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Things to Look Out For When Joining a New Porn Site: Cross Sells

alison hart — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:44:14 +0000

In today’s economy, porn site subscriptions are a luxury that a lot of folks are giving up (at least for the time being). Loss of membership dollars combined with the rampant piracy of adult video has put a lot of website owners in a tough position – how to make money when the people who want your product are either going through tough economic circumstances or stealing from you?

A lot of sites have recently turned to pre-checked cross sells to make up for lost revenue. If you’re not familiar, a cross sell appears on the join page of a subscription site, generally where you enter your credit card information. Usually, you’ll see a check box with an offer to join another site in addition to the one you intended to sign up for. This is an ethically dicey choice that has come under fire in the industry, especially when the check boxes appear below the join button where a consumer may not think to look.

Most of the larger porn sites now feature pre-checked cross sells on their join pages. Many of them offer nice discounts, but it’s important to know what you’re buying before it shows up on your credit card. The cross sells look very different depending on which biller the site uses, so I’ve put together some examples that should help you identify them easily the next time you join a site and want to make sure you only end up paying for the one you wanted.

Many sites have a simple billing page with a checkbox above the Submit button. Here are some examples of how this commonly appears:

These cross sells are pretty apparent if you are looking for them, even when they’re placed close to age certifications and terms of service acceptance checkboxes.
Another example that took me a few seconds to figure out was this from clubsandy.com:

A one day trial to footsiebabes.com is included even though I didn’t ask for it. After looking around the page for a little while, I saw the checkbox above the age certification/TOS that authorizes them to bill me for the trial (and subsequent recurring membership).

An example of a site where the cross sell is not directly above the Submit button is flashybabes.com. As you can see, the offer is to the right of the credit card form:

This site has a checkbox that offers an upgrade to VIP membership with an asterisk below the Submit button explaining what it is. If you opt for the VIP membership, you’re signed up for 2 additional sites.

The final example I’ll give is the one you really have to watch for. The checkbox is beneath the Submit button. This is a definite no-no.

Cross sells aren’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re aware of them. I recommend that if you’re thinking about joining a new site, check it out first with a reliable review site. I highly recommend The Best Porn and Rabbit’s Reviews. They both warn you of pre-checked cross sells so you’ll know to look for them.

Being a smart consumer means doing your homework and carefully reading everything on the join page – even the fine print at the bottom. An informed porn lover is a happy porn lover!

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Watching Hot Chicks Wrestle is a Great Way to Spend Friday Night

alison hart — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:28:14 +0000

On Friday night, I had the great pleasure to be invited a shoot for Kink.com’s wrestling site, Ultimate Surrender. The match was held in the Armory in San Francisco’s Mission District, where Kink has its offices and shoots most of their exclusive BDSM content. It’s an incredible space and while I’ve been there for shoots/parties in the past, this was my first Ultimate Surrender match and I was excited.

When we arrived, we were given programs with information about the teams (this was a tag-team match) and the rules/point system the judges employ. I’ve scanned them for your viewing pleasure:

Team Ice featured Hollie “The Amazon” Stevens and Bella “The Annihilator” Rossi. Team Pirate was made up of Dia “Iron Maiden” Zerva and Yana “The Wildcat” Jordan. As my friends and I watched the girls warm up, a friendly bet was placed on the winner. Team Pirate seemed to have the muscle, but I could tell Team Ice was scrappy. It looked like it was going to be an entertaining match.

[singlepic=2,100,,left] [singlepic=4,100,,left] [singlepic=3,100]

The match itself consists of three 12-minute rounds, with the losing team on the receiving end of a strap-on (or two) afterward. Points are awarded for things like taking off other wrestlers’ tops, fingering your opponent, kissing her, face sitting, and so on. Like Greco-Roman wrestling with hot chicks, nudity and strap-ons.

[singlepic=7,100,,left] [singlepic=8,100,,left] [singlepic=9,100]

To start the match, Bella and Dia arm wrestled to a draw. Dia opened the point gap for Team Pirate early, but as you’ll be able to see from the gallery, it was no walk in the park. The wrestling itself looks pretty exhausting, and by the end of round one, both teams looked pretty gassed. In round two, Team Ice started catching up, but Bella had to leave the round with a bloody lip. She returned in round three, but ended up needing more medical attention than originally thought and the match had to be called early on account of injury.

