Europe HIV shutdown: light at the end of the lockdown tunnel

How to look after your personal finances during shutdowns

Positive HIV results and production shutdowns will always send shockwaves through the industry. The announcement on 14^th February of a Europe HIV shutdown after a positive test result, was no different.

First and foremost, there is concern for the health and wellbeing of the people involved. ‘How long will the lockdown last?’ and ‘What impact could this have on my livelihood?’ are afterthoughts — rightly so — but such feelings of uncertainty are natural and worrying. Especially when adult film production is your main source of income.

At the time of writing the end of the Europe HIV shutdown is imminent. During this lockdown period, some of you may have lost an important revenue stream for well over a month.

This is why shutdowns are such a personal financial concern. And it’s why we recommend having several streams of income. Even if you’re not earning from them all of the time, knowing you have alternative work available offers some financial security.

Supplementing your income during a HIV shutdown

Whilst the likes of this HIV shutdown are still relatively rare, they have been growing in number over the last few years. Not only in Europe, but also in the US where we have seen similar shutdowns in recent years. Until there is a HIV cure, we must be realistic that this isn’t the last time it’ll happen. And there is no shame in laying some ground work, so when it does you can continue earning and living your preferred lifestyle.

Boosting your income using AdultWork.com

There are lots of ways you can fill an income gap left by adult film work. For example, you can work solo or (if you’re in a relationship) with your long-term partner. In either case, setting yourself up on AdultWork.com offers alternative revenue streams.

In this article we explain some of the things you can do as a member on AdultWork.com and what new and existing members should do if wanting to maximise their presence. Following this advice can help lead to greater income opportunities so the loss of earnings during a shutdown become less of a worry.

Choose how you want to earn

There are several ways you can earn on AdultWork.com: camming, phone chat, SMS chat, movies and escorting.

If you’re used to being in front of a camera, you might set yourself up as a webcam performer or film your own clips for sale. In terms of earnings, there is no upper limit on how much you can make. Some of our members charge up to 4.50 credits per minute (equivalent to £270 per hour) for a private one-to-one cam session. Others find it more financially rewarding to use group cam and have multiple viewers each paying slightly less per minute.

With clips, you can set different prices for each upload. You may want to charge more for certain clips, depending on the content and quality. Some of our top FinDom content producers charge £500 per clip. Sometimes more.

Offer as many of these services as you want. This gives you a chance to mix things up, but it’s also an opportunity to appeal to as many of the different AdultWork.com audiences as possible.

Set your profile up correctly

Detailed, well-written profiles perform best. The more a client knows about your business and services, the more confident they’ll feel that they’re in the right place and are spending their money wisely.

When setting up your profile, make sure you:

• Upload a profile picture (learn how to do that here)
• Explain who you are, what you enjoy and why you’re different
• Pre-empt common questions with FAQs
• List contact details
• Outline your rates (we’ll talk more about that in a moment)
• Give your vital stats
• State what you enjoy and with who
• Answer the interview questions
• Add a gallery.

There is loads you can do to make sure your profile works hard to win you business and the Profile Wizard offers tips. Give yourself enough time to complete and format your profile. And while it’s important to make your profile shine, it’s worth remembering that done is better than perfect.

Promote your profile through your social media channels so fans know where to find you. Using your referral link makes this quick and easy. Plus, you’ll open up another revenue stream that rewards members when they bring new people to AdultWork.com.

Keep your profile updated and relevant

Whether you’re a new or existing member of AdultWork.com, it’s useful to keep your profile up to date so it attracts the right attention. Over time your tastes, services and business priorities can change. Make sure you update what you enjoy, spruce up the about section and if you’ve got recent pictures you’re happy to share, upload them. It’s even worth sharing a sexy anecdote or a few thoughts on your blog so customers can get to know you a little better.

Adding and refreshing your content shows visitors to AdultWork.com that you’re active on the site and they’ve got the right information. In turn, you’ll get not just more views, but views from the right clients who are keen to spend with you rather than anyone else.

Extra Tip: We’ve updated our DirectCam categories, making it even easier for the right people to find you. It now includes a Porn Star category. If this is a job title you use, selecting this option in your DirectCam settings means you’ll turn up in the AdultWork profile results every time a potential customer searches for porn stars to cam with.

Set your rates

For any small business in any industry, setting prices is always difficult. Charge too little and you’re doing yourself a disservice. Charge too much and clients look elsewhere. Your rates can depend on your experience, the services you offer and what you enjoy.

Webcam performers earn anything from £100-£1,000 a day. How much time you spend working along with your rates will influence this.

Learn how to use DirectCam to make sure your rates are correctly set up and you don’t lose out on any money. This also explains why offering some free cam and chat time works in your favour when building your audience.

Make the most of your AdultWork.com account

It’s important to remember that even when bad news hits our industry, we still need to take care of ourselves. For some, not being able to work during a HIV shutdown simply isn’t an option.

To minimise any worry about an income gap during an already difficult situation, new and existing members can find sex worker friendly support here, or sign up and log in to use their AdultWork.com membership and continue earning.

AdultWork.com promote and support safe sex among our members. We have a range of condoms for sale in our Official Store.