Meet the Project: Japanese Porn Cultural Exchange Interview
Most Japanese adult films are made in Japan are made for their own domestic audience. Digital J Media is looking change that by creating and bringing high quality videos featuring popular Japanese adult video stars to an American audience.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
It is about connecting Japanese porn with fans outside of Japan. I want to give westerners the ability to interact with Japanese AV stars and have their feedback be heard while producing the highest quality porn that I can.
How did you even get started shooting porn? And more importantly how did you end up doing it in Japan?
Being in Japan came first. No actually, watching a lot of Japanese porn came first and when I got to Japan I thought how awesome would it be to participate. Already a fan of the content, style, and of course Japanese women I applied to do extra work, “soup man” jobs. You know, bukkake, occasional blowjobs, or any other standard group content where all they need is a dick in tighty-whities, the soup man uniform. Not being Japanese, the response was a resounding no from just about everywhere, even if my Japanese was spot on. They assume no foreigner could possibly understand their customs and manners and they probably have stds anyway. Since then I’ve always had a frustration with how closed off things are from outsiders here (hence this project!). Being persistent and mostly luck I eventually got some jobs with some smaller, fetish productions. After a couple of years one production hired me as a set assistant. I had a direct influence on the end product, but it was still very limiting and I was still frustrated with how I was treated as a foreigner. So I created my own production. Years later, and many mistakes later, I’ve got a solid team that I trust and can really help me push the limits.
Why aren’t there more US porn companies who film in Japan?
Because it’s expensive. Travel, accommodation, sets, staff make it prohibitively expensive to even consider. On top of that Japanese actresses cost at least twice as much as their US counterparts, and stars cost 3 to 10 times more. I believe the first time Maria Ozawa did a foreign production her guarantee was about $40k, don’t quote me on that. Then there are the Japanese censorship laws to contend with. There was one foreign production, Pink Lotus I think, that came in 2007 and went all out. It was a huge expenditure, and it fell flat. They got mediocre female talent and the communication barrier made it difficult to create a product worth the cost. Model agencies generally don’t deal with foreigners and don’t really speak English. The ones that will are usually involved with a particularly unsavory group of people I won’t name. Fortunately with my connections I was able to avoid that and get proper access to female talent. But things are changing and opening up to productions outside of Japan. Because I am the only US based director in Japan I will be playing a direct role in plans within the industry here to become more international.
What are some of the differences between porn production in the US versus porn production in Japan that are surprising?
To be honest, I haven’t filmed adult in the US so this is based on my assumptions of how it works in the states. I think the biggest difference is that the contents of most DVDs are shot in one day. One long day.
Almost all Japanese actresses are cover girls - most actresses that sell get a chance to be the sole actress in a film at least once. And most get swept up into contracts with one maybe two producers from the start, work for 1 to 3 years and quit after it ends. In other words, getting good female talent is difficult unless you are an established production in Japan.
On the set, the actresses are pretty much worshipped. One or two staff are constantly tending the needs of the actress from the instant the director says “cut.”
The porn industry is where you end up if you fail in Hollywood. The porn industry is a doorway to the film industry in Japan.
How is porn and porn actresses viewed in Japan? Are they celebrities? Are they looked down upon, etc…?
Some actresses are celebrities who appear on late night TV. Most don’t make it that big, but being in porn does not preclude them from moving onto bigger things. As I mentioned, if anything it’s a doorway. But the stigma of working in the adult industry is as it is anywhere else in the world. I’ve had mixed reactions from people and in some cases you cannot be a member of certain communities if it is known you do porn because it will bring shame to the group. I learned that the hard way. Japan is an intensely conservative country, but has had a long history of openness towards sexuality. So porn is not viewed negatively in appropriate situations.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
I hope to do it again and again! Of course. But on a grander scale I hope to bring western fans of JAV closer to the stars and production community in Japan. And on the opposite side I hope to create a conduit for Japanese producers to reach their audience outside of Japan. This all in time of course
Source: offbeatr.com
The Offbeatr.com Interview that Was Too Sexy to Publish
Since our launch we’ve been fortunate enough to have been approach by several news organizations and blogs who were interested in interviewing for us for their publications (view the press we’ve received). A smaller tech blog contacted us and asked us to if we’d be interested in being featured on their site. We thought, sure, why not? We’re a startup, they’re a blog that covers startups.
