How to do the Porn Business, for new Performers and Creators
Lots of semi random stuff here, because you take what works for you. It’s for people who are sure about doing porn. In fact, you’ve probably already started. If you are still mulling it over, read the other articles.
This article ignores the parties/escorting side of things.
Success is basically Content PLUS Admin, and, TBH, quite often it’s your Admin skills that will make difference.
It’s also a slog. It’s like any other business in a competitive market – a slog to get going. The only fast money is escorting, which this article isn’t about.
There are NO PERFORMERS. There are only Creators who perform.
Basically the “get paid for being in porn, and don’t bother making your content or camming” business model, is dead. You can get some shoots, but it’s not a living, not for most people anyway.
This is especially true for people who live outside the London/Manchester/Bristol triangle because you are too far away from the few remaining “pay you for shoots” companies, and they don’t pay enough to travel, and certainly not enough for hotels (unless you book multiple things in, which is hard to organise unless you also do parties/escort work).
Own your own domain
Seriously, this is the only EVERYONE MUST DO on the list! It costs 15-20 per year, including Privacy (yes, you want). FWIW, I use GoDaddy. I don’t use them for anything else. I also use Joker, but for ease of use, GoDaddy. Cheaper places are available, but I tried a couple and, not as easy to use as GoDaddy.
Have your own website
OK, so this is another EVERYONE MUST DO. Even if it’s a simple one pager that points people at where they can buy your stuff.
This isn’t instead of platforms, it’s AS WELL AS platforms.
Platforms are great, but THIS is the key to YOU owning the customer, not the platform. You want THIS DOMAIN in your fans bookmarks, not a platform page. Because what do you do if the platform chucks you off, and your platform account is how people know you? A website, and if they google your name when the platform dies, they might find you again
Your own website sales : You keep ALL the money. No VAT, (unless you are doing 80Kpa+ well), no platform cut. No waiting for payouts.
No silly content rules – on your own web site you can sell ANY LEGAL content.
On your own site with taking CC you can have – outdoor/public sex, fine where legal. Scenes with teens (18+) that you can say are scenes with teens, hypno, fine. Scenes where you have permissions but not paperwork, fine, (where your local law allows). FSSW “Me and client” scenes, fine. BDSM and other fetish the platforms don’t like, fine.
If you want to take CC, you will be limited to their rules re content.
Marketing : Websites can also allow you to directly request people’s email addresses, so you can contact them if you have important announcements.
Have a Brand(s)
If you are a Performer, your brand is usually just your online persona, so you can have a whole bunch of different themes/characters running.
That said, when you find something works for you, run with it as a main thing but always have others running along side.
If you are a studio/producer, you need to be very clearly making critical mass of content for a few specific themes, not all over the shop with 1-2 of each idea.
ABC – Always Be Creating
This is basically the first key Admin task.
Mainly because you can’t always be creating, but you can always be booking it into the diary. Things in diaries are things that get done. If you do one day a week at home, and 1-2 days a month on collabs, you’ll be well stocked.
Schedule your shooting so that you are producing at a regular pace. Over 6 months, aim to build up an additional 6 months worth of material. This will allow you to take breaks later WITHOUT interrupting your flow of publishing. Fans are greedy bastards and if they are kept waiting they get antsy. And go away.
Work with others – collabs. 3-4 performers in a studio for a day. Say 2 girls and 2 guys. The guys can cum twice each. People take it in turns to film OR you get a tame cameraman in, who, if they want something, they get a scene they are in, or cash. But a free friend is fine Anyway, 1-2 well planned days a month, sorted for content.
- Jane and John
- Sue and Bill
- Jane and Bill
- Sue and John
- Jane and Sue, two different scenes
- Plus possible others where the guys don’t have to cum. E.g. Lesbian cuck – Jane and Sue fuck while cuck John watches. Then cuck Bill
8 scenes, Jane and Sue are in 6 each and get the rights in 6, Bill and John are in two where they properly perform (and so get rights in) and the cuck scenes, which they don’t get rights in because they’re not doing any real porn work.
8 scenes, that’s a LONG day. A scene an hour is a well planned day.
IMPORTANT – the general rule if you have a non performing porn producer shooting content is that they get VERY LIMITED content in return. Maybe they get shared rights in the 4 person orgy, or a spanking scene with each of the women, ONLY.
Cost? Split a nice apartment or dungeon, so 50-80 each, plus your travel, so 8 scenes cost about 15 each. If someone else is paying and invited you, and you’re not paying your share, they get their ideas filmed first.
