Adult Site Broker Talk Episode 154 with Aerie Saunders of Sex Worker Sites and IGF Studios

Speaker 1 (0s): This is Bruce Friedman of Adult Site Broker and welcome to Adult Site Broker Talk, where each week we interview one of the movers and shakers of the adult industry, and we give you a tip on buying and selling websites. This week we'll be speaking with Aerie Saunders of Sex Worker Sites and I G F Studios. At Adult Site Broker we've doubled our affiliate payouts on ASB Cash.

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Now you can get information on B2B events on our website, as well as special discounts reserved for our clients. Go to adultsitebroker.com for more details. Now let's feature our property of the week that's for sale at Adult Site Broker. We're proud to offer a gay blog that's been in business for over 12 years. The blog highlights new talent in the gay space, gay porn news, mainstream gossip, and adjust for fun section. The members area has lots of gay content you won't find in the free content area.

The site only takes 25 hours a week to maintain. The monthly costs are minimal, so the site is very profitable. There's an email list of over 29,000 and the site has over 165,000 social media followers. It has great potential for growth if it's purchased by a larger company or a small one where the owner will put in a little more time. There are over 600 member posts, including videos and images. The traffic is all organic, direct and social media.

No ads have been purchased, so there's great potential for growth if the owner invests in advertising users come primarily from the usa, the UK and Australia, only $450,000. Now time for this week's interview. My guest today on Adult Site Broker talk is a Saunders. Ari, thanks for being back with us again on Adult Site Broker Talk. That makes four times. Now you're brave.

Speaker 2 (2m 44s): Well, you're just one of my favorite people. You know, I've gotta show up. I gotta get that time in with you.

Speaker 1 (2m 50s): Likewise, likewise. Maybe one of these days we actually can meet in person. That's, that's the funny part. Good

Speaker 2 (2m 56s): Luck getting me outta my house.

Speaker 1 (2m 58s): This is, I guess I have to go there. Okay, we'll tell everyone about you. Aria's a 26 year old adult entertainer and entrepreneur. She's worked on many projects over her eight years in the industry, while the bread and butter of her operation has always been performing as a webcam model and content creator. She also has a passion for web development and design. We'll talk more about that later. Adult industry advocacy, blogging, mentorship, and promotional material design. That's a mouthful. You may recognize your name from projects including Webcam Startup, the Cam Land Podcast, adult Model Mentors, and W C S U News.

Her latest ventures are working for IGF Studios as a mentor and manager, as well as her own new project. Yes, another new one. Sex Worker Sites. She's also been nominated for a number of awards. For more information, you can go to her website, r a Saunders, and let me spell that. A E r i e S A U N D E R s.com. IGF Studios was founded by adult industry veteran Lydia Love and centers around her experience on the adult webcam vertical, which allowed her to achieve financial and social success.

Lydia created IGF Studios with one simple idea, wanting to prevent models from making the same mistake she made in her early career and give them the knowledge she did not have access to. With this motivation in mind, Lydia created a strong team of people, including Ari and Lydia's assistant Ashley. They've generated many resources and tools as a team to create a positive and uplifting environment for new or seasoned webcam models. IGF Studios was curated to provide every performer and potential model with the opportunity to transition from a cam novice to a cam star sex workers' sites was a passion project started by Ari, who wanted to take he self-taught experience developing websites and implement it into a cost effective and convenient way to provide fellow sex workers with the ability to have their own websites.

In light of the recent spike in social media censorship and everyone should have their own website as a blogger herself, she also recognizes the immense value and importance of search engine optimization and how owning the search results for your personal brand can help limit the viewership of pirate websites and better connect you with your audience. So Ari, let's start with sex worker sites. I know you love web development and design, but is that your only inspiration for launching sex worker sites, or is there more?

Speaker 2 (5m 37s): There's definitely more. I also wanna apologize for giving you that mouthful to say, oh my goodness, you must be out of breath. But anyway, I'm,

Speaker 1 (5m 46s): I know I'm not just outta breath, I'm tired.

Speaker 2 (5m 50s): So my main motivation for getting started with sex worker sites is the fact that recently there's been a lot of de platforming and censorship of sex workers on social media and most internet platforms in general, whether it's an app on your phone, something you log into on the computer, if you look at the community guidelines or terms of service, there's usually something sneaky in there that tries to prohibit sex workers from utilizing these platforms, whether it's for promoting themselves or simply just existing on the platforms.

