Into Temptation

Posted By jss on February 13, 2009

In a move that may have some profound implications for the world of online adult personals, SexyAds.com founders Jayce and Maureen Shaw  said today that the adult dating site will shift to “fully featured adult networking.”

The site, based in Australia, claims more than one million active members, primarily in the United States. It was among the earliest adult personal ad sites on the web, starting in 1997. In a letter to members this morning, Jayce said SexAds has had more than 8 million members register since opening for business.

I couldn’t reach the founders this morning for comment, nor did I expect to be able to — it’s the middle of night right now where they are — but, reading between the lines of the letter, it looks like they plan to open the closed community of SexyAds up to the Internet. Members who want to restrict access to their profiles to only logged-in members (the way things are now) are asked to log in and set a photo access filter. Default access will allow “everyone” to see some profile photos on the site:

Allowing everyone to view your photos will get you HEAPS more hits. However if you wish to restrict access to only those members who are currently logged in, select “Restrict to registered members”.

** Note that photos rated “Naughty” and “Wicked” are NEVER shown to people who aren’t registered SexyAds Members

The site offers many of the features of social networking sites already, including forums, chat, blogging, etc. What isn’t immediately clear is what the difference will be between a free membership and a paid, VIP membership. SexyAds currently charges $24.97 a month for unlimited access to the site, or $69.97 for quarterly or $199.97 for annual membership — similar to what is charged at Adultfriendfinder.com, SexSearch.com, Fling.com and a host of other adult personal sites.

The letter to members seems to suggest the possibility that anyone will be allowed to test drive a full featured SexyAds.com for free, for some unspecified time before committing to a paid membership.

Starting very soon, anyone can check SexyAds out before making the commitment to join. … Like the large networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, SexyAds offers a lot of ways to interact and meet new sexy adult friends. If you’ve got a page on any other site, you’ll soon be able to link to your SexyAds profile or blog …

Paid adult sites have traditionally  limited access to free members. Free adult sites are springing up to challenge them but it is not as easy to gain free members as one might think. Paid sites can afford advertising and pay affiliate sites to drive traffic. Free sites can’t.

Everyone has heard of the “vanilla” dating site Match.com. How many people know that Match.com has launched a free site, DowntoEarth.com, probably in response to the wildly successful (and free) PlentyofFish.com?

(Pause)

I thought so.

My first take is that SexyAds is going to try to have the best of both worlds, free and paid, which is a difficult balancing act. How much “free” will bring in new members, and will they stick around? If “free” is so great, why pay?

I’m hoping to hear from Maureen and Jayce soon, with more information. And yes, I’ve been a “free” SexyAds.com member for … I don’t know how long. I’ve never met anyone from the site, though.

Markus Frind, founder and CEO of Plentyoffish.com, has predicted on his blog, The Paradigm Shift, that “2009 will be the battle of the business models,  Free vs. Paid.”  That goes for adult sexual networking as well. Can AFF and the paid swinger/sex sites hold onto their memberships and revenue? I think they can, for quite a while … but I think the trend is against them.

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Categories: News, Quickies and Briefs
Tags: adult personals, adultfriendfinder.com, aff.com, Markus Frind, plentyoffish.com, sexsearch.com, sexual networking, sexyads.com, social networking