After leaving my civilian life as a plumber behind 13 years ago, I got my start as a self-taught writer/director/producer and talent, and I have seen a lot of changes. I began with clips and then added DVD and eventually VOD to my repertoire. With so many genres and specific tastes represented, I felt like my business was pretty close to ironclad and even started a second business outside of adult.
Right before COVID hit, I even took some time off from in front of and behind the camera to pursue my other business that my profits from adult helped me build. Going into 2020, we had multiple awards nominations, and DVD and VOD sales were on a steady climb. Life looked good as I headed back into fulltime production. Then, everything essentially stopped in Porn Valley (manufacturing, shooting, etc.), and I knew it was definitely getting rough.
As an amateur production company, I have always asked for fan input, and being able to get it live is even better.
With no content in the can, I began to rely solely on my vanilla business for my economic survival. It was time to get creative and forge a new path in adult. Luckily for me, I had Alice Marchesi as regular talent in my quarantine circle, and we started brainstorming how we could make money. A few years back, I had produced a successful series for my Desperate Pleasures brand called “Family Camming” and it was well-received. Alice had experience camming on Chaturbate, so we decided that might be a good avenue to explore.
Alice and I had a pretty rocky start, but we gradually built our fan base, camming multiple times weekly on the Chaturbate platform. Once we really got rolling, it offset the losses we were incurring on other fronts. For the first three months, we focused on building a following of regulars and were even lucky enough to score some awesome moderators who made our job even easier by throwing out trolls and keeping the peace in our room.
We were able to release two DVDs each month through our distributor, Pulse Distribution, and we had some decent numbers there also. Some of these titles even featured content from our camming shows, proving that having multiple revenue streams is always the way to go.
Towards the end of summer, as lockdowns eased in California, things also improved for me to the point that I was even considering bringing in talent. Part of this decision was also based on the fact that testing protocols were finally being established, and we could keep everyone safe, no matter what kind of content and/or platform we were shooting for.
Our first three-way cam show was so well-received, that we knew we had to do even more of these. Plus, I could keep it within budget by adding just one more person to the mix. Alice and I decided that bringing people in would help us create more content for DVD, VOD and clips, and we could have fun and make money camming, too.
As an amateur production company, I have always asked for fan input, and being able to get it live is even better. Fans feel even freer to voice what they like and don’t like in the live format of camming versus shouting out to us on social media or emailing us. It has been a great source of trial and error, and we know right away if what we are doing is a hit or a miss.
I know that an old guy playing “Daddy” with young girls is not everyone’s cup of tea. So, we have added in some regular vanilla concepts for future live shows. With any luck, we will be able to have a good rotation of models for our upcoming live shows and some really kinky content for our titles soon. Right now, we are in negotiations with another camming platform to do shows there, also. The best part is there will be a guaranteed amount each show, so we can focus more on the shows themselves and bringing even more joy to our fans.
It took the desperate times of COVID to force us to take desperate measures. In the end, the adversity helped us find a new platform that subsidized us through the bad times and will continue to bring in money in the good times. It is always essential to keep an open mind, adapt and realize the importance of being on multiple platforms. Camming has added an important component to our clips and DVD business. We now have more content to choose from and a viable way to make money whether times are desperate or plentiful.
JW Ties is a veteran adult filmmaker who has expanded his Desperate Pleasures business into independent camming and clips. Follow him at DesperatePleasures.com, as well as @JWTies and @DspratePlsures on Twitter.