Speaker 1 (6m 24s): Right?

Speaker 2 (6m 25s): So having your own website is super important because at any given time you could have your social media taken away, you could have, you know, somewhere where you're connecting with customers taken away from you with your own website. That doesn't happen. It doesn't just disappear out from under you.

Speaker 1 (6m 43s): Right, right. So I browsed the site and saw you do more than just website builds. Can you tell me more about the other services you offer?

Speaker 2 (6m 53s): Sure, thanks. So I offer a ton of different ways to promote yourself from Twitch overlays, stream overlays, graphic designs for promoting sales you have going on, new content releases, chatter bait, night flirt profiles, pretty much everything that is pretty and glitzy and that you would want to look upscale for your sites is something that I offer. I'm very experienced, I'm self-taught, and I've always made my own content for promotion.

So it's something that I put a lot of heart and time into and it's something that I've always genuinely enjoyed doing.

Speaker 1 (7m 31s): So you're self-taught, nobody told you how to do it, you didn't take any classes or anything?

Speaker 2 (7m 38s): Nope. Everything I've learned is Googling YouTube videos and my background. When I was younger, I had a Tumblr page and I would design my own theme from my Tumblr page on like a semi-regular basis. So I literally learned how to do H T M L coding from just years of doing that.

Speaker 1 (7m 57s): You got one over me. I keep saying I'm gonna take an H T M L course, but now with AI I don't even need to, so hey, I go the lazy way. There must have been a lot of trial and error over the years in learning to do it yourself.

Speaker 2 (8m 13s): Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I, I break things all the time, but then I don't give up until I also fix things. So it's something that, you know, as a self-taught person, it can be frustrating at times, but also once I've mastered something, it's just a great thing to add under my belt. I mean, when I first started offering websites, I could pretty much only make a basic layout and now I'm at the point where I can build a cryptocurrency video storefront, like it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (8m 44s): So this is interesting because on one hand you're a content creator, so that is normally a personality that's very outgoing and out there and talking to the, you know, to the users and doing cams and doing all that. But on the other hand, you're a tech person and you're behind the scenes and those people are usually very introverted. So tell me about that.

Speaker 2 (9m 13s): So I in real life am an introvert, but online I'm an extrovert and I think that has worked really well, especially with the current environment of the internet. People love nerdy girls. Tech is so popular right now. People love tech. I mean, people are starting to stream from home with the frequency at which, like if you go to five below, they have streamer kits that you can get for $5 now. Hmm. So it's something that's becoming a household thing and just being able to bring my own personality and spin to it with all of the things and the business to business experience that I have and my interest in general is so much fun.

And like if you see me in real life, I spend most of my time in pajamas. I wear glasses, I always have my headset on, like I'm a, I'm a big old nerd. I will be a hundred percent honest with you, but I have that alter personality that is hot and feels like being hot. And when she wants to be hot, we get on cam.

Speaker 1 (10m 14s): That's interesting. So what is what, what is a streaming package? You got me on that one.

Speaker 2 (10m 22s): So the common things that you can get right now are like ring lights and tripods and all sorts of just different things to help you make your setup look a little more professional.

Speaker 1 (10m 33s): Interesting.

Speaker 2 (10m 34s): Yeah. You can get these packages like on Amazon at five below. Sometimes even like Walmart will have them, they just like make these cute little things. Sometimes they put backdrops in there, but yeah, it's just supposed to help you make your stream set up or content recording set up look more professional.

Speaker 1 (10m 52s): Yeah, I gotta do, I gotta do some of that for some of my, like when I do Google meet and Zoom calls, I see people with cool backgrounds, but I just know nothing about tech, so I, I'm gonna need your help on that. So what about ai? Obviously AI is like all the thing right now. Are you learning ai? Are you utilizing ai?

Speaker 2 (11m 17s): I'm currently utilizing AI for small tasks. AI is still at a point where it's still exclusionary to the adult industry. Like chat G B T will not allow you to make requests for like domain suggestions if it's relevant to the adult industry. So it's kind of, it's tricky with AI in the adult industry. There is a place for it and there are some programs that you can even use just for fun. Like I used one today that looked at my Twitter profile and made me a rap about myself, a new like detailed bio about myself.

