So I've always been curious, which type of videos sell more/best?
Please feel free to comment thoughts below. In general, this is a question posed at producers who KNOW which kinds of vids they target making. Hoping that this little poll can help producers who might not want to "waste" money on less popular shoots better target what paying customers go for.
If the poll performs well, I may post a followup in a week or so about what people like to see in those videos (like face mess, hair mess, body mess, privates, nude/clothed, etc.).
I'm not sure how popular my favorite things are in terms of sales. Some producers are more keen to do customs than others, so I'm assuming those are the ones who enjoy the strongest sales.
RobbyWLP said: Originally posted in March of 2019:
Way back in 1999 when WLP's first model Ivy suggested we do a pie video I told her that first I wanted to research what people wanted to see. (This was after I told her she was nuts).
The other reason was that I came to WAM from a "participatory" viewpoint. Watching videos didn't do a thing for me. But I was curious as to what others wanted to see. I have done a lot of research over the years for a living and I wanted to treat WAM the same way. So I started randomly (not scientifically) asking WAM fans what they wanted to see. I found them initially on the UMD but many other places since. For 20 years I have continued to ask "what do you want to see" to many WAM fans to the point now where I have spoken with between 700 and 800 people about WAM (mostly from the last 10-15 years). More specifically pie/slime fans.
WAM videos are like ANY OTHER PRODUCT. And make no mistake about it.they should be treated like any other product assuming you wish to sell them.
Good WAM is difficult to produce. Script writing is difficult. Shooting is difficult. Good WAM models with good acting skills are tough to find. It's why many videos are just someone covering themselves with various substances. That's easy to do.but "easy" doesn't always sell.
Some producers seem unable to separate what THEY like with what the majority of WAM fans want to see and then wonder why their videos aren't selling. And what WAM fans want to see is all over the map. It's a niche to begin with and then gets more niche oriented the more you break it down.
So how do people know what to produce?
Research. Just like any other product.
The vast majority of WAM fans you will never see comment on the UMD. But I guarantee you they are here. It's similar to people who listen to radio stations. Most of their listeners never call into the station.
Many breakouts of WAM fans have been discussed over the years. I just want to focus on one..Messy WAMi.e Pies and Slime.or both combined as the case may be.
I did take out the people who ONLY like nude WAM because as it turns out that's an entirely different subset.
There are many subsets I discovered but I have tried to focus it down a bit to the clothed pie and slime fans. The models are clothed, I can't guarantee the WAM viewers are.
So what you are about to read generally applies to those folks. It also only applies if you want to sell your "product." If you just do WAM and show it for the fun of it then by all means keep doing what YOU like and ignore all of the below. It's also combined with information that I received talked about WAM as well as asking questions about it. It doesn't meant that if you produce videos based on the information that they will sell any more or any less. It's just raw data.
I provide this as a PIEblic service. (Sorry had to do ONE bad pun). Feel free to ignore every bit of this if you wish. (I'm sure there will be many who disagree with the informationfeel free. Some will seem obvious, others not so much.
Here's what I found.
The important things to those who purchase WAM videos. (The first 3 came up all the timethe rest in no particular order.
Physically attractive model (Yes this is subjective) But without that physical attraction whatever it is to each individual, people are unlikely to purchase a video.
Reactions Reactions Reactions I was surprised with how often this keeps showing up. Apparently there is nothing worse than a model who just SITS or STANDS there with no reaction or even minimal reaction. Also not well liked is OVER reaction. Models should also not repeat the same phrasing over and over again either. Actually never thought of that one until I started hearing it. As someone said "17 times of 'oh my hair is ruined' is a bit much."
And speaking of hair.styled hair and make up done properly. Classy look preferred. Interesting that the female WAMmers were even MORE specific about this including little details like outfits must match, jewelry should be worn etc.
Nice outfits including heels. Formal look, club look, party look, wedding look. As popular as "nice" outfits was "sexy outfits." I expected more "cheerleader" stuff. But it's all about "a look" that the viewer didn't think would normally get messy.
I can't prove this but I would think that it's based on those places are where most of us see dressed up womenthen toss in movies and TV.
Self WAMming is not particularly well liked. "Overdone" came up a lot. "Boring" came up a lot. The only exception was that if it can be contained within the context of the videoi.e..if it makes sense. And there are a number of people who PREFER self WAMming just not many.
