A new phrase for InterNext should be: “What happens in Vegas hopefully won’t stay in Vegas.” All the false platitudes won’t change anyone’s mind that InterNext 2004 itself felt the troubles that the last year has brought onto the industry, with fewer participants and fewer parties.A new phrase for InterNext should be: “What happens in Vegas hopefully won’t stay in Vegas.” All the false platitudes won’t change anyone’s mind that InterNext 2004 itself felt the troubles that the last year has brought onto the industry, with fewer participants and fewer parties.

It was that very thought that the Gay Lesbian Seminar opened with, as Morgan Summer, president of CyberSocket, announced to everyone that the attitude this year of the gay community was “Gay Friendly”. I didn’t know that the gay market was unfriendly, but still my heart was all a twitter, feeling that this seminar was not going to be like all the other ones before.

For the most part, Morgan and the team up on stage kept their word, since this time around the stage was balanced to include a female perspective, and the “Gay Mafia” was outmaneuvered in its control of apparently classified “gay” info that the last couple of seminars seemed only to hint at. The “gay” world did seem unfriendly back then as those who put themselves in charge of it (lovingly called the “Gay Mafia”) held back data, not to mention the lesbian part of the equation.

With a team like Rob Novinger from C1R, Aly Drummond from Python, Caryn Goldberg at Specialty Publications, I knew these new faces to the podium would hold back the “Boys Club” mentality that the gay industry often seems to create. I was especially happy to see another deserving face up on stage, that being Lisa Turner from BadPuppy, who took hold of the “Gay Friendly” banner long before it was ever mentioned during this seminar.

I poured myself a drink and waited patiently until the self-promotions and verbal foreplay were over, as everyone took turns stroking each other’s name back and forth. It wasn’t until later when those who were asking questions from the audience finally brought out the best and worst in the panel.

Specific questions regarding numbers of gay Webmasters were met with uncertainty by everyone, but Morgan ventured to lend a perspective by offering statistics from CyberSocket: that over the last seven years they have accumulated over 8,700 sites, with an added note that they have rejected three to four thousand sites to date. Aly from Python surprised us by stating that they receive close to 539 site submissions a week; that may not indicated how many gay Webmasters there are, but simply that there are a lot of busy little designers out there. Lisa from BadPuppy seemed to be the only speaker to offer direct numbers via email, showing once again BadPuppy’s serious intentions to assist in a “Gay Friendly” 2004.

Immediately after that, the inevitable question surfaced: What’s the direction the gay market is going regarding content? Morgan suggested that his members are interested in foot fetish, and along with Caryn Goldberg, agreed on interracial content, while Rob from C1R favored streaming videos and DVDs along with Aly from Python. Lisa from BadPuppy took a new path by offering underwear and reality sites as the new hits. Oddly enough, twinks still carry a following, but the consensus is it is saturated now and has become tiresome and boring, except for those few surfers that are hardcore fans. Oddly enough I find solace in knowing that content without substance in the models has run its course.

The direction of the gay market regarding actual companies and marketing sites was a more intriguing question since there has been a growth in straight Webmasters showing interest in the “pink” bucks. Morgan pointed out that there were at least 2000 free sites in his database and that it was value and content first before upsell that was the path people were taking. Rob suggested that print was important to “branding” a site. That made Caryn extremely happy as she added, “Print is not dead!”

Yet teaming up and trading traffic was one of the most popular methods to grow Web site traffic. Aly had numerous suggestions on marketing free sites from search engines, key words, submissions, free directories, reports, getting listed, then finally traffic exchanges. Rob added to that with the added bonus of using print stating that he sees 150,000 viewers per month using these tactics.

The highest form of flattery came when attention was drawn to teaming up with companies and asking questions of those with greater wisdom in the market place. Morgan Summer, along with the panelists, all agreed that Gary-Alan of the gaywidewebmaster.com chat board and dilf.com is truly the godfather of the gay industry and a benefit to anyone wanting to study at the foot of the master. I can think of no one more deserving of an honor of recognition for his or her work than Gary-Alan and Lee, his mate.

Should InterNext be broken off into two, thereby creating a gay conference? Morgan suggested a gay ghetto in jest, but the panelists all agree that many companies are trying to break into the gay market, such as CCBill and Epoch, yet have had limited success either because of lack of knowledge or homophobia. Segregation is not the answer; instead, teaming up will allow such myths of gay culture to be thrown out for good. Fred Lane, moderator of the seminar, raised a strong point: that a recent decision by the Supreme Court to throw out the Texas sodomy act helped in recognizing that being gay is not against the law.

Often the public associates porn and the gay industry with bestiality and child pornography, when in fact our industry has more say in policing itself than do government regulations. Cultures are changing. For now, the gay industry is been sought after due to its dollars rather than cultural diversity and uniqueness. That is why some companies hire gay men to draw clients, then fire them shortly afterwards fearing that they will become branded themselves.

From Webmasters to porn companies that in the past refused to deal with gay content or persons, these people expect memories to be short. Simply because you now wish to find a market to expand your bottom line we are obliged to turn over the family secrets?

Is it no wonder why the market appears “gay unfriendly”?

For now the gay market has the adult community’s interest, but whether it’s either for the money or our souls, we prefer to choose the lesser of the two evils. It truly is the best of times, yet the worst of times.

Rob “TheLegacy” is the Director of Marketing for Sexxxycontent.com and can be reached at 416-361-9190 or via ICQ# 102612416.