To allow downloads or not?

KaitlinK- FurPassion

I disallowed downloads on my site ( http://new.furpassion.com ) a few months ago after getting the itching gut feeling that my content had been stolen, and after receiving alot of hate from anti-fur people. I got a bit paranoid, for good reasons, needless to say!

However, since doing that, I've gotten negative feedback from current members and NO new joins to my site... though my sales on clips4sale are back up. 

I am considering allowing downloads again, except with a different pricing plan (tentatively, minimally, $60 to join recurring at $30/month or $240 for the year or $180 for 6 months). I think the higher initial price point will discourage the haters and pirates from frivolously joining with the intention to steal content...

I have around 150 unique clips, and updates scheduled 2-3x per week for the next 3 months. 

I know and hate that it's "standard" to allow HD downloads. Just wondering if anyone has any perspective on this. I really prefer to NOT allow downloads, even if it's a cheaper price, because they can go order from clips4sale if they really want to keep the clip forever and ever. I put the question out on my Facebook page and got NO comments from my fans either way. 

Thoughts, ideas?

monasummers

I also don`t allow downloads, i don`t want guys downloading al my content and sharing it with the rest of the world.

Here in The Netherlands the option to download is also not normal here we just watch online (membership or pay by minute) 

Of course there are guys who want to download but i only see negative things in allowing downloads 

KaitlinK- FurPassion

I've heard it both ways. 

The cross browser, cross device, high quality streaming that the modelcentro platform allows makes downloads rather pointless. 

It's funny that I've posted this on a small fetish webmaster forum, and the one response was that I should go ahead and allow downloads since I've had no new joins, and guys have been asking for it. 

However, I would almost rather LOWER my rates from the current $20/month and do streaming ONLY so that I'm not competing with cheap sites that allow HD downloads for that. I don't like the message that lowering rates sends, though. 

OR, I can dramatically raise my rates and allow downloads (as my idea above with a 60 first month, and raised from 20/month to 35/month). This is what I am leaning towards most. It's not like a raise in rates would earn me less, and I'd be making more per customer, and if someone DID join with the intent of stealing content, they'd be out a larger chunk of change. On the customer's end, $60 for the first month and $35/month is still cheaper than buying all my clips on clips4sale. 

Ultimately, I don't think that I need to change, I think the industry needs to quit giving away so much, and that the mindset and expectations of buyers/consumers/clients needs to change! Men have this entitled ownership attitude, which pisses me off. 

This is 2014, not 2004 when people had slower internet and streaming wasn't so cross-device compatible.

All that idealistic and logical stuff being said, it sucks to get so much negative feedback from clients and for sales of new memberships to correspondingly flatline. 

KaitlinK- FurPassion

Update- I overthought this some more, and wrote a blog about it. http://new.furpassion.com/post/10216/happy-new-year-and-need-your-feedback-on-something

The gist of it is that I think I will re-enable downloads, starting at the beginning of February, with new membership rates: 

$75 for the first month and $35 per month recurring. 

$177 for a 6 month subscription (which ends up being about
$29/month)

$299 for 1 year (about $25/month)

Members currently on my current rates paying thru this site (not
my old processor), would be grandfathered in until at least my
next rate increase. Those who are still paying thru my old payment processor, would be terminated after 1 month (and FINALLY ending my association with the old company, since they pay slow and I've had nothing but issues with receiving payments). Those who
have given me gifts and were previously on some greatly discounted or
free plan for longer than 6 months, would be terminated before
this kicks in.

But this way, nobody can say that it's a surprise. I'll wait until
the end of this week and then send a newsletter that as of February
1... and when I send a newsletter, maybe guys will hurry up and join
for $20 a month or under the current rates. The current members will
at least see what a deal they're getting. 

I think that if I'm not getting any new joins at 20/month with streaming-only, may as well
roughly double my prices and not make any more money... that means
that fewer people will have to give me money for me to reach the
minimum payout, and it'll be a focus on quality, and furs ARE a luxury :-P

I still might change my mind and decide to keep the status quo of 20/month no-downloads, but these new numbers make more sense to me, and the high entry fee at least makes it worth my while if someone joins for 1 month and downloads all the clips. 

This might also just be an issue with fickle fur fetish fans, and possibly a big reason why there are only a handful of exclusively fur fetish websites. I need to focus more on diversifying and my non-furfetish stuff :-P

Sorry if this was all ranty... but I like to read about the experience and business experimentations of others, and totally don't mind willingly sharing my own! 

beckylesabre

Some of the content I upload I wouldn't mind giving the option for download. But then there is the content that is a little more premium for me... I would love to see an option here on modelcentro, in the video upload process for each video we get the option to offer download. Just my two Cents :-)

Natalie

Thanks for this thread Kaitlin! Very useful indeed!

