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The vast majority of Porn Valley performers are destined for the industry standard of an extremely short career

 

 

Brooke Tyler
Brooke Tyler

By Brooke Tyler at www.Brooketyler.com

It’s that time in the year for the adult award shows to fill up my inbox on why I should attend, according to them, with what will be the biggest and most amazing show yet. They want me to vote. I have found that they are giving me five chances to vote on my favorite Porn Star, or better yet, I can spread them around. Sounds like an accurate system to me. I am trying to think of a few porn stars, and I am drawing a blank I can think of a bunch of performers, most not because of their porn performance, but because they have a zillion tattoos, or they did something beyond stupid. I thought myself of all people should know some porn stars. The last one I can think of, though I was never a giant fan, is Jesse Jane, and she has all but disappeared. I have seen some names mentioned in previous posts, but until I was actually reminded of them, they were not in my thoughts of people who are porn stars. I am thinking maybe I am the one out of the loop here. I wanted to be sure so I thought I would ask 15 separate guys whom I have never met before to name the most current porn star they know. I had a hard time finding 15 guys who would answer and really the only ones that would talk to me seemed to be under the age of 30. It seems the older fellows are either shy or apparently don’t watch porn. I asked seven guys in the Wellington Mall, five guys at Flannigans (a restaurant/bar) and three guys in South Beach. These are the questions I asked each one.
I was going to originally going to ask 30 guys but it started getting weird so I cut it back to 15.
1. Name your favorite current porn star. The results were:

(6) I don’t know, or they were unable to pinpoint exactly which Jenna or Alysha and so on that they were trying to name. (2) Shyla Stylez, (1) Amy Anderson, (1) Bonnie Rotten, (1) Wifey-to which he stated he didn’t know her name but was a member of her website wifeysworld.com, (1) Lela Star, (1) Ava Addams (1) Audri Bitoni, (1) Barbi Sinclair.
2. Have you bought any DVD’s starring them or joined their individual websites? The results were:
There were a resounding 12 no’s and a pittance of 3 yes’s. The yes votes were for Amy Anderson, Barbi Sinclair, and Wifey. All three joined the respective talent’s website. As a side note two of the three belonged to other pay sites. One belonged to Brazzers and the other revealed he paid a membership to PornHub…something I didn’t even know you could do? The third said he had bought a DVD from Wifey’s store before he joined.
4. Where do you watch your favorite performers? The results were:

(3) said they watched them on the talent’s website for which they paid, (2) said PornHub and said they would not pay, (3) specifically said tube sites but failed to name which one and also said they wouldn’t pay, (7) didn’t even know, but all basically said they just searched the web until they found what they wanted. None of the seven paid or said they would.
The answers were all over the board. Bonnie Rotten being the only prevalent name in which I would say currently has some merit for being a star of porn. I am sure the others have their followings, but they are not names whom the general porn public is demanding to see. What is interesting is that out of all 15 people, the only people willing to pay for content paid for talent who doesn’t travel to the Porn Valley much at all. In contrast, all the performers who make their career, for the most part, in the Porn Valley had no paying customers. If you dig deeper into this, you find that Amy Anderson, Barbi Sinclair, and Wifey, hardly have a presence on the tube sites (PornHub being the only tube I checked) but all the rest are saturated with some having 15 pages of more of free content. Check it out for yourself…I am pretty sure you will find exactly the same thing. I wouldn’t count this as science, but it does say something.
In my opinion, it says stay out of LA if you’re a performer. I would argue that the opportunities are now pretty much outside of California. If you or the performers think that Porn Valley is the only one capable of producing adult entertainment, then you both are missing a whole galaxy of porn opportunities staring you directly in the face. It’s being made from one end of the US to the other, and it doesn’t stop there…it is being produced across the world. It is as good or better than anything coming out of the valley and more times than not its produced by the talent starring in it. The only problem with this world of smut outside of the Porn Valley is that you have to pay for it. The audacity of those people wanting to be paid is mind boggling yet still they insist on it. It seems the only ones “smart enough” to give it away completely free is the LA based porn industry.
Maybe it’s just me but doesn’t it seem the entire system for performers in Porn Valley is set for failure? There is no career in porn for 99.45 percent of these girls. The talent agencies are really nothing more than walk in Ready Labor outfits with zero benefits. Get in line…perhaps you’ll work…perchance you won’t. Step out of line and voice your concern, to the back of the line with you. For most performers in Porn Valley that’s the reality. The quick paycheck is the nail in the coffin. Used by the agents and producers alike, it is the best career suicide diversion of all time. The talent base in LA has yet to grasp that and also figure out that everything and anything they shoot or will shoot in LA was or is going to be sold, resold, repackaged, resold again and then promptly shipped to the tube sites where the real damage subsequently begins to their careers. Just about every performer who has more than 15 or 20 scenes in LA is so saturated on the tube sites; she is simply not marketable anymore. Why would she be? She is on every tube site a thousand times over…for the low price of free. That kind of saturation can be insurmountable. She gets a few scenes here and there, and before you know it she is doing the million man double anal cream pie followed by an anal toilet brush reaming for $500. The vast majority of Porn Valley performers are destined for the industry standard of an extremely short career that seems to be so popular among them. The good news is that their retirement package ensures that they will always be able to log on to PornHub and watch their own scenes for free in HD…for eternity…resting comfortably knowing they will never be paid another dime for any of it. Perhaps that is why I really don’t know of any “porn stars” right now…just a bunch of talent passing through Porn Valley and landing permanently on Porn Hub. Maybe these other girls…you know the ones who seem to be doing so well outside of Los Angeles…are on to something. I could be wrong.

