Bren Ryder

In my last blog post (a long long time ago), I nominated myself for an AVN and asked others to nominate me, as well. And, it worked! Good Dyke Porn™ has been nominated for Best Alternative Website. Which is pretty frickin’ cool, I suppose. I love it because it’s a great platform for letting more people know that we exist and that there are “alternatives” to the mainstream lesbian porn films that saturate the Internet. I less-than love it because I have never put our work into any category that resembles what the AVN Awards recognizes as good. It’s porn, yes, but it’s very different. For the past 2 or 3 years the AVNs have been throwing the queer porn community a bone with nominations, but so far, no awards. But, I see this as a natural evolution of the porn industry in general. The more we make, the more people will learn about these alternatives. As a genre we don’t fit into the mainstream industry in it’s current incarnation, but that’s changing, I think.

The type of porn that the queer porn genre tends to create is very DIY and amateur style. And that’s because we are representing real people and real sex. And because we’re DIY directors we don’t have the kind of money that straight or gay-male porn studios have. But, I’m happy with that too. My personal ambitions do not include running a million dollar studio. I like the amateur-style. I like the freedom to create for the product, not for the market. It is quite difficult to run a business in a market for queers. We are not what anyone would consider “high-consumers”.

So, I make my movies. I pay the performers. I do what I can. And I love it.

And, I’m very excited about this nomination. I’m probably the worst marketing director and any attention we can get we need. Our aim is to keep going. I hope this helps us do that.

AND, the awesome Charlie Spats, my Porn Intern at Good Dyke Porn™ and the primary blogger at GoodQueerPorn.com will be walking the red carpet on behalf of Good Dyke Porn™ with Sophia St. James, who has appeared on Good Dyke Porn a couple of times! Charlie Spats has also appeared on QueerPorn.TV, which is nominated in the same category.  So I imagine he’ll be having quite the gay ol’ time. All the queers are sticking together and even though we are in competition with each other we’re really one big happy family and I don’t think anyone would be upset to see the other win. In fact, I know that we’ll all be very happy to see any queer nomination take home an award.

Watch for upcoming deals, features and clips from Good Dyke Porn™ in celebration of this opportunity.
Good luck everyone!
Wish I could be there.

Support the indy sexy artists and buy a membership on GoodDykePorn or download clips of our work for as little as $6 each.

Pre-nominations are now open for the 2012 AVN Awards. I decided to nominate…myself! Yay me!

I’ve never nominated myself or asked anyone else to nominate me. The criteria for submitting seemed a little out of my element.

“VOD download and/or physically stocked with either 10 wholesale distributors or 100 retail outlets;”

That’s definitely not me. But, then I noticed my queer porn colleagues were submitting and I hope they have that kind of distribution, but, I don’t think so. I certainly don’t. But, I’m somewhat uniquely independent. Either way, after all the figuring of qualifications I realized, “I have a website!” (I know, brilliant, right?) “I fit into the Website categories.”

Well, I don’t know if “fit in” is the right way to phrase it. The AVN Awards aren’t known for their queer content. But, there have been a few queer trailblazers who’ve been nominated, like Courtney Trouble, Crash Pad Series, Jiz Lee and others.

It’s the Oscars of porn and it would be an honour to be nominated, but really, I just want people to know that we exist. I have a business to run and I have amazing queer women to pay. A nomination would be awesome. (Just because I nominated myself doesn’t mean I’m in. They decide “in-house”, as they put it.)

So, now I’m wondering. How would you like to help me get nominated? If you would like to help then you can!

Here’s the article explaining everything that you need to know about it.

They ask that “producers, manufacturers and retailers” submit their nominations. If you are one of these, great, if you’re not, you can still put in a nomination. They’ll ask you who you are and if they let you submit a nomination then voilà, nomination time. They told me this: “Technically, anybody to whom we’ve granted access to the pre-nom site may pre-nom you for any category they like, but ultimately, we decide the final nominations in-house.” So, it doesn’t hurt to try.

You just need to register HERE: https://secure.avn.com/account/register/
Request a pre-nom form HERE: http://www.avn.com/prenom-request-form/

And then nominate GoodDykePorn.com for “Best Alternative Website” (it doesn’t get more alternative then real lesbian having real sex) and/or “Best Membership Website”.

If you do this for me, I will love you forever. Okay, okay, it’s true, I was going to love you forever anyway.

I nominate myself as….The Best!!!

Last week at the Indie Erotic Film Festival, I had the opportunity to attending the Pink & White Delight night with Shine Louise Houston. I love hearing her speak because I feel like her answers to questions are very similar to how I would answer them. One thing that stood out to me, as a fellow business operator, was her description of The Crash Pad Series as a machine. I can see how that would be because it has frequent updates, excellent publicity, and a solid customer base. And in order to maintain that one would need to have systems in place and keep the machine running so the ready-and-willing performers are connecting with the creators of images and the customers who love it are receiving the content that they pay for month after month.

