Tolerating TER: A Reminder

Last night I came across an article online that reminded me of why I shouldn't wish ill will on The Erotic Review (TER). It is my opinion that TER and other sites like it have successfully set women's rights back more than a century. Women are treated like merchandise or a product on Amazon on these sites and many of the male participants would have it no other way as is clear by a read through some reviews.

The problem, at least for me, is that these women accept this delegation to last class citizenry on these websites without much objection as if it's all a part of business. It's not a part of any decent business and shouldn't be acceptable for a woman selling her time and companionship to be reviewed like a pair of shorts or any inanimate object. Companionship is personal and should be treated as such. Most people will not have the same experience anyway because we are talking about people and human behavior here.

So before I digress too far, realize that my issue is the toleration for such behavior by a major online community. Forget the fact that we are all traceable these days and the writing and acceptance of such reviews by all participants is just plain stupid.

I'm sure that there are some mild and kind reviews written by nice gentlemen on TER, ECCIE, and various other review and membership sites in the world of adult business, but they are few and far between. The sort of reviews that I am referring to are what is discussed in the Aphrodite Companions Complaint in #20 on pages 14-15, #23 on pages 23-25, and #25 on pages 25-26.

What sort of deranged client would want to call a "provider" that provides services like that? Well, I will tell you - these are the people that I refused to book when I had escort services. For more than a decade, they've found their own little holes on the internet and succeeded at changing the business for "providers" and services alike. Most of us old-school service owners consider them to be the street trash of adult business.

I have no clue what value a service could see in this sort of thing and consider it a one-way trip down indictment lane. We can all be happy that the great majority of the provider participants require advance appointments and aren't interested in lower rates for dinner bookings. There will always be a place for real escort services.

Yes, I have digressed from the entire point of this post. The article I found last night was written by John Moore: Censorship starts with porn

Mr. Moore is correct, you know, especially with this sentence: "Here’s a radical idea: Let’s subcontract Internet-governance to the Taliban."

I certainly do not want to become the censor of anything in adult business online, but some of the stuff in these reviews is so disgusting that eventually it will run all adult business underground. Agencies have no excuse though. If an escort that's been on TER expresses an interest in working with your business, and you read a review like the ones quoted in the complaint, tell her to retrieve her self-esteem or get used to working alone, but certainly do not attempt to play in that game.

When it is Time for a Vacation

You should know that it is time for a vacation when your telephone lines are being pounded with odd and questionable calls from numbers all over the country. At least one major city in the southwest US is currently under siege. I do not need to name that city as anyone in the escort business there is already aware of the current dire situation.

What the rest of you need to know is that the totally independent escorts in that southwest US city that book their own calls are being charged with the usual misdemeanor soliciting AND felony promoting prostitution. The felony count is for booking the call and the bond has been reported as $50,000 in each case. This is in line with what I have always stated that any independent escort that markets and books calls is her own business and they are not immune. Still, it is unusual.

In my opinion, it is all related to the Classy DC Escorts indictment fallout. There are numerous informant independents walking around seeking work; take a vacation and do not meet, interview, or work with any unknowingly.

When the telephone lines are under siege as they are in this southwest US city, it's time to take that long-needed vacation. Need more money first? No, you need to have a business when you return instead of a messy legal case. If you have little money socked away for such surprise vacations, think back to before you entered the escort business: Take a cheap extended vacation, but definitely take one.

What is a cheap vacation?

We used to go down to the Keys, like south of Marathon Key. There are wonderful campgrounds in this area where you can go diving, fishing and party for a month without missing the rest of the world. You can actually catch your dinner. Do not forget to bring a shrimp net and a lantern along with your coolers and camping gear.

Las Vegas can be a cheap vacation too. Check the rates at Circus Circus and Motel 6 on East Tropicana. Usually that Motel 6 has nightly rates of $32 if you book online and it's actually a choice place to stay if you choose the recently remodeled non-smoking section. There are all sorts of coupons available for buffets and even gambling... Check Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor for deals.