90420cookie-checkThe vast majority of Porn Valley performers are destined for the industry standard of an extremely short career
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Mike

The vast majority of Porn Valley performers are destined for the industry standard of an extremely short career

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56 Responses

  1. Brooke, I think NAILED it. The real money in this biz for a performer is to keep all of your content. I can think of several internet only performers that WAY WAY passed Jesse Jane’s or Jenna Jameson’s earnings: Wifey, Carol Cox, and Lady Sonia come readily to mind. Its all about managing your exposure, your brand and your content, something Porn Valley has long since abandoned

  2. Several years ago Tim Connely of AVN described the adult industry performers this way, and I think it is an extremely good analogy. Speaking of performers he said,”Essentially they are just day laborers.”

  3. That’s Right Mike;
    All you girls out there listen to Brooke and Mike here.
    Do your own thing now. Fuck waiting for some production company that is going to be going under in 2014( a lot of them) to call you for work. Shoot your own content and with straight std , hiv free dudes please. Thanks!

  4. While I 100% agree that the money is in content, you can’t completely ignore the fact of how much exposure and marketing potential there is for someone starting out either…

    I guess it should also be mentioned that being a part of the “industry” doesn’t have as much stigma associated with it than just being an escort/performer/prostitute/cam girl (or whatever term seems applicable?) who puts videos of themselves having sex with strangers on their respective websites to charge membership fees.

    Let’s be honest here… anyone on earth could do that. Set up a website and find some people to either fuck you, fuck each other or just do solos and that’s about it….. Then it just comes down to marketing.

    What I’m trying to say is that the “industry” and, ultimately, their marketing and distribution methods do have their own advantages as well…

  5. I can see and agree with some of of your points. I would say limit your exposure to LA or otherwise have a healthy mix. However, I think your a bit off base with the anyone on earth thing. That is akin to saying anyone on earth with a copy of quicken can be an accountant. We both know that won’t work. It’s the same thing with running an adult website, it’s just not that easy. If it was, every performer would have a site that they built, they own, and they maintain. A very small amount of performers are in that position.

  6. I hope you didn’t take my comment the wrong way? I wasn’t implying it was EASY. I was just stating the obvious fact that anyone can film themselves having sex and then throw it up on a website. If they didn’t feel like building the site themselves then they could just hire someone to do it for them..

    Being an Accountant is really just a term used to describe someone who practices accounting in a professional environment who successfully completed a course of education required to become an Accountant. For CPA’s, they’re required to abide by certain rules and ethical procedures.
    But, I would say the same thing about Accountants: anyone could be an Accountant.

    The only difference is that you have to go to school and complete a wide variety of criteria in order to be an Accountant. Whereas, everyone on earth over the age of maybe 12 knows how to have sex. It’s the exact reason there’s so much amateur porn out there… because anyone can do it. I could realistically have a website built and a sex scene or 2 put up by tomorrow if I wanted to go that route. Call my friend to quickly build a basic website for me, hire a few escorts online, have sex, some editing and you’re done.