This has always been my goal with my own business. Anyone who’s read the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber knows that to make a business successful you need to have systems in place so that you’re not simply doing the work but working the business. Since I’ve been 100% independent from the beginning I  haven’t had the financial backing to hire staff, distribute DVDs or other such promotional opportunities. I’m still working on creating my own financial backing but that takes time. As it is I am a one-man-band and my machine is not yet assembled (magical mixed-metaphors). I run from one instrument to another and in time it will come together cohesively. In time…

So, like any good artist, I live comfortably in the world of chaos. As a result, my work lacks a certain element of consistency. I have eager exhibitionists who would love to be filmed and featured on the website. Oh, but I don’t have any money for the next 3 weeks. I have two hours of footage of a sexy couple that the customers are expecting to see today. Oh, but my creative vision is taking two weeks to edit it all together. I have 4 years worth of really unique sexual content featuring queer women, trans guys, trans women, butches and femmes, in bedrooms, the woods, a bookstore, a train-yard, hotels, various cities, with amateur models, famous queer pornstars and myself. Oh, but I’m too busy editing those 2 hours of footage to set up promotional systems to let the world know about our work.

All this is to say that I’m doing the best I can. I appreciate every member who signs up, every clip that is sold and every kind word of encouragement. If you have any concerns about certain inconsistencies or unmet expectations, please feel free to send me an email and I would be happy to work out a solution. I love to hear from the people who do pay for the work and have questions about what’s to come. And if you can’t pay for the work I’m also happy to receive your praise and compliments (sorry, complaints by non-customers will likely be ignored – unless it’s really important, but I can’t imagine what that would be).

Bren Ryder, over and out. Working hard to turn you on and get you off. New update for GoodDykePorn.com coming soon!

What’s better than cold hard cash?
Exchanging that cash for Good Dyke Porn, that’s what!

I am in San Francisco this week and selling memberships to GoodDykePorn.com for super cheap. This is part survival strategy and part social strategy. I definitely need the cash, so I’m happy to give anyone a great deal for your loving support in the form of cash. But, it’s also a social strategy because I’m a bit shy when it comes to public gatherings and if I can entice people with porn to come over and say hi, all the better. Sadly, I’m not giving it away. But it’s still ahellofa deal.

$20 will get you a 2 month membership of unlimited watching and downloading (value of $50).
$40 will get you 6 long sexy months (value of $100) with all the hot queer sexy people who have proudly joined the Good Dyke Porn collection.

All you have to do is find me in San Francisco, come say hi and voila, cash deals abound.

I will be at Good Vibration’s Independent Erotic Film Festival starting with Pink & White Delight on Wednesday night. That’s right!

Check out the rest of the festival events and come find me before I fly out again on Saturday. Especially, go to Thursday night’s short film program, please. They are screening “Horsey”, the film I made with Amber Dawn (aka Trala La), who will also be in attendance.

Looking forward to meeting you all. See you soon!

This month has been all about the homemade submissions. We introduced Dino Dyke and Squirt Gunn, a hot couple that filmed their scene themselves. I love these kinds of videos because it’s just them. There are no other people in the room. It’s just them and the cameras.

Coming up this week we have another couple who filmed themselves in a similar manner. Alone with the camera in their bedroom. It’s so fucking sexy. Maybe it’s just because I’m such a voyeur, but I love the bedroom sex between couples. I feel like we’ve all been given a very special invitation: an invitation into their sex-life.

My name is Bren Ryder, and I make erotic films. So, I’m going to San Francisco!

Most of the films that I make are better known as “scenes” on my website: GoodDykePorn.com. Occasionally, there’s an opportunity to make something new and beautiful from the many incredible scenes that typically act as weekly updates in our members area.

“Horsey” was just such an opportunity. The full scene version is called “Frisky Fantasy”, a scene which uses fantasy and play in sex as a sexual expression in and of itself. “Horsey” is the poetic short film version of this pervy horse-like encounter which looks more deeply into the value of play in the bedroom. I’m grateful to have created this piece with Amber Dawn. And that this awesome film festival has included it in their program.

The film will be playing in the short film competition. So, if you’re in the area I’d love your support. It’s my first trip to San Francisco and I have a feeling I’m going to have an amazing time.

The queer porn economy, that is.

To get right to the point: We are having a one-day sale. 50% off memberships!

