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PETA goes Dot XXX

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PETA has long had provocative imagery in their ads. Many people have criticized them for exploiting women in their promotion of animal rights. But they are taking their nakedness to a new level. PETA is launching their own .XXX site. Though they might not be aware of the controversy in the adult industry regarding this TLD, they are definitely not only preventing anyone else from using their branded (and trademarked) URL, but they are capitalizing on it.

I am sure this will come as a mild surprise to many people. Though if you have really paid attention to their marketing campaigns, it is not a big leap. Of course, if you paid attention to their marketing campaigns, anyone who was looking to capitalize on a big name .xxx left unclaimed after the “sunset” period for trademarked URL registration, would not have had to think hard to come up with a PETA knock of porn site.

PETA is aware that this is a controversial move, but they have been in the center of controversy since they started their nude anti-fur and nude anti-meat ads.

Here are some ads that a few well known porn stars have already been featured in. Will the new site open a new more mainstream modeling opportunity for adult stars?

10 Reasons to Tweet with Porn Stars

 

Porn Stars on Twitter

Porn stars are sexy, flirty and show you boobies!

People ask me all the time why people follow porn stars. My first response is usually why not follow porn stars?! But it is undeniable that porn stars have a corner in the market of Twitter. They get huge numbers of followers and are some of the most popular and influential accounts on Twitter.  So why is that?

Here is a list that outlines why people love to tweet with porn stars.

 

10 Reasons to Tweet with Porn Stars

  1. They post pictures of their boobies
  2. Fans like to know that porn stars are people too
  3. People like to talk about sex and no one does it better than a porn star
  4. They post pictures of other peoples boobies
  5. They talk about the sex they have had, are having, and are going to have
  6. They flirt without worry
  7. Fans like to know what films the stars are working on and what is coming up
  8. Behind the scene photos
  9. They share candid pics that you would never normally see
  10. They are hot!

Ultimately porn stars are stars. Though most are not Hollywood stars, they are stars in their niche.  What makes them so much more interesting than Hollywood stars is that they are accessible.  If you tweet a porn star, there is a good chance they will Tweet you back.  Go tell @JesseJane that she is beautiful. She will likely say something, or tweet a cute emoticon back to you.

So they talk about sex, flirt with you, show you their boobies, show you their friends boobies, and talk to you. So ask me again why you would want to follow a porn star?

Exxotica: What is your Miami Vice?

Woman standing in black lingerie I am off to Miami today!  I am very excited about Exxotica which starts on Friday. Twitter has been buzzing about the upcoming conference. The stage schedule looks like it is going to be bustling with sexy and exciting performances from Burlesque dancers a tattoo contest to pretty man candy being paraded across the stage.  There are going to be some great seminars talking about getting into the adult industry, the ins and outs of adult, and of course…sex.

Make sure you come and seem my talk with Pete Housley from Porn Star Tweet, called Tweet Dirty to Me. It is part of the Getting into Adult A to Z series being hosted by Michael Fattorosi, also known as @PornLaw on Twitter.

Make sure you come and see us at the panel and find me at the show! I will be live tweeting the entire throughout the conference, so make sure you are following me on Twitter: @7_Veils

Getting into Adult A to Z: Tweet Dirty to Me

Saturday 3:00 – 4:00 pm

@ATTC – The Business Cards of Porn

ATCC LogoI first met the Adult Trading Card Company on Twitter. Like many of the people I meet, we become friends because we tweet back and forth. I liked their tweets and appreciated how engaged they were with their tweeps. At the Adult Expo I finally got a chance to meet the man behind the tweets.  It was like a long lost reunion. I saw their booth and said “ATC” they said, “Yes”. I said, “I’m 7 Veils” and then we slow motion ran towards one another and embraced. Ok, that last part didn’t really happen like that, but we were both really excited to finally meet each other.

Since then we have continued to tweet.  As a girl who use to collect baseball cards and get the players autographs, I love trading cards. These are great cards. They are an excellent way to promote your image and make it as easy as a business card to pass around.  I am going to be using the ATCC trading cards for many of my Feature Friday Photos!

 

Mariah Chase ATCC card

Friday Feature Photo: The voluptuous Mariah Chase featured on her ATCC trading card.

