I think you can function quite merrily without a website as long as you can use forums effectively to advertise on. This means finding sites that give you enough facilites on the site to promote yourself. On many forums, the facilites are basically all the same things you'd have on a personal website if you had one. You have a gallery, chit chat are for announcements, a tour section if you want one, FAQs page, blog, review page and anything else you want really. So it depends on whether or not the forums you choose to advertise on supply you with enough features to advertise effectively.

Downside of only advertising on forums instead of having a website

The are dramas with only advertising on forums. Some of these include:

you're limited to only hitting people with your advertising who come to the forum
alot of guys may not have the time or ability to go to forums so reach them
you have a lot of competition on forums with other girls advertising in the same space you are
it may not be well linked overseas so you miss out on an entire market who may be hunting
it can be VERY expensive to advertise on forums (it will be your main work expense apart from paying rent)
politics can be involved (grrrr to them)
if you advertise on a forum and then pull your advertising you may disappear altogether. On some forums if you stop paying to advertise on them they will pull all of your reviews which also advertise you. This means anything you have worked hard to build up on the site will disappear once you stop paying.
on some free international forums that drive LOADS of traffic to you, they will not allow you to advertise unless you have a website. You can miss out on bucketloads of exposure and work if you don't have a website to connect to a forum with.
alot of International forums wont allow you to put free advertising up unless you do a reciprocal link/banner exchange with them. No site = no advertising.
unless the forum has very active moderators who promote you and alot of reviews going up, you can tend to get lost or disappear in the background noise. To make a forum work well for you, it is often a good idea to actively participate on the forum. A forum sells personality not just a look, but only works if you have a presence to sell.
if you happen to fall out of favour on a forum it can be VERY detrimental for your business. THis is why if your choosing a forum to appear on, you should be very wary of the posting style, review style and type of clients who frequent the site.

Upside of advertising on forums

Some of the upsides of advertising on a forum are:

- when men are Googling for sex workers, forums sit at the top of the search engines so your advertising will be one of the first seen

- when men are finding ladies by linking from other sites, forums are often very well linked so your advertising will once again be some of the first seen.

- if you just advertise on a forum without having a website you cut down on a lot of expense. A website can cost a bomb to set up and maintain. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for my site costs US$300 a month, but it does sit me in the top 5 listings in Google If your purely advertising on a forum you wont have this ongoing website expense. I look at paying for SEO as just paying to sit on the largest forum in the world - Google!

- if you advertise on a forum you wont have to be bothered about getting things like PLA approval in Qld because the forum owner does it for you.

- The software that some forums are made out of allows you to sell your service in diverse and dynamic ways. The software some forums are made out of allows us to have Blogs, YouTube, you can have 10 000 pictures in your gallery, you have a personal space where you can basically have as many folders discussing ANYTHING you want in them. A good forum should always be open to your ideas on how you'd like to promote yourself and be wanting to help you implement a strategy to achieve that end.

- Forums are an excellent way to sell your service and your personality. I get MOST of my clients because I participate on forums and they read my posts and like what i have to say so want to meet me. They also have chat rooms which you can show the world how gorgeous your personality is. If the forum has the facility you should use it because it will get you work.

- forums allow you to promote 'specials' or promotions you may be running. If you just have a website, it can be VERY hard to do this.

- forums allow you to have quick and easy contact with your client base to keep them updated with information. So if you get sick and need to have a few days off, a forum can convey that message quickly. If you have an unexpected bill come up and need to make fast money, a forum can do that for you.

- forums often have a Secret Sex Worker Business in them which allows you to network with other ladies. This cuts down on the feeling of being isolated and lots of very good information is exchanged. Some forums will only allow advertiser's to participate in these forums

- forums have a HUGE membership base. Most Australian forums have over 10 000 members so that's close to 9 000 men seeing your profile on a regular basis. The exposure to your target market is HUGE.

- forums allow you to really target who your advertising to and market yourself in a way that captures these guys imaginations. It also allows you to let guys who you're not targetting to know contacting you would not be the best idea. This will help to cut down on enquiries that are time consuming and not useful to you.

What to consider when choosing which forum to advertise on

- When considering if your going to just advertise on forums, I would suggest you only need to advertise on one or two in Australia. The only time I would make an exception to that rule is if you're doing Interstate work and then you'd advertise on the home states forum your touring to.

