Everybody knows that the business we’re in isn’t exactly the most celebrated and time-honored occupation. There are many, many people in the world who still look down upon the adult industry as immoral, degrading to humanity, and perhaps downright evil.Top 10 Ways To Keep Your Adult Business Private

by Betty Evinrude

http://www.bettybabes.com

Everybody knows that the business we’re in isn’t exactly the most celebrated and time-honored occupation. There are many, many people in the world who still look down upon the adult industry as immoral, degrading to humanity, and perhaps downright evil. They lump us all together with the child molestors and the kiddie pornographers, even if all we do is license pictures from a content provider, make thumbnails out of them, and slap them up on a website. Most of civilized society, is simply and ostensibly against the adult entertainment industry. It’s a simple matter of fact. And when you’ve got that kind of societal, cultural, religious, pressure stacked against you, if you’ve come under any sort of legal fire at any time, and from anybody, if the jury knows you’re a pornographer, you lose. Automatically. Because nobody wants to side with the pornographer. It doesn’t matter if every member of the jury covertly surfs porn and spanks monkey on a regular basis. On the surface, they have to be against you, or the whole machine would breakdown. The result: You lose. No questions asked.

On the other hand, those who are open-minded enough to accept what we do, often with a chuckle, or a kind ribbing, can be perhaps just as bad as the religious zealots. Why? Because the open-minded folks just might want you to sit them down and teach them how to do the porn for themselves. Think about it. You’ve just spilled the beans. You’ve told Joe Blow that you make $5000 a month working out of your home looking at naked women, you don’t have to wear a tie, you wake up around noon, and you work whenever the hell you want to. And not only that, but it’s EAAAASY. Naturally, Joe Blow’s gonna wanna know how to do it. Never mind that Joe hasn’t touched a rolling input device since the coin-op Centipede. Nevermind that Joe wouldn’t know a harddrive from a hardon. These people can be just as big timewasters as the Bible-thumpers. But what are you gonna do? You’ve known Joe since high school.

This is why it’s often very critical to keep what we do as adult webmasters completely secret. But keeping a secret like that isn’t easy. It involves keeping your mouth shut, but being ready with a cover story to fit any situation. Friends… Family… New business contacts… Girlfriends… You need a good cover, and you need one to cover many areas.

Here are the top ten practical ways to keep your adult business your own business, and nobody else’s.

TIP #10

Get yourself a post office box. There are two ways you can go about this: Get an actual box in an actual post office, or rent a box in a small mom and pop mailing store. The former offers a greater degree of anonymity, especially if the post office near you is large and impersonal. Post offices are often cheaper as well. However, the US Postal Service is a government entity. The records of who rents what box and for what reason is a matter of public record. Renting from a private mom and pop place may be a little more expensive, and their records are a matter of public record as well, but you may be able to fudge a little more on your application, and they may not keep as good of records as the US Postal Service. Note: We’re not encouraging fudging, we just acknowledge that it can happen.

TIP #9

Set up a corporation. A corporation provides a certain degree of shelter from lawsuits, though for exactly what kind of shelter depends on the state you file in and the kind of corporation you elect to run. Corporations are expensive, but I’ve found they are well worth it to give yourself a buffer between you and the public. Talk to your lawyer and accountant.

TIP #8

Get DBAs for your corporation. DBA’s are DOING BUSINESS AS. You file them in your county and they usually are relatively inexpensive ($20 or less). Basically, you file a paper with the county saying that your corporation or your name equals another name. For example, you file a DBA saying that JOE BLOW (you) is DOING BUSINESS AS “BETTYBABES.COM” Of course, you might want to pick a less porno-sounding DBA name, such as “Betty Media” or “Betty Tech Media.” You can file many different names, and you can usually take the completed, approved paperwork to your bank and start accepting checks in those other names as well. Talk to your accountant and your banker.

