I have received an overwhelming amount of support in the past few months. I did not expect this. I expected to go broke, shut down the site, and fade into obscurity. Apparently people don't want that. I feel like I'm doing something right and providing value, and that makes me happy. Thank you so much for joining me in this journey and helping me through this difficult time.
Patreon e-mailed me with an automated message, "your patrons would love to hear from you!" Last time I posted a message here was in February. That was many months ago and just a few more months from now would be an entire year without an update. I'd rather not communicate only once a year. I know if I were supporting a creator, I'd want to hear from them more often.
I think it's worth noting that I have written a lot about Futureporn, but I haven't shared it. My default behavior is to hide. Hide from people, hide from emotion. Just sharing Futureporn in the beginning was a monumental emotional struggle for me. I was plagued with fear. "What if people don't like it? What if people do like it, and things change?"
It's hard for me to write about Futureporn without writing about emotion. The two have gone together hand in hand! Other video websites load fast, and Futureporn loads slow. I'm ashamed of that. Other video websites will be around in two years, and Futureporn might not be. I'm afraid of that. Futureporn is improving slowly but surely, I'm optimistic about that!
Today I'm setting a plan to make a post on the 15th of every month. I'll write about what I'm working on, goals I'm working towards, and challenges I'm facing. Hopefully once a month is not too much? I have a fear of sharing too much, but for now I'm going to give it a try. For accountability, if I somehow change my mind about monthly updates, I'm going to update to say that I'm not going to publish monthly. But for now, plan on posts every month.
I think what I'll share today is a few things I've learned on this journey of running Futureporn for two years.
1) Bandwidth is expensive.
I started Futureporn on a shoestring budget. The only way I could take on the project was if it cost me almost nothing. To this end, I thought I had found a clever way to pay $0 in file storage fees by using an emerging file sharing technology, IPFS. This was true, however I overlooked an important necessity for a video website-- bandwidth. After my first Reddit post introducing Futureporn, there were enough visitors to overwhelm the free IPFS gateway to the point where it was dropping requests for video.
This is still an unsolved problem as the solution involves spinning up a dedicated IPFS gateway meant for streaming video to visitors. This solution requires significantly more money than I can afford to pay.
2) For a small project, banner ads are not a good way to generate money.
A decade ago, I ran a small Flash games site that brought in $200 per month in ad revenue. I think the time period where that can happen is long gone due to decreased cost per click, and increased usage of browser ad block extensions. For Futureporn, I tried several adult-oriented ad providers and quickly realized that the income per month generated was insufficient to cover operating cost, and only created an annoyance for visitors.
I quickly yoinked the adult banner ads after earning around only $3 per month.
3) Not all companies are sex positive.
I wanted to try an alternative way for Futureporn enjoyers to support me and the Futureporn project. I created a custom banner which linked to my own anime trading card store via EPN (eBay Partner Network.)
EPN is a way for publishers to earn money by referring people to shop on eBay. When people click on my link and make a purchase, I get a cut of the sale. Using this platform, I was earning about $20 a month, which was a lot better than the $3 I made with the porn ads.
About a month later, my EPN account was terminated, my pending commissions were reversed, and I was permanently denied the ability to re-apply to EPN.
This one was my fault, because I failed to read EPN terms of service. EPN forbids promotional methods incorporating sexually explicit materials, which makes sense as I was using an EPN link on my hentai site.
I was sad to lose the $20 monthly revenue, but I'm not that upset about getting banned from EPN. I'm working in a taboo market-- the porn industry, and there are plenty of companies out there who won't touch that industry with a ten foot pole. People do things I don't like; that is freedom and I accept it. All I can do is move forward, and look for alternative ways to fund my work.
4) Community is astonishing!
There are people out there who like what I like! There are people out there who celebrate porn! There are people out there who want to see me and the site do well! I received countless DMs via Reddit, Twitter and E-mail from people who loved Futureporn enough to say something about it. I feel so incredibly blessed to have made an impact on people's lives, and double blessed for the generous support.