Money, Ideas, and A Treat

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Well, after looking around online, apparently Utah is the State in which someone is most likely to subscribe to an Internet porn site (due to porn being difficult to find in retail stores, digital is apparently the way to go there). So maybe that's the most fertile ground to try and pluck from. Some of the more popular adult search terms from Utah residents include "strip tease" and "strip poker".

So, while you may not be comfortable dancing in the stripper sense because you're shy, I believe you did say once that you did have some stripper-type moves. So maybe trying something in vein for some videos is a possibility, since you wouldn't be doing it in front of anyone. And if you hate it you can trash the videos and forget it, and no one ever has to see. I have a feeling this is probably outside your comfort zone regardless though, and thus isn't up for consideration. Ultimately however, if you do manage to make this kickstarter-type thing work and hire other models, even if you wouldn't be comfortable with it, some of them might be. So perhaps something to keep in mind either way.

Also perhaps some type of Harley Spencer Strip Poker game that could be played through your website. I'm not sure if it would ultimately be worth the investment, but there are apparently some sites and the like that specialize in making custom adult-themed games for websites. But you're probably looking at $1000+ dollars based on what I've seen by doing a quick look around. But, again, if you're looking for areas to expand into if this offbeatr thing pays off, perhaps it'd be worth consideration. People like games, so maybe people would be interested in such a feature being added.

Or not. :dunno:

 

[Harley Spencer]

Strip poker.. lol. I've done plenty of that. Well, not strip poker, but other strip games. I've even given lap dances, but I have to be really drunk to do it. Strip beer pong, strip King's Cup, even did a really long game of spin the bottle (yeah, spin the bottle a truth or dare version) with like 30 other people last January, which included me flashing everyone, kissing some girls, letting other girls kiss my boobs, and giving someone a lap dance. I miss those days.

A game wouldn't be a bad idea, but yeah, not if it costs that much.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

A game wouldn't be a bad idea, but yeah, not if it costs that much.

Well, that was just from a quick look around. There could very well be much cheaper places. I mean, it's not really an overly complex thing... it'd just be a matter of finding where, or someone to do it.

Actually I could easily a see a program being available to develop your own, and would be surprised if such a thing doesn't exist. That might be worth looking into. I mean, really video strip poker games are generally just a standard poker game that scrolls through a series of still images in a certain order. I think that'd be pretty easy to do for someone with the required programing skills, and a pretty easy thing to develop a user interface for so an end user could slap their own custom game together quickly and easily. Seriously... from an end user standpoint it could probably be made as simple as taking a few pics of someone playing poker in various states of undress then plugging them into a queue order. :dunno:

EDIT

Oh, and for some reason I find the idea of a video featuring a really drunk Harley, regardless of what she might be doing, strangely appealing and potentially hilarious .

/EDIT

 

[Harley Spencer]

Well, that was just from a quick look around. There could very well be much cheaper places. I mean, it's not really an overly complex thing... it'd just be a matter of finding where, or someone to do it.

Actually I could easily a see a program being available to develop your own, and would be surprised if such a thing doesn't exist. That might be worth looking into. I mean, really video strip poker games are generally just a standard poker game that scrolls through a series of still images in a certain order. I think that'd be pretty easy to do for someone with the required programing skills, and a pretty easy thing to develop a user interface for so an end user could slap their own custom game together quickly and easily. Seriously... from an end user standpoint it could probably be made as simple as taking a few pics of someone playing poker in various states of undress then plugging them into a queue order. :dunno:

EDIT

Oh, and for some reason I find the idea of a video featuring a really drunk Harley, regardless of what she might be doing, strangely appealing and potentially hilarious .

/EDIT

Well for my site, those photos of various states of undress would be of me.

A drunk video of me? Oh god. I don't know if I'm quite that entertaining. Maybe. Wonder if I should take a night sometime, grab a bottle of rum and have my boyfriend shoot a video of me after a couple hours in. I've actually never even been drunk around him.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Well for my site, those photos of various states of undress would be of me.