    Which is why the MAIN factor in whether you’re successful or not is through marketing and exposure. Anyone can do it, but can you get other people to watch it? That’s basically the only question.

    Maybe I’m missing something? I completely understand the Quicken/Accountant example. But, it’s almost the same as saying anyone can build a website, but you must know how to use a camera and have sex to have your own sex site.. uh, almost everyone on earth knows how to use a camera and have sex. It’s not really that difficult.

    Are you referring to the maintenance part of the site? Maybe I’m just confused or I envision it being much simpler than it actually is? I mean running a website can be time consuming, but that’s THE key to marketing your product in today’s world.

  7. You actually are missing quite a bit. Approximately all of it to be honest. I’m not sure why your intentionally over simplifying it. Not something I have seen you do before. If it’s that easy, then get your camera, hire the escorts and get on it. Let me know how that works out. Particularly, the hire the escort part. Being an escort myself, I want to hear how that conversation goes down :-))

  8. Gee why don’t you say how you really feel Brooke? lmao…. Running a website and living well off it is not easy at all. It’s a full time job! You need to know a lot about a lot of different things, and wear a lot of different hats. There are so many porn sites out there, I have no idea of the actual number, but it’s huge. How many of them are successful? A handful? Web girls are in it for the long haul, we see the end game, not just a quick buck. The content that we we shoot and OWN will be paying us this week, next week, next month, next year and several years from now. We are not a “flash in the pan”. Thanks for starting this conversation Brooke!

  11. Yes Vicky does, but in Lacey’s defense she thinkss what an awful lot of people think who have never tried to do it. Yes anyone can have sex…the genius is being able to sell it…specially these days hres just a few of the things a person must know pretty damn well to make any money at all on a site

    Photography and videography, including lighting
    Internet Marketing…building the site is easy, by comparison but a site is a lot like opening a store on earth sure theres 8 BILLION people but if you open your store in middle of the sahara desert how many of them are gonna come look at it? getting people to come TO your site is the hard part

    you also gotta be able to build the site
    have some sense of fashion hair and make up
    you better know how to analyze your traffic and even more how to analyze your content for what sells and what doesnt
    you also better be able to find your content when it gets stolen and know the legaleeze to get it removed from the tube sites and what not.

    and ya gotta have some degree of bedside manner cuz yer gonna be dealing with a LOT of people, most of whom are idiots trying to scam you in some way or another but a few of whom will be very helpful…

    if you think you can do it in 40 hrs a week…yer dreaming

    thats why most successfuly sites like wifeysworld and carol cox have at least TWO very dedicated people who have complimentary sets of these skills.

    I aint baggin on Lacey…I love her to death, just pointing out that most people think like she did before she read all this šŸ˜‰

  12. You may not realize it, but you are both proving my point quite well… LOL!! Please don’t take my comments as some sort of personal attack. I promise they’re not.

    Let me back up for a minute and see if I can explain this better:
    I’m an Accountant. Not only that, but I’m a self-employed Accountant. I, probably more than most people, know exactly how hard it is to run ANY business. I work with business owners everyday in various different industries. I’ve seen businesses succeed and businesses fail from the inside.

    With that said, when it comes to opening and/or running businesses I DO have a general tendency to over simplify things. It’s based purely on the fact that my entire job revolves around knowing how businesses and/or industries run….

    As has been stated, porn/escorting/having sex on camera for money or however you wish to call it is widespread. Primarily, because the act of having sex, keeping “open” for the camera, etc. and taping it is not that difficult. Everyone on earth has sex (ok, almost everyone.) It’s not some kind of acquired skill. Experience is definitely a plus, but most people looking to quickly jerk off aren’t all that picky.

    Which brings me to marketing and exposure. It’s the foundation of any “porn star” or performer. It is exactly what will make or break a career.

    If there’s one aspect of business that I know the least amount of it’s marketing. I don’t like selling shit. I never have… I also don’t need to most of the time. People normally don’t look up accountants in the phone book. It’s a very word-of-mouth or reputation based business which means I very rarely have to publicly market myself.

