A Year for Censorship - Reflection
It (2012) has been a trying year for those of you already in the escort business. Censorship of anything adult has come to be accepted by the general population. Some of you may be thinking that the word "censorship" is being used improperly here.
Actual censorship is only applicable with government involvement and a business (i.e. Google, Yahoo, Bing, all newspapers etc...) has the right to choose who it does business with. This is true, except for the fact that it is the hand of government behind the elimination of all that is adult from the internet and newspapers.
Some of you are aware of the fiasco with Google over Maps and Places listings for escort services. The bottom line is that if you're operating a legitimate, licensed business, you can argue it and any suspended listing will be reinstated, eventually. It certainly is a time waster though, isn't it?
There were several rogue Map Makers that made claims of all escort businesses being illegal and according to the arguments I became involved in, they were backed by Google. Well, Google has cleared the air on the topic and you shouldn't have any trouble - if you are operating legitimately and have a license. Really that is good news because those of you that do it all correctly do not need or want the unlicensed online marketers' listings competing with your own. Good riddance to them, right?
On the other hand, during the course of the big purge of escort services from Places, they have ruined it as a tool. Google "your city escorts" or "your city escort service" in Maps or Places and you will see every type of business in the world listed there with one or two escort services - everything from finance companies to high schools. So, they succeeded in ruining it - that is a fact. It is still worth fighting them to get your listing posted or reinstated though. Spend 15 minutes a day working at it until you succeed.
Marketing your escort business today
The truth is that I was never much at marketing. The way I know the business, it is most intelligent to just place ads where other services advertise and try to make your own stand-out in the crowd. It is the renegade marketer placing ads where they do not belong that will end-up with problems in the long-term.
You place the listings and ads where they belong and the clients will locate you and call. Same deal with the escorts seeking calls - there is no need to "recruit escorts" as several have stated it to me in email. If a client can find your listings and ads, so can an escort. Simple stuff there people.
With this type of business, you do not throw marketing copy or ads in everyone's face. They must be seeking you and not vice versa. This is where the marketers and I part ways because this business is not supposed to be marketed as a book, or a vacation to Belize, or a house is. For the 10 years that I was in the biz in Orlando, I simply placed ads and listings where they belonged and clients found me. It is the same in any geographical market.
If you force the church people to view your ads, don't be surprised when it bites you in the ass. On the other hand, if the church people (or rogue Map Makers) succeed at removing your listings from a place (Places) where they do belong, they should expect to see those listings all over the place in all sorts of categories. It's a two-way street, for sure. Look at what happened with Craigslist - there are no "adult" categories today, but you'll find adult ads all over in many different categories.
Whatever happened to the .xxx thing?
Well, I went searching this last week and discovered it to be a no man's land of sorts. Google, Yahoo, and Bing do not index the .xxx sites in regular search results and there is a specific search engine for these sites. It isn't much different than moving the red-light district out of town, on the outskirts of nowhere, and hoping no one ever finds it. In the case of .xxx, it appears that no one does find it.
The special, isolated search engine is http://www.search.xxx/ and it is referred to as, "The Search Engine for Porn". Well, we are operating businesses for adults here, but porn is an entirely different topic. Who in the hell wants to be listed in the porn search engine with an escort business site? No one with much intelligence, or at least no one in the US.
Search for something - like Miami escorts - and look at all of the "quick search" categories to your left. Good grief - as an escort business owner, I'd run from all of the terms listed except two. Perhaps this works for people in other countries that operate in those countries, but in the US, it's a one-way street to an indictment.
I'd still have one .xxx site if I were in the biz today, but it would probably be the most conservative of any listed, which is not a bad thing. Of course a client searching in that search engine is not really seeking conservative, so you may not do any business from that particular site, or you may start a new trend. For the price of a domain, it's worth a try anyway.
A FREE book for you
I sell few copies of my Memoirs of an Accused Madam: The War on Adult Business in Orlando book and decided to place it in Amazon's Kindle Select program. This allows me to offer it for free for a few days and hopefully sell a few copies once the free days are over. Memoirs will be free in all Amazon Kindle stores 30-31 December 2012. Search for it by my name in any specific country Kindle store.
The way Amazon works, this would be from 12:01AM PST (Pacific Standard Time) 30 December 2012 through 11:59PM PST on 31 December 2012. Times are always approximate and if you do not see it free, then try again in a few hours.
I really advise anyone getting into or already in the escort business to read that book. Find out what they really did to me and how I turned the tables on them. Sure, I was acquitted on all counts by a jury following a two-week trial, but they ruined me in the process and I am still suffering from the experience. If you learn nothing else from the book, you should learn that Orlando is not the place to operate such a business.
I have noticed several new services in the Orlando area recently and imagine that those operators think it was something I did that resulted in my prosecution / persecution. Well, newsflash people: All that I did was exist, and I did so legitimately. Yes, my case put the powers that be in their place in a sense, but only in the sense that they make sure they have all their ducks in a row before pursuing arrest of an agency owner.
Orlando is nothing you want to mess with - trust me on that or read the book - even as conservative as I am with the business. If you do not have a Kindle, all you need to do is download the Kindle app for your PC, laptop, or smartphone. No excuses people.
The book is the Second Edition with most aliases omitted because I had an argument of sorts with some asshat cop under the original edition when he claimed that the characters were mixed-up. No, all it was is that my subconscious used the real name of the main case agent twice in just under 300 pages and I decided not to change it. The main case agent that abused so many people had an alias in the original book. I solved that problem for asshat the cop by writing a second edition with real names. Please laugh - I did. ;)
The only review on the book is on Goodreads and was written by someone named Drew. I have no connection whatsoever to Drew and it is a totally random review (that I love). I never solicit reviews - you should know that if you've read through my blogs. Read it: Drew's Review
I wish all a great New Year in 2013! May you prosper in all of your entrepreneurial pursuits!
1 comment:
Really enjoy your blog!
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