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Body Stocking and Video

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

One of my lovely members sent me this body stocking to wear for a shoot. You know who you are! It gets me really hot thinking that you have fantasized about me wearing this very thing.. how my legs would look, how my nipples would poke through and especially how my pussy would look peeking through the crotchless opening! I love being a tease and I like to show off while I watch your cock dripping with desire! I know what you’re thinking..This body stocking is perfect! Because I can sneak up behind and sink my big hard cock in her pussy while I run my hands over her curves feeling how the stocking hugs her entire body! Best of both worlds, you get to fuck me with my stockings covering my whole body except the parts you really need to get at! Rub that cock on me and spread me open.. I’m waiting!

Cum watch me tease with my big 34DD titties, round bubble butt, long legs, silky curves and my yummy peach pussy in my new crotchless bodystocking!! CLICK HERE!

While hubby was at work today I was talking with some of my online friends and I got so worked up chatting with them and reading their sexy emails that I just had to take care of myself. I got out one of my favorite toys and decided to work my pussy in frenzy. I got so worked up making this homemade video for you all by myself that I just orgasmed like crazy. CLICK HERE FOR THIS UNIQUE SELF MADE VIDEO IN FULL TV SIZE!

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How To Use Twitter

September 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How To Use Twitter For Website Operators

Personal quote from me: “#1 rule of success in the adult web biz: Pay attention to the ones that pay attention to you!”

What’s Twitter Anyway?

Twitter is an information and social network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It’s a new and easy way to discover the latest news (“what’s happening”) related to subjects you care about.

How is Twitter Useful?

  • Branding: You can use to twitter to help build you as “A Brand” i.e. marketing your website!
  • Feedback: Twitter is a great way for your fans to provide your feedback and interact with them.
  • Dispense Information: Twitter is a GREAT way to provide your fans and friends information on what you doing.
  • Gain More Friends: With twitter you can drastically expand your network of friends and hence potential members to your site.
  • Gain Traffic: Since Twitter allows you to post a URL on your profile you can post a link to your site.
  • Google / Bing Juice: One of the reasons it’s good to have an active twitter account is because both Google and Bing give Social networks a high priority in their searches.

Twitter Hints & Tips

  • If you have twitter on your site USE IT! Nothing is more of a turn off than going to a girls Twitter page and finding that she’s not posted in 3 months or only posts once or twice a month. If you do not using it take it off your site!
  • Learn To Use Twitter Lists: You can categorize your followers into lists and it’s a GREAT way to keep up with people. For example, I have lists like “Dreamnet” with only Dreamnet people on it, “Tech Fun” which all the technology people I follow and so on. Make’s it easy to filter out what do and don’t want to see.
  • FOLLOW people that follow you! Your fans (i.e. followers) are taking time out of their lives to pay attention to you. So you should follow them back and show interest in them. If someone is allowing you to post to their twitter stream you should give the courtesy back and allow them to post to yours.
  • Pay ATTENTION to your @ tweets. If someone @ tweets you. This means they are talking DIRECTLY to you! Have the courtesy to reply to them. If you don’t you look stuck up like you don’t care.
  • What Are Hashtags (“#” Symbols)?  The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.
  • Hashtags: helping you find interesting Tweets: (1) People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search. (2) Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category. (3) Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet. (4) Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics. Example tweet with hastag: Today I posted an new picture set with #bigtits stop by and see it!
  • RT i.e. retweeting: Like a Tweet? Retweet! Sometimes you come across a Tweet that you just have to share. Twitter’s Retweet (otherwise known as “RT”) feature helps you and others quickly share that Tweet with all of your followers.  Retweeting is IMPORTANT as it helps you expand your network!
  • DO NOT follow spammers. Some will follow you only to “spam”. When someone follows you look at their twitter stream before you follow them back, if it’s just a bunch of spamming and links don’t follow them.
  • Ensure your Twitter Stream is “unprotected”! By default when you setup Twitter your stream is protected so no one can see it. You want it unprotected so it’s open for all the search engines.
  • Twitter is not chat! There is nothing more annoying that following somebody who “chats” on twitter. If you want to have a full conversation with someone do not use your public twitter. If you do want to chat via Twitter do it via direct messaging or better yet use a proper chat medium like instant messaging or email.
  • Do not spam your followers. Yes we all are promoting something everyone knows that. But if all you are doing is tweeting out “come see me on cam” or “come see my new update” it’s a major turn off.  It’s fine to promote but if that is all you do then Twitter is worthless.
  • Share your real life. The interesting thing about twitter is that it gives you a little insight into peoples real lives. So tweet out every day stuff about what you are doing. Don’t over do it, but just make it interesting.
  • Share your real thoughts. Tweet out your opinions don’t be bashful, once again that provides insight to your personality!
  • Don’t tweet excessively. Nothing is more annoying that someone that tweets ever two minutes.
  • Learn to use twitter on your mobile devices. If you have a normal phone you can tweet via text messaging. Go into your mobile settings on Twitter and set up! If you have a smart phone, almost of them have Twitter client software in which you can tweet from your phone.
  • Post pictures on Twitter. Learn to post pictures for your followers. I personally love the pictures! Not just pictures from your web site, the best Twitter pictures are the candid ones. You at the Gym, you in the changing room, stuff when you are out and about running errands, pictures when your traveling etc.!
  • Use a URL Shortener: Since twitter is only 140 characters a URL shortener is needed when you tweet out links. I prefer Bit.ly because it gives me tons of great stats on who is clicking on what!
  • To Get the Most out of Twitter use one of the twitter clients that run on your desktop or smart phone: Smart Phone Apps from Twitter, Best Windows Apps for Twitter, Best Mac Apps for Twitter.
Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls, Webmaster Update Tagged With: ,