So that was cool, but I don't use it in a professional capacity yet. As much as I just use it for entertainment.

Speaker 1 (12m 1s): You know, I heard today as we, as we record this towards the end of April, that Elon Musk now owns the domain and he also registered a company X ai.

Speaker 2 (12m 15s): That's exciting but scary because I don't love what he's done with Twitter.

Speaker 1 (12m 21s): Elon Musk is scary.

Speaker 2 (12m 23s): He has a lot of power and a lot of big ideas and I just hope he has a team that has the moral upstanding to guide him in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (12m 31s): Yeah, I don't know about that, but he's, I just think the man's nuts. He's brilliant, but he's nuts. So what is your favorite part about designing websites specifically for sex workers?

Speaker 2 (12m 46s): My favorite part about it is getting to help sex workers express their true self. Because a lot of the websites that we currently use don't offer a lot of customization. So being able to portray your own personality through your own website is huge in making a connection with your customer and allowing them to see into what it is you're looking to offer and who you are as a person a little bit more. And as we know with sex work and camming content creation in general, a big selling point is being unique and having your own personality.

So giving yourself the space to advertise that is something that's super important.

Speaker 1 (13m 26s): Do you find yourself giving counseling to some of your website clients about that?

Speaker 2 (13m 33s): Oh yeah. I, I always dive into like, hey, do you have a list of keywords that you used to describe yourself? And if you don't, why not? Let's brainstorm. I am obsessed with helping people identify their personality because obviously you can go for a minimalistic website and it will get the point across and have all the information that you need, but even tiny little creative flares like your favorite color or little tidbits of information about you can make something so much more personal.

Speaker 1 (14m 3s): Right. You know, I went to a saunders.com and I, I hadn't been to your website before actually, which is amazing and I was quite impressed actually. And I was looking at all the categories that you cover and I mean, tell me about the process of putting that together.

Speaker 2 (14m 25s): That's funny you mentioned that. I literally just took a few hours the other day to redo my website because I had it, I had a completely different website set up before, but I didn't like it. I didn't feel like it fit my vibe. Right now I'm feeling more goth and dommy right now, so I made my website black. But yeah, I used to have like a bubbly pink and blue kind of website. But yeah, throwing that together was, for me, it's very easy because obviously I've been doing this for years now. It's something I just log on and I have a goal in mind, but it just comes to me naturally.

There's no secret sauce or anything. I just open it and I know what I wanna do and I do it.

Speaker 1 (15m 2s): Talk about what's on the website.

Speaker 2 (15m 4s): Oh goodness. So on my website personally, I have my smallest package on my website right now. So it's what sex worker sites offers for $85 on lifetime hosting. So it's basically just pictures of me, some information about me. I have little advertisements for things that I want to really promote on the side, a signup section for my newsletter, a list of other projects that I'm working on, and then all of my links to all of the adult sites that I'm on a little section to send me gifts or shop my wishlist, stuff like that.

And then a section for ordering custom content. And then at the top of my website, since everybody's social media hungry, I have all of my social media links.

Speaker 1 (15m 50s): How often do you remake it?

Speaker 2 (15m 53s): Honestly, whenever I feel like there's a massive change in my vibe and personality, I will hop on there and change it. I would say I probably do it like four to six times a year, which is a little too much. I should really slow down, but sometimes I want something more complex and sometimes I like it simple.

Speaker 1 (16m 10s): So basically it's based on your mood?

Speaker 2 (16m 12s): Yeah, whenever I don't have an ongoing website project happening, I'm like, all right, time to tinker with mine.

Speaker 1 (16m 20s): You just better make sure that when people go to it, they're not like, oh no, this isn't the right site.

Speaker 2 (16m 25s): Hey, I always have a maintenance page if I mess with it.

Speaker 1 (16m 29s): Okay. So how many websites have you designed since launching Sex Worker Sites in September of 22? And talk about some of the highlights.

