Today 3-14 is Pi (∏) Day!

Pi, Greek letter (∏), is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535…

With the use of computers, Pi has been calculated to over 1 trillion digits past the decimal. Pi is an irrational and transcendental number meaning it will continue infinitely without repeating. The symbol for pi was first used in 1706 by William Jones, but was popular after it was adopted by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.

Good News & Bad News

Hey all … I have some good news and bad news.

First the bad news … I sold my beloved Honda CRF 450 X dirt bike. I loved this bike but the reason for selling is below.

bye bye …

Second The Good News …. The Boss (i.e. Dawn Marie … LOL) gave me permission to get a new bike later this year. But the real reason I sold my bike is for Dreamnet.com I have purchased a new modern machine for processing video!  So now I have a machine to produce HD Video as well as produce flash video! I am very excited about this as my old machine was a Windows XP machine from 2004 and could not handle the modern video processing.

Here is my New Machine: Apple  iMac 21.5 inch screen, 3.06 GHz process, 8 gigs of RAM, 1 terabyte internal drive and 1 terabyte external drive. CD/DVD burner and 256 Meg ATI video card. This will be a great machine for media and video production!

Here is My Daily Working Computer: Macbook Pro Unibody 2.66 GHz, 4 Gigs of Ram, 320 Meg Harddrive with Dual screens using an Apple Cinema Display with ATI 256 Meg video card! This is the computer I do all my Dreamnet work and programming on.

So there is some bad news for me I will really miss my motorcycle. However, having the new iMac for Dreamnet is a great thing and I am excited to have a new modern computer for video and media processing. The future looks bright … woo hooo!

Finally, for those of you interested in motorcycles. I plan on getting this dirt bike to ride later this year *fingers crossed*

TERA PATRICK: MARKET PENETRATION

Note: This is not my writing it is re-print from LA Weekly

Rob Commentary: I wanted to re-post this article here because it re-enforces what I have been telling online women for 10 years. What makes guys interested in your site; using your personality, connecting with your viewer and being personable.  Thanks to Rebecca from Dreamnet for turning me on to this article.

TERA PATRICK: MARKET PENETRATION
BY ADAM GROPMAN
Published on January 13, 2010 at 4:15pm

Porn superstar Tera Patrick stands tall and poised behind the rear counter of Book Soup, signing copies of her new autobiography, Sinner Takes All: A Memoir of Love and Porn, in pink Sharpie and making charming, occasionally giddy small talk with her book-buying fans.

She is businesslike and well-spoken, with the demeanor of, say, a software company executive, and the ability to forge a genuine connection in conversation. But she seems nearly devoid of sensuality. Strong women can be feminine, indeed, but behind Patrick’s sharp features and exotic face was a woman who appeared numbed by her years in the sex industry.

To be triumphant in Patrick’s line of work today requires more than being born with the elusive “X-factor.” It requires considerable creativity and stamina, for she and her entire industry face what is perhaps a more immediate threat than social conservatives, Andrea Dworkin–style feminists and venereal disease combined: free online porn.

It’s no secret that for years now, free content on the Internet has been steadily decimating the print-journalism and music industries. But in a related development as ironic as it is dire, the same World Wide Web that once opened up a financial gold mine for porn players is now allowing for the cannibalization of said industry by none other than itself. Whereas just several years ago almost all X-rated online video content was confined to sites that charged considerable fees, a growing list of adult superportals now just give it away. How do some online stars — like Patrick — remain above the increasingly saturated and competitive fray?

A porn star today has to be “more in personal contact in order to stimulate me to pay for the site,” says hairstylist Richard Vasquez, a middle-aged gent with a bit of a Sedona, Arizona, hippie look (and the only Patrick fan to give his full name). “Generally speaking, I would [follow] just about anybody, probably, that I came into contact with and got to know a little bit, versus randomly just picking a site, which doesn’t interest me.”

Vasquez says he signed up for porn personality Sophie Dee’s $30-a-month site after meeting her through his work.

