First of all I want to welcome two new authors to MikeSouth.com!
The first is Shawna Lenee, Shawna is a an A List performer in anyones book, a former Penthouse Pet and Covergirl, she has retired from shooting porn in L.A. and taken to doing it all herself. She told me that she wants to give back, she wants to be a resource for performers who want to skip the L.A. and Florida Route and make a name for themselves without subjecting themselves to things that happen in traditional porn. She will welcome all questions and help in any way she can. She will be writing about whatever interests her but I think it is safe to say she can help anyone on the topic of branding and social media marketing. Pleases welcome Shawna to the MikeSouth.com Family.
The second is Brandon Iron, Brandon has many years in Porn Valley and has also converted to owning his own content and working only for himself. Brandon has moved to The Czech Republic and expects fun stories and photos from his life there. Brandon too is willing to help anyone who asks for it and with his extensive experience in the biz he is a valuable resource!
This does not mean that I will be posting less, it means simply that there will be more here for people to read, more questions answered and more diverse opinions!
Also note that as of this weekend I will be converting Mikesouth.com to a safe for work format, all that means is that photos will be G rated. Everything else remains the same. Adult advertisers will have to use G Rated banners and photos. This decision makes sense because it opens the door for incoming links from mainstream sites that otherwise have policies against linking to sites with adult content. All of the comments on this have been positive and I really appreciate you guys helping me make this decision.
15 Responses
Mike: I look forward to the changes, including the new voices. Let’s hope Shawna and Brandon don’t get run off. Best of luck, as always.
Aside from a couple trolls (like fake aribass and fake seantompkins) everyone here is pretty respectful to other posters and Mike.
They arent going to get run off 😉 they both have thick skin too so i don’t see any issues. Im going to crack down on flaming if it starts happening.
i think it is an excellent addition mike!
Brandon in particular has spectacularly thick skin. He has been harassed about a certain overly crass accusation being made about him for a decade now on XPT and gives harassers just as much grief as they give him (I will leave the content of that out of this forum but suffice it to say he has good reason to punch a few people over there in the face over it). To me others on that forum take that line too far but I don’t post there so I will leave the administration of that forum to Gia Jordan and Jeff Steward.
Also I hope Brandon likes it in the Czech Republic. I was unaware he had moved there but hope he can fuck and film lots of cute Czech women (and with EU cross-border working allowances for EU citizens maybe Austrian and Slovak cuties as well) while he is there. If Czech Republic immigrants are allowed the same EU privileges to work anywhere in the EU he might wish to make a trip to Amsterdam, I hear the chickies are extra cute and Brandon’s brand of porn is actually quite tame compared to others producing in the Netherlands.
Shawna is cute. I think it is safe to say if that pic is recent she could have a porn career even today if she wished. I look forward to her articles.
I have a lot of free time on my hands and have worn out my welcome at XPT. Not a bother. I’m hoping to find a new home for dvd distribution, too. It’s tough to make money at JM Productions after they started charging $330/month in rent, something they haven’t done in the past 9 years. Be that as it may, I appreciate the support I received from the company since 2007.
Small correction: I live in Ireland, not the Czech Republic, but hope to see Prague again in the not-too-distant future. Great city!
I’ll be in Barcelona next month and would like to network with anyone who can help me produce bukkake content (talent, location, etc.) [email protected].
I’ll be writing a piece on some of the more interesting tapas and beer offerings.
Cheers!
ireland in beautiful ..i look forward to hearing a lot from you myself..i think more of mike south than most of the people i know..he is a good judge of character!
MHarris Shawna is already a star she has been on the cover of Penthouse and has shot quite a bit in Porn Valley, her decision to do it herself (becaause she was already doing it herself when it came to branding and PR) makes her a good resource I think.
Thanks Brother…yer a good guy yerself Im lucky to have ya as a friend.
good point!less overhead ..more interactive
This is GREAT news Mike, I’m very happy for you. You’ve always been one of the good guys.
Heck, I remember you answered my email when you were at home on convalescence leave after that stripper jumped on you. That was really cool of you and I’ve made sure to follow your website even more ever since.
Continued success Mike!
This is great Mike.
Brandon is one of my favorite BIG dick peformer’s and I sure love Shawna is one of my best female performers. It could have been worse and had them join that idiot’s army. Whatta asshole. Keep up the good work Mike and give us the best.
I sort of jumbled my comment, Mike. I did see that she had shot in Porn Valley, I have probably seen one of her movies at some point (she looks vaguely familiar). I was trying to say she could probably have plenty of work in Chatsworth and SF if she wanted it. It is probably beneficial long term that she concentrate on producing her own content, she can make money on those scenes for years whereas shooting for Immoral, Evil Angel or Kink would only get her a one-time check. She also has more control over the sex acts she performs when she produces her own content.
Apologies to Shawna if I inferred something I did not intend to.
Wow! Charging rent to distribute your videos. It would be more fair to charge a percentage of the sales and leave it at that (if I understand correctly they do have to arrange and pay for duplication, warehousing expenses and shipping so they should get something but it shouldn’t have to cost you money if you don’t sell enough that month unless you pay for duplication directly and that wouldn’t be an every month cost if done correctly). Of course if you do find someone to distribute your DVDs you would be stuck with all of the JM branded DVDs (and shipping charges either to Ireland or to your new distributor) that you would have to repackage to sell but charging rent for a building in Paso Robles that you probably haven’t even ever entered into and probably won’t in the near future (living literally an ocean and a continent away) perplexes me. How much room can your DVD stock take — maybe 175 square feet at most.
Speaking of Jeff Steward, I have to disagree with him on one thing he said in his Vice article. I think he could still make money on producing porn, maybe not 50 man bukkakes but the Gag Factor, Girlvert, Guttermouths, Young and Anal and the like would probably still sell and most of the sales would likely be download which is cheaper than duplicating, packaging and shipping DVDs (although now that he is based 200 miles from LA transportation and overnight lodging of talent might cost him a bit). He did some unique things when he produced porn and although I would change a few things about set management (beer and drugs on set scares me — look at his Outrageous Outtakes movies for the clusterfuck that has caused him a few times) and production (I am a cheapskate, if I think I can reasonably save a buck I will do it) I think he would do fine. I think he produces a few scenes a month for his subscription websites but he hasn’t produced in large scale in several years that I can see, I don’t know if he directs those himself or if he hired someone to direct them and who that might be. Jim is likely not available to direct for him again but Jeff could probably find a director without too much trouble — hell, I might even consider it if we came to appropriate terms especially since he is no longer based in LA, from a quick Wikipedia search I think I could handle living in Paso Robles or nearby OK. A new director would probably bring a few new ideas for porn scenes to the company (I know I have a couple) to make him money as well. The main issues if I were to apply for the job would be I am a little more gun shy on the circus acts (two dicks in a hole, cumshots in the eyes and anal creampies — although I love bondage and could incorporate that into scenes of varying subject matter) and possibly my salary although since I am on Medicare he might save at least some of the grand a month health insurance costs nowadays.
That “idiot” ManCrack is talking about (we all know what his name is, I don’t need to post it here and attract his kind to it via a Google search) is causing trouble already over Brandon agreeing to post articles here via a certain online forum that that “idiot” doesn’t own or control. I wonder how people like “idiot” manage not to get his face shot off or his stomach stabbed by someone he has screwed over but evidently he is still alive and kicking.