Perhaps camping on a lake in Kentucky or Tennessee mountains is more your style. While you're there stop by the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg for a tour. Remember what it was like before you had to deal with ringing phones and idiots all night.

Wherever you choose to go on your extended cheap vacation, leave the business phones at home. Contact your wireless service provider or the local telco and have the lines put on vacation too. Well, you may want to keep one line on so that you can see how fast and furious the calls come in when you leave and cannot be reached. Suddenly people that you never knew cared are desperately dialing you to get the 411. Just do not pick-up the phone.

When you return you may have to start all over again with escorts as many will not understand any need for such a vacation and will opt to work elsewhere, get arrested, and turn into the next informant. You will need to do your due diligence on the escorts prior to meeting with any when you return.

Give it a month and then check the atmosphere again. If it is still as it was when you left, leave again. No amount of money is worth a felony criminal case and the end of your business. Wait them out, because eventually they will find something better to do and go away.

Inventing a New Business Model

It is a fact that life is always evolving. Technology improves and situations change and we must go with the flow and change as well. Some changes are for the better and some are not. Sometimes there are new beneficiaries to changes in technologies and situations in life - even anti-adult business crusades.

A reviewer of my Blueprint book on Amazon made a statement that stuck in my mind - the review is titled Incredibly Useful Book, and the statement:

"...This book doesn't have 100% of the answers. Each area and each philosophy have their own complexities. But it has really valid guidance for anyone in the adult entertainment industry. For your tiny investment, you'll get thousands of dollars worth of information."

In other words, there is much information to gain from the book, though there is no one size fits all plan. There are probably as many ways of doing business as there are people in the business, and every geographical area has its issues that are specific to the area. Anyway, this isn't a book ad, so on to the idea of inventing a new business model.

Ideas always evolve and my last post was the beginning of an idea. There are a variety of situations that have changed in the escort business in the past few months.

Craigslist eliminated "adult services" and "erotic services" in the US a few months ago and as of this weekend they have eliminated these categories worldwide. Some entrepreneurial adult business owners were placing ads on Craigslist outside of the US for businesses in the US, and now that is cut.

Google Places/Maps has evolved to the point that one doesn't want to include a website with any listing because Google has issues with any adult business landing page - even when the dancers, strippers, entertainers, escorts or whatever are dressed and it is an "R" rated website. I admit that I don't get it, but then that is immaterial, right?

Backpage has adult categories as of this point in time (LOL - see date of this post), but I seriously doubt that this will continue for much longer.

I am finding that it is taking an excessively long time for escort businesses to be indexed in Google's regular search results as well these days. I'm not sure when all of this began, but I submitted several sites a couple of months ago and none show where they need to show as of yet. Perhaps this isn't a completely new problem: A few years ago it was over six months before the research site that I've used showed in the appropriate keyword phrases, but then I really didn't work at it at all either so it was unnoticeable at the time.

There isn't much money in selling ad space to independent escorts, unless you've been doing it for a while and your website is well-known in the world of adult business. Unless you have some reason to be happy with earning close to nothing for the first year or two of business this idea should be out.

I posted about the Craigslist situation on my Accused Madam Blog tonight and at the moment the best category name for the new business model that I could come-up with was appointment referral publisher. I will work at renaming the category this week, but this is the business idea behind the name:

As a business you'll only be charging entertainers and escorts one referral fee - this depends on what rate you quote as your fee will be higher if you quote higher, otherwise you have no incentive to quote a higher rate for the independent contractors. The idea is to have lots of escorts/entertainers to call at any point that you are answering. You can give only basic information - name, telephone number, and address or include some sort of verified information. The Blueprint books get into verifying.

The general rule would be that the escort or entertainer must call back immediately if she isn't going to the appointment. The reason for this is so that you could contact a different escort/entertainer and make your referral fee. You'll find that plenty of independent contractors are interested in signing-on with this type of operation - they keep more money and there's no game involved in passing out their telephone number or staying longer.