Optimizing Your Site For SEO and More!

April 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In February I attended a WordCamp Phoenix event with Mad Jack and last week I attended The Phoenix Forum with Dawn Marie. The Phoenix Forum is the best Adult Webmaster Event every year and many of our industries top earners and performers are there. I won’t bore you with the social stuff, but other than hanging with some very cool web girls, their hubbies and website operators we also learned a great deal to improve Dreamnet.

Here is some information that will help you earn more and have a better website. I have combined WordCamp Phoenix and The Phoenix Forum notes into one here because much of them overlap. Many of the items below I have learned for the first time or have change over the years so I’ll be working to make all our sites as search friendly as possible.

Some of you will understand all of this and some will not, for those you that don’t understand it look at as an opportunity to learn.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

  • SEO means making sure your site is ranked in the search engines like Google and Bing.
  • Page Title Tag that is the information at the top of every web page. Title tags should be a maximum of 60 characters. When you search Google the Title Tag is what is displayed in the first line of the result in blue!
  • Page Title Tag should be a call to action. Example: See Hot MILF Sucking Cock!
  • Page Title Tag does NOT need the URL of the domain in it. It’s redundant the search engine knows what site it is on.
  • Page Description Meta Tag should be no more than 160 characters.
  • Page Description Meta Tag should be different from the title tag and give a longer description of what is found on even given page.
  • Page Description Meta Tag is what you see in a Google Search just below the blue clickable link. So it needs to be honest and catch the viewers attention.
  • Page Keywords Meta Tag are no longer valued very highly for the search results. But they are still used. Keywords should be no more than 8 words.
  • All search engines will compare what you put in your Title, Description and Keywords and those words should be used in your site. It compares them to make sure your not scamming. For example, if you have “midgets” in your keywords but then never post any midget content the search engines figure that out and will devalue your site.
  • Writing! I’ve said this again and again! WORDS MATTER search engines like words. If you are one person that don’t like to type and put very few words in your site it is going to hurt you, it’s that plain and simple. The importance of writing is why I always want you to have stories with your picture sets and videos.
  • The H1 Tag is IMPORTANT. Search engines LOVE the heading 1 tag. I have personally started this week putting the H1 tag at the top of all your picture sets and where it uses titles of sets or pages.
  • Discount Codes – In this day of Group On, Living Social and about 100 other bargain sites out there having a discount code on your site will help it with search engines. Use words like “Discount Code” or “Promo Code” and have it in your site. Honestly I am not sure how to use this yet on Dreamnet but I am going to come up with a way so we are all making money using terms like that.
  • Your Social Graph – I am putting this in it’s own section because it’s a big topic. But understand that your social graph is HIGHLY important to your online success in this day and age. The Search engines put A LOT of weight on them. Your Social graph is how far you reach people and how people reach you through social networking via sites like Twitter, Facebook, Fubar and all the other social networks. Of course Twitter and FB are very highly ranked. For example, there is direct network connection between Twitter and Google databases so those interactions are updated daily. Bottom Line here is social networking is VERY important in today’s search engine results.
  • Use Blogs – Blogging is one of the best ways to get your self noticed. Have your own blog and use other’s blogs. Why are blogs so important. Because they have words.