JP Berkman started the ATCC in 2010, after seeing talent hit the convention circuit selling 8x10s that were a waste of money for the fans and performers—they cost the performers too much money and once the fan got them home, they would realize (whether married or single) that the 8×10’s would end up in a box in the garage or the trash. Out of this, ATCC™ was born—it all started with female performers like Lizz Tayler, Tara Lynn Foxx, Sophie Dee, Aurora Snow, Debi Diamond, Mary Carey and many more who were ordering cards from him and selling them at conventions and signings and on their websites. The trading cards are collectable and are small enough to carry around in your back pocket or wallet. What makes these cards truly unique are the girls’ stats and fun facts on the back—you really get to learn about the girls. In 2011, ATCC™ is branching out into a new market with their retail cards featuring a wide variety of the top names and brightest newcomers that will soon be hitting Adult stores, magazines stands and comic book stores—pretty much everywhere! These are the trading cards your mother warned you about and you will want to be on our team. Soon, Adult Trading Card Company™ cards will be the industry standard and replace 8x10s…forever.

 

ATCC has changed the trading card and Adult business in less than a year. JP Berkman started the company in 2010 and sold the cards directly to the talent. The girls sold the cards at conventions, on their sites and at signings. In 2011, he is rolling out a retail line of cards. Thirty girls will be part of the pack, but over 100 girls have been photographed. The names of the 30 girls won’t be revealed until the cards street—but, there will be something for everyone and more than one girl to love. The pack will feature five random cards and a sample of Wet Lube (one of the sponsors). Some of the packs will have a card personally signed by one of the 30 girls—and we’re pretty sure guys (and girls) will be buying multiple packs. The retail packs are set to make their premiere in July and the anticipation is growing. Look for ATCC at a local convention in the future—JP  will have some of the girls in the packs signing. With a thriving wholesale and soon to be a retail company, JP Berkman is on top of his game and has a product that is quickly becoming the industry standard. You heard it here first.

For more information, visit the ATCC website,  www.adulttradingcardcompany.com and follow JP’s adventures on Twitter at @ATCCompany.

Promote your porn on Twitter, promote your brand on LinkedIn.

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Veronica Vaughn LinkedIn Profile

Veronica Vaughn promotes herself as a business owner first and adult star second. Like Veronica, keep your social networks connected. Her LinkedIn is for networking but her linked Twitter account is for promotion.

LinkedIn is the largest business networking site.  It is where you go to post your resume, find jobs, meet people, make connections, create business alliances and have access to amazing business resources. This is not generally where you’d think of porn.  In fact, the public does not usually think of any adult star as being invested in business.  However,  the most successful porn stars have great business heads; that is why they are successful. .

LinkedIn has generally been the forbidden network in porn. Most people in the adult industry have not viewed LinkedIn as an adult friendly platform. This is true, it isn’t.  But it is not against people in the adult industry, it is against using the site as a promotion for porn.  In all fairness, it is against using the site as commercial promotion for any business.  The network is not actually about promoting business, it is about building business connections.

Much like Facebook, it is primarily a self monitoring community. If your profile is essentially spam, you risk being deleted. If you spam groups, your posts will be deleted and you may be removed from the group. If you are obviously engaging or promoting illegal activity, you will be deleted.  But if you are focusing on developing your business connections you will be fine.

LinkedIn is a place where adult stars can focus on the business side of their networking –  meeting producers, studios, agents, distributors, managers, etc.  LinkedIn groups are  your greatest resource.  There are groups for every possible topic. Interested in Social Media? Join the group Adult Social Media and keep on top of what is happening in social media in adult entertainment.

Join a group, read the discussion and then take part. The more you use the groups the more they will benefit you.  As you participate, you will meet people and expand your network.

Are you needing information? Ask the group.

Are you needing help? Ask the group.

Are you looking for business connections? Ask the group.

To network on LinkedIn you just need to position yourself as a business person.  Promote your porn on Twitter. Network your brand on LinkedIn.

Google Gives Social Proof to Porn

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Sexy woman wearing a tank top that says "google"

Time to talk to people on Twitter, because Google is giving social proof to porn.

