By Peter Berton
OTTAWA, Canada – As world capital cities go, Ottawa is both pretty and dull. With the exception of a few streets downtown, the whole place shuts down after 10 p.m., even on weekends.
As for homegrown sex? Well, Ottawa is about as kinky as cold vanilla pudding, which is why the appearance of the homegrown foot fetish site OttawaGirlsFeet.com was such a surprise. The site is entirely amateur-based, using local talent discovered by Patrick, a 39-year-old Ottawa resident who describes himself as having “a major foot fetish.”
YNOT.com: What do you mean by “a major foot fetish?”
Patrick: This fetish started at a young age, probably around the time I was 7, I think. I remember being babysat by a woman who was my aunt at the time. I was playing with some cars on the carpeted floor in the living room, and one of my cars rolled towards her feet as she sat on the sofa.
I crawled over to retrieve it, and she was trying to tease me and tickle me with her feet. I had rolled onto my back at one point — can’t remember why; maybe she knocked me over with her foot — and then she started smothering me with her bare feet.
At first I was trying to get out from underneath her feet, but oddly, I found myself enjoying it. Having this woman who also happened to be drop-dead gorgeous smothering her smooth and sexy bare feet all over my face and body sparked something in me. Thus began my love for feet.
As I became an adult, I bought several foot-fetish magazines. Eventually I got out of that, hopped onto the internet and started seeking out foot content online.
At about the year 2000, I opened a test site just to see how much interest there would be. If the site was popular enough, I was going to make it somewhat of a pay site and put full effort into it.
Then we fast forward to late 2011: I had an understanding girlfriend at the time, and she allowed me to start Ottawa Girl’s Feet.
Your content is free. Why?
Since I came very late to a party that was already underway — meaning thousands of sites were already online, ranging from poor-quality web design, low-quality pics and average girls all the way up to the bigger studios with large budgets and top-notch models — I took a different approach. I opted to keep my site 100-percent free so that I could generate way more traffic than most of the other foot sites out there that have a monthly subscription requirement.
I offer anywhere from 50 to more than 100 photos for free. I even create a self-extracting executable file for easy download of the complete set, so the viewer can view the pics at their own leisure right off their own PC or other device.
How well has the “free content” approach worked for you, from a business standpoint?
Since my site is 100-percent free, it makes it extremely hard to keep this venture afloat. Models are not free, nor is the equipment you need to capture the content. Same goes for the web hosting.
So, in March of 2013 I started creating video clips to sell, with the hopes the sales from that would help support the free site and — God willing — maybe turn a profit at some point.
I wanted the site to support itself completely so my day job paycheck would no longer have to be used to fund this venture. A little over a year into video clip sales, it seems it’s still not breaking even, but I continue to push forward regardless.
Why do you continue if you’re not making money?
For me, it’s not about getting rich. Even though I have now put in about $7,500 and only made back about $1,500, the site is still fun at times and does provide practice.
I am an A+ Certified computer technician, so I like all things computer and thus the site gives me a reason to learn more about web design. I also like photography, so again, the site provides me the opportunity to take photos and learn more. And to top it all off, I love feet; therefore I combined all three things and gave this another go.
At the suggestion of a fan I did start a donations option, since I did not want to gouge viewers with a pay-site-type structure, But that only helped bring in a few hundred dollars at the start of the idea and quickly tapered off.
You actually manage to get local Ottawa women as models?
The bulk of my models are from Ottawa. Some have now moved away, and some are models that were simply visiting Ottawa for a bit or simply passing through.
I have a profile on a modeling site, where models and photographers and makeup artists can contact one another to work together, so several are from there. I also place classified ads on different sites to try and find willing models.
Sometimes current models have friends who want to pose, so through word of mouth I may gain a few more girls willing to pose.
Is it easier to convince women to be models since you don’t do nudity?
You would think it would be, but because Ottawa is primarily known as a government town, it’s fairly conservative in nature. Thus, even asking a girl to pose fully clothed and to display her feet and her face is a bit much for some, as they do not want to be recognized on an adult site.
I could have models lined up from Ottawa to Thailand if I abolished the face requirement, but most guys like to see the model’s entire figure. If I was in a more liberal city in Canada, like Montreal or even Toronto, it would be easier to find models for this type of work. But Ottawa is a tough nut to crack at times.
Your models are generally local. What about your viewers?
After checking my stats, the largest number of viewers is from the U.S., followed closely by Canada. Third place is usually a fight between Britain, France and Germany. Then the list goes on from Brazil to Peru to Korea and several other countries.
What else makes your site stand out from the crowd?
I respond to emails every day — usually within the same hour.
I also code my own site, whereas 90 percent or more of the foot sites out there have to outsource that. I can quickly modify my site on the fly if need be, whereas the other guys may have to wait until the company or person has time to modify theirs.
I am a one-man show: I take the pics, perform light editing of the photos, code the site and do all the graphics via Photoshop. I am fully self-sufficient.
