Generally speaking, there are two ways to earn an income in the porn industry. You can be either a content producer or a marketer. Whether selling cars, pencils or porn someone is earning a living from manufacturing while others earn from selling.

Porn gets a bad rap for being about sex and/or exploitation. Don't let the mainstream media and conservative assholes fool you. Porn is legitimate business and operates by the same processes employed by other industries.

For example, The Pareto Principle, also known as The 80/20 Rule, is a near century old business principle which states that 80% of results come from 20% of effort. So, how does this apply to business and the proliferation of free internet porn. A variation of the 80/20 rule proposes that profitable gains can be achieved by sharing (for free) a percentage of your time or talent. We have seen this at work way before the advent of the internet.

The music industry provides single songs to radio stations (free to the listener) in the hope that you will eventually support an artist via record sales and live performances. A modern example of the gains to be achieved by giving is Google. Think of all the free shit they give (search engine, YouTube, etc...) to gain you as a user and potential customer. Spotify is another example built on the "free" model.

The amount of free internet porn pales in comparison to the amount of porn available for pay. There is so much free content out there that most consumers will be satisfied with what's available (like songs on the radio) and few will be compelled to buy. The fact that billions are spent annually on pornography, despite the abundance of free porn, is proof that the power of giving it away builds a loyal customer base.

Production Studio Income

If you are looking to jump in the game and make a quick dollar, then content production may not be for you. To make a steady stream of income from production you need a shit load of content. You are not going to produce one POV scene, post it online and make a living. It's not that easy. To produce a shit load of content you need to investment serious money into talent and tech (cameras, computers, etc...). Assuming you are willing to make that investment, what do you do with the content? How do you distribute your video online.

The two prevalent methods of distributing adult video for income are pay sites and video on demand services. These days creating a pay site is not as cumbersome as it used to be. Traditionally you would need to design the site theme (or buy a theme), acquire hosting or maintain your owner servers, and set up a pay wall through a third party merchant account for online payments. Nowadays you can utilize a content management system (CMS) that will basically provide the theme, host and billing for your website. The CMS will allow you to schedule updates and rotate content so you no longer have to manually update your site. I've never used a CMS service, but I like the idea of one convenient service for all your needs.

For a studio with tons of frequently updated, or rotated, content the income from a pay site can be very lucrative. As you may have seen, the popular sites typically charge $1 for a one day trial and $30 per month. Just like with DVD sales you only need a small amount of loyal customers to stack dollars.

For a percentage of the gross revenue Video on Demand (VOD) services will distribute your studio content on their network of sites. You do not need to host content, manage a website or bill customers. You simply create an account for your studio and send them your videos. The price you pay for such convenience is pretty hefty. The typical split is 75% to the VOD service and 25% to the studio. Most amateur producers I have come across will not take advantage of VOD because they charge customers only 8 cents per minute, which means the studio is only making 2 cents per minute. On its face that appears to be a shitty proposition. However, when you utilize VOD you are "paying" into a system of customers in waiting. These networks have a built in customer base and the internet traffic necessary to earn money.