So often I see porn stars on Twitter who only tweet content and don’t interact with anyone.  I know we are all the center of our own universes, but if you want to get the clicks you have to  take part, so you can be with them virtually at the center of their universe. I always tell people that the key to a strong social media presence is engagement. You have to talk to people.  Well, that just became even more important.  Google announced yesterday that social search is becoming a truly relevant part of the overall Google search function. This means that Google just gave porn the power of social proof.

Why connections are important

Everything about your web presence is interconnected.  The web is a big web! When you have a website, it gets listed on search engines like Google, who then crawl your site for content and post that content on the search engine. When people search for specific terms that relate to your post, it appears in the search results.  That is SEO (search engine optimization) in a nut shell.  So, if you create a Twitter and link your site, Google picks that up too.  When you tweet content, that content may come up in search results too.

Google has integrated a low level of social search for a while, but they just gave it Viagra.  Search results will now show you if one of your friends has shared a link. It is now connecting all of your connections and integrating them into your search results.

Who are my friends?

Google’s social circle has gathered information based on your usage. If you have a profile or gmail, you will have a more accurate social profile.  They collect links to social profiles they believe to be yours. Then they take all the friends associated with Twitter, Flicker, gmail, contact lists, etc. and count them in your network.

Social Proof

Friday Feature Photo: Portrait of Burlesque Dancer Kylea Killeen

Friday Feature Photo: The beautiful Miss Burlesque 2010, Kylea Killeen

Showing if a friend or even a distant connection has shared a link acts as a very powerful form of social proof.  Say you are looking at 5 web links, trying to decide which site to go to, and you see that 3 of your friends shared one of the links. You are far more likely to go to that link.  It is the Internet version of word-of-mouth.

Social proof to porn

Porn has had an issue with social proof outside of social networking for a while.  There are tons of websites, so unless you know the name of a specific company it can be hard to find the precise site you want.  Search engines have notoriously been a challenge for porn sites with SEO.  Google has created a black list for their auto search so people don’t accidentally pull up porn search terms.  This is fine for safe browsing, but those terms are based on the most used SEO keywords. This helps the casual searcher discover more effective search terms, but if that casual searcher is searching for porn they are S-O-L.

The new social integration will provide social proof to all adult sites.  If someone has a site link that  is retweeted a lot, this will now appear in the connection recommendation in the search result.  This is excellent for driving traffic to a site.

Retweets matter more than ever!

This is why it is even more important for adult tweeps to interact with their fans.  If you want people to retweet your links, you need to give them more of a reason than a sexy pic. If they talk to you and feel like they have a relationship with you, they are far more likely to retweet your content.  And now, the more retweeted you are the more relevant you will be in Google.


Friday Feature Photo: Kylea KilleenKylea Killeen is this week’s Friday Feature Photo.  I first met Kylea at a club in New Mexico where she was performing. Out of all the beautiful girls in the club, she was the one that captivated me. She is sexy and sensual. It is no surprise that she is Miss Burlesque 2010, Miss Nude US Performer of the year 2009 and a Playboy Golf Girl.  Make sure you check out this up and coming performer, she is not to be missed! Go to her website at www.kyleakilleen.com and follow her on Twitter @kyleakilleen

My, What a Sexy Twitter Voice You Have!

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Paris Hilton tied up in a microphone cord

Anyone can be sexy. What makes your voice unique in the Twitterverse?

Finding your voice is an important part of the social media process. It seems like this should be easy, especially if you are in the adult industry, but it is not. All you have to do is be sexy, right?  Maybe not.  Crafting your online personality is an important part of your branding.   Thousands of people in the Twitterverse are sexy, so how are you different? What makes you unique?

The crafting of your personality needs to be carefully based around your objective and your audience. Although you may have an idea of who you are online, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be what elicits the most responses from your audience, or drives the most click-throughs.

Are you a dom? Do your followers want to be bossed around? Are you a vixen? Do you need to be coy and illusive? Are you a Diva? Do you need to be strong and demanding?

You not only need to figure out who you want to be, but you need to figure out who your audience responds to strongly.  For some people, primarily talking to other porn stars works for them. Their fans want to see the behind-the-scenes of the porn life.  For most, this is not enough.  You have to actually talk to your fans and relate to them.

