Summer Slowdown!
  Written By Titmowse

The summer slow down in the online porn world. Is it real? The belief is that a majority of Internet's paying porn customers are young college students with free access and their parent's credit cards. The summer slow down -according to the belief - is the result of college student's summer respites from their educations. This reasoning puts a lot of responsibility into the hands of the humble college student. It also puts a lot of responsibility into a season that happens in different months around the world.

I live in a university town. I worked at that university in the summer/winter/spring and fall. Business and the student population did most definitely decrease during the summer session. Some of the businesses in the town did see a significant reduction in customers/sales during the summer months. Other businesses saw an increase while others saw no change at all. This town I live in has managed to survive for almost a hundred years with it's university, even in summer.

Are more college age men out of school during the summer? Of course. Do they spend less on porn in the summer? Possibly. Summer for the college student is a time to take a break from the confines of school and their dorm rooms. They socialize more. They don't necessarily spend less money overall. They just spend that money on different things during the summer. This goes back to the original assumption that college-aged males are the backbone of online porn earnings. If one wants to use the observational logic about college males and summer slow down, one could as easily surmise that college males don't want to pay for porn in the first place.

Back in the ancient days of 1997 the collective face of the Internet porn customer was a college male. This is not necessarily true today. Studies from several prominent Internet research firms like Nielsen Net Ratings and PEW Internet Research indicate that online spending, as a whole is becoming more female. They find an increase in college/student traffic, but that traffic is concentrated on study and job searches. In fact, these studies are breaking Internet users into two groups now: those who are new to the net and the experienced net head, or as they call it the 'Long Wired".

The best news about e-commerce comes from these savvy Internet surfers. It seems the more "Long Wired" a surfer is, they more likely they are to partake of paid cybernet activities. PEW claims that online spending form "brand newbies" is 32%. Online spending from "Long Wired" types reaches up to 68%. The logic being the Long Wired surfer has past the point of newbie paranoia. They know how to protect their online privacy better and therefore have more courage to make Internet purchases. If you are an adult webmaster, then you know where your traffic is coming from. Not everyone runs a program that will appeal only to college men. A great many paysite owners and adult webmasters have told me of their belief that the college male is a weak customer in terms of sales. They prefer an older, wiser customer who comes to a buying decision on their own. These same Internet porn purveyors claim no summer slow down whatsoever.

If you find that your sales decrease in the summer then maybe it's time to look at your product. What audience are you marketing to? Who do you feel would look for porn in the summer? Instead of waiting for your customer base to come back to school, why not try to sell something to those who will buy during this supposedly slow season? There are plenty of studies that show sexual activities increase in warmer climates. If the kids are out at the clubs during the summer, then maybe you can appeal to the many that aren't. Lots of married and older men are home in the summer. Lots of housewives are stuck with the kids in their houses during the summer. What about all those perverted professors and teachers who take the summer off after having eyed coeds all year?

Maybe this impending summer could be the time you take to market that non-adult site you've been planning. Maybe it's the perfect chance for you to discover your skills at selling to women and explore how to appeal to the Long Wired. Whatever the time, summer is no time to slack off. Just because one market slows down does not mean they all do. Try alternate products. Ask other webmasters what they do. Find the ones who sail through summer with record sales, because they are out there.