ABC – Absolutely Be Cheap
This is a business and the way to profit is to get maximum value from spending.
Performers – content share is a brilliantly low cost way of making scenes. If you want different costumes, each arrange to bring one, and then swap. By all means invite volunteer new guys to stud, but do their Releases and ID’s BEFORE filming starts, and video them confirming that they know what they are doing.
Tax tips (UK) – if you book a villa in the sun to share with a bunch of creators, that’s tax deductible business expense, NOT a holiday Also, the private car mileage rates are really generous.
Producers – you’ll be paying for performers, so the lowest cost per scene is to make a day of it so your location and travel costs are split across several scenes. Ask performers how much they want for a 2 or 3 scenes in the day. Sensible performers normally discount for additional scenes.
Editing Is Absolutely A Thing
You’ll need to learn. Editing is tedious admin for most of us and while it can seem a good idea to let someone else do it, they rarely actually do it. Or they do it late. Or they do it, but it’s not how you wanted it. Bite the bullet, do your own editing.
- Good news, if you simply put the clips in the timeline and cut out the crap bits, you’re good to go.
- Next up – brightness, contrast and colour correction
- Then – render settings that work – so you can strike the right balance between file size and quality. (Most platforms have to pay for storage and streaming and limit max file sizes so people don’t put up 12GB files where a 0.4GB works almost as well).
- Then – you’ll want batch rendering – where you set it all up and the computer beavers away outputting all the clips, teasers, trailers and scenes while you do something more interesting.
Lots of software out there but if you’re a gamer, check out Da Vinci Resolve and your PC specs. If your specs are good enough, try it. Free and powerful. I use Vegas myself, because I have for years.
Paperwork
Always get it sorted, even if everyone are friends, or even partners.
Social Media Hustle
The single biggest time suck there is, but also, at least until you have a solid fan base who buy stuff, the ABSOLUTE KEY TO SALES.
Engage. Engage. Engage.
If all your tweets are “buy my shit here”, people switch off. You need to also be a real person. Engage with debate, maybe post some light personal stuff, whatever works for you. Avoid big fights unless against soft targets who are asking for it – e.g. SWERFs. Avoid over sharing, (but this might just be the Brit in me. If it works for you…)
Know the TOS. As to Insta and FB, they don’t like us and their no “sexual solicitation” in effect means that ANY slightly thirst trap post by us will be considered marketing and thus contextually “sexual solicitation” because in their eyes, porn is included, not just FSSW, and they basically think “if they’re using their porn name here, they’re marketing, so it’s sexual solicitation”. If you want to blog your musings or etsy on Insta, have an account for that, under a different name.
Also, SM is a great place to find new people to collab with.
Pick Your Platforms
They are not all the same, esp in the content they allow, the degree to which they have internal traffic, and how they treat FSSW.
Learn how each platform works, and try and use it in the way that best makes sales.
Realistically – 3 -4 platforms at a time is probably all that make sense for most people, until you have them down and can add more.
NEVER TRUST THEM : platforms come and platforms go, and they often take money with them. Also, policy changes might suddenly make your content unsellable or even get you chucked off the platform, (esp kink and FSSW).
Understand How To Get Paid
Basically, you need a platform for Credit Card sales (unless your direct sales make it worth going DIY – at least $500pm. If you are over that, it’s worth investigating, and will be worth switching between $500 and $1000pm depending on the deal you can get.
But also :-
Cash and cheques in the post. Old school still works. banks still hand out cheque books if asked.
Burner apps such as PayPal, CashApp, Venmo, BeemIT
Crypto – still mainly FSSW and content that CC don’t accept, but growing slowly in the general market.
ABC – Always Be Cashing out. Every time you hit the minimum (or higher if transfer charges are a pain), cash out. It’s not actually, or legally, your money until it’s actually in your bank account.
Fuck Management
Seriously, people offering to help with management of social media, free editing or whatever, just say no. It usually ends in tears and fights about being locked out of SM or loss of content.
Sweat the Small Stuff
- Keep notes on all your customers and their social media. You’ll need to be able to reach out to them if re have to reset. You can offer them special deals as well.
- Keep your content in well organised files with copies of documentation.
- Keep BACKUPS
Know You Can Survive if it goes TITSUP
You need you stuff across a range of platforms so that if any one has issues, others can take over, PLUS of course, YOUR OWN DOMAIN and YOUR OWN SITE!
Key Links