Patrtick has a unique look, explains Eric, a diminutive, enthusiastically talkative man in his 30s. “I’ve even had people like my mom see her on TV and go, ‘Who is that gorgeous model?’ ”

“She seems a little more realistic,” says Jennifer, in her late 30s and deeply tanned with long, black hair. “It’s a business. In interviews I’ve seen, she’s like, ‘Yeah, I love it, it’s what I do.’ But she seems just a little more realistic than some of these other girls. I’m not a huge porn person but I do like her.”

“You have people who are just specifically into up-and-comers,” says John — nicknamed Chief — one of a trio of affable, gregarious middle-aged friends happy to discuss the sociopsychology of porn while waiting in line for an autograph. “They go on a free site, they aren’t into any brand like Tera Patrick or Jenna Jameson.”

By that he means having the porn equivalent of a “matinee idol,” a strong, charismatic personality appreciated during a fan’s formative viewing years. .

“Videos nowadays are just so gonzo,” says John’s buddy Dave. “And I like a little bit more story.”

Michael, the third of the trio, describes meeting another porn star at an adult convention in Vegas a few years back. “She was just horrible … horrible. I would never, ever buy a video or a book of hers, or support her. Even if she was giving it away, I wouldn’t get it. She didn’t care about anybody.”

“I’d see Christy Canyon back in the day,” says John. “She was so personable, I’d drop everything to go see her. She was very communicative and affectionate.”

So is the key to success having a unique look? Or good business sense? Or personal contact with fans? Or the luck to have been a star in many well-produced feature-length films?

“I say I’m lucky,” says Ms. Patrick, whose voice and demeanor more resemble those of a software-industry executive than a porn star. “I have a very big fan base, so it hasn’t hurt me that much, but I think [online porn] is cannibalizing the industry, absolutely, because DVD sales are down. A lot of companies are going out of business, absolutely.”

She points out her complete control and ownership of her content, with Teravision, and although clips of her pre-2003 — when she still worked for other companies — are available on the free sites, the Tera brand is still, well, kicking ass.

“Fans who love you and who like you and who clamor for more all the time, they fall in love with you, who you are,” Patrick says. “A lot of companies that went out of business don’t have a star, it’s kind of faceless.”

What about the relatively recent development in porn of using an endless cavalcade of “real” performers, doing shorter, homemade-style clips with almost no narrative story line?

Patrick adopts a sultry, breathy tone that’s both dramatic and funny. “I tell the amateurs … to leave it to the professionals.”

New Desktop

Wanted to show everyone my new desktop wallpaper. Want to give a shout to www.reiq.co.uk for their great artwork. I spend so much time on my computer that I like changing my wallpaper quite frequently. At hot video game women is something I have fetish for LOL!

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A FULL SIZE VIEW!

Phoenix WordCamp 2009 Summary

First off I want to thank Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV for introducing me to the idea of attending WordCamp.

I want to pass along some of what I learned from Phoenix WordCamp on Friday November 13, 2009.

Over all Phoenix WordCamp was a GREAT event and I learned a great deal about blogging in general and WordPress specifically. Visit the main WordCamp website to find details for your area.

As far as blogging is concern (on any platform) the overall theme expressed by Lorelle VanFossen and Merlin Mann was to find your voice on the Internet. I probably can’t explain this as eloquently as they did, but the bottom line is be yourself! The best way to find an audience on the Internet once you enter the Blogging and Social Media world is to figure out who you are and what you want to be online. Then use this Voice you have developed and do not apologize for it.

Voice is a concept that is hard to explain but in my mind it means being “you” and saying what you want to say without trepidation. Your Voice should be passionate!

No matter who you become online or how you present yourself be true to yourself. Whether it is the real you or an alter persona stick with that Voice and be consistent with it.

WordCamp Phoenix Note Summary

Listed below are some notes I jotted down. I have listed them according to speaker.

