My name is Harlowe Blue and I have been in the adult industry for four years. In that time, I have risen to the top ranks on MyFreeCams, have won two awards and run multiple successful online clip stores. I’m here today to give you some tips and tricks on how you can become a more successful clip store owner and really take advantage of social media platforms in order to succeed!
My first bit of advice to running a successful “small business” within the adult industry is branding! As with any company, your brand is what gets fans and other members of the community to recognize who you are and what you create. If you don’t have a brand established yet, don’t worry. The way I cultivated my brand was trying everything.
Today, I have 10 streams of income.
When I first started content creation, I wasn’t really sure what kind of porn I wanted to make, what I was good at or — most importantly — what I was passionate about. Being passionate about the kind of content you want to create is what will put you on the right track to being successful. In the beginning, I filmed all types of porn: creampies, solos, boy/girl, anal, footjobs, etc. From there I was able to look at the statistics on how well each category sold, and the profits I made from each category of video I created.
These statistics are different on each clip platform. For example, on ManyVids, my foot fetish porn and creampie porn sell the best. Those are also my favorite types of content to film. But on Modelhub, my highest sellers are the more hardcore content such as boy/boy/girl threesomes, and the more fetish-y fantasies — “Creampied by Two Home Invaders” being the most popular. From there, I was able to understand and develop a marketing strategy to cater to those types of fans on each platform, and create the porn that they wanted to jerk off to.
Understanding your brand and fan base is so important! Developing a brand and catering to that brand is essential to being a successful content creator. From there, the money follows.
The next piece of advice I have is: Don’t ever rely on one clip site or cam site to keep you afloat. I compare the adult industry to the stock market, in that people buy based on how they feel. Depending on the time of year, the type of clients and customers you have or how many sites you appear on will really affect your income.
I made the mistake early on in my career of relying on only a cam site to keep me afloat. For a while, it was great — I had a lot of fans, made a lot of money, cammed consistently and didn’t really focus on anything else. One thing led to another, though, and one day it all ended. I got a boob job, lost a few big tippers and could never really recover. This was devastating and so discouraging. I realized then how important it was to put your eggs into many baskets. I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and reinvent. This is when I started putting my all into content creation.
Today, I have 10 streams of income. I have branched out to all of the major clip sites and established myself on Pornhub. I run a free and premium Snapchat. I edit videos, am a director for other performers’ clip stores, perform in mainstream porn and am always available, if possible, to anyone who needs me for anything. This means taking last-minute extra jobs on mainstream porn, filming content for someone else, helping others develop their clip stores free of charge, signing for Pornhub at conventions, etc.
My point is this: Do your best to be everywhere all of the time! Take every opportunity you can get. The more you put yourself and your face out there on all of the platforms we have available to us, the more other performers and fans will recognize you!
Lastly, networking is everything in this industry. Late last year I picked everything up and moved to Las Vegas because I knew that if I wanted to be successful, I had to be where lots of the action was. I needed to be close to where several mainstream companies are and, most importantly, around other performers, like-minded people who do the same job, so that I could grow. It was a great decision and ultimately has helped me grow my business more than I could have ever imagined. I stepped outside of my comfort zone and reached out to people, and because of that I have more going on than I could have ever dreamed.
I have learned so much in such a short period of time from other amazing people in this industry. Being open and willing to learn and listen to other successful members of our community, and working side by side with lots of people has helped me develop into the business owner I am today. Learning who I am as a performer, a clip artist, a social media influencer and a person has laid the path to success for me personally, and I believe similar results will follow for anyone reading this. Don’t forget: be authentically yourself, happiness is success, and reach out to others because no one in this world understands adult performers better than adult performers! It all starts with a dream.
Thank you for your time … now get out there and get fuckin’!
Harlowe Blue is a fetish, solo and BG content creator who can be followed on Modelhub.com/Harlowe-Blue, Twitter @harloweblue and many other platforms.
