Born To Be Cheap:Smart Advice for Porn Fans on a Budget

Benji Lovari offers some useful tips that will help you to get the most for your gay porn dollars.

Times have never been better for porn consumers. Quality is up, prices are down, and quite a few studios and websites are actively innovating and working to bring a spirit of playfulness and creativity back to gay porn.

During the past decade we’ve seen studios merging, sites going under, sites being absorbed by networks, and many companies rethinking the ways in which they do business. When gay porn’s gravy train stopped chugging along, it thinned the herd. But the survivors are now more focused on efficiently churning out high quality content and offering it to consumers at reasonable rates. Porn companies would prefer to have some of your money rather than none of it, so it’s more or less a buyer’s market. That said, there are still some pitfalls to watch out for – but the following tips should help you to avoid scams and to get the most for your porn dollars.

TIP #1: Budget For Porn
If you watch porn frequently, learn to accept this facet of your personality so that you can make wise, longer-term porn purchasing decisions. Subscribing to your favorite porn site may actually save you money in the long run. You might feel hesitant to spend $30 a month on a best-in-class site like Cocky Boys, but you shouldn’t. Because that’s a reasonable and predictable expense that will probably satisfy all of your porn needs. If you prefer VOD or live cams, buy the biggest bundle of minutes/credits you can afford because that lowers the overall price. If you’re in denial about watching porn, you’ll avoid commitments – which will lead to chaotic, impulsive, and wasteful spending.

Committing to a subscription can sometimes bring unexpected benefits, too. Some sites have subscriber-only discussion forums, and a few even host parties and live events that subscribers can attend. Subscribers sometimes get sneak previews and special offers, too.

TIP #2: Don’t Expect Too Much From Free Porn
There’s a finite amount of amateur porn online and the quality is unpredictable. Amateur porn can be amazing, but it exists more to satisfy the exhibitionists who create it than to please those who watch it. In contrast, porn studios actively listen to fans and work very hard to consistently give them what they want. If you rely exclusively on free amateur content, you may end up wasting a lot more time looking for porn and you will sometimes come up empty handed.

TIP #3: Drive Hard Bargains
When you negotiate to buy a car, the best offer may not come until you’re literally walking out the door. Porn sites can be similar. If you go to a site’s join page, start to sign up, and then try to leave the site right before giving your credit card details, you might be offered a discounted rate. Choose a username if asked, give them your email address, etc. But when it’s time to enter credit card info, type a new url (like “google.com”) into your browser’s address bar and hit enter. At some porn sites, this will trigger a popup window offering you a better deal. This won’t always work, and it might work one time but not the next. Or you might get an email offer a month later. But it’s always worth a try.

TIP #4: Avoid Trial Offers
Trial offers are usually a losing bet and the sleazy ones may turn into subscriptions with higher-than-normal rates. Most trials are legitimate, but the entire concept was designed to exploit human foibles. You’ll probably forget or neglect to cancel the trial, even if you plan to do so.

If you’re not convinced that a site is worth trying for a full month, don’t join it. A legitimate site will provide  clear details about what you will get, with dated previews of recent updates. If the details are sketchy, the site probably is, too.

TIP #5: Watch Out For Pre-Checked Offers
When you’re wading through steps and pages to join a site, keep your eyes peeled for pre-checked offers. These are offers for additional site memberships or services that might be checked by default. Unless you uncheck them, you could automatically be billed for them. A lot of people won’t notice the extra charges for many months. And when they do, many will simply cancel without pursuing a refund. As a result, there’s a lot of incentive for porn sites and billing companies to continue this legal but sleazy business practice.

TIP #6: Be A Connected Fan
Follow the Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, etc. of your favorite porn studios, sites, directors, performers, and behind-the-scenes folks. Special offers and deals are sometimes offered via social media, and you may also be the first to know about new and upcoming videos.

TIP #7: Turn Gift Cards Into Porn
You can trade in your unwanted mainstream gift cards for gay porn credit. An increasing number of sites such as Gay Hoopla, Juicy Boys, and Video Box Men will let you trade in gift cards for porn subscription time. These sites allow you to trade in cards from over 100 businesses such as Olive Garden, Target, Cheesecake Factory, Best Buy, Bed Bath And Beyond, etc.

TEN ROCK SOLID PORN DEALS
The monthly rates at the sites below will vary, but they all offer a lot of value. We’ve included a mix of subscription, VOD, and cam sites that all deliver high quality content at a reasonable price.

AEBN
AEBN stocks more adult movies than any other site on the net. High Quality HD videos are available via pay-per-minute, online rentals, and download-to-own – and the site also supports mobile video.

AWOL Marines
$24.95/month
The official site of porn legend Bobby Garcia has an enormous library of unedited sex tapes starring real U.S.M.C. studs.

Chaos Men
$24.95 1st mo., then $19.95/mo. (720p) -OR- $35.95 1st mo., then $29.95/mo. (1080p)
ChaosMen offers a large library of exclusive material featuring over 550 models and more than 1,500 original videos. The site’s videos have no DRM and can be streamed or downloaded. Standard members can stream or download at 720p HD and Premium members have access to 1080p HD videos plus faster download speeds.

Cocky Boys
$29.95/month
Perhaps the most talked about gay porn site in the world, Cocky Boys has earned a reputation for featuring the hottest models and the most artistic, experimental, and sexy porn videos. Flawlessly blending art and porn, Cocky Boys is now at the center of gay New York’s “in” crowd, with the brand repeatedly getting coverage in mainstream magazines and newspapers.

Gay Hot Movies
Gay Hot Movies is one of world’s leading providers of gay adult video-on-demand content. For over a decade, Gay Hot Movies has been providing an incredible selection of the highest quality adult entertainment available. The site’s digital library now includes more than 25,000 carefully curated titles, with new videos added daily. New members get 10 minutes of free credit, too.

Helix Studios
$9.95/month (Streaming only) -OR- $29.95/month (Streaming + Downloads)
Helix studio’s award-winning videos and outstanding exclusive models have made it into one of the world’s leading gay adult studios. The Helix site offers two different subscription options and it has more than 2,600 videos. The site’s content is compatible with tablets/mobile phones and new updates are added weekly. SUMMER SALE: Until the end of summer, DVD’s purchased in the Helix store will include free shipping!

Kink Men and Kink Men Archive
Kink’s six sites (Bound Gods, Bound In Public, Men On Edge, 30 Minutes Of Torment, Naked Kombat, and Butt Machine Boys) offer some of the web’s highest quality gay kink and fetish content. The sites all offer affordable subscriptions, but one of our favorite values is Kink Men Archive. For $44.95 a month (or less if you commit to a longer subscription) members get access to all of the shoots that are over a year old – from all six of Kink’s gay sites. There are hundreds of shoots and thousands of photos, with new material added daily.

Naked Sword
$30/month
Naked Sword gives its subscribers access to the web’s largest collection of up-to-date gay porn, with over 17,000 scenes from all of the top studios and eight new site updates every day. If you’re a fan of multiple gay porn studios and you want it all, this is the way to go.

Playgirl
$19.95/month
The Playgirl website is a favorite with many gay men and it offers a high quality, first class experience which includes photos, over 700 exclusive videos, and some amazing extras. All of the site’s content is optimized for mobile viewing, too.

Supermen
Supermen is a unique webcam community and lifestyle site that includes amateur live cams, an online gay magazine, a guide to local gay hotspots in cities around the world, and a large library of gay video-on-demand scenes. Public chats are free and affordable bundles of prepaid minutes can be purchased for private live cam shows and/or VOD content.