Good pies and slime. No "watery" slime. No "thin" pies. I no longer see producers violating this "rule.". Only onthe occasional scene on TV. I think WAM producers have this one down to a literal science.
End the plastic pools. Most viewers hate them. (insert white plastic chair joke here)
Tatoos I'll give you the exact percentages on these. 21% like them. 51% do not and 28% are indifferent. I'm going to assume that small tatoos or ones that are covered up doesn't bother anyone.
Some like the models to be enjoying themselves.however most mentioned the humiliation factor and wanting the model to be able to pull that off even though they KNOW they are acting. The actual term for that from viewers part is "willing suspension of disbelief." In other wordsmake the viewers believe.
Anything that interrupts that believability is viewed as a negative. The exception is those that just care about the visual..i.e..as long as someone is getting messy, they don't care how. But his is a much smaller percentage of viewers.
No men in the video or even a man's voice. This came up a lot as well. (Obviously this applies only to those who like a female model). However, and this seems counter intuitive, a lot of people who don't like men in videos were ok with "couples" videos.
Multiple models were not preferred as often as I thought it would come up. Although a lot of viewers like the concept of one female messing up another female while staying "clean" herself. I thought that was rather interesting and it's something that I have mentioned to a number of producers.
"The implication of something more." Another one I had never thought about. That something "more" was sex related. When I dug a little deeper (pun intended) many people suggested clothed WAM videos that still had a "touch" of sexual content. Much like pieing women on the chest, below the waist, etcwhile rubbing it in.
No Music. This came up repeatedly. Viewed as a "distraction."
No tape visible holding up background. Yes they know they are buying a pie video.."stop reminding them of it" was an actual quote.
No replays. Virtually everyone has digital capability. If they want, they can do it themselves. Most look at it as "padding" videos to make them longer.
Not too many pies (believe it or not) (best numbers according to most were 10 pies and 2 or 3 slimings) Yes, there are some that would like 1000 pies and 10 buckets of gunge. The number was also referenced in terms of there being one model.
Good set up dialogue but not too long. You're not writing War and PIEce. (Your Tolstoy jokes go here).
No bare feet visible. (unless a specific foot fetish pie video obviously) And "of course" nice heels are ok to show. Lots of people like heels but not bare feet apparently. It's possible I suppose that bare feet is another one of those."who dresses up , dolls up and then doesn't wear heels" thingy that breaks the "reality." Didn't really ask anyone about that.
No pies on floor or on table visible. (Unless you're doing a banquet skit or something similar) Again, maybe it breaks the "believability."
Get the "timing" right. If you're going to do scripting.practice it. Practice the timing of the script vs. the "splat". Bad timing takes away from the video.
How most break down messy WAM (Feel free to add)
Nude Vs. Non Nude. Visual self Wam Vs. Scripted WAM Regular clothes vs. nice clothes Costumes vs. regular clothes Plot vs. no plot. Pies Real? Shaving cream? Shells? Colors? Thrown vs. Hand smooshed Slime Color? Thickness? Single model vs. multiple models Same model vs. new models Males and Females
And finally..PRICE and LENGTH of videos. (This isn't based on WAM research, this is based on business reality no matter the product).
Length of video is mostly irrelevant. Perceived value" matters.
Everyone has a price point that they won't go beyond. But if a model you always wanted to see obliterated with pastry is obliterated with pastry for only sixty seconds, you will pay a larger amount to see it regardless of the fact it's only sixty seconds.
But if there's a model you don't even think is remotely attractive, you won't pay even a few dollars to see 20 minutes of her getting pied.
THAT is perceived value.
And that's pretty much what I (and others) have found. Hope it might be of value to you.
So there you go. WAM research and bit of pontificating. For those of you who closed their eyes while I was pontificating you can open them again. Of course if your eyes were closed I don't know how youoh.nevermind.
I'll be back later. I have to smoosh (pun intended) all the paragraphs together so Jayce can read this.
A couple of points, first off, as there's no way to limit the poll to producers only, chances are the results will be skewed by non-producers voting for what they most want to see, so the results probably won't be very accurate. But beyond that, what sells best will vary depending on what producer you ask, because we all have our individual styles, quirks, personal tastes, and themes. For example, if I think of gunge tanks, Candy Custard and Messyworld come to mind. If you want something that looks like it's shot in a proper TV studio, the Moomins. Endless pieings? Slapstickstuff. If you want girls getting messed up in the dungeons of a 600 year old stately home, than that's us.