The interview itself is a generic questionnaire of 27 questions they have you fill out. Not only are there 27 questions, but they require you to answer a minimum of 300 characters for each answer. It took a long time to answer all the questions, but we figured since these guys approached us we would put in the time.
After sending them our answers we heard back from them:
We extremely apologize for the inconvenience caused but unfortunately we won’t be able to feature your start-up “Offbeatr.com” as it is related to porn material and as per our policy we don’t promote any adult content on our blog.
To which we can only scratch our ends and wonder “wtf?” How did they not know we were adult related? Most everyone has called us “Kickstarter for Porn”. It’s not like we tricked them.
Rather than let this interview go to waste, we are featuring it below. While we don’t appreciate them wasting our time thanks are in order. Thanks to them we are able to share this with you.
Since their interviews are formulaic we will be able to present you with a version which most likely would have appeared on their website.
———— INTERVIEW BELOW ————
Today, we [startups.co] have interviewed Mr. ‘Ben Tao’; Founder of the US (Los Angeles – California)-based start-up ‘Extra Lunch Money’ about his company.
‘Extra Lunch Money’ is the company behind extralunchmoney.com, a social marketplace for models to market and sell custom and pre-made adult digital content, and offbeatr.com, a platform to allow people to crowdfund adult creative projects.
Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Tao’ regarding his start-up company ‘Extra Lunch Money’;
1. What is it exactly that you do and what your start-up is all about?
I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of Extra Lunch Money. Extra Lunch Money is the company behind extralunchmoney.com, a social marketplace for models to market and sell custom and pre-made adult digital content, and offbeatr.com, a platform to allow people to crowdfund adult creative projects. Our company is dedicated to creating innovative and safe platforms to allow people to explore sexuality.
2. When has your startup been founded? And what stage is your startup currently at?
We officially launched our first website, extralunchmoney.com (the social adult marketplace) in April of 2011. Then in August of 2012 we launched offbeatr.com (crowdfunding for adult projects). We’ve been self funded / bootstrapped ever since the beginning. Right now we’re focused on continuing the growth of extralunchmoney.com and getting the word out to people about offbeatr.com.
3. What is your startup’s business model and how does it work?
Offbeatr’s business model is very similar to many of the other crowdfunding platforms that currently exist in that if a project reaches its funding goal then we take a percentage of the total money raised. Part of that money covers our credit card transaction costs and the rest helps us continue to grow and improve the site.
4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?
Eric, my co-founder, and I met many years ago at a young professionals networking event. Back then we both discovered we had an interest in entrepreneurship. We kept in touch and it wasn’t until a few years later that we teamed up and started working on different projects which ultimately lead up to us creating Offbeatr. Eric handles much of operations and technology portion of the company whereas I handle more of the marketing, business development, and product management.
5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?
Offbeatr is one of the only websites dedicated for helping people raise money for creative projects of an adult nature. The more “mainstream” crowdfunding players in the space prohibit such projects. Not only did we want to create a platform that gave people who want to work on adult projects a way to raise money, but was also wanted to innovate in the space as well. To that end we do two things differently than other platforms. First, Offbeatr projects all undergo a public voting period before being allowed to accept funding from supporters. Only after a project receives enough votes will it be allowed to start collecting payments.
Second, Offbeatr projects have two ways to raise money. The first way is through the selling of rewards similar to other crowdfunding sites. The second way which is unique to Offbeatr is through the selling of digital products. Project Creators can upload digital content they own like movies, ebooks, and photos, and supporters can purchase this content and download it immediately. Even if a project doesn’t reach its funding goal sales from digital products are paid out to the creator.
6. What is your growth like? And what milestones has your startup achieved so far?
We just launched in August of 2012. Prior to launching we made an announcement of the platform in February of 2012. From that announcement we had over 2500 people signed up to be notified when we launched. After launch we’ve been growing steadily both in gaining new users and as well getting new project ideas pitched to us daily.
7. Who are your competitors? And what is your start-up’s competitive advantage over them?
There are many mainstream crowdfunding platforms that exist. The best known ones of course being Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. However, we wouldn’t classify ourselves as a competitor to those sites since Offbeatr is really focused around adult creative projects. So far we’ve been lucky as there aren’t any competitors that focus on the adult aspect of crowdfunding. That’s not to say there won’t be competitors who will come in later. We expect there will be copycats, but we’ll differentiate ourselves from them by focusing on quality projects and continuing to find ways to make project creators successful when they run a project on our site.