This business model must be refined and independent contractor agreements must be clear on the referral only aspect of the relationship. I'm just making changes to the same contract that I include in my books - simple.

The idea here is to take this idea and adjust it so that it works for you. It sure beats the label of escort service these days with all of these groups on a crusade to finish off adult business. It will work because the great majority of independent escorts really want to be completely independent; however, they're clueless on the topics of websites, marketing, and advertising so they'll never get search engine optimization.

What you are actually doing is marketing and publishing online and scheduling for independent contractors. Many clients call services to begin with because often these independents are unable to schedule them or do not answer a phone when they call, so build a business model from that.

Booking Calls: Ideas and Issues

It has recently come to my attention that some escort businesses in Central Florida take exorbitant fees from escorts for the sole act of passing on a telephone number. Let's be clear here: that isn't booking a call. Booking a call involves verifying client information in some way, calling the escort with the information, and then anticipating that the escort will call you when she arrives. It doesn't end there either – you really are responsible to make sure that she safely leaves that call.

This problem seems rampant in Central Florida so there's little doubt that it is transpiring in other locations as well. These businesses are not new and inept in the booking process; they are merely shirking all responsibility. One in particular that was brought to my attention actually just passes the telephone number on to the escort and tops that off by taking over 50% for a fee. So if the person answering the telephone quotes $250, the fee for the call is at least $125 and sometimes more. I was told the split was 60/40 with the higher amount going to the service by one escort and 50/50 by another, so I must assume they charge escorts differently.

In the case of one particular company that's been around for a long time they sometimes do no more than retrieve the telephone number from voicemail and call the escort and instruct her to call and quote the price and client information; often they will then go to sleep and the escort is on her own.

This could be acceptable if the company charged a small fee. I recall a business from South Florida that was open for many years – at least a decade – that only passed on a name and telephone number. They gave the escort 5 minutes to call back and say she was not going, and if she didn't call back in the 5 minutes she owed the $50 fee. It didn't matter if the escort went to the call or not or went and stayed for 5 hours, making $2000 – she owed the $50 fee. They did collections daily at a Denny's restaurant and if an escort didn't show to pay she was off the call list.

This could actually be a good way of doing business – it eliminates the concern of escorts stealing calls or pretending to leave and staying and collecting hour after hour. If the escort called back within the 5 minutes to say that she wasn't going, they called someone else immediately no matter what her reasoning was. If she did that too often (perhaps 2 times in a row?), they no longer called her and instead called someone else. Try to cheat them out of their $50 fee and you were out quick – end of that gravy train.

I have also noticed lately that so many of these independent escorts are thieves that I can't really blame these businesses. Often these escorts accept a call and then call back with a short story about why they will not be going. They then go to the call and keep all money for themselves. Who knows what they state to the client to secure his silence – I have no clue as I'm not the escort. Sometimes the client calls back later and the service finds out anyway.

With all of the thieving independents out there today that simply do not know how to advertise and market for themselves and want to steal agency clients, including the first booking fee, it may be time for change. If you are not inclined to run around all night to see who is doing what where, you may be better off with charging a small fee for the information and just letting her work on her own. I do not advise you to take 50% in such an arrangement though, and I do advise you to note the specifics in a contract so that the escort is clear on your level of responsibility and hers.

The way that you operate should be based on your level of participation and your expenses. I am seeing viable reasoning for that old South Florida business model, but prices have gone-up across the board since then and charging $60 or $75 for a name and telephone number isn't entirely out of whack. If you have plenty of escorts to call the thieves will soon realize they have been checkmated.

This business model is somewhere in-between an escort service and an internet publisher. I think I actually like the idea and will be putting it to good use.

The Erotic Review and Reference Verification

Best known as TER, The Erotic Review is a website visited by "hobbyists" and "providers" that interact on the boards. The "hobbyists" are of course clients that often post reviews of the "providers" that they arrange appointments with. These odd terms came to be back in 2002, following the arrests of operators of the Big Doggie website and a lengthy list of participants on the site that followed sting operations. Prior to late 2002, I never heard the term anywhere and then it suddenly became the accepted lingo.

