I love sex. I love talking about sex, I love writing about sex, I love everything about sex. But, I have a secret to confess: I’ve never really been into watching porn. .I love sex. I love talking about sex, I love writing about sex, I love everything about sex. But, I have a secret to confess: I’ve never really been into watching porn.

It’s just never been my thing. I don’t dislike it – (in fact, I was kind of aroused when I watched a gay porn shoot in Vegas earlier this year, but that’s another story) – but for many years, porn was never really a source of sexual stimulation for me.

Maybe it’s because I’m a woman, or maybe it’s because I’m a writer. I’m one of those people who gets off on dirty words.

I guess it’s only fitting that I would end up writing erotica and publishing other people’s erotica. I don’t own a single porn movie, although I’ve seen quite a few now, but I do have lots of books of erotica stories.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of beautifully shaped body parts, I’m the first one to stare at a hottie walking down the street, and I’ll flip through nudie magazines at every opportunity.

But, it’s the words that do it for me. Words are what create the story, the sexual situation, the context. And we all need context to some degree.

I’m surprised sometimes when people ask me “what’s erotica?” Erotica is just sexy writing, and it isn’t just found in books, it’s all over the internet on just about every adult website out there. But there’s a difference between erotica stories, which are usually found in books or magazines, and erotica writing, which is the stuff adult sites are made of.

All that text on adult websites can be labeled erotica writing, since it all has the same fundamental purpose: to turn the reader on. In this industry, it’s often referred to as “creative,” but it’s really just another form of erotica.

Like anything else, there’s good erotica and there’s bad erotica. At its best, erotica is well-crafted writing that stimulates the reader’s sex drive. At its worst… well, we don’t have to talk about bad erotica, we all know it when we read it. It just doesn’t work. It doesn’t make you think: sex!

That’s what erotica is, or what it should be: writing that arouses the sexual imagination, writing that stimulates sexual desires and cravings, or, to put it more bluntly, writing that makes the reader horny! (Erotica stories are a great addition to an adult site’s content, for that reason, but more on that later.)

Take a look at the words on your adult site, the movie descriptions and model biographies, and all the other descriptive, seductive words on your pages. You’re using a form of erotica on your sites to sell sex and attract surfers. The question is, is that erotica any good?

Stimulating Sales with Sexy Words

The bottom line is, if you’re not using erotica to your advantage, you’re probably not making as much money as you could be.

Think of how important the right keywords are to attracting search engine spiders, and how those few words ultimately affect your traffic flow. It’s the same thing with the words you use on your tour pages or member pages. You have only a few words to capture the attention of your surfers and sell them an idea.

Ask yourself: Are you using the most effective, the most seductive words? And, did your designer write the text for your site?

With no offense meant to designers, having designers write erotic creative is like asking a sculptor to do a painter’s job. While they’re both artists, like the designer and the writer, they work in different ways and produce two different results. So, unless your designer is also an erotica writer, you might want to consider hiring an actual writer to write or update or enhance your site’s erotic text.

That erotica creative is an essential part of selling the sex on your site, and it’s the only thing that differentiates between one pretty face and the ten or twenty or hundred other pretty faces on your site… it’s what marks the difference between the busty blondes site and the girl next door site.

It’s the words selling the photos and videos and memberships. Those words create the context, a story of some kind that gives those pictures meaning and brings them to life. Or, at least, brings to life the idea of sex with that sexy girl in the pics.

Of course, when it comes to porn, the picture can be quite stimulating all by itself, I’m not arguing that. But the right words can add weight and flavor to the visuals, and simply enhance the picture’s appeal. (The other side of that coin, however, is that poorly selected words can grate like a rusty hinge, and drive your surfers away.)

From Jane Nobody to Jane Nympho

Think of the photo you get in a new wallet or a new picture frame, the pretty girl with the smiling face. How many of us simply toss that photo without even a second glance? It’s meaningless. A photo of some anonymous person that we have no interest in.

But, put a description or a story next to her and all of a sudden she’s not just some pretty face, she’s Jane, Amateur Porn Star Extraordinaire, or Suzanne, the girl next door who loves to do it outdoors with her sneakers on. You might take another good long look at that pretty face before tossing her aside if you were offered even just that little tidbit of information about her.

We all know that the information given on adult sites, the context, is probably not true, but it doesn’t matter. It’s enough to have those few words of fiction. The horny mind will take that beginning of a sexual scenario and run with it.

That’s the appeal of erotica stories. People are attracted to erotica stories for precisely that reason: they’re stories. Stories bring the imagination to life, using words, not pictures, to stimulate sexual thoughts.

Erotica Stories

Compared to erotica creative, erotica stories are a whole different ballgame. In the adult industry, erotica stories mean content.

Erotica stories can make an attractive addition to an adult site by offering your members more content options, more stimulation, and more ways to spend their time on your site.

Compared to photo sets or videos, erotica stories are some of the most inexpensive, cost-effective content available for adult sites. And there’s lots of niche-specific story content available, everything from lesbian and BBW to Asian and interracial orgies.

Debunking Erotica Myths

I spoke to a guy I met recently about erotica stories appealing to men, and he laughed. “Erotica is for chicks,” he said. “Guys don’t read erotica, we’re too visual. Erotica stories can’t replace porn,” he told me.

I laughed back. “Maybe in your world guys don’t read erotica, but in my world, guys not only read erotica, they write erotica too. In fact, almost half the story submissions my erotica publishing house receives are written by guys.”

There are a lot of erotica enthusiasts (as I like to call us) out there. I get erotica story submissions all the time from writers, and from people who aren’t writers, and from people who don’t even speak English as a first language. They’re all writing erotic stories. And a great number of them are men.

I’m not suggesting that erotica stories can or should replace porn in any way. They shouldn’t be compared to porn because they’re not in competition with porn in any way; they’re complimentary – an additional, different source of stimulation. Erotica stories are definitely a source of sexual stimulation for some people, and some of those people could very likely be your members.

SexyScribe is a freelance writer, editor, translator, and enthusiastic purveyor of written smut, as well as erotica publisher at SexyScribe.com. She is the newest member of the YNOT News writing team, and can be reached at scribe@sexyscribe.com.