SAN DIEGO, CA – The second seminar on Day 1 of Cybernet Expo covered Niche and Fetish Marketing. Moderated by YNOTBob, the panel consisted of Brooks Talley (Bondage.com), Brittany Andrews (Niche Bitch), Amelia G (SpookyCash), Bestat (Exclusive Content), Arthur (Meat Cash), and MikeSmoke (SmokeCash).Once the panelists had introduced themselves, Bob began the seminar with a question addressed to the whole group about how they find information for their fetishes.
Mike talked about what he knows, the smoking fetish.
“You either know it or you don’t. You either live it or you don’t,” he insisted. “People who are into it, they know it. They feel it down below.”
He suggested looking to the people who know that fetish, people who are already in the lifestyle and “someone who is good at what they do.”
Bob’s next question concerned how to find niche or fetish traffic.
Brooks answered, “A good domain name always helps.”
In regards to non-traditional ways of attracting traffic, Brooks mentioned word of mouth among the community had proved a rather successful approach to getting targeted traffic. Developing relationships with other, small fetish sites rather than the large programs with various types of sites also proved helpful in generating targeted traffic to their sites.
Amelia mentioned that they had always done, and still do, a lot of offline press, as well as trying to obtain a mix of various traffic.
Bob’s next question was directed at Arthur. “How do you promote extreme stuff like yours without fear of the government?”
“We feel we’re within our rights to produce and distribute our content,” answered Arthur. “I can’t be worried about it.”
Bob turned the topic to finding models for fetish and niche content.
Britney fielded that answer. “Finding models is easy for me because I’ve been in the biz for twelve years. I distributed flyers at the LA Erotica show this weekend, and I meet models at shows all the time. Girls send me pictures in the mail, and there are websites now with models and agents representing models. I do a lot of recruiting at shows as well.”
Looking back, Bob asked about the changes that had occurred in the last four or five years. Bestat responded that with the advent of so many niches, the surfers are also more sophisticated now than before, and because traffic is so targeted, that is reflected in the sales.
Mike offered more comments on fetish marketing in general. “There are really two different marketing approaches to consider. One of your groups of surfers is totally into that fetish. The other group may have an interest in that fetish whereas it’s not their entire lifestyle, and marketing to each of these groups is very different.”
Amelia offered blogs as a suggestion for non-traditional ways of generating more targeted traffic for a fetish or niche site.
Arthur offered some advice: “It’s important to listen to the photographers and content producers to get feedback because they understand the nuances. It’s important to listen.”
Britney offered a helpful suggestion to close out the seminar. “See what others are doing, and do the right research. Get information from the right people.”
