September 23/06: Overrated/Underrated

Most of you are probably already familiar with the best porn sites on the Internet. The quality of membership you get with VideoBox or MET Art, for example, speaks for itself. Those sites are widely recognized as great values. But what about those sites that don't live up to their (inflated) reps? And what about the Net's underrated "hidden treasures": Sites that are really very good but that don't have huge marketing plans behind them? Well, I sat down to make a little list and this is what I came up with:

HIDDEN TREASURE: Absolute Kim

I might have said Jean Swing too, since they are both part of the same amateur network and you get them both with the same membership, but I'm giving the nod to Kim because her site really is something special. In addition to all the swinging and hardcore sex, she also lives an extreme fetish femdom lifestyle. That means lording it over her slave/cuckold/wimp hubby Rich (who is also an active presence on the site). It's nasty, but fun too. And lots of personality. Really, aside from the video quality (which is just averge), it's everything you want out of an amateur site. So much better than most of the professional pornstar sites you see out there. Like my next pick . . .

OVERRATED: Club Jenna

No I am not a Jenna-hater! I think she has been flat out the sexiest woman in porn for years. Maybe not the best overall performer (I still find her acting a bit disengaged), but undeniably hot. But her site is another matter. In the first place it's expensive. But it doesn't take long before you realize money is what it's all about. This site is full of upsell stuff. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the content being added doesn't feature Jenna at all. She appears at best once a week. And frankly all of her photosets look the same. You'd think such a star could try working with some different photographers and try and change the look a bit. But here the posing and photography all looks the same. And the video! All of it is streaming, and well protected too (which, by the way, means it doesn't stream properly). I know some people consider this to be one of their "top sites" but I honestly thought it was a rip. Same as Club Tera, by the way.

HIDDEN TREASURE: Bikini Dare

OK this is a personal one. You all know how fond I am of super tiny micro-kinis. Well, this is a site that does just that, and nothing but that. Lots of girls walking around public beaches (it's Europe, where I guess it's not such a big thing) in super tiny thongs. Some of them are just strings running up their pussy lips. Not a lot of nudity, and certainly not hardcore, but with all of the content they have now (including a very well stocked video archive), I've always felt that they deserved more recognition. There are a lot of bikini sites out there, but I don't know anyone doing the fetish better than these guys.

OVERRATED: Mac and Bumble

This site is very well-known, mainly because of the number of promotional galleries you see featuring their stuff on free sites and TGPs. Plus the fact that they shoot with some top talent. But I was still really disappointed. I mean, basically this is a softcore glam photography site, and the airbrushed look that is their house style really killed it for me. And for such a well-known brand name the site just wasn't being as well maintained as other "babe" sites out there (like Twistys). This isn't a terrible site by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely a let-down.

HIDDEN TREASURE: Creampie

There's no mystery about why this site has never gotten the recognition it deserves. The answer is simple: They don't have an affiliate program. And if you can't make money promoting it . . . you won't see it getting promoted. Which is a shame, because it's really a very good little site with some excellent high-res creampie photography (check it out on the tour), a good collection of movies, and even little extras like performer interviews. Not only that, but the talent is pretty impressive too. We were surprised to see some of the girls they had here taking loads. Given how many shitty creampie sites there are out there now, this is one that should be better known.

And that's it for my short list. I guess I have one more hidden treasure than overrated site. I was trying to think of another overrated site but I kept coming up with sites that were either (a) just plain bad, without really being overrated by anyone; or (b) somewhat overrated, but not so much so that I really wanted to call them out ("classics" like Bang Bus and Bruno B., for example, which both have huge reputations because they are promoted everywhere and have been around forever, but both of which seem to me to be just spinning their wheels now). Believe it or not, I've found from talking to other reviewers that there's actually less disagreement about these things than you might imagine. Still, as the saying goes, one man's treasure . . .

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