Last week, Tatttle.xxx got me thinking. They were commenting on another PR firm sending out too many press releases and questioning the relevance of what they were sending out. In the same week, a client asked me why I don’t send out more press releases. So, the blog this week is dedicated to press releases.

What Is a Press Release?

A press release is to let people know relevant news about a client. An example of relevant news would be launching a new pay site, a photo/interview spread in a magazine or becoming a spokes model for a product or service. As long as there’s relevant news, we don’t have a limit on the amount of press releases that we sent out for a client. If too many press releases go out, it’s like the boy who cried wolf, and no one pays attention after awhile. If you’re prudent about the number of PRs that go out (like we are), people are more likely to read what’s being put out and take it far more seriously. Having a ton of press releases sent out doesn’t mean that your publicist is working hard for you.

What Makes a Good Press Release?

Content is king and you’ll want to pique the reader’s interest. Make sure to stay on topic. Sometimes, a press release will have more than one story—there will be the main story and then other smaller stories like new projects and movies. Flow is also important, but it should be well written, grammatically correct and the spelling should be checked. Format is important—it needs to be laid out correctly with a date, title, etc. Dates are extremely important—I have seen some publicists write “this Friday”, but PRs need actual dates. It should read this Friday, November 16^th”. It’s not an editor’s job to proofread or edit a press release—it should come to them ready to be posted. A seasoned publicist will know how to write a press release, although there are exceptions, like the publicists (or wannabe publicists) who make editors cringe when they receive emails from them.

It’s All About Timing

If a client has an event that’s a week away, the press release should go out at least three to four days before. It gives people notice, so they can plan to go, and also the sites a few days to get it posted. If you send a press release out the day before or the day of, more than likely, it won’t be posted. If too much time has passed and the PR is released too far after the event, it’s also useless. An example would be if a magazine or DVD streets, the press release should go out within days—if it goes past the one week mark, it’s old news

Where Does It Go?

Another thing that makes a publicist valuable is their contact list. A press release could go out to a myriad of news sources—adult, mainstream, tech, etc. I have multiple lists of depending on the genre of the press release (mainstream adult, gay, etc.) and to what type of media source. A good publicist has not just contacts, but relationships with the contacts, so they will run the PR on their site or in print form (AKA a magazine). If the PR isn’t newsworthy, some sites will not run it. I have seen this happen a lot more frequently lately. Tattle.xxx has a section of PR they didn’t run.

Many publicists are also using social media to get the news out. Usually they will Tweet or Facebook about a place (or places) the news is posted. This is a way even more people will know to look for the news. In adult, you want to reach media, fans and the industry, and social media can reach all three.

These are all just brief guidelines. Hire a publicist to write your PR and do your homework on the reputation and skills/abilities of that person or firm. Not all publicists are created equal and there are only a handful of us that are worth our weight in gold. And if cost is an issue, many PR firms will even do one-off press releases, if you can’t afford the monthly fee.

Measure B Doesn't Benefit Anyone Except the AHF

Today, for two hours, the adult industry was all over social media…well, more than usual. Steven St. Croix issued a call to action and asked the question “what are you doing to oppose Measure B?” Many performers Tweeted, took to Facebook, put Tumblr into action, posted blogs and hit the airwaves to keep their fans and the general public informed.

The industry is well informed on what’s going on. The biggest concern here is the civilians. With 3 giant AHF billboards in a one-mile radius in the suburb of Silver Lake and dozens of other places around town, the general public may be too quick to vote yes on Measure B. My hope is that the billboards will backfire and  people will vote no. Many people are anti-porn, but they need to know the facts. This goes way beyond porn, performers and condoms–there are three major issues.

Do Not Shop at or Donate to the Out of the Closet Stores

The AHF has wasted $2.5 millions dollars on their campaign. Where do they get their money? From people who donate items to and shop at the dozens of Out of the Closet thrift stores. All the sales they make go to support this, along with the monetary donations people make because they think they’re helping people with AIDS and research. This huge amount of money could have greatly helped treat hundreds or even thousands of people with STI and HIV infections. And as a side note, the corporate office/retail on Sunset in Hollywood across from the Palladium sells bareback videos–kind of hypocritical, don’t you think?

It Will Hurt People Who Need Healthcare the Most

If Measure B passes, it will effect the people who need healthcare the most–funds will be taken from local community clinics and under-served minority communities. The money to fund the policing of condoms, permits and hazmat protocol on sets will be taken out of healthcare dollars for people who need it the most. It will cost the Department of Health at least $300,000 to start this program up, if it passes.

