I came into LA recently.  I met a friend in his office and walked in on quite an interesting conversation he was having with an agent.

My friend was booking a girl from a popular agent for an upcoming movie.  This movie is well known as with the company making it.  The agent decided to add an extra $200 on the girls rates from what he used to pay for her.  Since the company in question he was booking for was rather well known he thought he could squeeze another couple hundred out of the guy.

But instead my buddy said you know what, let me call you back.

He then picked up the phone and called another agent from a competing agency.  He was telling the agent what the movie was and the guy stopped him mid sentence and said say no more, I have the perfect girl for you.  Normally she charges $1000 but for this project we’ll book her at only $400 and I’ll wave my booking fees, which for those of you who don’t know is typically about $100 per girl, per scene.

My buddy and I sat there a little dumb founded for a moment.  He’s willing to book top notch talent for more than half her normal rate and wave the booking fees.  My buddy had to ask what was up with that.  Was there perhaps something he was missing?

The agent explained, I know a lot of girls think that when you work on a feature film they should get paid more but those girls are idiots.  When I rep a girl I teach them the reality of the business and if she takes this job with you for less money today, it will come back to her 10 fold because your studio does a large amount of advertising.  Even on the low end, her name will probably be listed in no less than 5 press releases about being in that movie before the movie is even released.

So basically the guy traded a few hundred bucks of pay for the performer for that day just to get her in that movie knowing it would in the long run pay off in making the star more well known which would get her more bookings and possibly for even more money.

As for the girl repped by the other agent, well  I noticed her on Twitter on the day of the shoot saying how she was bored and didn’t have anything to do.

So what is more important to you? An agent who sometimes can get you an extra $100 or $200 for a scene or an agent who thinks about your future?  That’s what you need to seriously start looking for.

Does your agent really have your best interest in mind?

Is he really thinking about your future?

Now before some of you get all bitchy and say that’s the fucking job of a “manager”.  I do realize this however a smart girl will find an agent like the guy I mentioned who has the best interest of his client in mind with every booking request that comes in.

There are situations that you can have your cake and eat it too and sometimes you need to really make an effort to find those kind of people in your life.

I’m not by any means suggesting you have to work for less money just to get the great jobs you want, but at the same time trying to milk them for more money than you normally charge isn’t a good idea either.  There is one particular performer who goes by the initials JJ, who loves to brag about how much she over charges one client, because they are rich and they can afford it.  Well I promise you others hear her talking like and her little attitude cost her more than a few bookings for other companies.

Here are a few other tips for you ….

If your agent spells your name wrong on their website, that’s never a good sign.  It’s even worse when you point it out to them and they tell you it’s better that way.  YOU are the star, they don’t need to tell you how to spell YOUR name.  There is an agent in LA who I won’t mention by name but once messed up spelling a Vivid girls name on their agency website.  When asked about it the agent told the girl it was better this way, easier to spell.  Vivid spent untold amounts of money promoting that girl under that spelling of the name and this agent thinks somehow another spelling all together (not even close to the original) is better?  What a dumb fuck.  So anyway, you get my point.  If your agent can’t bother to spell YOUR name right.  That can never be a good thing.

If your agent ever EVER suggests you lie about your age one way or the other (to make you younger or older), he’s bad news.  You are who you are and your fans will love you or they won’t.  But lying will only cause them to distrust you.  They won’t care that your booking agent told you to lie.  All they will remember is that YOU LIED.  So long story short, if your agent tells you to lie, then he has some serious issues and isn’t looking out for your best interests.   Fans today aren’t stupid and they WILL find out you lied about your age one day.  Trust me on this one.

If you hear continued complaints about your booking agents “attitude” towards studios or people within the industry.  I think it’s time to find better representation.  If someone thinks your agent is a douche, that WILL cost you jobs in the future, probably many jobs.  If one or two people bitch that’s one thing.  Not everyone can get along but if EVERYONE hates your agent, seriously wake up and smell the coffee.

Call your agent at weird times of the day or get others to do it for you.  If you find they have a hard time answering the phone then that may cost you some jobs.  If people can’t reach your agent, then chances are they will just move on to the next agent and book someone else.

Always make sure in advance to see if your contract allows you to book your own shoots.  If you are allowed to book your own work, be clear with your agent that at times you will do so.  The last thing you want is them contacting a studio that you booked a job with directly, making them feel guilty or obligated to have to pay booking fees through your agent and make them feel like you did something wrong or underhanded, even though you didn’t.  It just breeds ill will with everyone involved.