8. What obstacles did you face and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges of launching Offbeatr was knowing if it was even going to be possible to do crowdfunding for the adult industry. The main reason for the doubt was figuring out how to handle payment processing. Because we were an “adult” site that immediately disqualified us from using popular payment services like Paypal or Amazon. Even popular “hip” services like Stripe wouldn’t work with us either. This meant we had to come up with other ways to accept payment. The process took close to 8 months, but we searched high and low for payment processors that not only would process for adult, but also understood the crowdfunding business model. It was discouraging each time we got rejected, but we persevered and tried any lead we could get which finally worked out for us in the end.
9. What are the key things about your field that outsiders don’t understand?
There are a few things. The first is payment processing for adult is not as straight forward as regular payment processing. Because adult is considered “high risk” (meaning there are higher cases of fraud and chargeback) most payment services will not allow you to use their services. The second thing is 2257 compliance. 2257 compliance is something all adult website are legally supposed to display on their website which states that any models or people depicted in images or videos on the site comply with US law that they are over the age of 18.
10. Why are you going to succeed?
Not only do we work hard (which we think is a basic requirement for any startup), but we also work smart. The “smart” part to us is prioritizing and working on the things that will push the business forwards. There is always something to do, but the challenge is to figure out what things are worth doing first which will have the greatest impact. Since we are bootstrapping this business that means even more to us since we don’t have the luxury of solving problems by throwing money at it. Instead we have to be creative.
11. If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
We joke around that if we’re able to be successful in the adult industry that we will attempt something we have yet to see in startups… the porn to mainstream tech startup cross over. So in addition to crowdfunding adult projects we’d end up crowdfunding independent music. We would be the Sasha Grey of the tech world.
12. Why did you choose this idea and concept to build your start-up based on?
Like a lot of people, we assumed the porn / adult industry was a gold mine. That if you did an adult type of website you were going to make money hand over fist. However, after more careful observation, we discovered while that might have been the case a few years ago the current climate is the opposite. Many adult companies are not doing that well due to piracy and the proliferation of free porn. Because revenues are dwindling we saw many companies hold back from investing in innovation or taking bigger risks. Since we were outsiders to the industry we thought we could experiment and do things differently without the baggage of what had worked in the past. So we decided to give it a shot.
13. What have you learned so far from launching your idea?
It’s important to get things out and in use as soon as possible. Spending months internally designing and working on a product is very different than actually having real users using it. The benefit of having people using a site earlier on is that you can observe and learn very quickly what’s working and what isn’t and take steps to fix and improve.
14. Six months from now, what’s going to be your biggest problem?
The biggest problem will be coming up with ways to help ensure more successful projects. In a perfect world we would like to see 100% success rates with the projects that go through our system. It’s still too early to tell or know how we can improve our success percentage, but there’s no doubt there will always be room for improvement. The problem will mostly magnify as well as we get more projects into the system.
15. What’s the benefit for the customer/user?
There are two groups we consider customers: project creators and supporters. The benefit of Offbeatr for the project creator is we give them a legitimate way to raise money for a project they care about. Not only do we give them a way to raise the money, but we give them tools to help manage the process along the way.
The benefit for supporters is they get to interact with project creators in a greater capacity than just a “fan” who might consume the project creator’s content. Now they can be part of the process and feel part of something that previously the couldn’t take part in.
16. How did customers / users find out about you?
We were fortunate and having some early press coverage when we announced in February that we were building and planning to launch our platform. Because of this we were able to get a lot of people to sign up to our launch email list. Fast forward a few months later when we did launch we were able to follow up with the people who initially wrote about us to cover our official launch. This greatly helped get the word out. A good thing that helps as well is that sex is inherently viral.
17. Who are your current customers / users? Who are your target customers / users?
We have a variety of project creators who’ve created projects so far. We have former male escorts, furry community artists, independent lesbian porn producers, and more. A lot of the project creators come from communities which would be considered more fringe than the average porn peddler you might think of. This makes sense since these smaller communities are typically not marketed to since their niche or fetish is not a big enough market for larger studios to target.