It Unnecessary Makes Our Industry Look Bad

We are professionals, just like any other industry. The “Pornographers Say No on B” billboards make our industry look sleazy. The public is lead to believe we can’t police our own industry, but we can and what we’ve been doing has worked for many years. The testing procedures we have in place work and we’ve been able to shut down production when there is a problem, which is very rare.  From June 30, 2008 to June 30, 2011, there were 6,447 new cases of HIV reported in L.A. County, but only two were adult performers, and they didn’t get it on-set. Since 2004, there have been no cases of HIV transmission on a porn set. We must be doing something right, if you think about how many performers there are in the industry and how many scenes are filmed daily, weekly and monthly. And on top of that, we don’t need outside people telling us what to do with our bodies.

What Can You Do

It is not enough to be registered to vote and vote no on Measure B. Let people outside of the industry (i.e. fans, the general public, etc.) know what the real deal is with this measure–it’s smoke and mirrors and a way for the AHF to line their pockets with more money and ruin our industry for no good reason at all. I’m proud of the individuals in our industry who have taken a stand like Steven St. Croix, Dr. Chantelle Tibbals, Nina Hartley, Jessica Drake, Tera Patrick, Ron Jeremy, Michael Whiteacre, Rebecca Bardoux and many others.

If you or someone you know isn’t registered, the deadline is October 22nd, which is six days from now. Click here to register: https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote/

For more facts against Measure B, go here: http://www.noongovernmentwaste.com/

At The Rub PR, we work with performers, studios and adult-oriented companies. All three of these types of clients have websites, and all three of these types of clients can make similar mistakes with their websites. If you’re a client, we will advise you of changes you could make to better your sites, increase your traffic and hopefully increase your bottom line, putting more cash in your pockets. And the ones who aren’t clients…this blog is for you.

Make Sure It Works

Nothing is worse than going to a site that’s not fully functional, has broken links, won’t properly load or has too many technical issues to name. I know I don’t want to stay on a site that isn’t working–no one does. Make sure your site works and check or test it often for bugs. And lastly, make sure the site works and is compatible in all the top web browsers—Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.

Navigation

Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Make it simple—when people are given too many options, they lose interest. Group similar items together and separate them into sections that make sense.

Another thing to keep in mind are links—most visitors to a site are comfortable with the old-fashioned blue underlined text style indicating a link. If you want to use a different color, avoid light colors like yellow. Additionally, make it clear what the person clicking on the link should expect before they click the link (i.e. this link will take you to the contact page, etc.). And one last tip…links should open in the same window and not open a new window.

Aesthetic & Copy

Make sure your site looks good—that alone will make people want to visit and potentially stay on it longer. Spend the money and hire a designer and make sure you let them know the look you’re trying to achieve. If you’re not sure, look at other sites for ideas to see what works and what doesn’t.

A few key points to keep in mind about aesthetic would be readability and how you use images. Use contrasting colors for text, but make sure it’s not too high contrast because people who are colorblind will have problems reading it. Make sure the font and the size of the font are easy to read—Tahoma is great, but Impact can be hard on the eyes. A picture is worth a thousand words, but don’t overuse images and make sure to provide text descriptions for all images.

You might want to hire a writer to make sure the copy is engaging and that the grammar and spelling are correct. A poorly written site is just as bad as a site that’s not pleasing to the eye. If you wrote the copy yourself, have someone look it over and edit it, if needed. A site riddled with horrible grammar and filled with misspelled words is extremely unprofessional and won’t be taken seriously. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of copy—it’s a slippery slope of just enough. You want just enough for people to get the idea, but not too much, because people won’t read most of it, or potentially none at all. Go for concise and in as few words as possible.

Keep It Fresh

Fresh content is the most important thing you can do for your site. If you’re a performer, have weekly updates of photos and/or scenes. When you do an update, let your fans know. Send out an email, use social media like Twitter to get the word out or even include in a press release that your site has something new every week. If you can do multiple updates, that would be even better. Post photos of your daily life from your phone if you want to add small updates. Blogs are also a great idea to keep their fans in the loop and give them some not-so-personal insights into your daily life.