Looking at my own sales, I can see a pattern in what are the best sellers, but there are patterns underlying each other - In our case I suspect outfits is at least as important a factor as type of mess in terms of what sells the best, probably in part because I've always made clear (sometimes unconciously but lookling back it's obvious) that outfits are as important to me as type of mess used in terms of setting up a WAM scene. We would never shoot a scene where a model wears a top that hangs down and hides her shorts or trousers in such a way you don't get to see them get messed up. We'd never put a model in low-rise anything. We'd never shoot a scene in such a way you can't see the model's legs and lower trunk getting messy. We'd never shoot a scene where the models' back, or legs, or feet, stayed clean. Basically I don't just have a WAM fetish, I also have a strong clothing fetish for specific looks, and that shows in what we produce here.
The UMD actually provides powerful tools for analysing sales over different time periods, so I can easily see what were the best selling scenes over the last year - but what the same figures also tell me is that our absolute best selling scene in 2020 is still only responsible for 3.5% of our total sales over the year. So focusing on churning out repeat copies of that scene would be unlikely to be a good strategy. With a fetish like this one, everyone's tastes are unique, a scene sells when the exactly right combination of model, outfit, substance, style of shoot, and half a dozen other random factors comes together to trigger someone's interest. And some of it is totally unpredictable, for instance a singer may do a sexy performance on TV just as you release a scene with a model who happens to be in the same outfit, all of a sudden you're getting unexpected sales.
As ever, the advice for anyone thinking of getting into WAM production is, "shoot what you personally want to see." Shooting for "the market" almost never works.
RobbyWLP said: As ever, the advice for anyone thinking of getting into WAM production is, "shoot what you personally want to see." Shooting for "the market" almost never works.
Ok, that one confused me.
If you want to make ANY money that just makes no sense. Now again, if you don't care at all about money by all means shoot what you personally want to see. But regardless of what your product is...WAM Video, Hats, Shovels, etc.....WHY would you want to create something the "market" doesn't want????
If the "WAM Market" is primarily (I'm not saying it is) pie videos, WHY would you want to create "Mustard Videos?"
It's the old fishing metaphor.....you fish in the pond that has the most fish....assuming your goal is to actually catch fish. It doesn't mean you can't catch fish in other ponds, but the pond with the most fish is where to catch fish.
It's been the standard advice since the days of Messy Fun. This is a very small, fragmented, and niche market. What tends to sell here is scenes made with a combination of real passion and a reasonable degree of technical skill. The forums are littered with the long-dead posts of people who announced they were setting up a store, only to vanish without trace soon afterwards when the first couple of scenes only sold three copies between them. Way back, long before I met Lady Jasmine or had any realistic chance of shooting anything, one of the original big six producers gave me some advice, which was "Shoot what you personally want to see. That way, even if it doesn't sell you've made content you can enjoy and you still get something great from it." That's been the standard advice ever since.
When you shoot something you're personally into, that's where the passion comes in, it's your own thing so you're going to do it to the absolute best of your ability. Which will both mean a better end product, and something you can enjoy even if it doesn't sell. There's also a greater chance of lining up a new set of previously unseen "trigger buttons" if you do something new, rather than just doing what's already been done thousands of times.
RobbyWLP said: As ever, the advice for anyone thinking of getting into WAM production is, "shoot what you personally want to see." Shooting for "the market" almost never works.
Ok, that one confused me.
If you want to make ANY money that just makes no sense.
I think everyone is on the same page here. Shoot for your market anyway because that's what you know how to do best. I don't particularly care for clothes at all but a lot of customers did so MPV tried to accommodate that as often as possible. Dave and I used to joke that we had the technical ability to do some outstanding WAM work in other categories but you would never see us doing pies and guys or something else because it just wasn't our thing.
Getting back to the OP though - What sells best? The stuff MPV does sells best for MPV. Not sure about anyone else. As has already been mentioned there are some things that won't sell well if at all -
Unattractive ladies - Some people say that doesn't matter and it won't as long as you only want to sell four videos. Yes, beauty is subjective but we all pretty much agree on what that ain't.
Ladies who don't want to be there - This is part of what makes some ladies look great. Ladies that are hungover and only there for a paycheck aren't what you really want. They may not be part of the fetish but most enjoy kink and being professional. You don't want it to look like giving a cat a bath.