Matt Mullenweg – The founder of WordPress!
In my opinion Matt’s biggest point was that WordPress is a open source project with community development it is this eco-system which keeps it alive and moving forward. As the world’s largest blogging platform and content management system it is crucial all WordPress bloggers and developers respect the GPL license and don’t give your money to people that refuse to follow the GPL.

Lorelle VanFossen – One of the most prolific and read bloggers on the Internet producing in excess of 3500 articles a year.

General Thoughts:

• Rules – there are no rules about what to blog about
• Short Paragraphs – each paragraph should be 1 point
• Headings – full thought and use the heading tags, h1, h2 etc
• Lists – use them makes for easing reading
• Bold – don’t abuse it
• Emoticons – don’t use them
• Copying Others – Don’t copy other’s posts
• WordPress – always type as one word with capital W and P
• Content – be interesting. Show your readers something they have not seen before or show them something in a different way.
• Timeless content – posting timeless content is good when possible. Article series are good.
• Publishing – Do on a consistent basis it keeps people coming back.
• For Yourself – blog for yourself and the like minded. Don’t worry about the creeps and mean spirited people, they are every where on line and not matter what you post they will find you.
• Nouns/Pronouns – Use the full noun whenever possible. Nouns are index by the search engine crawlers. i.e. “I love blogging using WordPress.“ instead of ”I love blogging using it.“

Tools:

• Firefox
• Notepad Pro
• CoLT
• Greasemonkey Firefox Plugin

Jim Christian – Go Daddy Top Search Engine Optimization Expert (Note you can use the Go Daddy code ”GDPHXWC“ for 10% off on buying domains.

General:

• Most important thing I learned ”Optimize Your Content“ for the keywords you want used on specific page or post.
• SEO should come naturally through your writing and content.
• Be a ”White Hat“ SEO person. i.e. don’t try to cheat and scam the system. You’ll end up getting buried by Google.
• Inbound links to your site are crucial for relevance.
• Anchor text is crucial. Anchor text is the text used in describing your link. The part you click on.
• Page Title Tags – The title tag on your page is very important. Keep it less than 65 characters and make sure you most important keyword is first. i.e. if your selling hats; ”Hats all colors of the rainbow“ is better that ”Get your hats in every color of the rainbow“.
• Page Description Meta Tag: 24 words or less and include keywords.
• Keywords Meta Tag: Largely ignored by all search engines. But still use them to keep yourself organized.
• Make sure the content on your page uses the keywords you want to optimize for the page.

Tools:

• Google Trends
• Touch Graph
• Back Analyzer
• Advance Web Ranking

Dave Moyer - founder of Bit Wire Media and one of the personalities on the WordCast Podcast.

• Dave’s presentation stressed how blogging/website content can go much beyond words.
• Most of his presentation revolved tools for incorporating media into your blog or website
• For blogging keep things short. Short videos will be watched in the blog format. If you blog long videos most will bail out prior to completion.
• Learn to use the RSS tools of your blog it’s crucial for syndication.

Tools:

• WP Audio Player
• XSPF Flash Player
• PowerPlayer for WordPress podcasting
• Feedburner for putting your podcasts into iTunes
• Press75.com – great site for WordPress Media templates.

Jason Cote – founder of WPCOOP.ORG for professionals providing WordPress knowledge and development. Lead creative visionary of Ground Up Media

Jason’s main point on business in the 21st century is branding is no longer your ”logo“ but rather your ”personality“. Whether you are company or individual you have to manage your online personality to succeed.

Merlin Mann – What can I say about this guy? He is an online rock star! He covered so much in his portion that it ran 45 minutes long and nobody wanted him to read the stage. But I would say is main point was all about finding your Voice as I covered at the top of this article.

Speakers John Hawkins, Brent Spore and Clintus all talked about more specific technical topics which cannot be covered here. But visit their sites for more information.

Kristine Cover of Big Butt Magazine

Our Kistine from Dreamnet along with a Dreamnet Article is posted in the January 2010 issue of Big Butt magazine. Run out to your local adult store to get a copy   I believe several other Dreamnet girls will be in this issue also, but not sure until I see it.

