Posted by mikezillion at April 28th, 2007
I just realized that BearParty Magazine got a taste of what Seth Godin was talking about when he promoted the idea of the inverse funnel. Our BearParty Magazine release parties were all proposed by the venues that hosted them, based probably on the reputation of CyberBears and the common need for what we had to offer. Coolness.
Posted by mikezillion at April 18th, 2007
I consider it good news when major corporations decide to loosen their standards about selling pornographic material. Circle K, the convenience store chains which operate in many Shell Oil locations, has received tacit approval from Shell Oil to permit the sale of Playboy and Penthouse magazines as “adult sophisticates.” Shell-branded convenience stores will still not carry any adult products. Shell executive Otto Meyers explained that magazines such as Playboy and Hustler do not fit the definition of pornography held by the general public. Any specific issues of community standards violation will still not be tolerated, at the discretion of the retailers.
Posted by mikezillion at April 2nd, 2007
What can we learn from politics? Nothing useful, usually. But this article in the Washington Post about the psychological value of perceived competition has lessons for all of us, including the pornographers. Many businesses operate on a zero-sum assumption that any sale made to another company is a sale lost to your own company. That’s actually what they tried to teach me when I got my MBA. But I’ve always staunchly maintained that no company has any real competitors. Everyone in the marketplace, especially companies in the exact same niche, works as a colleague to draw consumer attention to all of our products just by advertising and promoting their own products. The better they look, the better we all do.
Posted by mikezillion at March 25th, 2007
It makes me smile when I read about how print is dead. All the experts point to the trends to prove their conclusion. Sales are down, revenues are down, newsstands are emptier, and all the focus is on new and dynamic communications technologies. Even many of our favorite porn magazines have closed up shop. That’s all about the business model, not about the medium.
Print is not dead, just as sure as the computer did not deliver on the threat of a paperless office. Perhaps some of the ways print has been used will need to adapt to the marketplace. For my audience of international urban bears and bear lovers, there is no better alternative than a convenient, resilient print magazine. That doesn’t mean that the websites will die. I’m still here blogging, aren’t I? It just means that the new and old options will adapt to complement each other.
Posted by mikezillion at March 14th, 2007
According to Variety, Hollywood is on the way to a revival of the 3-D movie. All I can say is how soon do we start seeing new 3-D porn titles? I’ve been a fan of 3-D since I was in my early teens, and I taught my eyes how to cross and focus at the same time. (It’s easier than it sounds.) I just hope that my favorite porn producers are getting the message.
Posted by mikezillion at February 27th, 2007
In a not-so-unexpected move, the popular P2P distribution tool Bittorrent is now selling legitimate video downloads to compete with commercial services such as iTunes. But one key difference is that iTunes doesn’t sell porn. Of course, questions about digital rights management, price points, and customer expectations arise as well. But wouldn’t it be interesting to cast Apple as the stuffy, conservative player for once?