Bad production values - Video/audio quality, camera work, lighting, distractions, editing, all that stuff that should remain invisible needs to be there. You don't want a background littered with plumbing, tarps, buckets, and extension cords. Even if you are working with just an iPhone you can make the most of it by just being careful.
I'll add one more thing that generally does NOT sell well - Low price. Not only does it not make economic sense for the producer to low ball a price but the product is immediately perceived as low quality. Charge what is fair but don't think that you will sell twice as much at half price. You won't.
Our best seller in 2020 was "The Carnival Job" with Amy. Amy has been pied endless times over the years, and she is at the seen that done that level. So to make this pie shoot work, we added a storyline that she was so desperate for work, she applied for a job at the carnival. Unfortunately for her, the only job opening was at the pie booth. (now that is interesting). If the video was just Amy getting hit with 20 pies while tied to a stool for no apparent reason, that video would have laid an egg. Now a days, a girl getting messy for no apparent reason is a hard sell, unless it's a wam virgin, IMHO.
Oh, our second best seller, was "Booby Trap" with Zoey. Minimum mess, but a fun and interesting storyline.
I'll add one more thing that generally does NOT sell well - Low price. Not only does it not make economic sense for the producer to low ball a price but the product is immediately perceived as low quality. Charge what is fair but don't think that you will sell twice as much at half price. You won't.
I agree and the same applies for eBooks. It's really hard to sell something for 99 cents or even $1.99. $2.99 seems to be the lowest price that buyers identify with satisfactory quality for a short story (mine are 10-12K words). And the royalty is 70% for 2.99 and above but only 35% for anything below.
While I feel the technical details presented by Robbie are invaluable, I see a balance perhaps, between that approach, and 'doing what you love'.
I think, as has been mentioned, the passion found when shooting a specific thing you love, will come across in the video. I don't even think the subject matter is as important as the passion coming through.
The easiest example might be the bored and plain-looking model getting hit with a shaving foam pie, compared to the excited, pretty model, filled with nervous anticipation letting out a squeal as a real cream pie splats into her face and instantly messes her hair and outfit, while she reacts to it with real reactions - not acted or contrived.
Even if you are seeing some niche-thing that you wouldn't normally be into, it could work if the passion is there. For example, a pretty girl is sitting on a stool, facing the camera. A bucket of ketchup or soy sauce or some other similar thing is thrown at her face and the front of her body. She reacts, as her hair flies back and her clothing soaks up the mess as it drips down, but then, the stool begins to fall backwards, and we realize there is a clay-pit just behind her, which she falls into on her back, sinking from sight for a moment, until she rises from it, gasping and perhaps laughing. Was it your niche? Maybe not. Was it real and filled with sincerity? Yes. That may be what puts it over the edge and makes it a 'hot' scene, rather than something you're just not into.
If I were producing, I'd examine Robbie's information in detail and use as much of it as I could, all the while finding a way to get excited about what I would be shooting. That means excited about the model, the set, the substance(s), the lighting, video quality, and on and on. Mostly though, it would be excited about the girl and the mess. How it is applied. How she reacts. How she looks. And our understanding of how she feels, because if no feelings are displayed, none are perceived, and it becomes a dead scene someone played out. But if we think she's outraged, shocked, but also flirted with (by being chosen to be messed, the way a schoolboy will knock a girl's books on the floor as an odd way of flirting) also physically reacting, (it's cold, or slimy, or warm, or feels nice, etc.) but mostly becoming the cute girl who got messy. (maybe a smile, maybe a feigned sadness, holding out the arms to watch them dripping, or pulling a piece of crust from the hair, or from the cleavage.
All of these things are like chemistry on a first date. They can't be acted or faked without coming across that way.
So here's a formula: Take a pretty girl, mess her passionately, and watch her passionately react to being messed.
Now add Robbie's brilliance and you've got it made, as long as all of the unknown variables are there. (Example: Is your idea of pretty the same as your buyers?)
But I think the passion for what is being shot is important. It may even be the most important element of all.
I've been doing this for 18 years now and I have 14 different stores across multiple fetishes. The one constant is that the ONLY thing that matters at the volume level is ...
the girl.
I shoot most models across multiple fetish genres, often doing 3-5 difference scenes per visit. Consistently, the best selling model is the best seller in all genres. Same with the worst selling. If I'm trying to make a lot of sales, I pick the girl first, then shoot every style and every fetish I can manage in the time we have allotted for the shoot day