If your agent’s employees have a reputation for bad manners or improper behavior, that WILL cost you jobs.  Who wants to work with someone with a bad attitude?  I know I wouldn’t book work from an agency that treats me badly.  So that means if your agent’s employees have an attitude problem, that WILL cost you jobs.  The question is, how many jobs will you let it cost you before you wise up and move along?

Before you go look at this I want to warn you, it’s not for the weak.  When I say this is some nasty ass shit, I actually mean this is some nasty ass -SHIT-.

For quite awhile now people have made fun of Donny Long but this brings things to a whole new level.  I found this story on Adult FYI and the video the is associated with the story is beyond explanation.

click here to see the real Donny Long

Donny Long: “He’s about as good at wiping his ass as a 60 year old paraplegic”

Turn about is fair play, the saying goes. Donny Long this week had his way with agents in the business via his new blog on www.xxxfilmjobs.com. One of the agents, Mark Spiegler, offers a link to www.efukt.com and a video clip featuring Donny Long in action:

www.efukt.com/20635_Hygiene_fail.html

The NFL may not like boobs or Janet Jackson showing hers but they sure don’t seem to mind hiring pedophiles.   This year the Super Bowl half time show, which most fans have said was one of the worst half time show in the Super Bowl history, was put on by a man who just a few years ago was arrested in possession of child porn.  This happened in 2003 and he’s not on a watch list.  Big fucking whoopy do!  If it were any of us,t hey would have put us away for 100 years but since this sick fucker is famous, he gets off with no more than a slap on the wrist.

In 2003 Peter Townshend was arrested when the FBI discovered he used his credit card to join a child-pornography site.   It wasn’t just a matter of he happened upon a site with child porn on it, the sleezy fuck actually used his credit card to join the site and be a part of this child porn community.  When the fucker was busted he said … get this …. it was research for his autobiography and that he was going to argue that ISP’s need to do more to fight pornography.

Really?  Because what I think we need to do is do more to stop child abusers like you, you stupid sick fucker.

I don’t know, it’s just funny to me how we can’t show a little boob with a covered nipple at that, but it’s more than okay to pay a known pedophile a large sum of money to perform at the same venue.  What the fuck is wrong this world?

When watching an adult movie which kind of scene do you think is more important for a good movie to have?  Anal sex or maybe a hot threesome? They say opinions are like assholes, everyone has one, so why don’t you tell us yours — do you prefer the hot 3 way or do you want to see a girl take it in her tight little ass?

Are you a porn star? If so then this article is for you. These are some tips in marketing and branding to help you prosper in the new year.

#1   And this is a biggie – take control of your brand.

Make sure you get a hold of yourname.com and start using it. If your official website starts with a XXX or a Club anything, you failed. You need YourName.com PERIOD. Many years ago Jenna Jameson got ClubJenna.com because back then getting back ownership and control of YourName.com (ie: JennaJameso.com) wasn’t exactly easily done. She had to create ClubJenna.com. Since then times have changed greatly and so have laws and now I can’t tell you how many people are making the grave marketing and branding mistake of using any other domain name that isn’t YourName.com.

Also when you sign a deal with a network or any company then you must make sure you read the fine print on your contract in which you keep control of YourName.com, even if you two and the company part ways in the future.

#2   Make Love Not War

Sounds simple enough and really it is but make it a goal for the new year to avoid any sort of scandal and drama associated with your name.  The more drama attached to you, the least likely movie studios are to hire you.  That also goes for call times and scripts.  When you are booked to show up on set at 10:00 am, BE ON SET AT 10 AM.  If you were given a script in advance, READ IT.  The more bullshit you bring with you on the set, like not being on time or not being ready to perform then the less likely you are to be booked by that company again in the future.

#3 Consider the booking type in advance

There are some people who have yet to learn the value of diluting their name.   This is in part the reason why a Vivid girl is more valuable than a non Vivid girl, for the very simple fact that they aren’t everywhere.  Part of their value is in the rarity of the product they are in.  A Vivid girl won’t be in 100 or even 30 movies this year.  In fact, a Vivid girl won’t even be in 20 movies this year.  This means that the few movies she will be in, her fans will be sure to buy all of because they are her fans and they want to see more of her.

What I’m getting at is the more a porn star works it can have a long term negative effect on their value.  So what can you do?  Well website work is far more plentiful than DVD work and your value is far greater from working on a scene in a print DVD than just for a website, so a smart porn star will limit if not cut out all together any Internet only work and will only appear in scenes meant for DVD production.

Another problem is, if you are available on every website out there because you’ve done so much Internet work, you greatly devalue your own branded website YourName.com.