Kristine on Twitter: twitter.com/Kristine_Cumz

Also, so hello to Ms Power Bosom on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mspowerbosom she is one of the Big Butt Mag contributors and gave us this opportunity. There is more Dreamnet women the February 2010 editon of  Big Butt Magazine coming next.

My Happiness Comes From Me!

I have been online now since 1992 and through all the changes with the Internet over this time, there is one thing that has never change; Others willingness to try and tear me down.

Honestly, years ago I used to get really upset when people attacked me with little or no knowledge of what they are talking about. They just shoot off at the mouth trying to tear me down. I’ve been attacked in forums, attacked in videos, stuff mailed to my family and even stuff addressed to my kids. No longer does any of this bother me. I have learned I cannot let others tear me down. I just live my life with the honest thought that I treat people the way I would want to be treated. And I live my life in way that takes care of me, my family & friends.

I cannot control how others see me or choose to interpret my motives, thoughts & emotions. Fact is most of these attackers have never even talked with me. They just make assumptions about me based on the way I help run Dreamnet  or based on some lie someone else  has told them. These haters are insignificant to me and deserve no response.

As many of you know there is another webmaster out there that continually tries to bring me down. I won’t mention his name, as I don’t want him to gain traffic from this. However, he and his minions spend most of their forum time on his forum attacking me, attacking Dreamnet and attacking my wife.  They tend to spend their time with their petty forum posts instead of worrying about their own affairs it’s like they sit around half their life trying to figure out how to bring me down.  The question is; are they trying to bring me down or to raise their own self-esteem by attacking me?

You see I am firm believer that being positive brings  positive energy in your life and being negative brings negativity into your life. I want my life to be positive so I remain positive. And regardless of what others may think of me I only worry about my own happiness. I cannot control the happiness in others lives, that is their responsibility.

So to these people that want to continue and try to tear me down. Feel free to contribute to your own unhappiness with your negative attitudes. Feel free to continue trying to bring me down. Continue on telling your lies. Continue on having your minions chime in and spout out stuff they know nothing about.  I don’t care, I will live my life and remain happy. As I am happy in the fact that I have family and friends that love me the way I am. Your approval means nothing to me.  My happiness is derived from within, not from the approval of others.

Some quotes I find on topic for this post:
“The opposite of security is insecurity, and the only way to overcome insecurity is to take risks.” ~ Theodore Forstmann

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” ~ Ayn Rand

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ~ Winston Churchill

“Mean People Suck!” ~ from a bumper sticker!

Webmaster Life Entry 1

I often get guys telling me on Twitter or Email that “man, you have the greatest job in world”. I do love my job I admit. I am certainly not doing this to get rich that is for sure! I started in the online adult community back in the mid-1990’s because I am a true believer that the “woman next door” is often the most beautiful woman in the world. I always believed this, even as teenager. Contrary to the images put forth in the common magazines of the day like Penthouse, Playboy, Glamour, Vogue and Cosmopolitan I believe most men enjoy the “real woman”. Not that the models in those magazines are not real or pretty, they are both of those. However, they are unattainable for the mortal man … LOL!

Not only do I get to work with such great women, but often I get to meet them. And there have even been a few over the years that I’ve had the chance to play with, not often but a couple times.

Most of the women I work with are great women, but Dreamnet also mirrors real life in the sense that every so often you run across someone you are working with that is just a complete ass or stuck on themselves. These types of women never end up working out on Dreamnet. In the Amateur Adult Arena I think once a viewer figures out a woman is stuck on herself she is doomed. Guys can smell a stuck up woman a million miles away LOL!

If you are like me you are looking for women that are real and obtainable. You know, the kind of woman that if you ran into her at the bar or the mall you’d be like “I have a chance with her”. A woman that is down to earth, nice and obtainable. Yes I know all of us men have our physical preferences. But I can honestly say that for me, those physical preferences are often forgotten about if I really like someone on a personality level.