Your Sites & Your Customers

  • Exploit your email list – gather as many email addresses as you can and email your customers news, updates and sales material. Quite frankly this is something I have been bad at and I am going to get going again. I am going to get the Dreamnet News Letter going again. And advertise that all future promotions will be ONLY be via email to encourage people to sign up for them.
  • The dreaded Tube Sites. This was a HUGE topic at the event. Most believe the tube sites are killing the business. However, on the flip side of this using them correctly can really increase your sales. Think of Tube Sites as the new TGP and plant 3 minute movies on them that lead to your sites, but don’t give away the cumshots LOL!
  • Take surveys of your customers and see what they like. They recommended the Survey Monkey site.
  • Let customers Interact. One thing Dawn Marie and I have experimented with since last September is using WordPress on her free site. There is like a million plugins you can get, but the bottom line is people can Interact with her via her site by commenting on sets, ranking sets, surveys, reading her blog, reading her twitter and all sorts of little things. It has been a success I believe and I want to roll out more of them on Dreamnet.
  • EMAIL your Cancelled/Expired Members. You always get an email form CCBill when one for your clients accounts expire. Email them something to lure them back. Dawn Marie and I are going to start doing it this week. We are going to setup a certain lower price membership for them. The bottom line is get a plan in place that you can use to retain members that cancel. Ask them why they cancelled; was it a money issue, where they bored with your site or whatever.
  • Add bonus content to your club. I am looking into this now for all of us. Some way to add bonus content to our clubs so your members get your club plus something more.
  • Bottom line with this is way I’ve always said. Some do it well and some don’t do it all. But INTERACTION with you clients is VERY IMPORTANT. Whether a current member, a canceling member or a non-member your interaction with them is important. I always stress the Dreamnet Forum and Twitter but probably less than 1/2 the women take the time to learn and use those tools. If all that you do is respond to email you are certainly losing out.

Well that is all for now hopefully this gets some conversation going. Ask if you have questions there is no stupid question except the one that goes unasked.

 

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls, Webmaster Update

Idea Web Amateur

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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!

 

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Rob’s Brain Dump for Webgirls!

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ok everyone this note is long overdue, I promised it a month ago and just have not had time to write to the detailed level I wanted. It is quite long and I will try to cover everything I can think of so please read it all … print it out do whatever you need to do to save it ☺ This note will cover both my philosophy on Internet Amateurs as well as some more practical advice. I am warning you it will be wordy and long, but hopefully it will help.

I don’t proclaim to know everything, all I can do is share my experiences with you since Dawn Marie & I started in 1998 and since I’ve become a full-time Dreamnet webmaster in 2002.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked things like; how do I make money at this? How can I increase my sales? We all want to be a successful at this and I am attempting here to share my knowledge with you.

