I may be known now by my audio clips as an arrogant poetess, but when I first became an online sex worker, my focus actually wasn't on predominantly audio content! I was mostly broadcasting on cam sites and selling custom photo sets, which included short poems.
I quickly learned that having been a professional poet for well over a decade was something that made me stand out as unique and I wanted to explore more how this skill set could be used more effectively in the adult industry. I have done a few poetry readings live on cam before, which I enjoyed, but I felt it wasn't the most lucrative thing I could do in this regard … especially not on an almost daily basis.
Much like with filming clips, you probably want to find a very quiet place to record.
So I began making photo sets and uploading them to my live cam profiles and sending them via email, with images of textual poems included. While I found that people really liked the poetry, it was the adult photos that were very much driving these particular sales. However, all of this resulted in having a large part of my audience expecting and enjoying poetics.
Later, I signed up for clip sites and a phone sex operator site; this is where I really found my place in the industry! I was really inspired to create cinepoems like those made by French and Japanese artists starting as far back as the late 1920s and early 1930s. Each and every one of these erotic cinepoems I took great pride in, the same way I took great pride in my chapbooks and zines and spoken word stage performances.
What truly excited me though, was learning that there was a much higher demand for "audio only" adult content than I had previously realized! I finally found where I could show off my favorite talents. The phone sex sites in particular were a place where this happened naturally. The customer base of phone sex sites is already highly interested in audio content - they really can’t get enough of it. I could easily write, record and then sell audio content on such platforms immediately.
The question I get asked a lot now is, "How do I sell audio content on clips sites to people who usually look for visual videos." Let me tell you what I have learned! First, and this is probably obvious, you want to make quality audio content. What is maybe less obvious is that you do not need any fancy equipment or sound editing programs in order to do this.
Much like with filming clips, you probably want to find a very quiet place to record. Background noises that are not related to the subject matter of what your audio clips are about are a huge distraction and something that can make people less likely to ever purchase more audio content from you in the future. The audio clip of mine that gets listened to and commented on the most, I actually very quickly recorded on my phone while sitting in my closet with the door closed.
It is a little bit of a learning process to figure out how loudly to speak and how close or far away your mouth should be from the microphone. For some people, listening to your own voice over and over again and saying the same thing over and over again is not an enjoyable experience, but it is something you really have to do in order improve your audios. I genuinely love the sound of my own voice, but even if you don't, you can still make and sell audio content! The more practice you have, the less time it takes to find that sonic sweet spot for your creations, so please don't let yourself get too discouraged if you're just starting out, because it really does get easier.
My last piece of advice as far as creating great audio content is, whether you write out what you're going to say beforehand or just freestyle it in the moment, be sure to talk a bit slower and add a little more drama to your tone than you maybe think is necessary. What I mean by this is, the feeling that you want to create for your customer is directly connected to your cadence and tone and you want them to be able to clearly understand everything you're telling them too.
You don't want to enunciate everything so properly that it sounds unnatural or robotic, but you do want to enunciate more than you would in normal conversation. If a customer misses a part of the audio due to it being spoken too quickly or not clearly, it is not the end of the world, but it will distract them from the fantasy and we don't want that!
The best way to add a little more drama to make your audios more titillating without composing your own sexy ominous music, although that is awesome, is by really over-exaggerating the emotions in your tone of voice. Again, you don't want to do this to the point where it’s so unnatural it's distracting, but I would say you do have to do this in order for your audio clips to be as powerful as possible! This will require some experimentation and trial and error, and repeating yourself over and over to listen to playback, especially when you're still finding your performance voice.
Actors doing warm script readings, improv actors/comedians, performance poets and slam poets are all actually great people to learn from by observing what they do to stir up the emotions of their audience (especially in competitive poetry contests, which is what slam poetry is).
For example, if you're discussing something soul crushing and want to convey that feeling in your speech, then acting like (or rather making yourself sound like) you are carrying something really, really heavy, will give this emotionally strained effect. If you are discussing something and want to convey your own arrogance (or to come across incredibly sweet, depending on your brand) to your audience, then warming up by laughing before you record and then recording while smiling the entire time will have that effect!
So, now you have some quality audio recordings, the next part is how do you sell them on clip sites that don't particularly cater to people who make/buy content categorized as audio only? There are a number of ways to go about this, but I will tell you two that have worked very well for me that I think should work well for you too and really anyone.
A couple of tried and true methods is that there are ways to give potential customers just a taste for free of something that will leave them wanting more. This can be done by either having at least one audio clip that is available for free and/or by putting in the necessary effort to promote your audio clips a great deal, and have very enticing previews for each clip rather than just a preview of the first few seconds or minute or so.
For a 10-minute audio recording, I recommend about a minute or even two minutes of the "good stuff" in the audio. These are what I consider to be the easiest and most lucrative ways to turn someone just curious into a customer on a clip site who usually buys visual clips. If you also have visual clips for sale, then you can increase your potential audio sales with enticing offers such as "buy two (visual) clips or photo sets and get one audio clip for free."
I have done this and many customers have said to me that they had no idea they themselves would even enjoy audio content nearly as much as they do because they had simply never tried it out before. Now, they can't wait until my next audio release; they really can't get enough and will even create whole playlists of my audio tracks! I absolutely love it and I hope that if you've been considering making audio content that you do give it a try as well. Your words alone are more powerful than you know!
Maria Woolf is an AP Clips content creator who can be followed at APClips.com/mariaa and @MariaPoetess on Twitter as well as PostModern.news.