Whenever a new woman comes to Dreamnet one of the first questions I get asked “how much does the average Dreamgirl make” and next is exactly what I tell them. “It’s almost impossible to come up with an average. We have women that make very little per week and women that make a lot per week. And that’s because being an online adult amateur is 80% personality and 20% looks.” What I mean when I tell women this is that the Internet has so much free porn there is no reason a guy has to spent one penny on Internet Porn. If all a guy wants to do is jack off there are a million sites online that let you do that for free. So what makes an amateur adult woman attractive to someone, one thing, their personality. As far as I can tell this is the only reason a guy will buy a amateur site. A woman’s personality (80%) combined with her content (20%) is what makes a man attracted to her site. I know this because I was one of those men long before becoming the Dreamnet Webmaster. Since being a webmaster on Dreamnet I have witnessed women of every shape, size and color make money … and I have seen women of every shape, size and color not make money. The one differentiating factor is personality!

Ok Ok … I’m rambling now. But that is what I want these Webmaster posts to be about. My life and thoughts here on Dreamnet! And if you have specific questions you’d like to see answered in this column email them to dreamnetrob@gmail.com or reply to this post.

One thing I have always enjoyed about being a webmaster is the “special pictures” I get from Dreamgirls every once in a while. I cherish these photos because they make me feel a little special and like somebody out there gives a damn LOL! They just add a little sunshine in my life. Her are couple of examples.

A cute photo Karma (former Dreamgril) took for me.

Here is another example Tiffiny (former Dreamgirl) took for me on my birthday!

But with all it’s glory this job is also very hard and can be quite frustrating at times. I work A LOT of hours. I often put in 60 – 70 hours a week. Luckily I’m one of those people that function quite well on 5 – 6 hours sleep. Another thing that drives me nuts and caused me to tweet some negative stuff on Wednesday is apathy. Women are always saying to me, “I love doing this Rob but I need to make more money if I’m going to keep doing it”. But they don’t want to work at it? They do the content portion (20%) but they do not do the personality portion (80%). What do I mean by work at it … I mean sharing themselves and their personality. Take this blog as one example, I spent 5 days straight from a Thursday through a Tuesday working on setting up this new Dreamnet homepage and blog. I worked straight through the weekend doing 12 – 14 hour days. But how many of the Dreamnet women actually use this blog regularly? Maybe 8 or so. Most have not even made a single post. I have encouraged all the women to post in here with their updates and also non-porn related things. Anything that makes them happy. Hell I don’t care, write about the new furniture you just purchased. Why? Because it shares insight in your personality and what makes a man want to spend money on a Dreamgirl, you got it, personality. But just as with the Dreamnet Forum, only a small percentage of Dreamgirls use this blog. An even smaller percentage of Dreamnet viewers comment on posts made here. So this is one of those times that I probably busted my ass for nothing. I’m going to leave if for nothing else but for me to vent and for the google search engines. After all, the few that do use will be rewarded over time.

That’s all for now, I’ve already went on to long. And if you have specific questions you’d like to see answered in this column email them to dreamnetrob@gmail.com or reply to this post.

As the song “The Bug” by Mary Chapin Carpenter goes “Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug”. I guess right now I’m feeling more like the bug LOL!

One last note: Any Dreamgirl, hubby or Dreamnet viewer/fan out there that would like to write for this blog on any topic please let me know at dreamentrob@gmail.com and we can set it up.

Diggnation Live In Tempe, AZ

Last night Dawn Marie and I got a real treat!  We attended the Diggnation Live Show in Tempe, AZ.  We are both huge fans of Digg and Diggnation and I have watched the show since Episode #1.  So seeing last nights show was a real treat.  This all came about through the wonders of social networking.  Dawn Marie and I knew the show was coming to town and since it is a free show tickets are always hard to come by unless you are able to to stand in line for hours.  Since I had to work all day standing in line was not an option.  I got a hold of one of the guys on the show via twitter and through the wonders of social networking managed to score some tickets.  It was so AWESOME because Dawn Marie and I were on the guest list and able to sit just a few rows back dead center in front the stage. The house was packed and we would have never had this opportunity if it wasn’t for contacting the guys through twitter, so thank you and you know who you are!