The practice of references and reviews is indeed questionable. The great majority of reviews written by hobbyists are explicit, though many make an attempt to mask the reality by using commonly known terms in the adult business world. Newsflash – the terms are so common that law enforcement officers would have to be buried in sand to not get it. I have known some stupid cops in my time, but none that dumb. The references system began innocently enough with providers exchanging references for clients to avoid arrest and to at least feel safe from harm when with a new clients, but later escalated to operations like Date Check.

The Erotic Review has reviews by city and state that are sorted by the date posted. The last time I looked there were over 800 posted in Orlando area. Both hobbyists and providers seem to believe that they are anonymous, with all the aliases; however, TER has been under investigation by state and federal law enforcement agencies for too many years. They kid only themselves. To read the explicit reviews one must be a member of TER, and otherwise can't read "the juicy details". Only post reviews there or join if you really do not care about arrests or the exposure of your "hobby".

Date Check is another crazy operation – let's not pretend that law enforcement officers can't create their own references. The minimum amount of information for hobbyists/clients includes first name, last name, and middle initial, the last four digits of a social security number or driver's license, an employer's name and location, and a direct line to reach you at work. They also want a list of providers that will provide references, whether members of Date Check or not. At the end they offer a "this is for entertainment purposes only" disclaimer. No kidding, right? What a database/client list this must be, right? It sure wouldn't surprise me to hear the feds were/are involved in this operation as it sounds like it could be far more successful than the credit card sting operations.

Anyway, my point herein is that having reviews plastered all over the internet or allowing anyone to verify information for you can end negatively. Don't believe me? Read the farewell statement from John St. Marie and the ABC News article about the situation in Minneapolis in the Nice Guys investigation. You can also read about the Mississippi cardiologist charged with Mann Act violations in Mississippi Cardiologist Won't Go to Prison for Online Dating. Mann Act violations and touring prostitutes is a topic that I will post on in the next few days.

Advice for the Independent Escort

My Blueprint for an Escort Service book and Blueprint for an Escort Service 2: Beyond the Original Blueprint are written for the escort business entrepreneur and are all about the business side of the equation. An independent escort interested in turning her (or his) lone venture into one in which they are able to profit by setting appointments for other escorts and operating an escort service will benefit from both books. Everything that I write is from the perspective of the escort business owner (former anyway).

For the independent that is only interested in booking her own calls and is looking for advice that is more escort oriented, there is a list of great books available on Amazon.

Amanda Brooks writes The Internet Escort's Handbook Book 1: The Foundation and The Internet Escort's Handbook Book 2: Advertising and Marketing. Amanda has two blogs and writes frequently on the escort business, but from the perspective of the escort.

Kay Good has written an excellent advice book for independent escorts, and as far as I know, she is still in the business. Her book is titled In Good Company: The Escort's Guide, and it is available on Amazon. Kay doesn't have a blog or website – at least it's not connected to her book page on Amazon.

If you are seeking tax advice, J.D. Roberts is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) that has written two books targeting the independent escort that works on her own. This is his specialty tax area. His books are:

The Business Side of Escorting: The Ins and Outs of Running a Business in the Cyber Age for the Escort and Sensual Masseuse Serious about Her Business


The Business Side of Escorting II: The Escort's Guide to Intelligently Running Her Business in the Cyber Age

Now J.D. Roberts is an accountant and his titles are mainly tax advice for an independent.

Hopefully, with all of the real books available, you will pass on these $100 to $600 books or guides offered by so-called experts. I'm sure that each knows something about the escort business, but anyone that tells you that you'll make millions$ or tries to convince you that you need a 5-volume package is pulling your leg.

Most people that get into operating escort services never read a book about the process because there is no exact process. It is business and not much more. Tips and advice are helpful, but in the end it is really up to you to make your business work.