18. Where do new customers / users come from and what makes new customers/users try you?
So far a lot of it has been word of mouth when it comes to getting new project creators. A lot of these creators have been shut off from traditional means of raising money so when they hear of a way to get access to capital they are curious to check it out. Why they would give us a try is simply because we give them an opportunity to make a project they care about into a reality. In other words, as cliche as it sounds, we give them hope.
19. What do your customers / users say about your product and/or service?
The feedback so far has been really positive. Users like the look and feel of the website. I also like to think they like how responsive to feedback and questions they have. One thing that has helped us a lot is having a chat tool installed on every page of Offbeatr. This works great when users have questions or when we are trouble shooting bugs with users.
20. How are you going to scale?
That’s a good question. We’re not sure how large our market is. People have said that the adult market is as large as 27 billion dollars, but when you look at where they came up with that number you realize that they pulled it out of nowhere. For us it’s about finding serious project creators and encouraging them to run their project through Offbeatr. If we make them succeed they will either come back and use us again or they will tell other potential project creators. We are skeptical, however, if all these projects will add up to 27 billion dollars.
21. What’s the biggest missing feature? The one thing customers/users keep asking for?
We’re still pretty new (it’s been a little over a week since launch) so we’re not sure what we might be missing. There’s definitely things I think we could add, but without more real world usage it’d just be me guessing. I have no doubt with enough time we’ll be hearing from users what they would want added.
22. Are you going to internationalize? And if yes how are you planning to expand your start-up’s operations accordingly?
Technically we allow other countries outside of the US to use our platform as project creators. That being said it is still limited to countries where English is the predominant language. Before we consider moving into other international markets we want to make sure everything works well with the markets we are currently targeting. If that goes well then China here we come! (In case you didn’t know China has a strict zero porn policy)
23. How big do you think you can get? Why? And how you are planning to achieve your goals?
We think there’s a lot of potential with Offbeatr. Will we be able to fund 300 million dollars with of projects like Kickstarter? No, we don’t think so. What we do think is we will be able to attract a variety of interesting sexual projects. So while money-wise we might not see as much go through our system like Kickstarter, what do think will happen is that the project themselves will be interesting to browse through and consider supporting. This means we believe we can be a top trafficked website. How we get there is through focusing on curation and helping to make projects successful.
24. Are you looking to hire a new workforce? And if yes, what job vacancies do you currently offer and where can potential applicants contact you at?
Right now we’re still in a lean phase of our company so this means we’re not actively seeking new employees. That being said we are always on the lookout for good people (for as we know finding good people is tough!). If someone is interested in what we are doing or wants to learn more we would encourage them to contact us at info@offbeatr.com.
25. Are you looking for partnership opportunities or funding from Venture Capitals (VC) or other funding sources? Or your business is self-sustainable? And if the first option applies where can potential partners / investors contact you at?
We knew from the beginning that traditional venture capital firms would not be interested in investing in our business. The exit opportunities in adult are much more limited than mainstream companies. Because of that we’ve focused on building a site and platform that can make money relatively early on. We have to be self sufficient otherwise we’re dead. While VC’s might not be interested in us we wouldn’t mind them contacting us. They or angel investors can reach us at info@offbeatr.com.
26. What advice do you have for fresh entrepreneurs?
It’s not only important to ask questions, but to ask the right questions. A good example is getting honest feedback from users. Stop asking “what do you think” when showing to a user. Instead ask them “what is wrong?” Not only will you get honest feedback, but you’ll be able to improve.
27. Finally, do you have any other comments that you would like to add?
Thanks for interviewing us. Be sure to check out either extralunchmoney.com or offbeatr.com
Meet the Project: Double D Erotica Interview
Double D Erotica is a company that’s looking to bring authentic “real” lesbian sexual experiences to a market that has been traditionally underserved and misrepresented. We sat down with them to learn more about their project and background.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
Double D Erotica LLC, is a multifaceted company that produces adult entertainment and products that cater to a special niche of the lesbian community that is untapped and underserved. Through film production, media via the internet, adult novelty products/merchandise, events and adult literature.
Your project targets the urban black lesbian, are there not studios or companies that cater to this group?
Our project shows real lesbians having real sex, the way we have it and want to see it. Not the way that our sex is generally commercially portrayed. There are companies out there who are trying to cater to the niche, however our approach is to cater not just to the niche but also the industry as a whole, giving a fair glimpse into the real world of lesbians.
How did you end up starting the company?
