How to Start a VR Porn Site in 2020
VR technology is still somewhat of a novelty and has a long way to go before reaching mainstream popularity and acceptance. The number of industries that experiment with the latest tech innovation is constantly on the rise, and it seems that VR has more uses than what was initially anticipated.
The video game industry makes the most out of futuristic headsets, but it’s not the only industry to do so. Since 2016, VR porn has been steadily growing in popularity and shows no signs of slowing down.
By 2025, VR porn will be a $1 billion industry and the third-biggest virtual-reality sector, preceded only by videogames and NFL-related content. That prediction seems to coincide with the coronavirus outbreak, which made a lot of people turn to adult content for entertainment during the lockdown.
Most Popular Virtual Sex Games
In fact, VR porn companies have seen an increase in income since the pandemic started. Since the coronavirus lockdown began, VR Bangers, one of the bigger VR players, has seen a 30% growth in sales.
It seems like 2020 has been a highly successful year for adult businesses of all sorts, and VR porn is no exception. Aspiring adult entrepreneurs are rising to the challenge, trying to claim a piece of that lucrative market for themselves.
Now’s the perfect time to get into an adult business yourself. Read on to find out all you need to know about how to start a porn website for VR in 2020.
Where to Begin?
Setting up an online business is not as daunting as it used to be. The process is becoming incredibly user-friendly and requires less and less technical savvy with each passing day.
Regardless of how easy the process is becoming, there are still a couple of steps you must take. You need to:
- Think about your niche
- Find a domain name and purchase web hosting
- Select a CMS
- Generate content for your site
- Monetize the website properly.
The first step to having a top-notch adult website is coming up with a niche and sticking by it. You might be thinking that you already know what you want to do — run a VR porn website. But there’s more to it than that. Let’s dive in.
Think About Your Niche
VR porn is a niche in a way, yes. You could say that, considering that the adult industry encompasses anything from online sex toy stores to escorts and camgirls.
However, VR porn is still too vague of a term to really build a business model around it. The competition is quite fierce, and the odds of you succeeding with an all-in-one VR porn site are quite low.
Instead, you should focus on one type of content, or one fetish, in order to succeed. The choices are quite broad in that respect, as there are dozens upon dozens of porn categories available to you.
By far, some of the most popular niches include MILF, interracial, amateur, BDSM, and transgender among others.
Don’t base the decision on what you’d personally like to see. Take a look at what niches are popular but have less competitors at the same time. Ideally, you should find a niche that gets a decent search volume but has fewer websites that focus on it.
Find a Domain Name and Purchase Web Hosting
It’s highly likely you already know what a domain name is. In case you don’t, it’s a unique identifier for your website that helps users find it more easily. You can’t create any website without a domain name, so it’s the next logical step after figuring out your niche.
There are some things you should think about when getting a domain name. It should be easy to remember, but also representative of what the website is all about.
For that very reason, it’s usually not a good idea to pick some cryptic shorthand that only you can understand. Play with words, try different combinations, and look for a domain name that truly stands out. As usual, keep it short and simple.
Then there’s the question of domain extensions. If possible, always go for a .com top-level domain. It’s the most common one in use and most trusted by the visitors. You can purchase a domain name from the same company that will provide you with hosting, which brings us to our next point.
A hosting company will provide you with an actual server to host your VR porn site. However, there’s one crucial matter to keep in mind here. Most hosting providers don’t look too kindly on adult websites. They might shut down your website without a hint or warning, and there’s little you can do about it.
Seeing as you don’t want to waste your time or money on such unreliable companies, you need offshore hosting. Offshore hosting companies offer adult website hosting, meaning they accept adult content fully.
They also provide all the bandwidth and storage space to handle rapidly loading images and videos. Most importantly, they ignore DMCA claims, allowing your users to upload content on their own.
Select a CMS
A content management system, or a CMS, allows you to (surprisingly enough) manage the content on your website with ease.
You can edit the website’s design, upload videos, manage payments and advertisements, and much more. Your CMS is your direct and exclusive line to the website itself. It allows you to manage every little detail on your site, therefore you have full control over it.
There are dozens of CMS platforms designed with adult websites in mind. Besides using WordPress, which is a staple CMS, you can also try Headjack, StagCMS, xMember and PornCMS, just to name some. They make the life of every adult webmaster much easier, enabling you to focus on what matters the most — content itself.
A CMS should be robust and have a responsive design. Look for a content management system that has support for different video formats and video quality between 360p and 4k.
Generate Content for Your VR Porn Site
Now’s the time for the fun part. You need to fill up your VR porn site with content that your users will grow to love.
We’ll assume you already settled on one niche or another. Since you know what kind of content you’d like to show, you now need to provide it for your audience.
First of all, you can always produce content of your own. For example, BaDoink is a porn production company that’s almost entirely abandoned regular adult content in favor of VR porn. Suffice it to say that this isn’t the cheapest way to start a VR porn site.
It will take some time and money for you to make your own VR porn. The upside is that you’ll always be able to provide unique and never-before-seen porn that most users would willingly pay for. You can also write an adult blog on the side, covering VR news and product reviews. It’s a good way to drive additional traffic to your website.
Secondly, you can let the users upload content of their own instead. In that case, it’s even more crucial for you to find adult hosting or DMCA claims will shut your site down in no time.
You won’t have as much unique content (or any at all) if you let the users upload porn. But it will cost you nothing, and if your website has cool and original features (and the right niche) you’ll still get plenty of viewers.
That said, the quickest and easiest way to share new videos on a daily basis is to embed them from other popular porn sites. There’s quite a number of them to choose from, so make sure to get your content only from the best VR porn sites available.
The Importance of Monetizing the Website Properly
None of the above will matter if you don’t monetize your website properly. It’s time to find out how porn sites make money.
The very same BaDoink we already mentioned before reported that over 50% of their users opt for a year-long subscription right off the bat. That’s quite unusual for the porn industry. In most cases, viewers tend to pay for either monthly subs or, even more commonly, pay nothing at all. It goes to show that there’s an increased interest in VR and a lot of earning potential.
The first and most common monetization method involves ads. It’s the most straightforward method to set up since all you need to do is join an ad network and wait for the money to start coming in.
The subscription model is equally popular. However, the market is already saturated with adult websites that have membership plans. It might be difficult to break into the subscription-based market with all the well-established and successful websites out there.
Instead, it might be a smart idea to combine the ad model (for users who don’t pay subs) and the subscription model for top-quality content.
Finally, you can make use of affiliate programs. That way, you earn a commission every time someone clicks on an ad and signs up for a free account with the advertiser.
Conclusion
As with any other website, you’ll need a good idea and an even better hosting provider to run an online business. Make sure to find a practical CMS that will make your job easier.
VR porn is still a relatively new industry that hasn’t solidified its position on the market yet. There’s plenty of room for newcomers who seek to leave their mark on the world of online porn.