It was a great show last night and if you have not yet discovered the joy of Online TV or Podcasting I highly suggest you check out some of the shows at revision3.com!

Thanks to Hippy Glen, David Prager, Alex Albrecht & Kevin Rose. It was a hell of night for Dawn Marie and I !

I’ve attached a few pictures and about 50 seconds of pre-show video I took with my little pocket camera!

Tough times in the porn industry

Source: Published at the LATIMES.COM – Full Artcile Here

Tough times in the porn industry
The business, centered in the San Fernando Valley, is being undercut by a growing abundance of free content on the Internet.
By Ben Fritz

August 10, 2009

On a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern earned $300 to hang out for seven hours at a party in Santa Monica wearing nothing but a feather boa.

The veteran of more than 350 hard-core pornography productions took the job to earn extra cash and to network. But the word at the 35th anniversary party for Hustler magazine was not heartening, especially among the roughly 75 other women working there.

“At least five girls I haven’t seen in a while came up to me and said, ‘Savannah, are you working?’ ” said Stern, who started in the industry four years ago and, like most adult performers, uses a stage name. “I had to say, ‘No, not really,’ and they all said, ‘Yeah, I’m not either.’ ”

The adult entertainment business, centered in the San Fernando Valley, has weathered several recessions since it took off with the advent of home video in the 1980s. But this time the industry is not dealing with just a weakened economy. A growing abundance of free content on the Internet is undercutting consumers’ willingness to pay for porn, and with it the ability of many workers to earn a living in the business.

For Stern, 23, the rapid decline of job opportunities in the porn business over the last year has been dramatic. She has gone from working four or five days a week to one and now has employers pressuring her to do male-female sex scenes for $700, a 30% discount from the $1,000 fee that used to be the industry standard.

Less than two years ago, Stern earned close to $150,000 annually, sometimes turned down work and drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK 350. Now she’s aggressively reaching out for jobs and making closer to $50,000 a year.

As for that Mercedes? She’s replacing it with a used Chevy Trailblazer — from her parents.

“The opportunities in this industry really are disappearing,” Stern said. “It’s extremely stressful.”

Industry insiders estimate that since 2007, revenue for most adult production and distribution companies has declined 30% to 50% and the number of new films made has fallen sharply.

“We’ve gone through recessions before, but we’ve never been hit from every side like this,” said Mark Spiegler, head of the Spiegler Girls talent agency, who has worked in porn since 1995.

“It’s the free stuff that’s killing us, and that’s not going away,” said Dion Jurasso, owner of porn production company Combat Zone, which has seen its business fall about 50% in the last three years.

Porn is hardly the only segment of the media industry struggling with these issues. But its problems appear to be more severe. Whereas online piracy has forced big changes in the music industry and is starting to affect movies and television, it has upended adult entertainment.

At least five of the 100 top websites in the U.S. are portals for free pornography, referred to in the industry as “tube sites,” according to Internet traffic ranking service Alexa .com. Some of their content is amateur work uploaded by users and some is acquired from cheap back catalogs, but much of it is pirated.

Sites like Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube attract more users than TMZ and the Huffington Post. The porn sites are even bigger than Pirate Bay, the top portal for illegal downloads of movies, TV shows and music.

Frustratingly for porn producers and distributors in the Valley, none of these sites appears to be making much money. Suzann Knudsen, a marketing director for PornoTube, said the site’s parent, Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network, uses it to attract customers for paid video on demand.

“PornoTube isn’t a piggy bank,” she said. “Its true value is in traffic.”

The adult entertainment business, which was previously in the vanguard of home video, satellite and cable television and digital distribution, now finds itself leading the rest of the entertainment industry in losses from them.