    Which brings me to my point: Adult performers are some of the best marketers I’ve seen. Seriously. You have to be good to be able to sell something that anyone can do or see for free. It’s what I admire the most about the adult industry: The ability to sell something in a cutthroat, hardcore, extremely open market where anyone and everyone could potentially make money. It’s something that I don’t think I could ever do, but then I really have no experience in the marketing world either…

    The fact is when I hear the word “porn performer,” I don’t necessarily think of someone who is an expert at having sex or using a camera. There are TONS of sex experts out there and most of them aren’t necessarily in porn. But, the one thing that does enter my mind is marketing and brand management. That’s what makes certain adult sites stand out from the rest so that’s sort of how I view certain performers “within” the industry… as individual marketing campaigns in a general sense…

    My point wasn’t to somehow offend you or your decisions about opening up a business or implying the entire process is so easy. But, the simple fact is that opening up and running businesses does seem, in a sense, easy to me just because I deal with so many different business structures on an everyday basis. I fully admit that I oversimplify it which may seem offensive, but I can assure you It’s purely out of habit and not because I’m trying to offend you or discredit your hard work. I just view things from a different perspective, I guess?

    Does that more sense? I sure fucking hope so because I don’t know how else to explain it????
    Haha. šŸ™‚

  14. Billy, thats something isn’t it? Exactly what I was thinking but I thought I heard the tubes were buying content now for like next to nothing…don’t hold me to that though…I’m not sure on it.

  15. You are correct Brooke and that has been one of the dumbest things this industry has done and it predates the internet. Somehow porn people got it in their heads that 3 month old content no longer had value and they would whore out masters for next to nothing to be used in “comps” and sell through product. This carried over to the internet and many companies have sold “tube rights” to pornhub and others for next to nothing…seriously often less than 100 bucks for the full rights to an entire DVD…Now you and I know that dilutes the value of all of their products MASSIVELY Thats why we have better sense, we tightly control and monetize that content forever but most of the companies in Porn Valley dont have that good sense they will take ten dollars today instead of 25 cents everyday for a year

  16. “Yes Vicky does, but in Laceyā€™s defense she thinkss what an awful lot of people think who have never tried to do it.”

    “I aint baggin on Laceyā€¦I love her to death, just pointing out that most people think like she did before she read all this.”

    Oh, come on Mike, can’t you at least give me a little credit here? I, along with many family members, are in SAG/AFTRA dealing with cameras, productions, stunts, lighting, videography, editing, hair, makeup, copyrights all the way to, literally, blowing shit up and lighting people on fucking fire… I think that qualifies me to know just a little about how an adult site is run… It takes hard work and long hours just like almost every business on earth.

    What exactly have I said that would imply I underestimated or misunderstood the technicalities of how adult sites are run?

    “Yes anyone can have sexā€¦the genius is being able to sell itā€¦”

    ^^^THAT was my exact point. Did I miss something or was my explanation overly detailed? wtf?

  17. @BrookeTyler –
    I apologize for intruding on your article, but please don’t dismiss me like I’m a 5 year old. You don’t agree with me or you don’t like my opinions or you think I’m some snobby brat… no problem.

    But, there’s no need to be condescending. I’m a big girl. Just tell me to shut the fuck up or something.. We’ve been through this before.. I was just trying to join the discussion because I liked the premise. It obviously didn’t work. Oh well. Good luck with your site.

  19. @Lacy I simply would not do that to you nor would I tell you to shut the fuck up unless I thought you were not worth the time of a response. With that said, I have never told you to shut the fuck up.

  20. There is a reason that not every porn performer owns their own website and content. Brooke and Mike both mentioned it. It takes long hours and hard work to build and market yourself . That is why the majority of porn performers are not successfull. Long hours and hard work are not in the bag of tricks of MOST porn performers.

  21. For a female performer your best bet is to shoot a few scenes (no anal, no swallow, no multiple guys, no IR, just solo or hj/fj/gg/bg) to gain a following and some webcam.

    Once you have done that, start doing your own thing. It is much easier for female talent than male talent. And you can always start off on a clip site until you are ready to move on.

    Sitting on set for 12 hours with limp dicks, gay4pay performers, improperly tested talent, all just for a quick check on content that you will never own again is not worth it.

