what about the girls who "really love it"? You guys want girls who are totally into what they're doing, right? 'cept for the handful of you that genuinely want to see them suffer, that is (...and I don't judge - I love it when I can give you both). Nearly
every girl I've worked with talks about how much fun she has working with me. With a few exceptions, they all ask to come back.
All of them. Especially over the last two or three years. I've said a few times now that I have to repeatedly
turn them away because the income just isn't there. Think about that for a moment, guys; I've got girls
begging me to tickle them and
I can't afford it. Sora was asking me when we could shoot again before I was even done packing up my camera. You think I
like having to tell a ticklish, eager young thing "Sorry hon, nobody bought your clips so I can't hire you again"?
Secondly... speaking of variety, I worked with a
clown. Not some escort I stuck in greasepaint; I found an actual, honest-to-goodness, fire-breathing, juggling, sword-swallowing (one of the only twelve
in the world), acrobatic clown from New Orleans. It was one of the silliest shoots I've ever done; she was genuinely ticklish and an absolute blast to work with. To this day I consider her one of my crown jewels. She's sold bupkis.
Like F/F? I hired a gal and she brought a
fantastic friend. I decided to do the shoot like a wrestling match (as best I could at the last minute, anyway); I had them dress up as martial artists and "trash talk" each other before the "match", which was an utter treat. Each tickled the crap out of the other and I ended it by tying them together and not ending it until one tickled the other into safewording, then the loser had to massage the winner's feet. Sound great? I showed it to Dr. Elle recently and she said, "This is GOLD." The punters didn't think so. I lost a bundle.
I once did an F/F shoot with my two most popular models ever. The intentions were there, but neither of them could tickle very well (and this is one of the reasons all of my videos are M/F except on rare occasions - I can tickle better than anyone I can hire, and my girls agree), so meh. That one's on me.
I
also did an F/F shoot with two real-life bisexual play partners; I just turned the camera on and let them "go". It was great; they both knew the ins and outs of one another better than I could ever hope to, were both kinky AF so they
wildly enjoyed what they were doing, and one of them suggested that she be tickled while holding up two glasses of water that she wasn't allowed to drop. I'm pretty sure no one's ever done
that scenario before.
Just recently I went with Dr. Elle to Fantasy Makers, and we basically just turned the camera on and filmed our entire play session. I released the first segment un-cut, complete with tying up, banter, moving the camera around, all of the "behind the scenes" stuff you guys say that no one bothers to include.
I've done segments where the girl had to guess what I was writing on her soles (and failed miserably), a lengthy, scripted custom for a guy who wanted me to "punish" a girl for smelly feet and scribble all over them/clean them off with toothpaste(?!)... I've even shot two FX-based videos where the model was
bisected in two and I tickled her disembodied feet while her top half laughed out of reach. (And it was all real; I tickled her in both shots and synched them up).
But when I come here and tell people I've done this stuff, they consume all of the free content and then go on their merry way. Why should I spend an afternoon painstakingly masking out someone's elbow to pull off that bisection illusion when I can just slap a girl in stocks and go to town? I don't even get so much as a "thanks for trying" for my efforts.
I'm sitting on a concept right now for lack of actors that is basically a live-action Tammi the Tickle Witch, with actual magic FX, costumes, and all of that jazz. But y'know what? If I do ever film it, or that Portal parody I've had in the back of my head for like two years now, it won't be because I think anyone'll buy it, it'll be because I want to do it. Because bluntly? You guys don't reward the producers who
do think outside of the box.
I just recently worked with a former TA model that, judging by the forum posts around here, was a fan favorite. You guys loved the fuck out of her. I post my previews, I get a few "wow, hot!" and no sales. Read that again; a fan favorite that worked for one of the biggest studios in the business who generated positive buzz from her previews and she's currently sitting at $20 in sales.
$20.
And yes, I'm a little crabby about that. Not that I think everyone should be throwing their money at me (although I'm not going to stop you...), but at least stop coming here and complaining that no one's trying, while blatantly ignoring the ones who are. You want us to do new shit? Make it worth the effort.
Just my two shekels, anyway. Don't haggle for my gourd.