- What's the advertising on the forum like? If the forum allows LOADS of ladies to advertise with fake pictures, you run the risk of guys assuming everyone on the site has fake pictures. When you advertise on a forum check to see if there is a verification process for the photographs. Often guys wont mind if the lady is not using pictures of herself as long as they are a likeness to her and he's aware of it. Guys get VERY angry if the fake pictures look NOTHING like the lady though and this could harm your business to be associated with a site that does not regulate this behaviour.

- With Australian guys they all know about all the forums so my suggestion would be to pick any one of them and advertise on it. If your in WA I'd pick Langtrees, Qld I'd pick AB, NSW Id pick SDU and Vic I'd pick FIA. Then you pick an international forum to make sure you had exposure in the International arena.

- I dont advertise on Langtress because I don't work in WA and have no immediate intention to tour there. I advertise on Australian Escorts because lot's of NSW guys frequent the forum and International visitors coming to Sydney.

- Only advertise on forums who have the type of guys going to the site you wish to see. If your charging $400+ per hour and you advertise on a forum where they think anyone charging over $100 is outrageous, then I wouldn't waste my money there.

- I'd look at the moderating style of the site. It's important to find a site where you feel safe and you feel your business is protected to an extent. It's important to find somewhere the Moderators and owner of the site put ladies feelings and business first, or at least make it of equal importance to the guys.

- I would never take the number of ladies advertising on a forum as testament to whether it is worth advertising on or not. However, alot of sex workers may not be 100% focused on sex working so have no business plan and don't monitor the forums or what they are doing for them. Many girls get referred to a site from a friend so the site may be populated purely because friends do what their friends are doing or tell them to do. The best way to see if a forum is going to work for you is to try them all.

- Contact ladies on the site. Not always helpful or possible but research and information is power so empower yourself. I think the best thing to do is have a listen to people, experience the site and if what they say matches up with your experience, then you can make a balanced decision on whether you wish to advertise there or not. You have to be careful with this approach though as people in this industry are notorious for basing business decisions based on emotion rather than proven results.

- Do you feel safe and confident on the forum is a HUGE issue. If you don't trust the mods or trust the owners, if you don't like the policies on the forum, if you don't like the culture on the forum I wouldn't advertise on it. The culture of a forum will reflect in the way a client approaches the industry and woman in it. If the forum is full of men who use the term "whore", I would think carefully about advertising on it. It is incredibly important they have a vocal female Mod who is respected on the site so she can advocate for you and so you feel comfortable approaching them.

- How professional are the advertising people? Do they respond quickly to emails or PMs? Can you get in contact with them? Do they respond in detail if you have a question? Are they helpful? Are they nice to you? Is it a man pretending to be a woman (grrrr hate that) selling the advertising? Are they dismissive and cocky? Basically can you work with these people?

Negotiating with Forum Owners

When you approach forums to advertise on I'd ask for a period of free advertising. It can't hurt to ask and lots of forums are asking for an awful lot of money these days so I dont think there is anything wrong with asking them to prove themselves. Forums may say "I have 5 advertisers so I dont have to prove anything to you because I wouldn't have those 5 if the forum didn't pull them work". I'd say oook no probs and then decide whether or not to go ahead anyway. If a forum owner is dismissive of you I'd give it a miss unless it is your home State forum and it is vital you advertise there.

Questions you should ask a forum owner when considering advertising

Ask the forum owners EXACTLY what you get for your money and any hidden costs. As in do you have to pay to have updates done to your profile? DO you have to pay them to put in for PLA approval (if working or touring to Qld)?
Do they know the laws in each State well enough to know what they can supply and you can advertise without getting in legal troubles. For example on Fun In Australia they have pictures of full nudity and full body shots. This is illeg according to Victorian Law where the forum is based, so you could get in serious trouble for advertising on the forum even though the forum owner doesn't tell you it is a Melbourne based forum
How often are invoices issued?
What happens if you get a bad review on their site? Do they allow bad reviews to be put up?
Will they support ladies if a dispute happens and how do they handle disputes if they arise?
Will they allow you to suspend your advertising half way thru the period you have paid for, if you have to take 2 weeks off work because your sick or have to go away?
Will they charge you for a second profile if you decide to tour
Will they place demands on you like you must put their banner on your home page if you advertise with them
How responsive can they be to your advertising needs? If they cannot respond to your needs within 48hours, I would be wary of this forum
can you have a period of free advertising to test to see if the forum will work for you
what are the payment options and do these work for you. On overseas forums you generally have to pay with a credit card so they have your real name and credit card details. On Australian forums it's generally done by you directly depositing money into the forums bank account.
do you get a discount if you pay for advertising in advance ie. if you pay for 3 months up front, do you get a discount on the monthly rate?
Do they have female moderators or advertising representitive you can talk to?
What are the different features they have that you can use to promote yourself
If you don't wish to participate on forums or be actively promoting your business, are they able to do that for you?