One Month Non-Recurring Membership = $17.50 (reg. $35)
One Month Recurring Membership = $15 (reg. $30), recurs monthly $10 (reg. $20)
Three Month Recurring Membership = $30 (reg. $60)
Six Month Recurring Membership = $50 (reg. $100)
~cancel anytime (membership will be good until end of month you cancelled it in)
~sign up for the recurring membership and get this discounted price for as long as you remain a member~

Sale expires at midnight, Friday, August 5th, 2011
(You must use the button below to get discounted prices.)

Expired now. Enjoy!

I have submissions of new films coming in and scenes booked. Now I just need to pay those people. That’s where you come in. By taking advantage of this sale and signing up before the deal expires. I will get a boost in my income just in time to pay off all the hot queer porn stars that are making appearances on GoodDykePorn.com.

Stimulate the queer porn economy and yourself all at the same time!

By purchasing a membership your dollar will go from you to me to them, our performers. That’s the kind of economy that’s worth stimulating.

Over on my porno website, GoodDykePorn.com, we’ve started to add more frequent updates. Previously, we would add one full scene every month. It would look like this: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Interview. And if there was an extra update day that month then it would simply remain blank in preparation for the next month’s update.

Well! We’ve increased that. Now, the interviews, extra footage and entire scene updates are being added to the members area as bonus footage, rather than weekly updates. Which means that the weekly updates will now be all new fucking footage, so to speak.

I’m currently working on a total overhaul for the website and members area and hope to be announcing those changes soon. One aspect of the changes is the more frequent updates. Another aspect of those changes is the exclusive access to the bonus footage for members only.

Here’s how the updates are going to look from now on:

New scenes are broken down into 3 parts, plus interviews, bonus footage (whenever possible) & entire scene clips.

Each part is added every Wednesday.

Bonus footage is added on Fridays.

****

Wednesday: New scene – Part 1

Friday: Bonus footage, previous scene – Entire scene clip or bonus, where applicable

Wednesday: Current scene – Part 2

Friday: Bonus footage, previous scene – More bonus, if we got it.

Wednesday: Current scene – Part 3

Friday: Bonus footage, current scene – Interview

Wednesday: New scene – Part 1

ETC.

****

This schedule may change slightly depending on the availablilty of extra footage and interviews. Each scene is a project in and of itself. Sometimes we create the scenes right here in Vancouver and sometimes we take submissions from people all over the world. So, we don’t always have control over the amount of footage we get. Our objective is to always give you a new update every Wednesday: Hump Day Updates!

This new update schedule is really exciting to me because it’s a reflection of our efforts to create a space that’s of value to the customer and also a large collection of diverse scenes with new models, new locations, and new sexual expressions.

But, I have to admit this new objective is a bit scary. More scenes means that I need more of a cashflow to pay all the people who are fucking on camera for me. Of course, this is part of the reason why I recently increased the price of memberships. It’s one of those paradoxes: need more money to increase updates, need more updates to increasing membership fees. As I mentioned in my previous post about our recent price increase, it’s about more than just more scenes, it’s about value in general. Our work is worth it. I believe that wholeheartedly. And, now we’re jumping in. We’re paying for more scenes so that you can have more variety, more updates and hopefully it’ll all balance out.

(Which reminds me of a quote my brother recently told me completely outside of this context, “Hope is not a strategy.” Oh well. I’ll work on that.)

This blog post is relevant to what’s currently going on with the website and is meant for your information only. I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop about what’s new and what’s coming up with our site.

If you’re able to, please sign up as member and stay with us for all the new updates. Also, stay tuned for all new changes that will taking place shortly on the look and functionality of the website itself.

To Do: Fill in the rest of the ToDo List

Catching up on work is pretty much a universal task for people in this society. We’re always behind. Always need to run to catch up. And that’s exactly what I’m doing right now. I’m catching up with my tasks. Chasing them down as quickly and efficiently as I can.

Ever since I started this business my life has been about catching up. I created a huge amount of work for myself and so catching up goes hand in hand with setting yourself a lot of work to do. Other times in my life when I needed to catch up regularly was when I was getting a University Degree, when I was training for Fire College admission and the typical creation of a clean, organized and beautiful home environment. Most people are perpetually catching up in the domestic zone: laundry, dishes, pictures to hang, plants to care for, lawns to mow, gardens to tend.

Sometimes I dream of the life where I simply go to work, do my job within 8 designated hours, come home to my habitually clean and organized house (or better yet, pay someone to clean and organize my house with the money I make from my 8 designated hours) and feel the peace of not having to catch up or feel overwhelmed by my long list of ToDo’s. There have been times in my life when I did live that way. But, it never lasted long. I always feel compelled to be doing “something else” to be working on something creative, to do more. Such is the life of an artist.

The only reason I have a long to-do list and find myself catching up on a regular basis is because I’ve create the tasks in front of me. If I don’t want to do a lot then all I need to do is take the task “Revolutionize pornographic representations of queer women”off my List of Things To Do. Simple as that. But, where’s the fun in that?