Yeah, that would be the idea. If you could find a program like that, you'd just have your photographer snap a few pics of you as though were playing cards and undressing, then plug them in. Seems like it should be a simple thing and if there isn't a program out there I'd be surprised... and if there isn't someone is probably about to steal this idea.

A drunk video of me? Oh god. I don't know if I'm quite that entertaining. Maybe. Wonder if I should take a night sometime, grab a bottle of rum and have my boyfriend shoot a video of me after a couple hours in. I've actually never even been drunk around him.

That could be interesting...

 

[bobjustbob]

You can create the most awesome website with more content then any other model, but if people can't find it, you can't sell it. The only way to reach potential customers is through advertising. Personal appearances? Okay, dancing is out. What is left? Trade shows? We don't have many of them in the NY Metro area. Even still, you've got to pay for a booth. Adult boutiques? Maybe. Put together an event where they run your videos while you are behind the counter. Pass out some sample disks. Leave a few behind for the owners to toss into the bag with a purchase. Other than that, you are going to have to pay for advertising in one form or another.

Please don't take this as an insult but you are one out of a kabillion other models in this industry. Another can of corn. You can label it anyway you want but you've got to get it into people's hands. This is going to cost you money. Effective advertising involves more than just one medium. I view models here with HUGE popularity that are fucking cookie cut. It's the marketing that gets them there.

 

[John10781]

Damn I still can't rep you Ms. Spencer. But I am sure I'm not alone in saying I appreciate what you and the other OCSMs do. You all bust your asses and I for one certainly appreciate you for it.

- - - Updated - - -

Damn I still can't rep you Ms. Spencer. But I am sure I'm not alone in saying I appreciate what you and the other OCSMs do. You all bust your asses and I for one certainly appreciate you for it.

 

[Harley Spencer]

Damn I still can't rep you Ms. Spencer. But I am sure I'm not alone in saying I appreciate what you and the other OCSMs do. You all bust your asses and I for one certainly appreciate you for it.

That's ok. Thank you. I appreciate you appreciating me

 

[Harley Spencer]

You can create the most awesome website with more content then any other model, but if people can't find it, you can't sell it. The only way to reach potential customers is through advertising. Personal appearances? Okay, dancing is out. What is left? Trade shows? We don't have many of them in the NY Metro area. Even still, you've got to pay for a booth. Adult boutiques? Maybe. Put together an event where they run your videos while you are behind the counter. Pass out some sample disks. Leave a few behind for the owners to toss into the bag with a purchase. Other than that, you are going to have to pay for advertising in one form or another.

Please don't take this as an insult but you are one out of a kabillion other models in this industry. Another can of corn. You can label it anyway you want but you've got to get it into people's hands. This is going to cost you money. Effective advertising involves more than just one medium. I view models here with HUGE popularity that are fucking cookie cut. It's the marketing that gets them there.

Bob, sorry that I didn't respond to this sooner. I was a bit pissed off at that other guy. As you can see.

Putting together events, getting booths at conventions, all that type of stuff costs money. With just under $5,000/yr that I have to spend on myself, I really can't afford that. For me, given my current financial situation, every penny counts. If all I had to pay was $20 to get a booth at a convention or $20 to pay a store to let me sit there and sign autographs and pass out freebies and talk with people, or whatever else, I'd do it like... every month. Heck, every weekend. But it's not that cheap. It's hundreds.

Plus, there's travel costs. If it's in NY or NJ, no big deal, I can take a bus. But if it's outside of the city, I need to get a hotel, and get a bus or fly or get a rental car. For me, that's not cheap.

With me, there is absolutely no shortage of determination and dedication. Today alone, I spent 10 hours straight on the computer working- sending out emails, closing deals on abibids, uploading content to my model store on FO, interacting on FreeOnes, posting a bit on my own forum, getting on facebook to post some new pics and respond to some fans, talking with a guy who's offered to help with my web design, etc. I work hard on my site. I put in the time, the effort, and the little money I have. I do all that I can.

