I love it when people accuse us of lying right out of the gate. Truth is it's possible to keep a business afloat for years and not make any money out of it, especially if you simply break even on all of your costs. This is the situation I'm currently in; technically profitable in that I make more than I spend, but still in a hole in that I might not make back my initial expenditure because profits aren't enough over ongoing costs to chip away at it.
In layman's terms, let's say it (all numbers pulled purely out of my ass but still roughly accurate) costs you $3,000 to buy gear, hire girls, and pay off the local tickle mafia. Once the punters get tired of your girls and won't buy their videos anymore, you've made roughly $600. You now have to hire more girls. That costs you $400. Those new girls, by the time their sales dwindle to nothing, made you $450. You're now still $2350 in the hole and it's six months later. You do this twice a year and yes, your end-of-year profit is $100 (you spent $800, you made $900) but you're still on the hook for that initial $2350.
This is why I'm not hiring any new girls this year; all of my profit needs to go towards my initial cost. Ditto next year, most likely.
If this business wasn't profitable, with a clientele base potentially in the whole world...
Potentially, yes, but I can count the number of international buyers on the fingers of one hand. I just had my first punter from Taiwan yesterday, but it's usually just the occasional dude from the UK or Russia. Most of my biz comes from the good ol' USA.
customs that fetch in the hundreds of dollars apiece...
...most of which goes to the model, not you...
(and that's assuming people even order customs from you. I've sold one. Ever.)
an activity that has been lasting for YEARS
See above. Hell, I know
corporations that have been losing money for years that are still in business. It's no indication of anything, and if some producer was basically just shelling out his own cash and eating the losses just to tickle hotties on a regular he sure isn't going to tell
you guys.
Why go on for so long if they are not making a profit?
Speaking personally? It's fun. Trust me, if I was in it for the money I'd have quit after six months. It doesn't take a huge amount of effort to produce a clip (and I think I put in more work than most, sometimes - c'mon people, learn to white balance) so a few hours a month for an extra hundred or two, plus ticklin', and all the friends I've made along the way? Can't beat that with a stick.
But yes, that's the indie guys nobody gives a shit about. The larger studios, I presume, can tell a different story. But how many of them are there? Five? Five out of thousands of Clips4Sale stores? It'd be like wanting to go into the OS market and having to compete against Apple, Microsoft, AND Linux. Sure, Linux kinda-sorta-did it... but you're
probably not the next Linus Torvalds.
Rant over. On to the original post.
Surveying TMF members for preferred content (unfilled niches). Complete immobility? Longer videos? Tools?
Useless. I took a poll last month and not only were the votes pretty much evenly split across every option, but the three models that got the most votes were the three that have sold absolutely zero videos. That's right, this community wanted me to make more videos featuring girls they never spent money on in the first place. I've literally pointed people who were asking "where is -niche?- Can you, specifically, make -niche- with -model-?" to videos I've made filling that niche, and they turned up their nose at the product and walked away. People ask for stuff all the time. Doesn't mean they'll buy it.
Also also wik, if you use C4S and post longer videos, you will have two issues; one, C4S' maximum filesize limit, and two, longer videos command a higher minimum price (which you have no control over), so you'll be unable to fulfill the community's other big request, cheaper videos. Enjoy.
-Not sure what % of total sales are from TMF members, but I feel like catering to this audience wouls greatly improve my sales
Logical idea, but it really depends. I get pretty much zero traffic from the TMF when I post a new video. It's possible that my customers are members here (and I know of roughly two or three for sure) but the crossover is far from guaranteed. At this point I get most of my traffic from Instagram.
Operating a C4S store plus a subscription site
My subscription site has been gathering dust since it opened. You definitely want to offer the option alongside your C4S store, but don't expect it to net you anything. Other studios' mileage may vary.
Having occasional pay-per-view livestreams
Having occasional sessions on sites like Chaturbate or Stripchat open to all viewers, but people can tip to have the 'lee tickled or other make requests (whipping, raspberries, etc.)
Not a bad idea, although the paperwork gets annoying; they expect you to submit IDs/etc. for everyone on camera. This would probably only work if it were entirely F/F though, because in my experience people only want to throw money directly at the girls. People make an end-run around my content and go right to my models' Instagram pages on a regular basis.
-I truly don't know if this in itelf if more profitable than selling recorded clips, but it could serve as advertising to direct an enormous audience (possible with no prior tickling interest) to my store
What will most likely happen is you will get an infinite number of people who consume your free content and then go away without giving you a dime. I have video previews on here and on Pornhub with hundreds of views and 100% Thumbs-up ratings for clips that haven't sold a single copy.
Utilizing small time girl-next-door models rather than big-name fetish models (But again, if the market demands "frequent flyers", I could branch out)
Wow, what an
original idea.
No one has thought of
that before.
Snark aside, the bulk of us use girl-next-door types. It's not the draw you think it is even though everyone is crying over how big studios only hire the people who actually make them money.
Do the major producers earn enough to have the studio be a primary income source, or do they operate it on the side?
To my knowledge, there's like two guys who do this full time. The rest of us are hobbyists and part-timers. That's the pool you'll be swimming in, because at this point no one cares about anyone but the big studios and the rest of us are scrambling for whatever's left. You're not going to be a big studio for a long time, if ever. Well, maybe if you speak broken English and tell everyone you're a podiatrist...
Anyway, in closing I just love how people ask producers questions about the business and then act like we're not telling the truth when we actually answer them. That's my favorite part of interacting with this community, really. That and the people who inevitably pop up to lol at me and tell me that their new studio with grainy camera footage and some overweight hobo is just making BANK so I must just suck.
Oh. Postscript.
I am reasonably skilled in construction, and I am certain I can reproduce similar equipment with my own labor as well.
Since you're in construction, price how much it would cost you to build one of these contraptions. Somehow I doubt it'll cost you ten grand for labor and materials - but you'll have a benchmark. And regardless, yes; anything you can do yourself to cut down on startup costs will be invaluable.
Post-post-script.
Also, this. Attached is my payout report for 2018 thus far. Note the lack of an entry for March - this is because if you don't make at least $50, C4S doesn't pay you. I made $25.