I am a writer, I wrote my first erotic story 12/17/2009 after arriving home from a serious car accident. I put the story up on a blog and my writing caught on virally. From there an idea evolved to cater to and showcase a viable niche within the adult industry that is underserved.
What has been the biggest challenge starting this company?
Finding the proper amount of funding has been the paramount challenge for the company. We also have some issues with acceptance as far as what we are trying to do from within and without the LGBT community. But we strive to overcome the challenges and present a product that anyone can enjoy.
Because your niche is smaller how do you go about finding models and actors?
We have a vast social media network that allows us tap into models and actors who are willing to perform both on and off screen without hesitation for the company.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
The exposure that Offbeatr has given us is incredible already, but when our project is funded our intention is to hit the ground running with filming a video and the completion of our website. We will use this first video as the spring board to launch a long term campaign of providing the best in real lesbians having real sex! As the ladies say: Double D Me Baby!
Source: offbeatr.com
Meet the Project: Super Fuck Friends Interview
Super Fuck Friends is a collaboration project brining together mainstream models and mainstream photographers to build a porn site that focused not only on high quality content, but also didn’t take itself too seriously. A place where sexiness and humor can coexist. We sat down with them to learn more about their project and background.
How would you describe your project in 2 sentences?
The primary goal of Super Fuck Friends is to deliver very high quality content, but to never really take ourselves too seriously. We’re all a bunch of perverts in the first place so we’re basically doing what comes naturally to us.
So you submitted photos and content to well known studios like Bangbros, Reality Kings, etc… how does that process work? I thought they shot all their own content? And do they tell you why they don’t accept your content?
Some sites like Twistys have submission forms directly on the site for photographers, some studios are on networking sites like One Model Place, and you’d actually be surprised the contacts you can find on Linked In. In several cases I had direct contact emails given to me by a few established adult actresses that have done modeling work for me. In most cases I get an automated response that they received my submission and they’ll get back to me, which they never do. I have had some good experiences though, Louis B. at Karups has taken interest in our work so you’ll likely see Tilly and a few other familiar faces appearing on their sites in the near future.
You said you guys came together for this project, how did you and the other models all meet?
Tilly and I have been friends for a while, and you might have noticed she was originally referred to as Jezebel Foxx. That’s the name she’s been using on Stream Mates. She had been cam modeling for over a year, but wanted to do more professional looking work, we crossed paths and set up a shoot… and well what I thought was just going to be a standard photoshoot landed up to be an evening of sex toys and squirts. We originally planned on just building a solo girl site, but when I mentioned that I was building an adult site to a few other models I knew in the area… I was really surprised a lot of them asked to be on the site! Turns out if you’re not a creepy guy that tries to bang every model you work with, you’re pretty decent with a camera, and you have a sexy Irish nymphomaniac as a friend… girls will start lining up to shoot porn with you. So what was originally planned as JezebelFoxx.com turned into the Super Fuck Friends.
How did you come up with the idea for Super Fuck Friends in the first place?
Super Fuck Friends was created in reverse… we didn’t have a concept and then started to create. We already had the performers and content and it just sort of turned into the Super Fuck Friends. Things like the itunes based pricing structure is just a reflection of how we feel about current adult websites and how we can set ourselves apart from them. We’re based on the East Coast so we’re pretty far removed from the San Fernando porn scene… however a lot of porn actresses do tour as models, so that’s how we got Pepper Kester to shoot with us last July. Pepper was actually the one who suggested she change her name from Jezebel Foxx to something more Irish sounding. I think that’s when we started to gain more confidence in our content as well… there was always the lingering doubt that maybe we were rejected by these other companies just because our stuff wasn’t very good… but then after working with Pepper and getting her opinion that our content was very high quality and Tilly is an A+ performer… it was enough of a boost to go ahead with the project on Offbeatr.
For people who don’t shoot porn, what’s something they would find surprising about the process?
The thing that’s surprised me the most about shooting porn is how many models I’ve met that are open to shooting porn. I do still primarily work in mainstream photography… that’s why you won’t see my real name or portfolio on the project (although a few resourceful people have figured it out). I think if you can provide a safe and fun atmosphere, it’s not very hard to get attractive women to want to explore their sexuality on camera. I think what’s great too about Tilly is what you see on camera is real… when she squirts, it’s not because we did a douche and she’s just pushing it out. A lot of the porn you see online is fake, but that’s also the kind of porn you see failing very badly right now.