  • Treat Your Site As A Business – When Dawn Marie and I started her site back in 1998 Dreamnet was already in existence. We started her site for fun and it was fun and still is fun. But since then it has grown into a significant source of revenue for our family. Truth be told, she makes more money than I do now… LOL! But we work at it as a Team. We treat it like a business, but a fun business. They always say the most successful business people are the ones doing something they love. And we love this.So pay attention to your site. Pay attention to your competition’s sites and learn from both. Do things like (1) track your traffic with a free counter from https://www.google.com/analytics/, (2) pay attention to what sets give you better sales (3) maybe a certain day of the week works better for you than other days? (4) Manage your content effectively and to your advantage. (5) SURF SURF SURF and then SURF Some More!
  • Learn About The Business You Are In – Just as if you were opening up a sewing shop you’d have to learn about sewing. You have an Amateur Adult Website so learn about the tools of the trade. The more self reliant you can be the more money you will make. Learn about the Internet …. If you are a Webgirl and you don’t know what a link, a URL, a banner ad, a traffic trade, a blog or a TGP is then you need to get out there and learn what these things are and how to use them to your advantage. The Internet is a vast open range of experimentation and people are learning everyday, SURF pay attention to what’s hot. Read the webmaster boards; listen to the FREE podcasts on iTunes. You will not believe how much you learn by listening to free podcasts like Diggnation, Buzz Out Loud and This Week in Tech. Bottom line this, your website is just like any business you would start-up. You have to learn about that business in order to succeed at it. Use this vast Internet resource to help you learn.
  • You are an AMATEUR! – You are not a professional model. The guys that look at Dreamnet and other amateur sites are not looking for models. So don’t pose like a model with all these sultry sexy looks like your trying to be in Playboy. Have fun with whoever is shooting your pictures, be yourself and let your personality shine through. And by all means SMILE! I promise you this … ask 100 men to compare two pictures; one with happy smile and one with pouty Playboy face and 99 of them will like the smile better. Let your joy of posing naked and being naughty shine through in your photos.Once again you are Adult Amateur Web Girl… that means shoot your photos like an Amateur. Do not stand in front backdrops, do not go into studios. Use real environments such as your bedroom, your kitchen, your backyard, hotel rooms, outdoors. I can tell you this for certain … girls that shoot in studios and with all kinds of fake backgrounds do not sell on Amateur sites. The guys that search out women like we have on Dreamnet are not looking for models, they want real life.
  • Learn your Craft – You are in the business of creating reality based fantasy through your pictures and video. That means learning how to take pictures and how to use a video camera. There are a million resources on the Internet and at the bookstores which will help you learn how to take decent photos. I strongly suggest practicing with your still and video cameras. I by no means consider myself a great photographer, but I do think I’m a decent amateur photographer and I learned by trial and error, as well as, reading magazines and books. Buy a book on digital photography, subscribe to Photography magazine… whatever.Also, practice your photography skills! I have a white teddy bear and a purple teddy bear I will setup in my house to practice and test my camera. That way I can shoot off all kinds of different pictures at different camera settings and lighting settings to see what works best for me.
  • Personality Sells – This you can take to heart. Personality sells your page, get into your site and your “online persona” as much as possible. I have been at this enough to know that women of all looks, shapes and sizes can make money and just as equally not make money. My point being that if you have a presence of your personality and your persona and work that into your site and online communication then it will help you. Nothing is worse than a Amateur Webgirl Site that is just a page full of pictures and videos. Guys will not buy it unless there is personality behind it. Find your angle and work it… whether you’re the “Naughty Soccer Mom”, “The MILF”, “The Bitch”, “The Average Girl Next Door”, “The Mistress”, “The Slut”, “The Gangbang Queen”, “The Naughty Business Woman” or whatever … you have to work that into your page. This means your opening page paragraph, your bio page; your picture sets and your stories should all cater to the angle you are marketing. I strongly suggest being yourself, if you try to invent an online persona that is not true it will back fire on you. Bottom line is this… Get your personality into your site and make your site be you!