One of the biggest things missing, which you and countless others have addressed to me both publicly and privately, is advertising. I've put plenty of thought into that myself prior to anyone else mentioning it, so while it does help to get people's feedback on that and know that people are aware of my lack of advertising, I am aware. As I said in an earlier post (my super angry one at FallFuck), I don't have the tools necessary to push out promo material myself. I have no control over that. I don't have access to the server, I don't know what tools my webmaster uses, I don't know what programs he uses, nothing. All I have access to are the pictures. The advertising is on him. I've said this before to some other people and I'll say it again just so everyone is aware that I am aware, I do plan on talking to him about it and trying to get promo material going more consistently.

You are absolutely right about me being one in a kabillion. That's completely true, 100%. There's hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of other girls out there who are shooting adult material, there's heaps of other websites, an endless array of content, both free and pay, cheap and expensive, hardcore and softcore, niche and fetish. There's no shortage of anything in porn. I am but one. In the midst of all these other people, it's very easy to get lost, looked over, ignored, and passed by. That's common knowledge. As I've said before, I aim to do whatever it is I can to make myself stand out, even if it's just a little. If I can make an extra, say, $2,000 this year than I did last year from my site, I'll say, "Good, that's an improvement. I can live with that." If I can make even more than that, fantastic! I don't expect to make millions. That would be nice, but that's a tough goal to reach. But not impossible. Whether I become a millionaire or not, I am going to put in as much work, time, effort, and dedication as anyone can expect of a model, and more. I may have my limits, such as no webcam, boy/girl, or stripping, but that doesn't mean I'm not a hard worker and not worth paying for. At the very least, even if I fail, at least I can say I tried, I gave it my all, and that's all anyone can ask.

So again, yes, marketing is what does it. But in order to make money, you have spend money. In order to spend money, you have to have money. I have to figure out what I can do, not my webmaster, not my photographer, me. What I can do as a model to improve my chances of a few more fish in the sea seeing me and hopefully spending money on me. If not, hey, I tried, and it was a good ride.

 

[squallumz]

Custom sets and custom videos would be ok, but there's no way I could do that many. Say I reached $30,000, and there were how many people who donated? At least 1000. Shoot 1000 custom photo sets and videos? No way. That'd take years to do.

But I could do different rewards for different price points. They let you set them for, say, if you donate $10, you get such and such prize. If you donate $50, you get such and such prize. If you donate $100, you get such and such prize. And so on. So I could do customs for a certain price, and do different prizes for other prices, like free memberships, autographs, panties, etc.

right, you do packages. that's how kickstarter works. you donate X amount and you get item X. there are tiers and everything. you're not rewarding every single dollar, you give a few good things for good donations.

Hey Harley, i'm really shocked how little your website is earning, I would highly suggest speaking to your webmaster and seeing if they can work a little more to promote your website. With regards to affiliates, you say that you cant afford to be paying out for them to promote you (and yeah you're right, they do want usually 50% of the sales they send) however, surely 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing? For a model so active with her website/ modelling/ fans, you really should have higher figures x

+1 here. this is a volume business. someone is asleep at the wheel. your webmaster needs to be working their ass off. revshare is supposed to be enough of an incentive, the more you make, the more they make that's how volume works, they work more, you work more, you make more.

bob is right, damn near anything can be sold. its a matter of work, smarts, and determination.

time to get your helpers helping. think volume.


first and most important thing is think: i can do this.

 

[klies13]

you can try to advertise yourself using an alias.register on big porn piracy forums(not as harley,but as some male porn user who is looking for free porn) and then add your pics/gif in avatar or signature,but dont make it look too obvious.this *may* help you get noticed among real porn consumers.most of them there look for free porn but some of them do pay when they cant find it for free.

but the more famous one gets,more is the chance of her pics/videos getting posted on forums for free,which i think is very important to get more and more fans.if your stuff is not getting pirated then you aren't really known in porn community.

please dont take it otherwise and assume i want you to post your stuff for free.All i am saying is piracy is not really that bad.It does help sometimes.you can never earn from those who always look for free porn.so technically you aren't losing any money because of them.

 

[Anonyne#017]

What I understood is that you do mainly solo softcore photoshoot and some custom videos with panty sales and there is no partnership networks like multiple site access, but just you? I don't believe that this is competitive enough in big markets. There are trillions of girls out there that do the same and more... Here are some rhetorical questions for you; Who are you? Why should I join "your" web page? Do you have something special to offer? Do you stuff bigger dildos in your ass than other girls, are your jokes in webcam funnier, are you pretter than other girls?