Speaker 2 (16m 39s): I think I'm at 16 now. I have worked on quite a few websites. Some of my favorite ones, I created a cryptocurrency storefront for someone where they can sell videos, photo sets, tangible items, just different stuff like that. And the cool thing about the cryptocurrency plugin that I'm utilizing is it automatically runs a check to make sure the transaction was made. So it's very streamlined and it just goes straight to your crypto wallet and then delivers on the WordPress end if it goes through.

So it's super convenient. And just seeing that in action and seeing somebody able to take payments basically, you know, uncensored and no concerns about like credit card processing rules and stuff like that was super, super awesome. It was definitely a passion project for me.

Speaker 1 (17m 32s): Talk about the whole idea of crypto. Obviously crypto has been more than volatile lately and it's used a lot in the adult industry for obvious reasons. What do you think the future is for crypto and adult or the future for crypto period?

Speaker 2 (17m 51s): I think with the limitations on cryptocurrency worldwide, it's becoming less viable as an alternative payment method, unfortunately because there's been so much cracking down. But for people who live in countries where it is still a viable option, it is definitely worth looking into, especially if you cater to fetishes because as these credit card companies continue to crack down and make their rules more and more intense and continue to censor certain fetishes and niches, you're going to want a way to still sell to that client base.

The client base doesn't go away just because a keyword gets banned, they're still there. You just need to find a way to market that content to them. And obviously I'm talking about things that are morally sound but not necessarily sound in eyes of credit card companies. Obviously some of the negatives are you can use crypto for bad things, but you shouldn't. And that's just from, you know, a moral standpoint.

Speaker 1 (18m 50s): No, that's very true. But I mean, do you think crypto will continue to be viable?

Speaker 2 (18m 56s): I hope so. I know that a lot of countries have been cracking down on it. A lot of Asian countries in particular have been cracking down on cryptocurrency. But yeah, hopefully it stays viable in the us I think as long as people continue to claim their taxes on cryptocurrency that it won't become a huge issue. But it's just another one of those situations where with everything that you take money for online, cash out as soon as you can and get it, you know, real money in your hand.

Speaker 1 (19m 29s): Yeah, but I think that it's just, it's so difficult for governments to track it and get all their taxes on something like that, that it really comes down to the honor system. And then the question is, are people being honest?

Speaker 2 (19m 45s): Well we could have a whole second podcast about how I feel about taxes in the government, but I think if you want a crypto storefront right now, it's not a bad time to do it. And actually I feel like cryptocurrency was more volatile previously than it is currently. I think it definitely has hit a more comfortable point as far as accepting payments and knowing that you're not gonna lose too much or gain too much on it. Obviously we wanna gain, but you know, you're more likely to not take a loss at this point.

Speaker 1 (20m 17s): Yeah, it's not going up and down 30, 40% a day. It's staying fairly stable within five points say.

Speaker 2 (20m 26s): Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (20m 28s): Okay, so what does the price point of a website built by you look like at this point?

Speaker 2 (20m 35s): So it starts at $85 and that's my lowest low plan. If you look@asaunders.com actually you'll get to see what $85 will get you and it also includes lifetime hosting on my server. Depending on the complexity of your site, it can scale. I've never charged more than a thousand dollars for a site. I'm sure if somebody brought me a crazy project that would take me hours and hours, you know, I could find a way to charge a thousand for one. But I love doing it, so I, I haven't gotten to that point where I've ever charged someone out the ass for a website yet.

I just, it's something I enjoy doing. So you definitely get a more discounted version of what you would pay most other website designers just because I have fun. Like if you have fun at work, you get a little happier just doing it. So I'm more than willing to accept less for it.

Speaker 1 (21m 32s): You know, Ari, one of the things I really, really admire about you is that everything you've done, everything we've talked about, this is our fourth time doing a podcast, is that it's always about helping, it's always about mentoring, it's always about giving suggestions. Tell me about that and you know why you are that way and what made you start to want to give back?

Speaker 2 (22m 5s): Well, when I first got started Webcaming, I was clueless. I didn't know that they didn't take the taxes out of what they pay you. Like I literally had no idea what was going on. And I mean I started fresh at 18, so if that gives you any indication, it was three days after my 18th birthday. I was as stupid as stupid comes. So basically when I first got started, I had a group of people that found me on Cam and one of these customers that became my regular at the time was like, if you have any questions, I'm friends with this other CAM model and I'm sure she'd be willing to help you.

