By Marc Jarrett

YNOT – Back at the dawn of the millennium when broadband was becoming ubiquitous in developed markets, it seemed the new breed of online cam services made possible by a faster internet had rendered the humble phone obsolete. Finally, consumers could see the object of their desires. This was so much more compelling than just being able to talk with the lovely ladies of our dreams, right?

Well, yes and no. As the late-night ad spots on tabloid TV channels throughout Europe and elsewhere bear witness, there remains an enormous market segment comprising fans of aural sex. And phone services still make money, otherwise they would not exist.

Whilst it is true men usually are aroused more by what we see than what we hear, our biggest erogenous zone of all remains our brain. Some sexual fantasies cannot be satisfied with visuals alone.

Furthermore, when chatting to a model via cam, there are countless potential distractions for both parties. An instant message alert here, an email there…. Interruptions hardly lend themselves to an unobtrusive atmosphere for one-on-one communication. Phone conversations, however, liberate both the caller and the model from the web, removing both from all that internet clutter.

Far from killing off phone chat services, the internet actually has created a new variant of a tried-and-true business model. Since the web now powers such calls, there are no phone companies involved in the billing. That means the models themselves get to keep the lion’s share of all call revenues. Moreover, the quality of calls often is better via web-assisted telephony than if the caller had dialed the model direct on a landline or cell phone.

Needless to say, each and every call facilitated by these next-generation pay-per-minute chat lines can and should deploy a strict “double blind” system whereby the caller never sees the operator’s real phone number, and vice versa. All calls remain completely discreet and confidential.

Since the phone remains an inherently more intimate medium than its online cousin, fans love the opportunity of reaching out to their favourite porn stars and cam girls in this way, and that is reflected in the number of repeat callers. Think of it as a boyfriend-girlfriend type thing — the callers probably do.

Finally, don’t assume callers want phone sex each time they call. Anecdotal feedback suggests the majority of callers simply want to chat. And that’s something most porn stars are very good at — especially when they are receiving money per minute for the privilege of letting their fans reach out to them in this way.

In conclusion, porn stars — and indeed amateurs — who “do phone” can make nice additional revenue via a device dating back to the pre-web era, while at the same time benefitting from all those free advertising opportunities in the Internet Age. A simple “call me now” tweet can spread the word to a very targeted and receptive audience.

Given that there are now more phones in the world than there are people, talent that do not offer chat lines are simply leaving money on the table.

Marc Jarrett has been a consultant and facilitator in the pay-per-call industry since 1994. He recently launched DialAPornStar.com, which is powered by MyPhoneSite.co.uk. Jarrett welcomes contact by email.