[singlepic=21,100,,left] [singlepic=33,100,,left] [singlepic=46,100]
[singlepic=17,100,,left] [singlepic=27,100,,left] [singlepic=50,100]

With a score of 705 to 592, Team Pirate were the decisive winners and got to enjoy the spoils of giving it to Hollie Stevens every which way with a pair of strap-on dildos. Dia and Yana really did fuck Hollie good from every possible angle (I’ve never seen a woman so skilled with a strap-on as Yana Jordan!) and they all walked off the mat looking exhausted, but happy. Bella Rossi even gave a goodbye butt wiggle despite her arm sling.

[singlepic=52,100,,left] [singlepic=60,100,,left] [singlepic=58,100]
[singlepic=65,100,,left] [singlepic=70,100,,left] [singlepic=80,100]

I had a really great time and it seemed like the performers did as well, despite Bella’s injuries. While I still don’t necessarily understand the attraction of the girl-on-girl wrestling match from a sexual perspective, from a fun perspective, I have to say it was a great way to spend a Friday night.

For the rest of my pics from the shoot, check out my Ultimate Surrender gallery.

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5 Boob Job Disasters and How Photographers Try to Hide Them

alison hart — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:14:29 +0000

Porn is littered with sub-par boob jobs, many of them on otherwise beautiful girls. What’s a photographer to do? Get creative. Below are five boob job defects that pop up on a regular basis and how they can be downplayed so you might not even notice them.

1. Dimpling/Scarring
The entry wounds you see on the first picture of Audrey Bitoni’s breasts lead to the dimples she’s now stuck with in the second one.

The fix: This gallery employs a number of the tricks that photographers use to conceal Audrey’s scarring and dimples: leaving clothing on under the breast, covering the breasts with the hands, using the hair to cover the breasts, and shooting her from the back.

2. Giant gap between the breasts
Phoenix Marie, Piper Fontaine and Angelina Valentine are three examples of women who’ve ended up with boobs farther apart than looks natural. Often, this is because the pocket for the implant wasn’t made correctly during surgery.

The fix: This gallery is a great example of how necklaces are used to fool the eye into ignoring the gap between Phoenix Marie’s breasts. The necklace is large and it makes the gap appear less noticeable.

3. Visible veins
Vanessa Lee and one of my faves, Jesse Jane have been afflicted with this problem.

The fix: There’s not much you can do with this other than hide them. You won’t see many pre-2007 pictures of Jesse where her boobs aren’t obscured in some way. But she got them fixed and while she said it was extra painful because of all the work they had to do, it seems to have paid off.

4. Softball ball in a sock syndrome
Diamond Kitty and Carmella Bing both have very large breasts that hang. Naturals do this too when they’re big and photographers use the same techniques on these girls as on naturally busy stars like Gianna Michaels and Sara Stone.

The fix: The best thing to do with large, pendulous breasts is keep them contained. In this gallery, Carmella never takes her bra all the way off, which helps support her girls. In this one, she uses what I call the “arm shelf” where she holds them up with her forearm.

5. Overall shape deformities
Sometimes breast implants just look wrong. Charisma Capelli and Lisa Lipps have the unfortunate distinction of having straight-up bad boob jobs.

There’s not really much you can do here but hide them. Or just accept that that’s how they look and not sweat it.

AEE Day 2 Recap

What’s the Cost of a Fetish?

alison hart — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:44:50 +0000

With the global economy in the shape it is, people are talking a lot about saving money lately. And while the porn industry overall has been the subject of discussion in the media, what consumers are expected to pay for porn really isn’t. Which got me thinking…is it more expensive to be into an off-the-beaten-path niche? How are our nations fetishists weathering the recession?

So, I did some research. I picked some niches (the ones the VideoBox members bitched the most when they were posted) and went over to The Best Porn and noted the prices of the top 20 sites for each, as well as the top 20 general hardcore sites for comparison. I used the price for one month of membership, excluding trials, but including any discounts available.

Click image to enlarge

On average, it costs $20.90 to belong to a general hardcore site (although I think we all know better deals exist). The only fetish that came in under that was balloons (I have no idea why). Latex, pissing and trannies, by comparison, all topped $30 a month and the rest fell in between.

The average cost of a fetish site about $7 more per month than a mainstream porn site. Maybe it’s the costumes or the extra “hazard pay” they have to give the models, but overall, it’s cheaper to be vanilla.

Note: as someone who makes her living in this industry, I am certainly aware that free porn sites exist, but I can’t condone using them exclusively. When people don’t pay for porn, porn stops being made. Period. If you watch it, support it.

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