If your project succeeds what do you hope will happen?
If the project succeeds has really become a big “if” right now. We’ve had close to 37,000 views on our project and less than 100 votes. $12,000 was a very conservative goal to launch a site that focuses on exclusive HD video content. The hope was that the project would catch fire and we’d get at least double our goal to invest in a second camera and give us a budget for more creative concepts.
Source: offbeatr.com
How to Build a Following with SlowMotionBlowJob.com Creator Camille Crimson
Getting people to support your project can be difficult. It helps if you already have an following or audience that you can ask to help support your project. However, what if you don’t have a following? How do you build one?
Today we invited Camille Crimson, founder and model of the popular website TheArtOfBlowJob.com and the newly launched SlowMotionBlowJob.com, to share how she keeps blowjobs interesting and how she builds a loyal following.
First off, how would you describe yourself and your occupation?
I’m the model and webmaster of TheArtofBlowjob.com and SlowMotionBlowjob.com. I focus on making beautiful porn devoted to the sensuality of oral sex.
Tell us more about Slow Motion Blowjob. What is the site about and where’d you get the inspiration for it?
The site is, as the name suggests, about slow motion blowjobs. We shoot the blowjobs on a specific slow motion setting, placing shots that really emphasize the detail of oral sex. The result is very sumptuous and sensual blowjob videos that you can practically feel. It’s a hypnotic kind of eroticism. The videos are much longer than the typical video we have on The Art of Blowjob, but they’re set to a similar kind of trance background music. It’s really an entirely different sensory experience… It’s really, really beautiful.
How did you get the website built? Did you find contractors? Or did you do everything yourself? How long did the whole process take?
I do it all by myself. It wasn’t an extremely long process, because I’ve refined my way of doing things through the various iterations of TheArtofBlowjob.com. The trick is mostly fitting in the time to build the website with everything else I have to do to shoot for both sites and maintain my online presence.
The quality of your videos is really top notch, how long does it take to film and edit a video?
The filming itself doesn’t take that long. Set-up can take a while, but the filming itself is only slightly longer than the end result. We don’t stop and start much… We try to preserve the intimacy and authenticity as much as possible. As for the editing, it depends. Sometimes everything just comes together in a few hours, but other times we like to experiment more and take our time… We don’t like to rush, so we take the time it requires.
How do you keep the content fresh and interesting when each clip is a blowjob?
The main thing that keeps it fresh is just the attitude with which we approach every video. It’s real, so you get the giggles, the anticipation, the connection… We change locations, themes, outfits, focuses, other sex acts, but all of that comes second to the natural evolution of our relationship.
You’ve been working on erotic / porn websites as early as 2006. What if anything has changed either for the better or worse since then?
It feels like things shift pretty frequently in terms of the best way to share our content and the ways to connect with people, but the fundamental need to reach out to people and be yourself is the same. Styles may come and go and technologies will evolve, but personality and authenticity will always keep people interested.
We’ve talked to many in the industry who throw up their hands and complain that “there simply is no money in porn”, is this true? What do you think?
Because we started later in the game relatively speaking, we never worked in porn while you could post one picture and make a million dollars. We’ve always had to work smart and be innovative. I don’t think that has changed since we’ve been in the industry. There’s still money, you just have to be prepared to evolve and be thoughtful about what you do.
We know you are very active with on social media what sites or services have worked best for you?
Twitter is amazing. I’m a huge fan. It’s a great way to communicate and make connections. It’s important to find a balance between getting a larger message out there, sharing minutiae of your life and advertising your work… But if you can find that equilibrium, it can be tremendously useful. It’s important to have a web presence everywhere you can (within reason) but Twitter is usually my biggest social network because it’s pretty adult-friendly and the sharing/trending functions are straight-forward.
Some people think social media is a waste of time. Why do you spend the time?
I get great feedback, I make genuine relationships with fans and other pornographers alike, it can be a great traffic generator if you know how to work it… It’s just a great way to spread the message of beautiful porn.
What’s the best way to engage people either fans or potential fans? How do you engage them without seeming like you are just trying to sell memberships to your site (which is what ideally what you would want)?