How to tell if the forum is working for you

Simple... are you getting the work that you want? We're not necessarily talking volume of clients thru the door, we're talking type of clients and in the volume you'd like thru the door.

With me I get alot of hits to my website from some forums but none of the guys who hit on my site actually convert to bookings. This means it is pointless for me to pay to advertise on those sites. Hits to a site or enquiries via phone or email if you don't have a site that don't convert to bookings, means it is not worth advertising on that forum. Just because those enquiries or hits don't convert does not mean your not good at what you do, it simply means the site either gets lots of tyre kickers or the guys going to the site are not your client base so dont take it personally. Just move on and try another forum to find one that works for you.

What you will need to advertise

you will need an intro or FAQs page - some sites will write the copy for you or you may have to write it for yourself. Basically it's just some cheesy stuff telling guys how gorgeous you are, a list of your prices, hours of work, where you are, what you offer (eg. massage or full service) and contact details (email and phone number)

You will need some pics. If your new to the industry and can't afford professional shots to be taken, then just get a friend to take some hand held digi pics. You will need 2 at least I would suggest to get a profile up. WHen taking pics take them of your most sellable asset. Soooo if you've got HUGE boobs and long blonde hair, but a big butt with warts on it, then take the pics just of your boobs and long flowing hair. Sell sell sell. Guys don't need to see all of you, just the best of you. If you don't want a friend to take them then get a client to do it on YOUR camera or get a fellow hooker to take them. Take LOTS cause you never know which ones will work out (will write a whole blurb about pics in another entry when doing website post)

You will need to decide on rates so they can be put up - a good friend of mine who is a sometimes hooker keeps telling me... "the only difference between a $50 hooker and a $1000 hooker, is the way she values herself" . How bloody intelligent is that?!?! Actually Im going to go and change my rates once I finish writing this! Your rate will reflect the type of client you get so be very careful with this. Your rate is one of the strongest marketing messages you give to clients - they actually say more to a man than your pictures do (hmmm I should write more about this later as well - we need to do a whole thing on marketing).

Summing up

Ok to sum up... I think if your new to the industry and have NO money then not having a website is ok because you have no sart up costs beyond paying for the advertising. However... if you have the cash I would ALWAYS advocate for a lady to have a site. It means you are not tied to an advertising forum, means once you have fucked everyone off the forum you will still be able to get work and means you will have greater exposure to the International market where the real money is. My website www.lucy-sydney-escort.com cost me $900 in total. I pay someone $300US a month in SEO which sat me in the number 5 position in the first 3 months of the website going live in the search engines. I sit close to the top of the page which means anytime someone googles "sydney escort" or Australian Escort" I am right there and not competeing with 100 other girls on a forum for the work and not getting lost in 100 other pics and distractions on the site. It makes me look more professional and it's all about me with no competition. A website means I can change my marketing at anytime and I can make myself stand out from the crowd. I am in control of my life and career. An exceptional website should cost you no more than $1k Australian. Before getting one I'd research it very very well. Ive seen some bloody awful sub standard ones that cost a fortune. Aaaargh I definately need to write about websites - dont get one until you have spoken to a lady who has a very very good one, you think would suit you and your business. There are a zillion pitfalls with having a site if you get one made by someone who is not ethical so be very careful - bugger I write that website thing next.

My other site www.lucy-blake.com serves a very different purpose and markets in a very different way. Websites can vary immensely and target very different people depending on what you say on them, how and how you package the information.

written by Sydney Escort Lucy Blake; site design and maintenance by Lucy Blake; Copyright Lucy Blake www.lucy-blake.com 2009 - 2011