    When my wife was pregnant, I had her shoot pregnant content but 0 lactating content except for our stuff. The other companies marketed her as well as her pregnancy and I just filmed and uploaded.

    The day of “porn star” and big paychecks is basically over. You don’t need to have an expensive camera, be an editor, web designer, or anything. There are at least 3 sites I can think of that will even pay you just for “shot at home” content.

    The hardest part is marketing and not becoming overly saturated on free sites BUT that means nothing if you have the personality of a cup of water.

    I see plenty of popular models who are extremely ugly, don’t have sex at all, or their quality is just shit. But they are making money. Take a look at an escort or dancer. Why do some semi attractive girls make so much more than girls far better looking?

    Personality and the ability to sell their selves. Period. For those that cannot, they can live a short career shooting for all the companies until you see them in the inevitable “blacks on whites 20 guy anal creampie gangbang”.

    The guys who buy content buy it for the scripts (bangbus/brazzers/milfhunter) the guys not buying it are buying it to bust a nut (have sex, point camera, film)

    As easy as it seems to “do you own thing” and at first it might, there is a lot that goes into it, and you will need new ideas and scenarios. Any model that has ever shot for Brazzers can tell you (Brazzers, not mofos, mygf and etc sites), the script is big and detailed just for their DAILY shoots, we are not talking feature films.

  22. Brooke Ty for the well written insights!

    Given the pay-scale to give up rights to your performance after paying for monthly testing and medications to treat (as jilted would say) P & J etc along with the unknowns of the highly competitive internet it seems like waiting tables could be more lucrative.

    This is the exact reason pursuing a career in porn is just that…pursuing and chasing goals to get the paycheck. There is no security or easy street like landing the dream job most college graduates pursue when HIV can end it all if you haven’t developed that internet following with content you own.

    Let me repeat what I have said before…I have no clue how to make a movie! Nor harbor delusions that knowing my way around camera lenses, f stops, depth of field and portraiture lighting will get me very far to making a video or setting up a cam etc. The ability to discern ok, decent, good, and outstanding camera work is nice, so is appreciating vocals and music. This doesn’t mean you’ll catch me in public singing acapella or playing the Harp (yes I learned and played off Broadway too long ago to even think about strumming again šŸ™‚

    As an “outsider” it gives me freedom to appreciate what you do without the petty jealousy of competition. Using the mainstream example of waiting tables…too many people who eat at a restaurant think that because they can serve a meal at home they can do it better. Waitstaff who come in looking for the paycheck go home broke, those who come to work make two to three times what others do. Counting their cash through the night crying and moaning the hostess hates them and won’t seat them are clueless…hosts aren’t playing favorites they are doing their job by putting waiting customers where the seats are happening.

    It’s easy see why those looking for a quick or easy buck in porn get rotated out quickly. The lack of work ethic with self entitlement is evident, doing the bare minimum expecting the big check. They cry and talk shit about how so and so didn’t deserve the break or opportunity instead of seeing that so and so did more than show up and look pretty. Refusing to see that while bitching they aren’t learning or working with people to create revenue streams for the down times so they don’t have to worry about the rent. (If my assumptions made an ass out of me, please inform me and forgive my ignorance vs take offense šŸ™‚

  23. Lukingreader said, “I have no idea how to make a movie.”
    That means you have at least one thing in common with the majority of people who call themselves directors and producers in the porn industry.

  24. I have to admit it’s been my experience that more talent than not only go for the fast check. Anything that takes time to accomplish certainly isn’t on their radar of things to do that day irregardless if it might pay off in the future.

  25. @Brooke Tayler A girl that isn’t with any of those LATATA agency out here in LA asked me Brooke if you know of any of those Website companies that do fianacing for talent websites?

    I can only think of one Robbie Boyettes and of course Nina Mercedez’s.
    Do you know any other Brooke?

  28. That is a whole other problem in the industry. Someone new trying to get solid info is in for a surprise. Apparently most things in the adult industry are top secret.

  29. Why nobody ever point out the fact that the majority of performers, females especially but not only, have no freaking desire and passion to work in porn? Yes, shortsighted producers give them a job. But to me it is no surprise that most girls career is short: they do not fucking like it for a start. Sorry, but period.

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