So I actually reached out to her and she sent me a huge long email answering my questions and was just, anytime I needed something I could send her a message and she'd reply very quickly. And then I realized that that's something that people don't have access to cuz a lot of people are kind of just mean. Like she didn't have to do that for me. I wasn't paying her, I wasn't providing her anything, she was doing it to be kind. And that made a big impression on me and I realized it doesn't take that much extra time out of my day to do what I do with the idea that kindness is at the base of it.

So even for things that you know, I have to charge for, obviously like websites because hosting and domains and all of that costs money, I still wanna make sure that I'm doing it out of kindness and doing it at a rate that I feel like is fair because I just wanna be able to provide a service that I can be proud of and I wouldn't be proud of my service if I was just doing it out of greed. I want to do something that I know is making a positive impact.

Speaker 1 (23m 46s): Okay. Tell me about adult Model Mentors. Is that still a thing and how's that going?

Speaker 2 (23m 54s): That is still a thing. Me, Katie are kind of on hiatus right now because exciting news here, we got offered a sponsored podcast on many of it. It actually starts on April 23rd. Nice. So a few days,

Speaker 1 (24m 7s): It'll have already started when we run this found mention that, yeah,

Speaker 2 (24m 11s): It runs for two months. I believe we're doing eight episodes biweekly on Sundays. But yeah, it is still very much a thing and we're looking to allocate more time to it. But obviously, you know, me and Katie have 47 million projects going on at any given time, but she is still offering active consultations. I am as well and we're looking to put more time into our blog shortly. We just gotta get over this hump of planning our podcast.

Speaker 1 (24m 38s): Well you keep starting new projects.

Speaker 2 (24m 42s): I've also, I love blogging, don't get me wrong, right. But sometimes it's a little hard for me to like sit down and think of topics to write about because I can do it in podcast form or video form or like hold a meeting with the studio that we'll be talking about in a little bit. So I've gotten very much into just talking instead of typing and that's my bad, but I need to work on that.

Speaker 1 (25m 6s): Yeah, I, I hire writers so it makes it a little easier for me. Although I do have ideas about topics and I, a lot of our blog posts are topics that I've come up with, but I've got an SEO team that pretty much handles that and it's one of the reasons our SEO is so good because I'm not doing it. So is there a team of designers at sex worker sites or is it just you?

Speaker 2 (25m 33s): It is just me. Almost every project I do is typically just me in unless I announce there's somebody else. And the only people that I've ever really worked with closely for a long period of time is Katie Churchill, who you've heard me on here with previously. And then now I'm working with Lydia Love and those are, those are my ride or dies. But for the most part I do everything on my lonesome because I have, first of all, I have a strange schedule. I stay up very late into the night and I can't expect anybody else to do that for me.

But also I just feel I'm more productive when I have an idea in mind and I'm not delegating tasks to people and I'm just able to do it myself on my own timeline. But in the future, if you know the site scaled dramatically and I found someone with the same morals and belief system that I have and they wanted to design websites with sex worker sites, it's not something that I would ignore. It's something I'd definitely be interested in chatting more about, but as of right now it is just me.

Speaker 1 (26m 37s): Most developers generally are night owls I find.

Speaker 2 (26m 42s): Yeah, probably we drink too much caffeine.

Speaker 1 (26m 47s): Tell me about it. Yeah, well I'm glad you're available evenings because being in Thailand it makes it really good for my schedule, so I appreciate it Ari. So how can performers that are interested in getting a website built by sex worker sites get in touch with you?

Speaker 2 (27m 5s): You can head over to sex worker sites.com and there's two different sections for getting in touch with us. Depending on what you're looking for, if you're looking for graphic content, you'll be able to find the page and contact form for that. And if you wanna order a website, you'll also find a website ordering form where you fill out all of the important information and contact me about that as well. It all goes straight to my email and I usually don't take long to get back to you.

Speaker 1 (27m 31s): And then what do you do? Do you do a consultation with them?

Speaker 2 (27m 34s): Typically I just do an email consultation where I go back and forth and iron out the details. If it's something that they're very particular about, I am available to hop on video or audio calls. I've never had anybody that's been in like a rush to hop on a video or audio call. But yeah, usually we iron it out through email. I have a document that explains literally everything I need for you, so there's no questions. It's very straightforward.

