I know that the blog has been mostly about law and marketing lately, and I’ve been neglecting the performance part of being in the adult industry for a month or so now. With AVN/AEE going on in Vegas right now, I figure it’s the perfect time to chat about props. For those of you who are webmasters and/or marketing types, this might just be some fun “no-brain” reading…or not, LOL.

Props are essential to any actor/talent/porn star’s bag of tricks. Depending on what you’re doing, from soft-core to fetish, there is a huge array of props – from sex toys to furniture, from lotions and creams to whips and chains…the imagination literally knows no bounds in this arena.

Places where you can purchase items also vary – if you don’t feel comfortable going into a store where people can see you making your choices, we now have the luxury of ordering anything we want off of the internet.

Leverage Your Position to Get Free Props

Once you’re pretty established as an adult performer, you should consider contacting adult toy manufacturers or distributors to see if they would be interested in “product placement” – that is, you use their product, and you mention their website or store either within your scene or on your site. Kind of like when a television actor drinks a can of Coca-Cola on his show. Who knows – the worst a company can say to you is “no”, right? A lot of companies will send you product(s) in exchange for the free promotion.

Free props?!? How do I do that?

Mention that you have a website with a certain number of visitors on a regular basis, and that you’re interested in promoting a product that they either make or carry. Be specific. Don’t just contact them and say something vague like, “I’m a porn star. Can I use your stuff?” unless you are looking for someone to laugh and hang up on you. Look through their catalogs and see what you might be interesting in using in a scene. In addition, it might actually help you come up with some interesting ideas for a scene!

Over time, who knows – the company might be interested in having you showcase their products exclusively, or might be interested in developing a line of products with your name and image on it. And don’t forget to see if they would do a link exchange, or set up an affiliate store for you – so if someone seeing your scene wants to buy what you’re using, you can make a commission on it as well. Of course, there is always the option of either auctioning off or selling any props that you’ve used in a scene to any fans that might be interested.

Sex Toy Reviews

A company might not be interested in giving you toy after prop after lotion to use on your site, but from time to time most sex toy companies look for people to review their products so that they can publish those reviews on their websites. Take advantage of that opportunity as well!

Below I will be posting my review of the Dreamboat, which was sent to me by the lovely people at GoodVibes – of course my review will be in a SFW format (I can hear the disappointed groans now, but sorry, this is the format of this blog, so there *sticks tongue out*).

If a company is nice enough to send you a product, be kind back! Write a review right away (sorry, GoodVibes, I was sadly delinquent this time…forgive me?) and be honest, but not too mean if you didn’t like the product. You can be naughty in your review, but most of all remember it’s not a place to showcase your “pornosity” but rather a place where you can showcase your PR skills.

Most of all, have fun…and try new things! As most of you know, I didn’t get into XXX for the money but rather for the life experience – and trying an array of different gadgets was right up my geeky alley! I hope it is for you as well.

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The DreamBoat

(1 star)

I have to echo BSL’s review of the Dreamboat, unfortunately. As an adult performer this product would never work, since it’s small and doesn’t come with any sort of handle, so you would never really get to see it on camera. I suppose the point of the product is that you could wear it out for an evening and have your beau operate the remote control…but the noise factor (which is pretty loud) would discourage me from trying that anywhere in public (unless I wanted someone to wonder what that buzzing sound was).

I personally don’t understand what the “buzz” is all about about multiple options on vibrations – I’m a low/med/high (and that’s good for me) kind of girl. I’m also disappointed when the vibration unit is inside the “insertion” section of a toy, with the hope that the vibrations would travel to the areas that would stimulate the areas that need to be stimulated.

I think that a Rabbit-like product is always going to be far superior to something like the Dreamboat – the vibration unit is kept where it hits the clitoris, and is a better investment financially (I’m trying not to say “bang for the buck”, haha). I’m frankly surprised at the cost of this item for what little it really does.

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