There is a star out there right now who comes to mind on this subject.  She is blonde, big tits, very pretty and quite popular – I would say top 10 popular probably but her website doesn’t make half of what it could because there are so many websites out there they can already see her on.  YourName.com may not be a priority for you now, but I promise the world doesn’t end tomorrow so you just can’t think about today.  You have to very much consider your future and in the long term that will include  a website.  So stop being a dumb ass and taking a quick buck today for website work and as a result hurt your chances of making long term money.

If a company is what we call a real company, say like Vivid or Digital Playground or even Red Light District or Zero Tolerance – these are obviously real porn studios who yes, happen to have a website but their main product is still the DVD.  These are all fine to do business with but when you come to companies like porn.com, Brazzers, Reality Kings, Naughty America … these are all web based companies who might at times produce some of their product on DVD but in the end their main goal is the improvement of their website.  That’s all well and good.  It doesn’t make them bad companies, in fact some of their sites are rather decent but like I said, it is probably best for your career not to continue to make scenes for them if you want to think about your long term viability and the profitability of your name.

#4   Don’t think you are better than you are

There is a porn star that comes to mind, well she’s not exactly a STAR, more like a new girl in the industry who really thinks the world revolves around her.  She got booked for a Vivid feature film not to long ago and talked about it on Twitter.  She mentions how funny it was that she didn’t bother to read the script they gave her.  This is obviously a problem because when she got on set that would cause a delay in production and well time is money.

So they asked her when she got on set if she would perform an additional 15 minute dance for an app they were working on.  She refused, demanding more money – despite already having cost the company far more than 15 minutes in delays since she was prepared.  She caused a big scene and was eventually asked to leave the set, setting the company back an entire day in production of the movie they were working on.  Oh and if that wasn’t enough the dumb bitch went on Twitter talking about how that company sucked for sending her home without pay for being a drama queen.  DUH.

The adult industry isn’t all that big.  People talk shit and the story of your mental instability will get around and as a result people won’t want to book you as much and that means you will lose even more money.

#5 Understand the importance of search engines

When having someone create you an official website you need to make sure they understand at least the very basics of SEO and don’t do something create an entire site in frames or totally flash. Or even worse, do something like Zoe Britton and create the entire thing in all frames and flash. Talk about an SEO nightmare.  If you don’t understand by now that fans need to be able to search for you using a search engine, then really you need to hire someone who does because search engine’s are vitally important to the overall success of your career.

#6 The use of Nicknames on social networking sites is a mistake

Nicknames may be cute but when a fan goes looking for you they should be able to find you easily on social networking sites so always make an effort to use yourname or even yournamexxx if yourname isn’t available but when given the option always first chose YourName.  For example www.Twitter.com/YourName or www.MySpace.com/YourName.  Make it easy for fans to be a part of your life.  ALWAYS KEEP MARKETING IN MIND WITH ANYTHING YOU DO!

#7 AND THIS IS A BIGGIE – Gross ticket sales matter for porn as much as they do for mainstream

Do you know why Will Smith makes as much money as he does for each movie he does?  Simply put, because when he’s in a movie it’s almost a guarantee the movie will make a shit ton of money.  Same goes with Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie.  Their name caries a lot of weight and it’s not just about being famous.  It’s specifically about money.  Jennifer Aniston is just as famous but her movies don’t make as much money as Angelina Jolie so as a result she doesn’t make half as much to be cast in a movie as Angelina Jolie does.

Let me be very clear here, the more money a movie makes that you are in, the more money you will make.  How?  Well because when the word gets out that YOUR movies are making money more people will want to book you and the more money you can charge per scene.

Let’s say a company casts you to do a feature film.  You need to find out what you can do to help promote that movie, just like the real celebrities do in mainstream because every time a movie comes out in mainstream, the stars do the promotion round, doing all those interviews with talk shows, etc.  So a smart porn star will volunteer to do promotional interviews for a feature film they are in because the more promo is out there for a movie, the more the movie will sale.  The more money that DVD makes, the more people will want to book you because companies are about money and they always always want to go with stars they know will sale DVDs. Seriously.  It’s just plain business.  BE SMART.  Remember this is a business and always do your part to promote any DVD you are in when it comes out.

Not only can you volunteer to do interviews to help promote the movie but you can also tweet about or post a photo or two on your myspace page.  Tell fans about how fun it was to make that movie.  Talking about a movie while you are making it won’t really help that much.  Promote it as it becomes available on DVD.

Eva Angelina tweets about how great her movie Deviance was and as a result her fans have come out in droves to buy it.   Sales for that movie have skyrocketed and retailers are going back to companies and telling studios, get me more Eva Angelina movies.

Smart porn stars understand that this is a business and will understand that it only benefits them if they go out on the promotion trail when they make a movie.