Speaker 1 (28m 0s): Very good. So onto IGF Studios, since we know you think Sleep is for sissies, can you tell me more about the studio you're supposed to laugh and how you got involved?

Speaker 2 (28m 13s): So IGF Studios is run by somebody who I've respected in the industry for many years. I was only in the industry for about a year when she first started and that's Lydia Love. She is somebody who has made a fantastic name for herself, has been involved in a lot of different projects and is somebody that just I genuinely vibe with. I enjoy the energy that she puts out, I enjoy the things that she does, the things that she says. And she actually approached me about getting started with the studio and I couldn't turn her down because she's, she's legit, she's the best.

I think we have a lot in common and I just, I love working with her now that I have been.

Speaker 1 (28m 55s): So what's the main benefit for models looking to join IGF Studios?

Speaker 2 (29m 1s): There's so many benefits. The main one probably has to be just the community. We're different from a lot of studios in that we don't try to isolate our models. A lot of people have secrecy within studios and it's something that we don't agree with. We want our models to be able to communicate with each other. We want them to brainstorm together, motivate each other, hype each other up and actually have a community. And in the webcam community you can feel very isolated when you're camping, you're working from home, you, you're maybe not getting out and seeing friends or you know, even seeing sunlight sometimes.

So having that place where you can just chat with a group of like-minded individuals that you know are experiencing the same things that you're experiencing really makes a huge difference.

Speaker 1 (29m 51s): Yeah, I remember talking to the guys at, we Cam Girls, Tristan and Red Girl who I'm sure you know, and they said the reason they started their site was that they talked to someone who was a CAM model and she felt isolated and that's why they got the thing started in the first place. And obviously it's been a big success.

Speaker 2 (30m 12s): Yeah, I think that's the backstory with a lot of information channels and studios and just anything geared towards bringing models together because it can be so isolating and it's not talked about enough. I mean, we do have mental health resources within the adult industry. Shout out Pineapple support. I think they're really awesome, but

Speaker 1 (30m 33s): Big time. It's

Speaker 2 (30m 34s): Not something that is talked about when you first get started. It's not something you anticipate, it's something you learn about over time because you experience it.

Speaker 1 (30m 44s): So what's your job title at IGF Studios and what do you actually do?

Speaker 2 (30m 49s): So I am the staff mentor. I am a studio manager and I am the onboarding manager. So I handle our new hires. I do onboarding, signup, process, video call, interviews. I handle tech support, site support, just trying to troubleshoot any issues that they're experiencing while camming, as well as giving marketing advice, customer retention advice, social media advice and all, all sorts of different advice. You know me, I'm just chockful of it.

Speaker 1 (31m 21s): That's all. Huh?

Speaker 2 (31m 23s): That's all Just a, just a little bit of everything, you know.

Speaker 1 (31m 28s): How has working with IGF Studios benefited you?

Speaker 2 (31m 32s): It's made me feel so complete because it's streamlined the way that I connect with people looking for help. Not that I was struggling before necessarily, but it's a lot harder to get into contact with people looking for specifically CAM assistance when you're just running a blog. But being put in this place where they're anticipating to receive information from me and they know I have the information so if they need it, they come to me has made it so much easier for me to feel like, first of all, I'm being helpful, which is very important to me.

I like to feel like I've helped at least one person every day, but

Speaker 1 (32m 9s): That's nice

Speaker 2 (32m 10s): Also, just having that connection with active cam models has also been great for me. Partially because of the isolation thing, but also because I feel like they motivate me too. Seeing people who are, you know, only a few months into their career, seeing the energy they have, the drive that they have to succeed, it really kinda like activates something in my heart again and it's like, wow, this industry is so awesome because it's providing people with opportunities they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Speaker 1 (32m 38s): That's lovely. What is your message or advice to models considering signing up for a studio?

Speaker 2 (32m 46s): Always look into the studio you're signing up for, if they provide you with documentation, like a contract, read it over. Learn about what sites have different rules about studios. Some studios will not allow you to leave them and then create a new account independently. So always do your research and make sure that you're actually getting benefits that will benefit you long term if you decide to leave, if you decide to change your mind. If you know for some reason you wanna move to a different site, is this something your studio will allow you to do?