Companies need to keep their sites extra fresh too. A weekly blog will draw traffic to your site and keep their attention—use the blog to introduce new products or features, what your clients are up to or even highlight an employee or client (depending on your business). Use SEO keywords that can attract even more traffic to your site, and potential business. If you’re unfamiliar with SEO keywords, ask your Webmaster. At some point, businesses also might want to consider redoing their site—this would not be a re-branding per se, but polishing up the existing brand with a spin on the current look. If your branding is working for you, there’s absolutely no reason to change it. Make sure to let the public know about changes to your site using social media, press releases or even word of mouth.

Banners & Advertising

If you can afford advertising, it’s money worth spending and a tax write-off—just make sure you pick a site with a lot of traffic that will give your ad good placement. Some sites will trade banners with you and this can be an effective way to get your site more exposure without having to come up with the cash. Make sure your banner is clean/simple and when it’s up on another site that it links to your site when you click on it. If you put ads or banners on your site, make sure to limit the amount and put them all in one area or one page.

Those are the Top 5 things to keep in mind. I was lucky enough to have an excellent designed/webmaster, x over r studio visual, which not only designed my site the way I wanted it, but took into to account my logo and image. He also helped with the copy and was a pleasure to work with. If you’re a company looking to do or redo your website, you definitely want to look him up at http://www.xoverr.net/. For girls looking to have pay sites and be connected with networks, I recommend Porn Star Platinum http://www.pornstarplatinum.com/ and PUBA http://www.puba.com/. Their sites look great and as networks, they’re amazing to work with and get a lot of traffic.

Each week, we get at least five emails requesting PR services. Obviously, we can’t take all the clients who hit us up. How do we decide? Each PR Company has different criteria, but these are some things we consider when taking on a new client.

Can We Help You

We never take clients we don’t believe we can help and/or don’t believe in. If we can help get your name out there, grow your career and really think you’ll be successful, we’re more likely to take you on. It’s not good for you (or us), if we can’t do anything to help you.

What’s Your Rep

We’ve had clients come to us with not-so-stellar reps and other clients who didn’t listen to our suggestions and ruin their reps while they were on our watch. Both of these situations are not good. If you have a bad rep, we can help you fix it, if you really want to change—you just need to be honest about it when you come to us. If we don’t feel we can help change that, we won’t take you.

Do You Look Like Your Photos

I always like to meet potential clients in “real life” or do a Skype meeting if they live far away. It lets me get to know you and see what you really look like. If you don’t look like your photos, it will be hard for your agent to get you work and for me to sell you to magazines. This can ruin your rep and mine. I swear by my clients and people know my word is gold. I definitely don’t want to jeopardize that. Just a tip…don’t airbrush too much to the point of where you’re totally unrecognizable.

Do You Have Something to Promote

If you don’t have something to promote, why would you need PR. Some people have PR and have nothing going on. If you’re doing interviews, you need to talk about yourself and things you’re promoting. If you’re making one or less movies a month, there’s really no reason for a publicist. Some publicists won’t tell you this, but we will.

The Feeling Is Mutual

Not only do you need to like us, but also we need to like you. Whenever we’ve taken on a client we didn’t like or had this feeling we shouldn’t, we always regret it. Now, I know go with my gut.

Can You Afford Our Services for At Least 2 to 3 Months?

To get the real affects of PR, you need to be with a company for at least 2 to 3 months—it’s not always instantaneous, unfortunately. Sometimes, I get a magazine spread for a client in Hustler that doesn’t show up for 6 months after the fact.

And of course, potential clients have a lot of questions for us. Here are some of the ones we hear most often.

Will you take newcomers or only established talent?

We take both. We have helped newcomers like Nikki Delano and Alex Chance get on the map. We’ve also had established performers like Kelly Divine and Nyomi Banxxx. We take whomever we think we can help and don’t have criteria for the time they must be in the business.

How much are your services?

Call us for a quote and we will give you one. We have a standard rate for performers and adult companies.

I’m a MILF, a t-girl or a specific type of girl? Do you only take one type of girl? Do you limit the amount of each type of girl you rep?

Our roster is very diverse. That being said, we will never be an all t-girl, all MILF or one-type-of-girl agency. We generally only take one t-girl at a time and not more than 2 or 3 MILFs. That way it’s fairer about who gets what interview or other opportunities.

How much can you do for me?

It depends on what you want. We can set up a timeline of what we can do for you and how long it will take us to accomplish. Of course, some of this relies on other factors like how quickly someone will interview you, how quickly a studio will release a movie, etc. But, we can give you a good idea.

Why do I need PR?

If you’re serious about your career, you need someone to promote you and get your name out there, along with submitting you for award nominations. Now is a great time to start PR before awards season hits.