I agree with bobby and some other dudes, I could set up my own little unpolished wooden dildo shop in my cellar, open each day at morning and close late at night without having any customers ever come there, not forgetting that another dang dildo shop right other side of the street. I need to do something first for people to find my shop, advertise, make banners, visit events, create awesome logo with shiny graphics and a slogan that catches their eyes; "Feel the stick in your ass - Wooden Dildos". Chances are that someone will see and eventually enter my little cellar of unpolished wooden dildos...

Another thing You Might want to pay little attention is payment methods. This alone won't help much if you won't get people interested anyway, but do you have enough anonyme and more importantly easy options to subscribe? Example; when I check random page, click register and see only one option; payball. That's like; fuck I don't have payball account and I'm way too lazy to bother making one, *clicks close button* or site better be really awesome... Thought I'm not too sure about possible problems with underaged people being able to register too easily...

 

[288gto]

What I understood is that you do mainly solo softcore photoshoot and some custom videos with panty sales and there is no partnership networks like multiple site access, but just you? I don't believe that this is competitive enough in big markets. There are trillions of girls out there that do the same and more... Here are some rhetorical questions for you; Who are you? Why should I join "your" web page? Do you have something special to offer? Do you stuff bigger dildos in your ass than other girls, are your jokes in webcam funnier, are you pretter than other girls?

I agree with bobby and some other dudes, I could set up my own little unpolished wooden dildo shop in my cellar, open each day at morning and close late at night without having any customers ever come there, not forgetting that another dang dildo shop right other side of the street. I need to do something first for people to find my shop, advertise, make banners, visit events, create awesome logo with shiny graphics and a slogan that catches their eyes; "Feel the stick in your ass - Wooden Dildos". Chances are that someone will see and eventually enter my little cellar of unpolished wooden dildos...

Another thing You Might want to pay little attention is payment methods. This alone won't help much if you won't get people interested anyway, but do you have enough anonyme and more importantly easy options to subscribe? Example; when I check random page, click register and see only one option; payball. That's like; fuck I don't have payball account and I'm way too lazy to bother making one, *clicks close button* or site better be really awesome... Thought I'm not too sure about possible problems with underaged people being able to register too easily...

She is one of the most kind persons, but i totally agree on your advice, advertising does a lot, maybe she needs to work on that as well.

 

[bobjustbob]

How about using the tube sites to your advantage. Create a bunch of short clips and flood the tubes. You don't have to release all of your content, just put together snippets in a creative way. Put a crawl along the bottom with your website. Link to your site in your profile. Will that cost anything?

 

[Harley Spencer]

right, you do packages. that's how kickstarter works. you donate X amount and you get item X. there are tiers and everything. you're not rewarding every single dollar, you give a few good things for good donations.

+1 here. this is a volume business. someone is asleep at the wheel. your webmaster needs to be working their ass off. revshare is supposed to be enough of an incentive, the more you make, the more they make that's how volume works, they work more, you work more, you make more.

bob is right, damn near anything can be sold. its a matter of work, smarts, and determination.

time to get your helpers helping. think volume.

first and most important thing is think: i can do this.

Will definitely do different prizes for different prices, and I'm glad you made a few suggestions with that. It's good to get some feedback there.

Yes, my webmaster does need to be working his off. It seems like since he's only driven by money and since the site hasn't made much of it, he's decided it's ok to slack on some things. Not me. I see that we're not making much money, and I use that as incentive to work even harder. To figure out ways I can improve, get some new ideas, and figure out ways to execute them. But without him chipping in and at least getting his part done on time and doing some promo, a lot of my efforts go unnoticed. If he doesn't release the updates and promo material, that makes me look bad, because people then assume that I'm not putting out new content, which I most definitely am. That's why I'd love to be my own webmaster at some point.