Always ask questions, never be scared to ask questions of anybody who's taking a cut of the money that customers are paying to you.

Speaker 1 (33m 31s): Yeah, that's true. And I think people are a little too easygoing about that, aren't they?

Speaker 2 (33m 37s): Oh yeah. I think a lot of people, especially when they're new to the industry, go in blindly. I mean, I've heard horror stories, you know, girls signing up for a studio and having to do a naked video call with the manager, geez. And that's just not how it works. So do your research if you ever have a question, even if you're not gonna sign up for I G F, if you're looking into studios in general, you could always send me a message. I'm more than happy to tell you what is or is not normal in an onboarding process.

But yeah, just be wary, understand that there's a certain level of professionalism. It's not like casting couch that's fantasy. You're never gonna have to do that in real life to get hired by a studio.

Speaker 1 (34m 22s): Have you heard other horror stories?

Speaker 2 (34m 24s): I've heard a good bit of horror stories about studios

Speaker 1 (34m 28s): Feel free.

Speaker 2 (34m 29s): It's mostly just, you know, blackmail, things like that. Sending nude photos, sending nude videos, getting on video calls, withholding money until you send them certain things that you know they should not be expecting you to send them, like nude videos, nude photos. And then it gets even scarier because if you've signed up with their studio, these are people that have access to your legal information so they're, if they want to do things like blackmail you, they can.

And I think that's what makes igs Studios really comfortable too, is it's run by CAM models. It's not some random person behind a PC that you don't know. Like me and Lydia, we exist on the internet, we have a history on the internet. Right. You can, you can find the history of our history and research it to your heart's content.

Speaker 1 (35m 22s): How important is it to work for a studio that has CAM models behind it?

Speaker 2 (35m 30s): I think that it is very important because we're people who understand what you're going through. It's like when you call tech support for a company and you're trying to get help and you can tell they've never even held this device in their life. Like it's not actually helpful when they read from a script. We're not reading from a script. Yeah, like Apple. Yeah, exactly. We don't read from a script. We tell you from what we know, from what we've dealt with firsthand, we're actually like real cam models that have been on these sites.

We know what works, we know what doesn't. We know how things work and if things break, how to fix it and if things malfunction, how to fix that. Like we have done it ourselves. I think there's a great value in relying on information coming from people that have done it themselves and had their hands on what you're having your hands on.

Speaker 1 (36m 26s): Does IGF have plans to expand? And I would imagine bringing in more personnel would mean more CAM models.

Speaker 2 (36m 34s): So we are hiring actively. We have been doing tons of hiring recently, actually I've been super busy, but we do plan to expand in the future. Right now we're just trying to get our model base a little bigger before we expand into other things and we want everybody to be comfortable and on the same page. I mean the studio hasn't even been around for a year yet, but we have done crazy, absolutely unexpected things in just under a year of being up.

So in the future we definitely wanna expand. We're on two sites currently, but we want to get to more. We're just making sure we do everything at the right time so that our models feel like they're getting the best support that they can.

Speaker 1 (37m 19s): What are the sites you're on?

Speaker 2 (37m 21s): We're on streaming and Camp Soda currently.

Speaker 1 (37m 24s): Okay. I figured streaming was one of them. They seem to have their hands in everything, Liz and one of these days Liz will actually accept my invitation to be on the podcast. She,

Speaker 2 (37m 34s): I've talked to Liz today. I love Liz.

Speaker 1 (37m 37s): Everybody loves Liz. I actually finally got a chance to meet her at Ex LA and I'm sure I'll see her at Ex Miami, so if we haven't done our interview by then, I'm gonna be very unhappy anyway. So how can performers or newbies that are interested in joining IGF studios get in contact with you or Lydia?

Speaker 2 (37m 58s): They can go to igf studios.com and there is an application form right there if you wanna apply, you can also contact us through the site. We have a frequently asked questions category. We have information about the studio, about all of the studio managers. So that is the hub to find all of the information you could ever want or need about the studio.

Speaker 1 (38m 21s): One more thing, let's say somebody is interested in becoming a CAM model, they're not doing it now. What would be some advice from you to them?

