Steve Sims, the founder of Sims Designs, a UK company that has designed a number of adult sites, says that many adult companies don't even have an IT department — they more often rely on freelancers instead.
"A couple of the companies we have designed for have IT departments, but on the whole they just seem to muddle through on an individual basis," says Sims.
Even the larger companies rarely employ in-house Web designers as the site design does not need to be updated that frequently.
"The bigger [adult] companies get, the more technology staff they have, but they tend to outsource all creative," says Alexander. "Keeping an in-house designer is not effective, as once you design a Web site you don't need any more design work till the next year."
4. How many IT professionals actually work in the adult companies?
The pornography industry is worth $57bn (£33bn) worldwide, with
Internet pornography accounting for $2.5bn of this amount, according to
figures posted on review site TopTenReviews.com in February 2004. It
claims there are 4.2 million porn sites worldwide, which represent 12
percent of the Internet.
ZDNet UK was unable to obtain any figures on the number of IT professionals employed by the adult industry, but adult sites alone are likely to employ thousands of staff. According to industry insiders, an adult Web site that makes around $1m every year is likely to employ between four and seven technology staff and around the same number of sales staff. If these figures are accurate and representative of the entire online adult industry, they suggest that tens of thousands of tech staff work for adult Web sites worldwide.
Other adult companies appear to require less technology staff. Private Media Group, which makes most of its revenues from videos and DVDs, generated €35.6m (£24.4m) in sales in 2004, according to the company's annual report, but only employs around 15 technology staff out of 120 full-time staff, according to Harte-Bunting.
5. What are the challenges of working for an adult company?
It is widely perceived that adult companies are making large amounts of
money, which has attracted increasing numbers of people into the
industry, hoping to make a quick buck. But increasing competition means
it is becoming harder to make serious money in the adult industry.
"It's an absolute myth that porn companies make a lot of money. In the 90s when there was less competition some companies were making a 20 percent profit," says Harte-Bunting. "Now, anyone that's got a camera is making porn. The industry runs on very thin profit margins. I've worked with [adult video] producers and seen the agony they go through to turn a buck," he says.
Web designer Alexander agrees and says that he sometimes has to lower his rates as adult companies are more budget conscious than his corporate clients. Sims claims his company...
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Talkback
this is a good article
I like porn and i liked this article
I agree with the author
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
Here's a suggestion for those interested in getting a job in the adult industry, check the older webmaster resource sites like ynot.com, klixxx.com and others.
I am an adult webmaster, and while I do my own coding, seems like once a week someone posts to a discussion board, "I need a webdesigner or programmer for my site."
Those resource sites are good too, for tutorials to teach how to set up a well designed site. Adult sites are different from regular e-commerce. Get a rep for good design and you'll have a good second income.
Of course you can't tell your grandmother, lol.
Telling people you work in the porn business is ok as long as your job title isn't "Fluffer"
great article, one of the biggest problems is the UK mind set, for example, newspapers will not allow you to advertsise jobs in the adult sector as they see it as seedy, yet they allow escorting adverts, insane... The adult industry is far from seedy and offers some very good jobs ranging from tech jobs up to highly paid stars..
We find our stars by word of mouth, people telling people we are good to work for... We would love to advertise like tescos or vodafone, yet we can't, hopefully this imbalance will change and people who want to work in the adult industry will find it easier to get the job they want..
www.traceysvideos.co.uk
I have worked in theadult industry for years.
Its such a shame it is still seen as dirty & seedy.
Its the small, narrowmindedness that has allowed it to become a haven for drug criminals & people traffickers.
Get rid of the taboo's bring it out in the open and these evil criminals have nowhere to hide
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im portugues and its hard for me to find a job as a porn actor :( what should i do
As a generalisation probably quite accurate.
I am founder and CEO of one of the largest adult orientated companies in the world. My comments are:
1) If you are only offering normal conventional adult material it is much harder to make $$$’s nowadays unless you are an exceptional individual. However, I still know many new start-ups who earn far more as an adult webmaster within one year than they ever will in the corporate world. If your good and know how to do it, then you will still make serious money. The emphasis being ‘good’ – but then doesn’t that apply to any industry? ;)
2) If you offer rich new media – then it is still a high growth market and there is plenty of money to be made. However, only big budget guys have the opportunity to develop the technology to develop rich media applications. (eg. Live video streaming that handles millions of customers, rich media for mobile, ipTV etc..)
3) Although there is still stigma associated with the adult industry it is not as bad as people make out and things are changing. There are a few public companies on USA and European stock exchange who are 100% porn companies. The number of porn companies going IPO is increasing and their market cap is similar to conventional companies – highlighting its acceptance to corporate investors and the public. There is significantly more public companies that derive 70-80% of their income from porn, but simply don’t highlight it ;) …eg Hotel entertainment systems providers, mobile payment processors & content suppliers etc..
4) I would not agree that the big adult companies pay lower than corporate world. It’s just that 90% of adult companies are small. I know quite a few adult companies pay top $ for highly qualified staff, and offer both share options and health insurance ;) High valued branded porn companies are run just as corporately as any blue chip company.
5) One thing you forgot to mention …some adult companies you get to work on world first innovative projects. We were probably the first company in the world who solved DDOS attacks with a budget less than $250,000, and then later helped one of the largest banks in the world to solve theirs ;) We also developed the worlds first live video chat applications for 2.5g and 3g mobile phones, we also developed the worlds first hotel in-room live video chat system etc. .. You also get exposure to some very high traffic ecommerce systems – experience hard to find in a lot of companies, even very large multinationals.
6) It is true that people perceive an issue with working with adult companies, especially corporate career minded, but these are a minority and most understand the commercial aspect after their initial concerns. I have never known a techie being declined for a job because they previously worked in a porn company. Strangely, from my experience the people who have the biggest issue with working in porn related companies are male programmers ;) Women tend to have less of an issue than guys (from my limited experience of interviewing and recruiting a few hundred techies, sales, designers etc. in the adult industry). I frequently receive CV’s from c-level executives of global billion dollar corporations begging to join our company. (doesn’t mean they have the skill set for our type of business, but highlights that it is not as big a barrier as people perceive and we offer comparable salaries to the corporate world)
7) Don’t forget the corporate world had a big stigma with gambling companies 6 years ago in the UK before it became mainstream on the internet ;)
I just found this article as i have been working as a print/web designer for the adult industry for the last three years and am now looking to move on to another company.
It certainly is frustrating though as my portfolio for the last few years is littered with adult design material that would greatly impress the right potential employees but of course sends anyone else off in exactly the wrong direction - ie, far away from looking at all the naked ladies and appreciating the work for what it is.
This job itself came from friends of friends - before now i was freelancing and happened to produce some adverts for a phonesex company, which where noticed by an advertising agencies and details passed on to my current employer - but now, it seems cold calls and maybe a little word of mouth might be the way forward as there sure as hell arent any relevant posts up on planetrecruit or jobsite today....
Very good article!
For all of you who want to work in the Adult Industry now check http://www.adultexpertise.com
Very good site where you can promote yourself to the adult industry for free :)
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hi can u post me where do you work in adult filming and how to get there
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
via Facebook
22 November, 2005 19:16
I'm not sure I'd tell anyone if I had a job in the porn industry -- might look dodgy on the CV,
via Facebook
22 November, 2005 19:16
forget to leave my email address guardian25angel@gmail.com
Possibly more acceptable now than admitting you work for a bank!