What I understood is that you do mainly solo softcore photoshoot and some custom videos with panty sales and there is no partnership networks like multiple site access, but just you? I don't believe that this is competitive enough in big markets. There are trillions of girls out there that do the same and more... Here are some rhetorical questions for you; Who are you? Why should I join "your" web page? Do you have something special to offer? Do you stuff bigger dildos in your ass than other girls, are your jokes in webcam funnier, are you pretter than other girls?

I agree with bobby and some other dudes, I could set up my own little unpolished wooden dildo shop in my cellar, open each day at morning and close late at night without having any customers ever come there, not forgetting that another dang dildo shop right other side of the street. I need to do something first for people to find my shop, advertise, make banners, visit events, create awesome logo with shiny graphics and a slogan that catches their eyes; "Feel the stick in your ass - Wooden Dildos". Chances are that someone will see and eventually enter my little cellar of unpolished wooden dildos...

Another thing you might want to pay little attention is payment methods. This alone won't help much if you won't get people interested anyway, but do you have enough anonyme and more importantly easy options to subscribe? Example; when I check random page, click register and see only one option; payball. That's like; fuck I don't have payball account and I'm way too lazy to bother making one, *clicks close button* or site better be really awesome... Thought I'm not too sure about possible problems with underaged people being able to register too easily...

Everything you wrote in the beginning of this post, I've pretty much already addressed earlier in this thread and other places around the board. In my first post in this particular thread, I mentioned that what I want to do is get more girls. So for now, yes, it's just me. What I need is the money to pay girls to shoot with me. But even if I didn't want to change that and would continue to have it be just me, that shouldn't matter. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of other solo sites out there. I'm not the only one. Lots of people like solo sites.

I don't mean to offend you here, but if you had read previous posts in this thread, you would have seen that I don't do webcam at all, so no, I'm not funnier in webcam.

Am I prettier than other girls? Not to sound conceited, but yes, I am prettier than a lot of girls. Not all girls, but some. Even if I wasn't, a pretty face isn't everything.

Why should you join my site? Mostly because it's unique. If you want a girl who shoots self shot videos, you found her. If you want a girl who never fakes a single orgasm and even has some videos showing the contractions of her orgasms to prove it, I'm your girl. If you want a girl with cute perky boobs and a small ass, you got her. There's plenty of unique things about me. I pride myself in being different, sincere, genuine, and unique, and I'm sticking with it.

As for offering something special, well, aside from everything I mentioned above, one thing in particular is that I offer birthday sets. If you're a member of my site and you have a birthday coming up, I'll shoot you a custom photo set for your eyes only. I don't expect anyone to join my website solely because of that, it's just an example of something special that I offer.

But as for that last part, the answer is yes, I have multiple payment methods. There's 3 choices, people can either pay by credit card, online check, or direct pay EU.

How about using the tube sites to your advantage. Create a bunch of short clips and flood the tubes. You don't have to release all of your content, just put together snippets in a creative way. Put a crawl along the bottom with your website. Link to your site in your profile. Will that cost anything?

I actually just recently thought of this after reading some of the posts in here, especially yours. So yeah, that's a great suggestion, and I'm definitely considering it. I don't want to give too much stuff out for free, but seeing as I'm lacking in the promo department and not visible in a wide variety of places, having at least a few free videos on some tube sites isn't a bad idea. I'd imagine that it wouldn't cost anything. I can't think of any porn site that wouldn't happily accept a girl offering up free content for them to use.

 

[GodsEmbryo]

My question to you guys is, would you be interested in funding this project if I did this on offbeatr? Would it be worth it to you? Or is it a lost cause? Do you have any other ideas?

Count me in

Apart from some suggestions that are already given, I have no ideas for the moment. But I'll think about it.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

Okay, we've already had one link to a banned site posted. Beyond this the topic is specifically asking about whether or not people would support a crowd funding campaign, and what potential features could be added with said money if it were successful, which generally speaking is not what is being addressed and is leading to something of a flame war and thus doubly derailing the thread.

While people can certainly offer criticisms in the proper places, you can't derail threads with them since that is against the rules.

I'm going to clean this thread up in the hopes that everyone can behave themselves and keep the thread on-topic and constructive.

