Porn site. Use bandwidth when embedding videos?

I m thinking about making a porn site and was just wondering if simply embedding videos from other sites will use bandwidth? I believe it doesn't but also read that creating a porn site costs a lot in hosting, so am unsure of where the costs come from.

Also would embedding a video violate copyright law? Again I assume not as the traffic goes through their servers?

Thank you

 

If I embed a youtube vid on my site, it uses youtubes bandwidth -> not my own. Likewise, if a vid is hosted on someone elses site, and you embed it, that video will use their bandwidth, and not yours.

Legal to do so? I am not a lawyer. I have seen people get in trouble for this sort of thing, but majority get away with it. Truth is, it is a poor business model to start a site that relies on content from OTHER websites.
Before you start any site, treat it like a business and do a business plan. Ask yourself, what will make your site unique and make people want to return? Simply having the same content that can be found elsewhere is not a solid plan, what is worse, if that plan relies on embedding vids from other sources, when the original source can change links, can remove the video, and or can go broke, then you are really starting out on the wrong foot.

One thing to remember is that simply having a porn site, (or any site for that matter) is not a guarantee for success. Unless you have marketing plans, maybe even a budget for SEO, and some real unique content, then noone will visit your site. So most likely, your hosting costs will be $2-$10 per month. BUT it is important to note that with adult sites, your range of available hosts are reduced. You also have less available ad-networks, you may also have more trouble in finding places to promote your site.

I believe that adult hosting gets expensive when you are looking for running webcam modeling style sites, as the software and license costs, and the hardware costs are incredibly expensive... but for a general adult site, with a few topless pics and some vids, the hosting costs should be similar to any other site. It is only if the site becomes popular that you will have to look at moving from a cheap shared environment, to your own server but at this stage, the site should be earning enough to cover any running costs.

One final thing to think about is this. Later, if you want to sell it, with an adult site, your range of potential buyers is limited.

I will be honest, that I dont have any experience running porn sites. But I have had hosting clients that hosted some of these sites on my network (something that I do not permit)

 

Unless the videos are not run by the visitors, the bandwidth won't be used. You cannot just embed others videos/images in your website, you will require permission from the owner of that material else if your hosting company is notified of this illegal embedding, they might suspend your account.

 

Wow thank you for such an in depth reply! Really appreciate it. I looked at a few cases of websites being threatened with cease and desist and being sues, such as Dailymotion and Quicksilverscreen. From what I've browsed on the internet it looks like its legal (although hazy) to link to and embed others media but not to host. The law on it appears to have changed rather recently.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061201/004047.shtml - Good read

 

Embedding any kind of videos don't cost anything, just the data on webpage loaded takes bandwidth.

 

Great response from matt_62. I'll add a few thoughts from my own experience.

The days of easy money from porn are LONG gone, I'm afraid. 10-15 years ago, you could throw up a pic/vid site, slap on some CPA and make an absolute killing. These days, you can't: everyone knows they can get more porn than they will ever need (though not necessarily more than they want...) for nothing. Free. Gratis. Zero cost.

So why would anyone pay? One in 10,000 might be one of those people who loves porn so much that they want a subscription to their favourite brand's site (and bulk orders with Kleenex). Other than that, CPA is the same in adult sites as it is elsewhere: a LOT of work for conversions.

Oddly enough, that's not so true with adult content: it gets hit regardless of whether it's original or not. Boobs is boobs, no matter where they's hosted, I guess.

True for hosts, especially hardcore content. Not true for ad networks - there are LOADS for adult sites... but the pay is appallingly low. CPM is only worthwhile if your entire setup is automated. Most run on CPC or CPA and the CPC returns are low (usually in the range of 1c per click).

Definitely.

The main thing with adult sites is that you really have to work hard to be successful. As matt_62 says, you need a plan. If you work at it, you can make a nice bit of cash - some of my adult sites were hitting $100-$200 a month with daily promotion, content hunting and so on. Same sort of work levels as any other type of site, really.

But if you're throwing up a site or two just to see if it works and are not 100% serious about it, my advice would be to automate absolutely everything and go with a CPM or mixed advertiser. I have a few sites like that, on old domain names that are waiting to expire, where I do no work at all to fill them with content and they generate a bit of money - but we're talking a few bucks a month for tens of thousands of hits. It's the quantity approach: build 10 of them and you have an income, with no work.

 

Well I have an idea which is worth perusing. I don't expect to be making big bucks anytime soon, if ever from it, but yes it has its own twist. I dont understand those paid to join sites at all, and know from *ahem* experience, it's not the way to go. Thank you for a well written, informative reply! I think I will take your advice about not being 100% serious about it, I wont be putting in hour after hour everyday because the competition is too great, purely replying on my unique twist to get anywhere with it. Do you have dating ads on your site? I ran a CPA reward site and the dating ones would pay nicely, is it different pay because the traffic comes from porn?

 

My adult sites are all picture-gallery based, so there's little visitor interaction beyond an occasional comment. I've tried all sorts of CPA and CPC setups: if the CPA is per-lead and a free site, it does well, but otherwise I get maybe one signup every two months or something. There's also the problem that there are half a dozen CPA offers and twenty million porn sites promoting them...

Dating is a total dead-end on pic/vid sites, IMHO - no dating CPA has ever had a signup through any of my sites in 18 months. From a personal point of view, it seems a total mismatch: the people on porn sites are either adolescents who think they can {insert dumb 'get laid' ebook title here}, freeloaders who want a quick one off the wrist, or married folks who're sneaking a peek behind the wife's back. None of those people are going to fork out money to join a dating site.

CPC does better, as it's just the clicks that count, but the CTR is horrendously low. You're dependent on the advertisers producing good ads and, well, most of them are complete crap so no one clicks. The people who make good ads mostly run CPA.

I run my sites on a CPM/CPC mix through a single advertiser program and automate absolutely everything, because I just can't be bothered to work at it any more. The returns on manual involvement were so low and the hassle so high that it really put me off. I guess it'd be a lot better if I were running something like a forum, as those seem to do VERY well, though they are a ton of work if you take your moderation even slightly seriously.

 

Like the others have mentioned, embedding does not use your own bandwidth, it uses the other site's bandwidth.

Embedding is perfectly legal and even encouraged by quite a few of the big sites.
These sites would not have the "embed" / "share" codes directly below the video if they prohibited it.

Some of the sites even allow you to hotlink the video thumbnails with their blessing. When in doubt, just ask the site in question. Generally speaking, unless your site takes off in a major way, they probably won't mind since you won't be too much of a resource hog.

Regarding the CPA mentions above -- regarding conversions, people DO still pay if they want something badly enough. This still happens a lot thanks to enticing, and very visually pleasing advertisements! It's all in the ad (or the landing page). I'm with a network called CrakRevenue and we are particularly great at what we do. We specialize in converting by providing a large selection of exclusive, thoroughly tested and proven top-converting international offers for every market.

Also, let's not forget about the Webcam industry. Webcams is where the real money's at. Live interaction = something you can't duplicate or pirate. Oh yeah, we also have some of the best webcam offers around... so you should definitely give us a shout if you're serious about CPA.