  • Content is King! – There is an age old Internet saying among content publishers going back to the early days of the Internet and it is “Content is King”! Along with you personality you have to produce good content. This means exciting picture sets both solo and sex content. I hate to sound jaded here, but sex content is required in order to make big money at this. Just posing is not going to make you money. Make up exciting stories and post the pictures to go with them. (a) Learn to take nice well lit pictures that guys can see. (b) have your body fill the picture frame when taking your pictures. (c) make sure the camera man is moving around and not standing in one spot. (d) Shoot different and neat angles. DO NOT TAKE PICTURE SLIDE SHOWS –  look at your pictures for any given set. If you can put the pictures back to back in one of those old fashion flip books and they look like you are moving in a consistent motion then your pictures are B-O-R-I-N-G! Make every picture in your set as distinct as you can. Shoot some close up pictures, some full body, some titties, some butt, some face, some whatever … mix it up! Bottom line is you need exciting content! What makes up exciting content? It’s your personality + quality photos/video + a good horny story!
  • Don’t Be A Lesbian – Now don’t go get me wrong here, I’m not saying don’t do girl/girl pictures. But the buyers of your sites are men, and more particularly they are men that want to picture themselves in the scene with you. So if the viewers of your site (which are all men) believe you are more into girls than men, your sunk and you will not make good money. Your site is a fantasy for the men viewing it and they want to believe they have chance with you. And if all they see are girl/girl pictures then they will come to the assumption that you only like girls and they have no shot, at that point you have lost them as a customer. They will move on to someone else.
  • Who Is Your Viewer? – I touched on this in #7. Your viewer is most certainly male (in some cases a couple) and for the most part falls in the age range of 30 – 60. At least half of them are married. Many are single men “looking” for that someone. The content on your site is all about the men looking at you and feeling like “they have a shot” if your stories are hot and you bring them into the story by making them feel special they will buy. Talk to them in first person as if you are talking one-on-one to them. Make all your set dialog read as if it’s one on one! In many cases these men are just looking for an escape, a fantasy or perhaps even fantasizing their wife would be on Dreamnet. So you want to make them feel special, like they are a participant in the scene. So cater to these men and your sales will be increase.
  • Fantasy Based Reality – This is one of my favorite terms and people often ask me what the hell I mean by this. What I mean is write your stories in a reality mode and let the reader’s mind wander. I often tell people to read Penthouse Forum, all men that read those stories know they are not real, but they are written as if they are real and men (and women too) get turned on by them. For example, if you are posing for your set in red lingerie which sounds better (a) “Hi guys I got this new red lingerie don’t I look hot in it” or (b) “Today I put on this red lingerie just for you, you know we’ll be meeting later tonight and I wanted to make you feel special”. You see? The (a) is all about you and (b) is all about the viewer. So make the viewer feel special. Live out your fantasies through your photo sets, they don’t have to be literally done, but just make the story a fantasy. There are numerous erotic story sites on the Internet, just Google “Erotic Stories” and you will find all kinds of examples to read.
  • Be Interactive! – This is probably one of the most important things you can do to prove you are real. Use the Dreamnet Forum, Chat, Webcam, Blogs, Youtube, Myspace, Google Video, Xpeeps and Barmeets. All these places allow you to be interactive and promote yourself at the same time. It proves you are real person and not just a model. It let’s the guys get to know you which makes them more likely to buy your site. Once again this goes back to the personality aspect! It’s all about personality, I cannot stress that enough.
  • Be A Risk Taker – You would not believe some of things I’ve seen sell over the years. One time a woman put a picture of a dog for April Fools day for a quick take an it was enough to spark interest that people bought just to see what the heck the set was. Try new things in your sets and on your site to spark interest. This goes hand in hand with USE YOUR CREATIVITY. Dreamnet cannot be everyone’s creative director that has to come from you the woman that is on the site. Be brave, be different, be bold, be sad, be happy, be yourself and be creative! Look around at other Amateur Web Girls and see what you like/dislike and learn from it. Don’t just copy people; bring your own twist and personality to a subject!