“The death of the DVD business has been more accelerated in the adult business than mainstream,” said Bill Asher, co-chairman of adult industry giant Vivid Entertainment, who estimates that his company’s revenue is down more than 20% this year.

“We always said that once the Internet took off, we’d be OK,” he added. “It never crossed our minds that we’d be competing with people who just give it away for free.”

There are plenty of other signs of the porn industry’s pain. Attendance at the Adult Entertainment Expo, an annual trade show in Las Vegas that’s open some days to the public, was down 20% this year. Pay-per-view programming, a key revenue source for the industry, has fallen about 50% from its peak three or four years ago, according to a person familiar with the cable and satellite TV business.

Reliable revenue and employment figures for the adult industry don’t exist, since no analysts or economists track it. Adult Video News estimated in 2006 that it was worth $13 billion, but Paul Fishbein, editor of the trade publication, said the number was “an educated guess.”

“Almost all of the companies in our industry are privately held, and they keep the cards close to their chests,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an industry trade group.

The effects of the downturn have been felt most severely by the thousands of people who work in the adult entertainment business.

Kelly Labanco doesn’t need industry estimates to know what’s happening. The makeup artist, who has worked in porn for five years, is landing half as many jobs as she did a year ago and has seen her pay drop from a high of $250 an hour to less than $100.

“A lot of companies say they don’t even need makeup artists now and the girls can do it themselves,” said Labanco, who has returned to her previous job doing freelance music publicity to pay the bills.

Even the industry’s biggest events aren’t worth what they used to be for working people like Labanco. Last year, she and a friend did makeup for a week at the Adult Entertainment Expo and earned $8,000. This year: $1,200.

Caroline Pierce, an adult film performer who lives in Las Vegas but flies to Los Angeles for work, said many companies have pressured her to do more scenes for less money.

“Instead of paying you $800 to do one, they’ll pay you $1,200 for both,” she explained.

As economic pressures increase, many performers have also changed their minds about what they are willing do on-screen. Previously, women earned hefty bonuses for unusual sex scenes. That’s often no longer the case.

“A few years ago the girls we got were OK, but not stellar models, and we were sometimes paying $2,500,” said porn director Matt Morningwood, referring to a website he shoots for that features one woman and multiple male partners.

“Nowadays some of the top-tier models will do that scene for us and you’re looking at maybe $1,800. I’m happy for the production, but I feel bad for exploiting the girls’ situation.”

The only growth market most executives see is mobile devices, since they let consumers watch porn anywhere and in relative privacy.

Major companies that serve as a gateway to content on cellphones in the U.S. such as Verizon don’t allow explicit adult content. But like cable and satellite companies in the 1990s, they may change their minds when they see the potential profit.

“Anyone betting against porn being a meaningful driver of traffic and revenue on mobile networks would be making a bad choice based on history,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Adult performers with big followings probably will continue to prosper, since they often work under a guaranteed contract and have loyal fans who buy all their work. Business managers for Belladonna and Tera Patrick, two of the industry’s biggest stars, said their clients were using their celebrity to make money in other ways, like dancing in exotic clubs and licensing their name to sex toys and lingerie.

“The economy has forced us to look in other directions such as tangible goods,” said Evan Seinfeld, who co-manages Patrick, his wife, and runs her production company, Teravision.

But for the “middle class” of the industry, those opportunities don’t exist.

“It seems at this point that if you haven’t established a well-known name, it’s really hard to keep working,” performer Alexa Jordan said.

Savannah Stern is adjusting to that reality. She’s shooting scenes for her own subscription website and planning a tour of exotic dance clubs to earn money from her name while she can. After that, she hopes to go to college for an interior design degree and work in her family’s real estate development and contracting business.

“I wish I would have never gotten into it,” Stern said of her career in porn. “When you get used to a certain lifestyle, it’s really hard to cut back and realize this may not be forever.”

author: ben.fritz@latimes.com Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

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