I try to create ways for people to get involved in the conversation by asking questions, whether it’s about porn, sexuality, my work in particular or just life. It breaks the ice and we’re able to create a rapport. It takes time, but that’s the most genuine way to gain trust… Just be yourself and be interested in others instead of just pushing an agenda. Also, I share photos and links with some thoughtful writing, which always makes people happy. It gives them a little free taste, a little insight and they are welcome to get more by joining.
What tips or strategies do you use to build a following? A lot of people want to have an audience, but when you start it’s difficult since no one knows you. What has worked for you?
Making great work and getting people to notice you is the best way. Sharing on blogs or tubes or sites with great social media presence means that they will likely share your content with their followers, including a link to your social media. Then, once you have some followers, be interesting and they’ll be likely to share you with more people, who will in turn follow you… It’s all pretty obvious, but being interesting is harder than it sounds. I’m always tweaking the way I share things to make people happy while still being honest with myself.
What’s next for Camille Crimson? Maybe FastMotionBlowJobs.com??
Probably not fast motion. I’d get seasick watching it. ;) We’re working on a lot of new projects, but nothing we’re quite ready to share yet… Hopefully I’ll be back here pretty soon to share my next endeavour, maybe with an Offbeatr campaign of my own!
Learn More About Camille Crimson
2 Interviews on Why the World Needs Offbeatr
As relatively new entrepreneurs to the adult industry we’ve only begun to learn how different the “mainstream” world is from the “adult” world. No where is that more apparent than when it comes to taking payments or raising money for a project.
To get a better idea of what it’s like for people on the front lines of adult we did 2 quick interviews with Ela Darling (a performer) and Voluptuous Lynn (a cam model) to learn what issues they’ve had raising money and what they hope Offbeatr can do for them.
Ela Darling Interview
What problems do you have fundraising for adult projects?
Crowdsourcing websites like Kickstarter don’t support adult content. It’s easy to come up with fantastic concepts for unique, fun, and exciting new porn, but production is expensive, and distribution is incredibly tough, especially when you’re an independent filmmaker and you’re not associated with any of the big porn companies.
Have you tried fundraising for your projects? What happened?
When Kickstarter first started, I sent out some feelers to see if I could bring to life this fun fairy porn idea I had, but I was shot down by the site admins because they didn’t want to host that sort of project. It catered an adult art project specifically to the Kickstarter community, and it was successful, but it’s still disappointing that in spite of that success, I can’t bring other, bigger projects to a crowdfunding site like that.
What issues have you had with those services?
Aside from the fact that those sites don’t support adult content, people don’t necessarily want to associate their public face with their private interests. Other services connect with your facebook which would tell your friends, family and boss that, “I just backed Lesbian Fairy Seduction XXX!” People find that off putting. There needs to be a separate space with a separate community that is just devoted to making fantasies come to fruition.
What are you hoping Offbeatr will allow you to do?
I’m hoping Offbeatr will give me the ability to pitch new project ideas to my consumers and let their support guide my new projects. When I have a creative new idea for a scene, rather than settle with the same materials, wardrobe, and locations I have on hand, I can plan out the required budget to make it come to life the way I want it to and if fans like it, we can make it happen together. Together, we can build the bridge to achieve the porn of our dreams. We can create sexy, interesting porn that is made with a professional production quality that we can truly take pride in.
Voluptuous Lynn Interview
What problems do you have fundraising for adult projects?
The major problem I have had with fundraising is the majority of fundraising sites don’t allow people in the adult industry. Although several adult people use them they are gambling with the fact if the site finds out they are connected to the adult business they will close the account down and keep all the money.
Have you tried fundraising for your projects? What happened?
I have tried fundraising using ChipIn.com and GoFundMe.com. One problem is that some fans view it as begging or if they do contribute they expect a lot from you like dates, phone calls, or free material.
What issues have you had with those services?
My major issue was being in fear of them taking the money no matter how tame I made the wording for the project which prevented me from putting a widget or button on my site to fund raise, nor could I go to them for support.
What are you hoping Offbeatr will allow you to do?
I am hoping Offbeatr will have people who are ready to seriously invest in projects, marketing support, technical support, and it would be nice to feel safe putting a widget or button on my site to better raise the chances of me completing my goal.
What Do You Think?
Have you had issues? Do you think the world needs another crowd funding project website. Tell us your thoughts in the comments below. Learn more about Offbeatr (the first platform for adult project fund raising).