Author: Deano

Porn is a business. Understanding a business is usually a key factor in improving your chances at long term success.

Given the costs associated with "running your own shop", even just technically, it's not a bad idea to sign up with a cam site or otherwise gig with an existing photographer/studio at first.

That will get you "in the mud" of the day-to-day (though usually much more irregularly-scheduled) work at virtually no cost. If you like what you find, and think it's a good long term (or even medium term) choice for you, then you can work to build connections with industry contacts, and get great advice that will be specific to your situation (gender, orientation, body type, local porn production market, etc).

I would only advise starting out 100% solo if you have a deep-down knowledge that it's for you, one or more people willing to work with you in front of and/or behind the camera, AND the technical chops to put together your own site and fix it when it breaks.

If you have all of those, plus an unshakable desire to succeed, you can test the waters for as little as $2-5000 in home studio equipment, and then hire out all the accounting/legal assistance you'll need for a similar amount. All told, if you build up a paid following in the mid-hundreds, you may break even your first year.

It's a lot like trying to go pro with blogging – a lot is going to depend on your quality and consistency until you are well established… And like blogging, ultimately the "real money" will probably come from somewhere else – a pro-porn gig, speaking/appearance fees, strip club work, book deal, etc.

I don't normally like to link out to NSFW sites, but I recall meeting someone very much in the "amateur porn" vein a few years back, just a straight-up hustler trying to get rich via the adult industry. He's pretty open about his experiences good and bad, and his site might be a good read to encourage/dissuade folks interested in jumping into the biz:

http://www.shimmysbookmarks.com/ (NSFW, again, for the record)

Upon further thought, you can get a real good general "feel" for the business across the various amateur/pro tiers by making a twitter list of the performers you find online (professional porn is big on twitter)… While the ones mentioned below are all pros, they give some decent insights into less glamorous aspects of the business now and then, including the recent Cal-OSHA meeting[*], stressing about running late for shoots that get cancelled, relationship issues, and the mundane stuff like finding pet sitters for those award shows in Vegas:

@wolfhudsonxxx
@danadearmond
@giadimarco
@thejessicadrake
etc…

You might also try running searches for people/lists of stars at listorius.com. Again, a good way to get a more direct "pulse" for the industry and its issues.

[* http://eon.businesswire.com/news… ]

Can you make money with amateur porn?

Like I have time to deal with your little questions! Where's my latté?

What's the way to deal with arrogant people?

• Good skintone/facial recognition software on your hidden webcam
• Be one of the participants. You'll usually notice.
• Apartment living. Your neighbors will not fail to alert you.
• When the creepy dude who worked nights at the local video store, who just filled the tank of his 70s station wagon and picked up cigarettes and condoms, runs back into the gas-mart an hour later – comb-over flying wildly about – and asks if you sell "D size batteries"[*].
• If they mention it overly-loudly to their friend on the other end of the phone while in line behind you at the DMV.
• if you ask them, and they say "yes".

[* No, that's not a funny joke, but a part of my memory I cannot erase. ]

What are some ways to recognize if someone just had sex?

Hrm… Good question!
(Probably not the Virgin America website… Photo Courtesy of http://www.fotopedia.com/items/f…)

Overall, probably the best would be Scarleteen, which has pretty open, sex-positive, and "sex novice" focused content… Aimed primarily at minors, the knowledge is applicable to anyone (though the community elements are not friendly to stalkery adults, obviously):

http://www.scarleteen.com/

For more "street knowledge" type education, few things could be better than simply reading a month's worth of craigslist casual encounter ads: http://craigslist.org/cas

I hate linking to Mashable, but Geoff Livingston had some interesting thoughts on the matter in an article last year: http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/s…

What is the best online resource for sex education?

This is a great "Mad Libs" type question, but the answer would be the same even if you were asking "Are Elephants likely to have more sex partners than Ghosts?"

Simply put, number of sex partners is determined by the following:

• Demand for sex
• Supply of compatible partners

While demand for sex can, at times, seem pretty universal, it isn't always so. There are people who don't appreciate sex, or who are intentionally abstaining for a variety of reasons.

Supply, on the other hand, is affected greatly by location and social contexts. Thus, it's impossible to universally generalize about gay men and lesbians in this way, without providing some additional context and/or a locale.

If you asked something like "Between male and female homosexual residents of San Francisco, which is more likely to have (or have had in the past) more sex partners?", we could start to draw on social data sources, anecdotal experiences, subcultural preferences, and general social tolerances specific to the bay area/SF itself that could help make such a determination. And those results might vary widely from similar groups in Austin, Miami, Chicago or Vancouver.

Simply put, it's impossible to judge based on the question as worded.

Are gay men more likely to have more sex partners than lesbians?