 

[Harley Spencer]

Count me in

Apart from some suggestions that are already given, I have no ideas for the moment. But I'll think about it.

Awww! Thank you! I'm glad to know I'd have your support.

I really want to put the project up on offbeatr, but I'm a little worried since it goes through a voting phase first, then if it reaches the money phase to start taking donations, I'm required to put down a listing fee deposit, which would be $30,000/$25. That'd be $1,200. If I were to reach my goal of $30,000, I would get to keep all the donations and get the deposit back. If I didn't reach the $30,000, not only would I not be able to keep the donations, but I wouldn't get the deposit back. So I'd be out $1,200. That would be a huge bummer. So I'm just trying to get a general idea of whether or not people would be supportive of the idea, and if they would donate anything, even if that donation would only be $2. FreeOnes can't give me a fully accurate portrayal over whether or not it'd be successful, but it's a start.

Okay, we've already had one link to a banned site posted. Beyond this the topic is specifically asking about whether or not people would support a crowd funding campaign, and what potential features could be added with said money if it were successful, which generally speaking is not what is being addressed and is leading to something of a flame war and thus doubly derailing the thread.

While people can certainly offer criticisms in the proper places, you can't derail threads with them since that is against the rules.

I'm going to clean this thread up in the hopes that everyone can behave themselves and keep the thread on-topic and constructive.

Thank Happy. I was feeling the same way. I know that I had asked for ideas in my OP, but it seems I wasn't clear enough. I meant more along the lines of ideas about features I could add to my website that would interest people, i.e. features that would give them incentive to sign up. And of course, which I did specifically ask, whether or not people agreed with my offbeatr project idea and whether they'd consider supporting it.

I did not ask people if they could tell me how to do my job or to critique me. While I appreciate a lot of the input I've gotten so far, it's gotten pretty off topic and become something completely different from what I meant it to be.

 

[HappyHapyJoyJoy]

I really want to put the project up on offbeatr, but I'm a little worried since it goes through a voting phase first, then if it reaches the money phase to start taking donations, I'm required to put down a listing fee deposit, which would be $30,000/$25. That'd be $1,200. If I were to reach my goal of $30,000, I would get to keep all the donations and get the deposit back. If I didn't reach the $30,000, not only would I not be able to keep the donations, but I wouldn't get the deposit back. So I'd be out $1,200. That would be a huge bummer. So I'm just trying to get a general idea of whether or not people would be supportive of the idea, and if they would donate anything, even if that donation would only be $2. FreeOnes can't give me a fully accurate portrayal over whether or not it'd be successful, but it's a start.

Perhaps then this is something you could do in "shifts"...? Do a series of smaller consecutive crowd funding projects that are, as a result, cheaper to start and more likely to reach their goal? Instead of trying to do everything through one campaign do several smaller campaigns aimed at individual features?

 

[Harley Spencer]

Perhaps then this is something you could do in "shifts"...? Do a series of smaller consecutive crowd funding projects that are, as a result, cheaper to start and more likely to reach their goal? Instead of trying to do everything through one campaign do several smaller campaigns aimed at individual features?

I had thought of that and spent some time trying to think of smaller projects I could do. I'm having a hard time coming up with anything that I either want to do or could possibly raise money. I forgot to mention another step in the process of offbeatr. Before it goes into the voting phase, my project idea has to be pitched and the people who run the site have to approve of it. They have to decide whether individual projects are creative enough or doable, whether the person running the project seems dedicated to it and trustworthy. Based on the types of projects that are most successful on that site, I'm not sure if mine would do well or not.

So yeah, I've been trying to think of other smaller projects, but I'm at a bit of a loss there. I've already got someone who's working on the new design of the site, so that's already being taken care of. The main thing I need/want is other models.

Oh, I had thought of one thing, but it would take a bit of research. Was thinking of pitching a project of doing... merchandise. Harley Spencer merchandise. Particularly, molds and stuff for toys for men. Like replicas of my vag and making them, what are they called, pocket pussies or something like that? Toys for girls too. First, I'd need to figure out how much that would cost, how to do it, and who to go to. Something tells me it'd end up being even more expensive than hiring lots of models to shoot.