When I first start working with a client, I take a splatter approach to posting. I experiment with a variety of posts, with different tones and content. I do this to begin establishing what their audience will respond to. Your online followers are a unique group, thus you cannot base your communications on the success or failure of someone else.

If our online personalities are a product of our branding, they can also be extremely formative to the evolution of our branding. Pay attention to what your audience responds to, because if your goal is to reach them for sales, support or awareness, you need to know what approach and tone will engage them. Remember, you can’t just bat your eyes on Twitter and get people to do what you want, you have to offer substance and make that substance uniquely yours.

What’s the Next Big Trend in Porn? (part 2)

On Monday we spoke about the “next” trend in porn.  With threats of pirated content and free amateur tube sites, the survival of quality porn is being threatened. The adult industry is no stranger to being on the front end of the technology adoption curve and cutting edge tech strategies.  We are already seeing how mobile and 3D are coming in with a bang.  But the new trend in strategy is engagement.

Not only are studios creating more ways to deliver content, they are finding more interesting ways to deliver it.  Riding on the popularity of “webisodes” on mainstream networks like NBC and FOX, you might start seeing your favorite porn star, like Jenna Haze, creating webisodes.  The neat thing about them is they are much like sitcoms – you get attached to the main actors. When you combine webisodes with Jenna Haze’s great Twitter strategy then you will have a more interactive experience because Jenna will be able to drop clues about the up and coming episode and discuss the past episodes with fans.

With interactive sites that feature webcams with chat, live Q&A’s with fans, Skype, vidchat, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and more, we are seeing porn tearing down barriers.

Joanna Angel, the owner of Burning Angel: “I think things that are becoming a lot more community oriented. The wall of the porn star is breaking down and I think we’re moving in a direction where there’s a lot more interaction between fans and stars.”  (Joanna Angel as quoted on CNN)

Whether it is communication on live chats or Twitter, or virtual cams where the customer controls the toy, the porn world is going to be getting to know their fan base. If you want to stay ahead of the curve you better figure out your engagement strategy.

What is the Next Big Trend in Porn? (part 1)

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Now that the dust is settling from the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), people are asking what is the next big trend in porn?  CES and AEE happening at the same time is more than just a ploy to get geeks to mingle with porn stars. Porn has traditionally been on the cutting edge of technology.  We are the early adapters and often the trend setters and influencers of the adoption of new tech.  Porn is the reason VHS won over Beta. That seems like decades ago…well, it was decades ago, but it was a technology that had a lasting impact on the movie industry as a whole, as well as personal video and home electronics.

The first trend: Mobile

The next trends in porn are mobile apps and engagement.  Porn has been blackballed from mobile apps on iPhone and iPad, but porn is like sand from the beach. It is everywhere and no matter what you do to try to get rid of it, you will always find it hiding somewhere. Many of the new apps meant for mainstream media have porn sneaking in and accessing it.The goal of mobile is to make porn consumable from any platform. “The eventuality of DVDs going away is something that’s scaring lots of companies,” says Farley Cahen, chief operating officer of Digital Playground. The industry needs to adapt to stay viable.  With free porn on the rise and DVDs sliding, porn needs to step up its game if quality legal porn is going to stay viable.  Mobile is the answer to this.  Sites like Jessejane.com have a “sniffer” code on their site that detects when someone is on an iOS and optimizes the content, including video, to play on that device. Pink Visual used a different business model that created their primary revenue stream from wireless and internet, while using DVD as their secondary stream.  This is positioning them ahead of the curve on the transition away from DVDs.Hotels are reporting a loss of income from rentals because people are accessing porn from their phones and iPads.Despite Apple’s refusal to allow porn on its devices, porn apps are focused on the iPhone market.  Most are developed specifically for the iPhone. With the news about Verizon releasing their own iPhone on February 10th, the market for iPhone porn apps will grow by about 2 million over night.One of the big benefits of mobile apps is that they are not limited to video.  Mobile can mean video, phone calls, video calls, turning your phone into a vibrator, interactive games and more.  It is allowing the porn experience to be more thorough and comprehensive.  Though the phones might not give you 3D porn, it can give you a 3D experience.On Wednesday, see part 2 of the next big trend in porn!