TIP #7

Set up a mock “web consulting” website on a real domain somewhere. For example, set up a domain called “bettytechmedia.com” and make it look like you offer web hosting, web design, internet consulting, word processing, whatever. Make sure you get an email account at this domain as well. This way you can tell nosy people you run a web consulting business and show them your website.

TIP #6

Make sure your accountant and your lawyer know what you do. Don’t try to keep a secret from them. They should be there to help you, and if they don’t approve of what you’re doing, you need to find another person to do their job. A good lawyer or accountant will actually come up with ways to keep your business private, and to keep a low profile. But best of all, sound legal advice will keep you from breaking any laws.

TIP #5

Resist the urge to brag to your secondary friends or distant family. You worked hard to get your adult web business going, but I know it’s always tempting to say how much you make and how little you work compared to your corporate wageslave brethren, but expressing this to your relatives over Thanksgiving dinner could open you up for a world of hurt. You’ll soon be getting phone calls and business cards from relatives across the nation asking for help to get started. Either that or you’ll never be invited to another family function. Lose-lose situation.

Be VERY selective who you tell about it. Make sure the people you tell are not only people you know and trust, but are completely open-minded, AND who have friends and/or spouses that are completely open-minded about it as well. Only let those know about it who you don’t mind bringing in and showing them how to do it. And that doesn’t include computer-illiterate friends and family. Teaching people computer basics isn’t what you got into the adult industry for. Stay focused. If you ever plan on running for political office at all, however, I recommend that you get out of the adult business NOW. You think private eyes and researchers are good at what they do now, add another few years of technology to help them out and your political aspirations are dead in the water. They WILL find out.

TIP #4

Only give out what information is completely necessary. Don’t give your home phone and address when filling out forms for partner programs, banner exchanges, etc. Use bullshit info unless they need to mail you a check, or that it’s absolutely imperative for them to talk to you. This goes for all information online. If you can get away with not giving anybody your real information, do it, if you’re concerned with your privacy. Of course, make sure that your customers can reach you quickly and honestly, and never lie, but rather offer your real information selectively and only when absolutely necessary.

TIP #3

Don’t mix email. Keep your porn email on another email account, preferably on another computer, or at least in a totally separate folder. When dealing with non-adult people, use your non-adult email account. When dealing with adult business people, use your adult account. Eudora 4 is a great program that lets you set up special folders (e.g. hosting, partners, avs info, content) that you can sort your email into. Better still, it lets you set up custom filters that file the email automatically. For example, if it finds a “BETTYBABES.COM” in the From: area, it automatically places it into your CONTENT email folder. I recommend Eudora 4, since Eudora 5 appears to be a bit unstable, at least for me.

TIP #2

Build alliances with other adult industry friends. Their experiences can be priceless when dealing with keeping a low profile while maximizing income. Keep a cool head, and never get involved in flame wars on message boards. With the internet comes a lot of anonymity, but anybody you piss off out there just may have a hacker friend who can easily track you down through cyberspace, finding such information as your IP address, your email address, even what ISP you use. What’s more, if they know the domain of your website, hackers can attack your server, and even shut you down. Don’t piss anyone off. Be smart.

TIP #1

Probably the ultimate rule of life, as well as the adult industry: Don’t shit where you eat. If you run your adult business from home, keep your office locked and your monitor angled away from windows where neighbors can peer in and see what you’re up to. If you have kids, keep them the hell away from your office and computer. And always, always use passwords to protect your system. If you produce content, make sure you do it in a place that, first of all, is legal. Secondly, don’t do it in your home or main office. Get a separate area, or take photos in a hotel. Don’t let neighbors see scantily clad women walking in and out of your home all hours of the day. The last thing you need is a police raid on trumped up charges, or even angry neighbors marching up and down your street.

All that being said, may you have a happy and prosperous adult business. Keep legal, keep quiet, and keep smart. Your business will stay private as long as you take some basic steps to keep it that way.

Betty Evinrude

Bettybabes — Legal Amateur Content for the Adult Webmaster

http://www.bettybabes.com