PORN VALLEY, CA – You may be smokin’ hot, easy to work with and very reliable, but the sad truth is, if you don’t have people working for you behind the scenes, chances are you’re either not going to get past average or you’re going to get screwed over a lot.
Agents and managers can only go so far for you. They can book you for decent gigs and good reps can help keep your bills paid. Unfortunately though, you’re part of the cattle if you only rely on those folks. And when you start doing scene after scene, your value starts to decrease.

I’ve seen it many times. Brand new girls come out of the gate and are swamped with work. The adult biz seems like the right choice for them because they’re doing three to five scenes a week and bringing in, for the first eight weeks, nearly $12,000.00 a month. Want to know what the average active porn girl makes after being in the business, un-contracted, for over a year? About $2000.00 to $3000.00 a month, if she’s lucky. In many cases, girls build web sites and barely stay alive with small memberships and random scene work.

Everyone wants to shoot a new girl. Fresh faces are a big seller but what do you do when the honeymoon period runs out? How do you stay in the limelight and build an energy and excitement about yourself?

Public relations.

Yes it costs money and no you don’t need it to continue to get work, but having someone always working for you, behind the scenes is a very good way to increase your chances of becoming a future hall of famer. PR folks will constantly be searching for ways to promote you, ways to increase your value and aid you in closing deals you may or may not be interested in. There is no monetary amount that people can put on exposure. Whether it’s big or small, print to internet radio, mainstream TV to a public chat session–fan and industry awareness defines who you are and who you will be in the future. Even if you’re with a PR person for three months and see no increase in your work, but a lot of increase in your name awareness, the time and money spent was worth it.

The more people saying your name, the more people reading about you, finding you in search engines, watching you host an awards show, etc., the more value your product has. In the case of talent, your product is you.

You can talk about yourself till your blue in the face but the bottom line is, you’re no one until others talk about you.

A PR person will also watch your back. It’s pretty common that cat fights arise in the adult entertainment business. Girls get jealous of each other and start verbal wars on the gossip sites or their Yahoo groups. A good PR person will keep you out of all that crap. Angry responses and silly outbursts can hurt you once it’s read in text. A PR person will decide if negative allegations are even worthy of a response, and if so, they can do so in a manner that will always make you the classier one in the group.

AdultFYI asked a few well known publicists in the adult business why they felt they played an important role in the industry. Below you’ll find some of their comments.

Brian Gross of BSG PR writes:

A good PR person brings comfort to your business, as well as creativity to your product. It’s important to hire a publicist who has confidence, a strong database, a willingness to learn, and the desire to help your business succeed.

To contact Brian Gross, you can reach him at [email protected]. For more info on BSG PR, go to www.bsgpr.com. [Top Client: Adam & Eve]

Jason Sechrest of DV8 PR writes:

I always tell anyone who goes into business with my company, that public relations is a long-term investment. It’s about creating a public awareness and consciousness for your name and your product, and this is not something that happens overnight. Because departments of public relations have become so prominent within our industry, they become more and more imperative by the day. Some smaller companies are getting more coverage in magazines, on television shows, radio shows, and news/gossip sites than the more established fare due to having a person who pushes their product on a daily basis. The same goes for individual stars — there’s a handful of new girls and guys that come into adult entertainment every week. With numbers like those, it’s hard to stand out and be recognized, whether your goal is to become the next Jenna or just to get more work.
I’ve found that much of the reason why my clients choose me as their publicist over others in the biz is because I’m also a journalist, which means A. I can write a comprehensive and entertaining press release and B. a lot of the time, I don’t have to run it by magazines to write it up, I simply do it myself, as I pen articles for nearly a dozen different XXX publications and web sites. I also have an extremely extensive press list that consists of over 3,000 names (to date, the biggest in our industry I believe).

To contact Jason Sechrest, you can reach him at [email protected]. Sechrest also has a personal web site at jasoncurious.com and can be heard on KSEXradio.com. [Top Client: Ginger Lynn]

Tara Loranger of Moxie Marketing writes:

In my opinion, what makes a successful marketer for this industry is someone who can combine the adult world with the mainstream crowd. For Hustler, we want to create branding events that get the Hustler Hollywood name out to the public, bring fun and interesting events to the store for our consumers and increase knowledge and sales of new products and merchandise. We create a promotional plan that integrates several marketing forums.

In doing this, our goal is to appeal to the crowd that is already familiar with Hustler and the store and offer them an experience with us that is above and beyond what other stores have to offer. But we also want to appeal to that customer who is not as familiar with the store, who may be a bit intimidated by the adult world and offer them a safe and non pressure environment to experience what Hustler has to offer. We use more traditional media to reach that consumer and draw them in.

I feel that this is where a good PR person comes in. Someone with the contacts in both areas, who can bring to the client a marketing plan that combines many different adult and mainstream media outlets to reach
the maximum amount of people and increase the client’s exposure. A good PR person will work within your budget to accomplish your goals and give your events that extra push to make it stand out from the crowd.

To contact Tara Loranger, you can reach her at [email protected]. [Top Client: Hustler Hollywood]

Steve Banan of Banan’s World PR writes:

A good PR person should be well rounded in marketing, communications, artist/career development, and public relations. The client should always be the one given the most importance, not the reverse. A good PR person has his eyes and ears always open, to assure his client a broad range of exposure in a cost effective manner.

Of course, there is so much involved in publicizing an individual or business. I always keep my hands on the pulse of the globes agenda. I read a lot, maybe too much sometimes for my own good. The world is changing day by day and minute by minute. Not to long ago, the news media dictated the out come of the day’s events, and how they would unfold. Most recently, the Internet has brought the public closer. Therefore, bleeding the interest to a newer and infinitive way and lifestyle. Instant access to just about anything you have ever desired.

In your word “That’s a good thing”

To contact Steve Banan, you can reach him at [email protected]. [Top Client: Nicole Moore]

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There are a lot of good PR people to choose from. Some other good ones who were unavailable to contribute to this story include Carly Milne and Harry Weiss.

I recommend you contact all of these PR people. Get a vibe for them, talk to them and ask a lot of questions. Don’t judge who you’ll hire based on a rate. Use your intuition and see which one puts forth a genuine interest in making you or your product the star you know it can be.