Becky, already working on that.

petmethisway

Hello ladies, petmethisway's husband here. Saw this post while looking for ways to tweek our site and figured I'd give some feedback from the perspective of a male customer
I understand the concern when it comes to worrying about guys just downloading your content and then re-posting it (especially since we are about to launch soon), and I certainly can't speak for all men, but I know for me, and pretty much any guy I personally know that has joined a site, if the content can't be saved, I won't join/renew. There are countless sites where a guy can watch porn for free, so if I'm going to actually pay for a membership, I want to be able to save the content so I can "re-visit" it later if the mood strikes me 0;)
Also, as for pricing, again, there are, literally, millions of amateur model sites out there, so, from a guys standpoint, I'm not going to pay more than $20 bucks for a membership unless its something I REALLY want to see, and even then, I wont pay more than $30.
I've never bought any specialty items or personal videos/cam shows myself, but if I wanted to, then I can see paying higher prices, but just for basic access to view pix and vids... Meh. I'm sure you lovely ladies have some hardcore fans who don't mind paying a higher price, but I'm just speaking from the standpoint of average porn surfing guy. In fact, there is so much I can get free, I pretty much stopped joining sites... which is why my wife's site will only be $20 a month. I worry about pricing ourselves out of the average guys acceptable range otherwise.
I've pretty much accepted the fact that no matter what we do, some douche is going to post our content on another site. It's the internet. Comes with the territory. The best I can do is put a watermark on the videos (I feel putting them on pix is a very time consuming waste of time, since anyone with basic photoshop can edit it out) and hope that any guy that likes what they see visits the site afterwards -.-
I wish you ladies all much luck and prosperity, and if you'd like any additional "guy point of view" input, feel free to message me via the wifey here and I'll be happy to help if I can

Hayden

Those are all good and true points. 

Though my issue with downloading is sharing, and member retention. If he downloads everything in one shot what's his incentive to stay? 

And then sharing it all on pirate forums or worse, selling it. Yes it will eventually be shared on sites, but you can work hard to stay off of them, track them and DMCA everything - piracy is an income killer. If they find all of your stuff for free than of course they won't have any incentive to join. 

Porn is a luxury. Not a necessity. It has been lessened and cheapened over the years and guys have expected more and more for free - even just flat out demanding freebies. Girls giving 100 videos away for $3. It's ridiculous. Guys feel entitled to it and even more entitled to steal/share content with 0 thought to the model. On piracy forums they are generally nasty towards models who speak up and want their content taken down - simply thinking they are entitled to free porn because they have a cock. Pfft. Fuck that mentality. 

I am not cheap. I'll do an occasional deal. But I charge fairly high on camshows (5.99/min on sm) and i do well , and specifically for model centro I'm at 29.95 / mo and + right now. I'm happy with that price-point and I've had several signups so far. I'm not concerned with the guys who want it cheaper - I don't want to cater to that. The men who have the $ or who really really want it will pay for it (I have 2 specific fetish niches that I'm popular in - BBW/Feeder and a huge ass)  - they will pay. 

I may not have 100 signups a month (yet ) but I'd charge higher and placing a better perceived value on my content than I would if I priced it all for $5. And the higher I charge the faster I can reach my goal, another perk. 

I am not comfortable allowing unlimited downloads. Though I am fine with offering limited downloads per month, if that feature comes available. I can bend a bit, and they can receive 4-5 downloads a month, the membership being equal to what they'd spend in my download store. 

But my point is I don't think they NEED it all downloaded (model centro is specifically compatible on ALL mobile devices, they can stream with little buffering time on any device) and no they don't deserve ALL of it in one big download button. If they want it all they can run on down to my Clips4Sale and pay $2,000+ to download ALL of my content. If they want to view and watch all of my content, and download a few videos - then they can pay for my membership price, which is much more affordable compared to buying all of my content. 

Natalie

I think it's a matter of what you're comfortable with. Now you don't even have to do that - if they want to download - send them the content via a private message, have it "locked" and set a price to it (to match what you're selling it for in the store)

Cher Azur

@Natalie That Locked content Feature is Amazing when one of the Member Said he wanted to Purchuse Two of the Photos in Two Different Photo Sets. Love the Feature.

Natalie

Thanks @CherAzur!

Nicki Sunshine

I immediately turned off the ability to download the content. Piracy is a concern of mine, but even moreso, it just doesn't make sense financially for me. I also sell my content on clip sites (other than a few member's exclusives.) If someone can sign up for $20 just to download all of my videos and then leave, I am essentially losing hundreds of dollars. I don't think some people realize what a great deal it is to be able to view all of a model's content with a membership price instead of needing to pay for the videos individually. And then on top of that, people think they should be able to download it forever also..? It just drives me nuts. Maybe the big porn companies like Brazzers or Reality Kings can afford to allow downloads, but for most independent models, it's just not that easy.

@HaydenBlue brings up a ton of great points, especially regarding porn being a luxury and not a necessity. Just because you have a boner, doesn't mean that you are entitled to porn. If you can't afford it, use your imagination.