Sex Ads: Where the Money is
Advanced Interactive Media Group LLC, September 2010, Pages: 24
And even though Craigslist no longer runs commercial-sex ads in the U.S., it still reaped $30 million of that $63 million figure, in our revenue estimates.
“Sex ads: Where the money is,” is a 24-page report that researches commercial-sex ads on 12 websites in the United States. The research was conducted at the request of a private non-profit foundation that fights trafficking in children and women as one of its key initiatives.
The AIM Group projected that nine of the sites will generate almost $33 million this year in ads for “body rubs,” “escort services” and similar thinly disguised prostitution services.
Ten websites will generate an estimated $63 million in sex-ad revenue in the U.S. in 2010, and with Craigslist out of the “adult services” business many sites are jockeying for position to capture the revenue that Craigslist bypassed, new research from the AIM Group shows. And even though Craigslist no longer runs commercial-sex ads in the U.S., it still reaped $30 million of that $63 million figure, in our revenue estimates.
The AIM Group projected that nine of the sites will generate almost $33 million this year in ads for “body rubs,” “escort services” and similar thinly disguised prostitution services.
This report was commissioned by a non-profit foundation active in the crusade against the practice of selling teenagers for sex. Based in the southeastern U.S., it wishes to remain anonymous. We examined more than 40 North American websites that fall into four categories - general classified advertising sites like Craigslist; adult dating sites such as AdultFriendFinder.com; sites that are devoted exclusively to adult services listings for escorts and related services; and sites that are established as forums for reviews of escorts. Our first step was to identify sites, which we did through search engines and with recommendations from people involved in preparing this report. After examining the sites, we threw out general classified sites that don’t allow adult services listings - EBay Classifieds and Oodle, for example.
We also separated the “adult” dating sites. Those more resemble dating sites such as Match.com or OKCupid.com, and listings take the form of personal ads. Although some of the content in the adult dating sites may be related to prostitution, it is not explicit as it is with other sites. So we looked most closely at general classified sites that offer adult services advertising and at sites that specifically cater to escorts seeking to advertise their services and their prospective customers. Using Compete.com, we ranked the top sites according to average monthly unique visitors from July 2009 to July 2010. We then counted ads on these sites to create “snapshots” of ad volume over time - weekly or monthly - depending on the length of time each site displayed the ads. Generally, revenue estimates are based on ad rates multiplied by ad volumes projected over 52 weeks.
Section 1 - Executive summary
Section 2 - Overview (Begins on Page 4)
Section 3 - The sites, the revenue, our research and analysis (Begins on Page 9)
Section 4 - About this report, and about us (Begins on Page 20)
Mark Whittaker is a senior consultant and sales director for the AIM Group. He compiled and analyzed most of the research, and developed the project in conjunction with the foundation. He helped oversee the ad counts, provided by a team of researchers at the AIM Group’s direction. His career in newspapers spans 30 years as a reporter, editor and online manager. Before joining the AIM Group, Mark spent seven years as online managing editor and online director for PittsburghLive.com and the Tribune-Review Publishing Co. in Pittsburgh. He later worked as interactive media director for Beaver Newspapers Inc. in suburban Pittsburgh, where he was responsible for day-to-day advertising, design and operation of the company’s Web sites, supervising a staff of eight. A graduate of Temple University with a degree in journalism, he’s an avid soft-ball player and a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Jim Townsend, editorial director of the AIM Group, provided most of the editing on this report and pulled together the disparate pieces. He’s one of our long-time Craigslist watchers. He is an award-winning career journalist, consultant and interactive media pioneer with more than 35 years of experience in news management. He leads a global team of analysts who report media-industry trends in North and South America, Europe, India, Asia, Australia and other countries in the Pacific Rim. Jim has been guest speaker or keynote speaker at a number of national and international conventions. In the mid1990s, Townsend was founding editor of Houston Chronicle Interactive, now Chron.com, the Web site of the Houston Chronicle. His team there created an array of subscriber-only services that tied premium digital content to print subscriptions.
Peter M. Zollman, founding principal of the AIM Group, has more than 35 years of media experience. He’s been involved in interactive media for more than 25 years, since the days of audiotex and faxed newsletters. He has spoken at hundreds of industry conferences, on four continents in more than 20 countries, and is quoted frequently by media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Evening News and the Washington Post. His primary focus is consulting, working with a wide range of media companies, dot-coms, technology providers and start-ups to develop and expand successful interactive-media services. Peter leads strategic executive workshops; supports product launches, and has trained dozens of sales reps. He’s one of the world’s leading experts on free classifieds; self-service ad placement; recruitment / automotive / real estate advertising, and interactive media strategies for traditional media companies.
Sharon Hill, senior analyst for the AIM Group, wrote many of the articles about Craigslist that appear on AIMGroup.com. Early in her career, she was a classified ad sales rep for the Sacramento Bee and the Herald in Rock Hill, S.C., and a newspaper executive at the Chapel Hill (N.C.) News; Topics Newspapers in metro Indianapolis, and McCarthy Media. She also worked as a circulation district manager for The Anchorage (Alaska) Times. She’s been with the AIM Group since 2004, except for a break to work as sales
and marketing manager for the Suburban Newspapers of America.
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