The Internet, as we all know, is a global phenomenon. But don’t believe the hype. As a glance at any search engine will tell you, the vast majority of adult websites are either based in the USA or run by US concerns.Cool Piranha

www.johnmasonstudio.com article

The British Are Coming!

The Internet, as we all know, is a global phenomenon. But don’t believe the hype. As a glance at any search engine will tell you, the vast majority of adult websites are either based in the USA or run by US concerns. And boy, is it hard to break into that market if you’re a limey.

I’ve worked in the glamour photography business here in Britain for the last 15 years, shooting everything from topless and lingerie material for the daily newspapers to full on hardcore work for adult magazines both in Britain, Europe and America. At the end of last year, I joined forces with a couple of smart-minded friends and we created Cool Piranha, a company intended to be both a web solution provider for the adult market and host to some websites featuring both my material and that of other UK-based adult photographers. Now make no mistake, I’m a web virgin. I know how to use a camera, light a set, take images of consenting adults engaged in all manner of lurid act, tweak them in Photoshop and burn them on CD, but that’s it. From Day One, it was understood that I would provide all the photography, and my colleagues would sort out the code, design, marketing and all the other aspects of being a web company. And that’s how we built my site, www.johnmasonstudio.com.

Not another image site! Well no, not really. We all know that image sites are ten a penny, and I wanted to offer the paying customer something more, and luckily, unlike a number of other glamour photographers with websites, I can. My grounding in the photography business is as a photojournalist, so as well as taking photos, I do a lot of editorial work covering sex shows, adult movie shoots and swinging parties. In fact, if it has an adult theme, I’ll be there with my camera in one hand and my laptop in the other. I sell features written about the adult business to a number of UK-based adult magazines, and we decided that they too should be on my site, along with MPEGs from the various adult movies I’ve either crewed on (or appeared in!) to give added ‘stickiness’. The features themselves are all illustrated with images taken at the time, so members not only get to read about the latest Brussels sex show, they can see all the images I’ve taken there of the stalls, the girls and the shows. Likewise the adult movies I work on. If I’m not performing in them (I’m Britain’s answer to Ron Jeremy, just much, much thinner and less hairy!), I’m on the set taking photographs for them, and I get the Rights to use those images wherever I want to, so my members benefit. How many other photographers can boast that kind of unique content?

But designing the site wasn’t that simple.

From the outset, we had to decide what kind of a site we wanted. And it wasn’t as easy as you might think. Take a look at all the adult sites on the web. What unites them? Images of course. If you’re a Webmaster building a site, you get to pick and choose what sort of market sector or niche you’re interested in and buy your content in accordingly. You can start an amateur site, a lesbian site, whatever. If you’re a photographer with 15 years in the adult business, and a back catalogue covering every aspect of the adult glamour market, your job just got harder.

I could have started an amateur girls site, because I have a tonne of product in that area, but I also have material shot in places like the Seychelles and the Mediterranean with stunning models, and it seemed kind of a shame to waste that sort of thing. So we thought long and hard as to how best to utilise my work, finally deciding that an adult site featuring a broad range of my work was the best way to go, since it not only meant plenty of content, but also a far wider choice for members.

Then we had to decide just how much material to put up at any one time. We couldn’t put it all up: I couldn’t even calculate the amount of drive space required for that kind of thing. Or how much time would have to be spent scanning my older work. Thankfully, the UK adult publishing market is beginning to look at digital photography, and I’ve been working digitally for over a year. These days, the bulk of my work is shot on a Nikon D1X, so slapping it onto a CD ready for the web is a piece of cake.

So the site’s built, we’ve moved a lot of images across to it (and since I’ve got over 100,000 in my library, there’s plenty to come) and I’m pretty happy with it. But it’s not American, and that seems to be a problem for a lot of people.

I thought that a site using European girls and genuine amateurs as well as glamour models would go down really well globally, but it looks like my site’s just swamped and buried with all the others. Is there a place for an English photographer on the web? Well I think so. We’ve spent too much money to back out now, and our members would get well and truly pissed if we suddenly pulled the plug! So now the promotion begins. I don’t want to brand it heavily as an ‘English’ site, although that might have to be done, since so many American guys like English girls (and the weird thing is, us Brits love American girls). I’d rather have the site seen as a broad adult site which caters to all tastes. If you like BBWs, they’re there, if you like shaven girls, they’re there, we’ve got pregnant girls, hairy girls, older women, younger women, fetish material; in fact, there’s very little that I haven’t shot. But how do you promote an adult website with something for everyone? Good question. And it’s one that we’re currently tackling. To be honest, it was something that I didn’t want to get involved in, because it’s not my sphere at all. But, calling in a few favours with adult magazine editors in the UK has given me some publicity, which we’re going to follow up with another media blitz involving free time-limited passwords. The next wave of publicity involves newsgroups and banner swaps, and I’m hoping that some American magazines will pick up on the material I’m sending out, too.

Search engines naturally provide a valuable source of hits, and all our metas are sorted now, so that too will begin shortly. Then we’ll see if the market’s ready to welcome an English photographer with open arms (and wallets). Watch this space. Or at least my URL, www.johnmasonstudio.com

John Mason – Uk based Photogrpaher