=== more coming ====
12. Don’t Be Stuck On Yourself –
13. Proof your sites –
14. The Importance of Video -
15. Work As A Team -
16. Marketing -
17. No One Change -

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls Tagged With: ,

Tips For Lighting Pictures

March 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Tips for Lighting your picture shoots.

  • The least expensive and simple way (about $20 – $40 dollars) – Go to Home Depot and get those little $10.00 clamp on painting lights. You know, they are just these little metal tins with clamps on them. Then purchase 75 – 100 watt GE REVEAL light bulbs. Use those to illuminate the scene you are shooting. Also, use the flash on the camera. Set you camera’s light balance to daylight. I would put the GE Reveal bulbs in all your home light fixtures. With the Camera flash try taping a piece of white tissue over the flash to soften the harsness of it.
  • The more expensive and better way (about $120 – $150) – Get an extra flash. In photographer terms this is called “slave” flash. You put this flash on a tripod and then bounce all the white light off of the ceiling to illuminate the scene/room. This you can get at any professional grade photo supply store in the town you live in or online. Here is the place to get it online http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ this is the best camera shop in the world.  This setup will give you EXCELLENT and very flexible portable lighting: Vivitar 285HV Professional Auto Shoe Mount Flash (Guide No.120′/37 m at 35mm)* Wein HS Hot Shoe Slave (150′ Range) – for Digital Camera Systems
  • Inexpensive Umbrella / Lightbox System: Here is example of what I’m talking about
  • This applies to either solution above. Understand your camera the best you can. Practice taking pictures with the white balance set to different settings to see how the pictures come out in your house. Generally with a nice flash you can set the white balance to “daylight”. This is because once the external flash fires it will be like daylight. Any artificial external light you use should generally be reflected at you from the ceiling or wall that is close to white in color. Shining the light directly at you can be “harsh” on your skin tones. A good way to practice is to get a couple of stuffed animals … I’d suggest a white one and redish one. The set them up in different scenarios. Practice with the stuffed animals and then you can see if the colors turn out right.

 

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Get the Most from Your Point-and-Shoot Camera

March 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

Get the Most from Your Point-and-Shoot Camera

I have always told Dreamgirls and anyone interested in photography that you don’t need a big expensive camera to take good photos. Well here is a BRILLIANT article from Lifehacker that shows you how to take great pictures with your Pocket Digital Camera. Dawn Marie and I actually have the Canon SD780 as our “travel” camera and it works fantastic. We have taken many sets with it.

So check out this article on Lifehacker and Learn: Get the Most from Your Point-and-Shoot Camera

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TERA PATRICK: MARKET PENETRATION

January 21, 2010 By 1 Comment

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.”

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls, Webmaster Update Tagged With: , ,

Five Best Twitter Clients

September 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

written By Jason Fitzpatrick, 9:00 AM on Sun Sep 27 2009

Note: I did not write this article. It is published here under creative commons license and from the website lifehacker.com!

01

Twitter has risen to prominence as the most popular place to share your thoughts in short snippets. If you’re underwhelmed with the Twitter web site and looking for more features, you’ll definitely want to check out the five Twitter clients showcased here.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite Twitter client and what it had done to win you over. Now we’re back to share the top five contenders.

TweetDeck (Windows/Mac/Linux/iPhone, Free)
02

TweetDeck boasts the ability to monitor multiple social-networking services, in this case Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. You can fight Twitter spam with a built-in spam monitor, follow topics with saved searchs, and preview shortened URLs from within TweetDeck. You can use TweetDeck to manage multiple Twitter accounts from one interface and thanks to web-based TweetDeck accounts you can backup and sync your TweetDeck profile across multiple machines.

Brizzly (Web-Based, Free)
03

If you’ve been reading over the various Twitter clients in today’s Hive Five and thinking “I don’t want some fancy application, I just want the actual Twitter web site to be more functional!”, then you’ll definitely want to check out Brizzly. The first thing that strikes you after logging into your Brizzly account is how similar it is to the actual Twitter interface—except vastly improved. Shortened URLs are automatically expanded, links to pictures and videos are automatically thumb-nailed and easy to preview. The left and right navigation columns are fixed, so as you scroll through the tweets you never lose sight of useful links. Brizzly is a super-charged version of the Twitter web interface. One thing, if you’re ready to try Brizzly out. You’ll need an invitation to the service. Fortunately invitations aren’t hard to come by, Twitter is buzzing with them. Search Twitter with this link and check out invitations until you find one with an active use left.

Seesmic (Web-Based/Windows/Mac/iPhone, Free)
04

Seesmic not only has a diverse platform base—you can use it on the web, on your PC or Mac, and on your iPhone—but you can also use it not only for keeping up on Twitter but Facebook too. The Seesmic desktop application, built on Adobe Air, is quite configurable. You can specify which URL shortening and image hosting services you want to use, what kind of notifications you receive, how large of an event timeline Seesmic will build, and how you want all that information displayed. Video and pictures can be inserted into shared directly from Seesmic.

