Zivity.com: a Zivity-Style Sex Photos Idea

According to ABC news, Zivity.com is a new pay-for-nudity web-site, for those 18 and over, that is currently being tested to invited members only by its San Francisco area staff. How the site works is that members will pay $10 a month to surf the masses or to promote their own nudity page.

As members surf, they will be allowed to vote 5 times a month on models and photography skills; each vote is worth .80 that is split equally between model and photographer. Since Zivity offers this pay for nude photography, current tax information will be needed from members with this, discouraging the potential underage users.

In my opinion, I am not sure that a site like this can survive over years to become one of our online community household names. Today, when you click into Zivity you will see a very professional looking photo of a blonde girl with too much eye make-up, who is spotlighted with a photographer light over a darkened background.

Perhaps many photographers viewing this promotional photo are thinking that they can do better than that, so they are joining the 30,000-person waiting list to become members. Yet, there's a reality factor every time you invite professional photographers to compete with amateurs; professionals know what they are doing, and people will vote accordingly.

As people sign-up for Zivity and pay their $10 a month, they will be doing so in hopes of making money through votes. This means that all body's and camera gear must remain pristine over time, for members to last longer than one season. At $10 a month, a model and photographer must make $20 in eighty-cent votes to cover their fees monthly.

While it is true that some members will be there as viewers only, this site might be prone to a constant flow of $10 membership cancellations and sign-ups. With any web-site you must develop a solid-core user base that will be with you for as long as the site is alive. Mass nudity that charges users is not conducive to a solid core user-base.

Once you mix a request for membership fees along with the idea of mass nudity, you are subconsciously requesting the American public to buy pornography; a thought that many people equate to illegal activity. On the other hand, when a site is free to use, these same people may attempt to use it out of curiosity or personal reasons.

Zivity does not seem to be thinking of their potential for an unstable user-base, and potential bad image that can happen when money bonds with nudity; they appear to be thinking of people on free -to-use MySpace who slide a few nude photos by the system, or adults already associated with online adult entertainment elsewhere.

I wish Zivity well, just as I wish all new web-sites well despite content. Opening a new business is an exciting time for those working behind the scenes. My personal vote though, is that this site is doomed to be a young death before it starts.

There are already many pay for porn sites online, and while Zivity is trying to offer a new twist to this age-old game, I just do not believe that their twist hold enough pizzazz to capture a long time paid membership audience. Amateur photographers can not compete with pros for money, and the paying public is fickle; people demand choice on where to spend their entertainment dollars.