Speaker 2 (38m 32s): I have so much advice I could go on for an hour about this. It's hard to pick just one thing. Wait I, I gotta think about it for a second. My advice for you would be think about your brand long term when you decide who you're gonna be as a CAM model. It may seem good to you at the time, but pick something that you can grow with. Because if you're going to grow this into a long term career, you're going to want a name and an image that you'll be proud of five, 10 years down the line.

So if you plan to make this your career, treat every decision you make early on with you know, good intentions, good thoughts, and try to be very smart about all of the decisions that you make.

Speaker 1 (39m 17s): What mistakes do you say see existing CAM models making?

Speaker 2 (39m 23s): Having the same usernames as other CAM models is a huge one because you never wanna be competing for your audience when they're looking you up. So always do your name research and make sure that you're unique in your name and that they'll be able to find you first over other people. Similar names are a little different, but the same exact names, that's a little questionable. I also find that a lot of people get scammed for like gift cards and wishlist items and don't wait until the money or the gift is actually in their hand to provide services.

Chargebacks, they happen and they happen frequently, especially to new models. So never provide any services until you have the earnings or the thing that you're supposed to be getting out of it in your hand.

Speaker 1 (40m 11s): That's very good. So let me ask you a question. Why do you see, because now you're working with the studio and you've got a lot of experience in this. Why do you seek cam models struggle? Obviously there's some that make a lot of money. You've obviously done quite well. Lydia's done quite well. Why do you think most CAM models struggle?

Speaker 2 (40m 34s): I think most cam models struggle because they understand that they have to be consistent, but they don't understand what being consistent actually means.

Speaker 1 (40m 44s): Hmm.

Speaker 2 (40m 44s): Consistency isn't just putting in the same amount of hours every week. It's putting in the same amount of hours every week on the same day at the same time and adjusting when you need to because if a time isn't working for you on cam, you can't just force it to work for you. Try new things. So be consistent. Find a schedule that works for you and actually stick to that schedule. It's more than just getting the time in, it's being in the right place at the right time too. And you can't develop regular clients if you're not there when they anticipate that you'll be there.

So make a graphic, make a cute little schedule and if you're on a site that allows you to mass message, send that out, it'll hold you accountable and it'll make a big difference over time in the amount of regular faces that you see.

Speaker 1 (41m 34s): Yeah, I guess it's kind of like a retail store not being open regular hours. Like they're supposed to open at 10 and they don't show up till noon and so on.

Speaker 2 (41m 43s): Exactly. If you went to a store expecting to buy something and you had just bought it there yesterday at the same time and they weren't open and they didn't post anywhere that they wouldn't be open, you'd probably not go the next day.

Speaker 1 (41m 56s): It's kinda like the guy that does my haircuts here, but that's another story. Harry, I'd like to thank you for being our guest once again on today on adult site broker talk and I know we'll have a chance to do it again soon.

Speaker 2 (42m 8s): Of course. Thank you for having me and I hope everyone that's listening has a fantastic day.

Speaker 1 (42m 14s): You too. My broker tip today is part six of what to do to make your site more valuable for when you decide to sell it later. Last week we talked about eliminating unneeded expenses. Next you can trademark your website. Having a trademark instantly protects your brand and makes your site more valuable when it comes time to sell it. Trademarking your site will cost an average of about $1,500, but should be more than worth the investment when it comes time to sell. Show buyers ways you feel the site can make more money in the future.

This includes showing them future plans. You may have traffic trends as well as sales trends. If things are growing and you can show them how to grow it more, they're likely to be willing to pay more for the site. Do something unique with your site. If you have competitors, figure a way to do it better. Be different in some distinguishable way that makes you better. Your members will notice and spend more money with you. Make your site a place that people wanna visit, not just to buy things or view porn.

Be creative, not just one of many. Keep thinking outside the box and make positive changes to your site. Think like a buyer when planning or updating your site. Don't think like a tech, think like the consumer. We'll talk about the subject more next week and next week we'll be speaking with the traffic Captain Andy Wullmer. And that's it for this week's Adult Site Broker talk. I'd once again like to thank my guest, Aerie Saunders.

Talk to you again next week on Adult Site Broker Talk. I'm Bruce Friedman.