Tweetie (Mac/iPhone, Free)
05

Tweetie definitely has the most interactive GUI of any of the Twitter clients in today’s Hive. On top of features like threaded conversations and direct messages, you can grab pieces of your Twitter stream and pull them right off. See a topic you’re interested in keeping an eye on? You can pull it right off into a separate window. Want more than one reply window to compose multiple messages? Not a problem. Tweetie is free—but ad-supported—you can pay $19.95 to get an ad-free version.

DestroyTwitter (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)
06

DestroyTwitter is a very compact Twitter client that has a very IM-window kind of appearance. Everything is presented, by default, in one column which can be cycled through various views via the buttons along the top and bottom of the window—Home, Replies, Saved searches, for example. You can expand DestroyTwitter to present multiple columns at once and give it an appearance more similar to some of the other Twitter clients available, but many people prefer the simple and compact one column default. If you’re looking for a lightweight Twitter client and you don’t mind sacrificing some of the bells and whistles you get on the other clients like expansion of shortened URLs and thumb-nailed images, DestroyTwitter is worth a look.

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls, General Tagged With: , , , ,

Portrait Photography Tips

September 4, 2009 By 18 Comments

Hey, welcome to my first blog post here!

I love photographing people because they are the ultimate challenge. You can take the best technical shot of  a river and everyone is satisfied, or you can take an ok shot and be satisfied with yourself. The river has no opinion. Photograph a person, however, and they will rarely be happy about an average photo of themselves,  and will very often not be satisfied with a photo that is technically or artistically great… if the photographer and model are not a team. I’ve had so many  say to me, “I never like photos of myself” and that’s a challenge I love, especially when they have spent big bucks at expensive studios.

A very well respected conceptual artist and photojournalist in Australia did a journal recently asking for the most basic tips on shooting people. This guy has some of the best landscape photography and shots of just human life that I have ever seen online. People responded to his journal with comments like “shoot in the afternoon” and “use a focal length of 50-100mm”. Those things may be important but they are things I am sure he already knew, and if he didn’t he could find that in an basic photography “how to” write-up. I gave him my method and he replied saying, “Thanks, that is exactly what I wanted to hear.”

So here’s Timmy’s tips, so easy anyone can do and so simple you’ll want to have a photo session right away. It’s not technical stuff, and it doesn’t matter if you’re on a beach with a cell phone camera or in a studio surrounded by slave lighting.

1. The Roles – Portraits are a two person job, not two jobs done by one person each. The model and the photo are a team, each with a role and an understanding of the role of the other person. The role of the model is be the person they always wanted to see in their photos, the real person they are proud to share with others through the photos. That might sound easy, but it entails getting all those fake looking poses from magazines out of your head – those poses are meant to sell a product, not a person. The roll of the photographer is to capture that with the shots in the best technical way that they can.

2. The Shots – A photo session should be a relaxed conversation as the main event, with the photography just something that happens in the background. The photography part should be as covert as possible, almost taking place without notice. That is the only way the model can really look natural, regardless of the setting or anything else. Yeah, there’s always going to be “wait till I do this” or “move a foot to the left” but those are just things happening at the same time as the photo session – not driving it.  Keep chatting like you would in a restaurant or on a walk. Laugh, sign, breath like any other hour of the day.

3. The Finish – Lately I’ve started editing at least a couple photos immediately after the session.  Once the photographer puts the camera down, he or she has the material they need to produce photos they like, but to make sure the model is happy you have to get an idea of what they expect. I show them different looks in contrast, shading, and any special effects that come to mind. This gives the model an idea of the possibilities and directs the artist, the photographer, in a direction that is going to make everyone happy.

That’s it! Yes, equipment, lighting, time of day are important but that’s all stuff that should be worked out beforehand. The actual photo session needs to be just two people getting together and doing what they do best – being themselves.

Timmy

Filed Under: Advice For Webgirls