Currently, I live in (relative) poverty and I have a ToDo list that’s longer than my list of debtors. But, I’ve never been happier. And really when it comes down to it there is only one thing on my ToDo list: Do What You Love.

Right now, I’m really loving catching up on a bunch of things that have been waiting to be attended to. It feels good. My love of procrastination and my tendency to shut down in the face of an overwhelming list of tasks is bit by bit being replaced with the joy of having so many things to do and create that are perfectly in alignment with my one and only task: do what I love.

Writing a blog post has been on my ToDo list. And it’s been a while since I’ve written one. But, that’s because I’m busy doing what I love. And luckily for me, right now as I write, I am doing what I love. And, later when I walk to the bank, or organize papers, or watch tv and eat popcorn I will still be doing what I love. Maybe I should just change my ToDo list to a ToLove list.

I’m not trying to brag to people who don’t have a list that includes “Film hot couple having sex in local bookstore”. I’m simply sharing my personal experience with you. I have a lot to do. It’s true. I did this to myself. And I fucking love it.

I hate to be the bearer of the news of increasing costs. But, it’s true, porn costs are going up. Well, the porn I make and distribute is going up, anyway. As of July 1^st 2011, the cost of memberships on GoodDykePorn.com will be increasing by $10. Recurring memberships go from $20 to $30. The recurring fee thereafter is increasing from $10/month to $20/month. We have another option where you can purchase a single month without worrying about cancelling your membership and that’s going from $25 to $35. However, I’ll be sure to include 3-month and 6-month options for optimal savings.

SIGN-UP HERE

From the moment I conceived of the idea to create good dyke porn and distribute it to the world, I thought the best way to get this authentic representation of queer women into the hands of queer women themselves was to keep the membership costs low. I thought that by charging less, I would get more members which would make up the difference and allow for increased production. However, after many years of using this formula with only marginal financial success, I’m going to alter it to match up with more conventional market value and set the price of the content to a level that is similar to others in our genre.

It’s interesting because my dream all along was to keep the memberships accessible to those who might find $30 a bit too much to spend for porn. However, I don’t think that my $20 price made it any more accessible.  When a person is willing and able to pay for a membership then they will pay for the amount that works for them. If they have more money to spend, then they will purchase more porn, if they have less money to spend, then they will purchase less porn. The “less porn” options are available in our store, which sells individual clips for as little as $6 and third party providers have options to purchase less porn for less money (like clips.com, clips4sale.com, HotMovieForHer.com & DykePayPerView.com).

But, for the people who can’t purchase porn because they don’t have the money or don’t have a credit card or account that works with our payment system the price simply does not matter. They just cannot (or maybe will not) make that purchase. They will either go without, make due with the nasty shit on free sites, or use their tech-savvy to bypass purchasing and download it for free. I’m sure there are things that I can work on over time to draw in these non-purchasers, but it’s the purchasers that will make this business sustainable. It is the purchasers that will be funding future content.

Aside: I welcome personal messages regarding any ideas you may have to overcome a purchase barrier (no money, no credit card, etc). I am open to hearing any creative solutions such as trades, alternate payment methods or other ideas. Try me. bren@gooddykeporn.com

Here’s the key to feeling good about the increase in price: It’s worth it.

The content that we create is unique and it’s one of the important arteries that is supplying the growing genre of queer porn. There is nothing out there like the content that we have on GoodDykePorn.com. This is extremely valuable. It’s valuable to the customer who wants to view authentic sexual expressions of the queer community. It’s valuable to the world to be exposed to visibly consensual sex, communication, safer-sex practises and various body types, genders and sexual expressions. For more on what is out there check out the blog, GoodQueerPorn.com.

The most important part of the equation that results in sharing this work with the world is:

*Pay the people for the brave exposure of their authentic sexual expression.*

The people who are fucking on camera must be paid. This is non-negotiable for me. Without money to pay the models, there is no content. I will not ask anyone to give me their sexual image without getting compensated.

So, unfortunately, the following equation isn’t working for me.

Access to cheap porn + models getting paid = New content <–not working

I tried to make that work. I tried for a long time. But, I’m going to alter my formula a little bit and hopefully it will result in solid, sustainable outcomes.

Standard price for purchase + models getting paid = More content.

For those of you who already have a recurring membership your savings are locked in. For as long as you remain a member you will only have to pay $10/month. No matter how much we increase our content, you will still only pay $10/month.

And, for that matter, anyone who signs up before July 1^st, you will also be locked into the cheap membership. Simply purchase the $20 recurring membership and get unlimited access for the lowest price in queer porn. Do it now before Good Dyke Porn™ goes from the cheapest to standard cost.

SIGN-UP HERE