Where to advertise

Websites and Search Engines

Once your website is up, many web masters will write to you offering some fantastic deals. In fact, if I had a penny for everyone who has offered to bring me in loads of extra business/increase my search engine placement/improve my site/increase my penis size (oh sorry, different sort of spam) then, well, I'd have a big enough jar to make it worthwhile to go down my local Sainsbury's and change it up for notes in their coin counter.

Lots of unscrupulous "business people" see sex workers as their way of making quick cash. They see our hourly rates and decide that they need, want or deserve a share of it. But don't be fooled; you should be the only one making money out of your body. If someone has a genuine skill to offer then pay what their skill is worth to you; do not let them rip you off by overcharging just because they see what you earn per hour.

It is very tempting when you start out, or if business isn't as great as you'd thought it would be, to give something a go, especially when it promises so much. You will hear lots of talk about traffic and hits. Traffic to your site is only good if it is the right sort of traffic that will convert into business. And as for hits, don't let people get you confused between hits and unique user visits. Number of hits will not tell you how many people have visited your site, it will tell you how many items have been downloaded so for example if one of your pages had 10 pictures on it, that will generate 10 hits but only one person will have visited.

We advise that when the next 'best thing that could ever happen to your business' comes along, check it out thoroughly.

  • Ask if they give you a money back guarantee (given they are so confident they will improve your business).
  • Ask who they have done work for previously and don't just accept a list of names and quotes, ask for contact details so you can talk to the girls yourself.
  • Ask for figures. You may get told that so-and-so had a 100% increase in business, well that is no good if all that translates into is that they had one client a year before and now have two!

Well, that is some of the bad stuff to look out for, let's now talk about where is good to advertise...

Firstly, you should be reviewing your own website. Check out the wording on the front page and make sure it has lots of keywords that search engines like Google will pick up. Search engine placement is far more sophisticated than it used to be so make your site relevant and try and keep up with the latest methods being used by search engines to rank sites.

Search engines aside....

Blogging

This seems to be the craze of the moment ever since Belle Du Jour burst onto our computer screens way back in 2004 (I think). Now it is tres chic to blog. Whilst it can be about anything, it would help bunches if you made your blog interesting. Some ladies like to go for the full "I had a gangbang the other night and I'm so horny I can just swing off your cock right now" kinda stuff. Or some ladies prefer the more subtle approach, talking about their day if they think it's been interesting enough. For some escorts it's not always about sex and if you don't want to be continuously thought of as sex objects it's nice to throw in a bit of human-ess about you.

I would suggest not giving away too much of your personal life, though. Unfortunately, this industry attracts the most, um, colourful, shall we say, of characters, so it's always good to think about what you're going to write first. Plus you also have to remember that the potential client might be reading what you get up to before he makes up his mind on whether or not he'd like to spend some time with you. So remember you're writing for an audience - and they might pick up more detail than you think.

To add a blog to your site either ask your webmaster/mistress, or check out something like Wordpress.com or Livejournal.com for yourself.

Message Boards and Escort Directories

There are now many message boards and escort directories. Many come and go and many ask for extortionate monthly advertising fees so you should have a good look around before you sign up to anything. For those with message boards attached, have a quick scan of the message board to see what type of person frequents it and what types of posts they allow. A board/site struggling for traffic will allow gossip-fuelled personal attacks on people which shows the admin will stoop to anything to promote the site and so we suggest you avoid, as you could be their next innocent target. Also look out for sites which allow racist abuse to go unmoderated. Generally spend a little time having a look around and decide if the site is somewhere you want your name associated with.

Probably one of the main sites to advertise on is PunterNet. It is well established and many girls will tell you it's the only place worth advertising. It costs £15 a month for a basic listing or £30 a month for a deluxe listing which, aside from being a tax deductible expense, is very reasonable. You can have a listing on the service providers database and also advertise on the announcements board and on the tour calendar. It has a message board which can in useful for some 'subliminal' advertising, and do read Celine's testimonial in our 'ways of working' section for how message boards can help your business.

Another established and reasonably priced site is Captain 69. At last check it was £9 to be listed on the C69 database and can be worth doing. It will bring you business if you are the kind of girl C69 members look for - generally upmarket and pretty with a good-looking website. Members tend to be affluent professionals. The C69 membership is all UK and abroad but predominantly London. London guys travel within the UK on business and like the prices of the best regional girls.

C69 is a whole community of girls and punters and agents. The Members area of the site includes free advertising boards, message forum, chat room, IM, thousands of reviews, and more besides, established since 1999.

A fledgling site that comes recommended is SexyIndependentEscorts, which is now free to advertise.

Puntingzone is another reasonably well established site - it has returned to no-fee listings. Our experience is that the listings and adverts do not attract a hugely high amount of traffic (as compared to Punternet) but the message board is busy and lady members can have their details listed on their profile which is seen each time you post and therefore can bring business but could swallow up a lot of your time.

There are a number of free to advertise sites which girls have found useful:

UK Belles, Punterlink (that is both punterlink.com and punterlink.co.uk) and AdultWork (though we advise that you do not answer the personal questions on the AdultWork sign up form or upload a scan of your ID - watch for those sort of questions on other sites too and keep your personal details safe!).

Some of these give you the option of paying a small amount to be linked at the top of their pages or to be 'escort of the week' or similar - this may be worth it, but try and see what business a standard free listing generates in the first instance.

Some of these sites also have messages boards which, if you post a reasonable amount of interesting posts, you may generate some business as some guys like to follow girl's post to get a feel for what they are like. But beware; the boards can get addictive so make sure you maintain the right balance!

Of the free sites mentioned, UK Belles is quite effective as they really have worked consistently hard on good search engine placement. As a result of their work, once you are listed with them, guys looking for escorts via Google are much more likely to find you. If you're in Central London there is another site called LondonBelles, created by the owner of UK Belles.

HOWEVER (UK Belles health warning coming up), do not expect to be listed within 24 hours of submitting your site as the person running it has many other commitments and is a self-confessed "miserable old bugger" (although we found him to be very friendly and helpful) so hassling him to get your ad up is not recommended! But its free, it ups your profile in search engines and so is worth the wait in my opinion.

As regards Adultwork there has been much debate about this site. Some ladies would not touch it with the proverbial bargepole but others find it good for business. It is free to be listed but to have your website and number advertised you do have to pay, be it via a private gallery that you charge credits for clients to view, or just plain cold cash.

Selectanescort.com is very good for free and paid for advertising. The webmaster is very knowledgeable and comes highly recommended if you need your own website.

A fledgling site by the owners of well-established site escort-Ireland is escort-england.com. Proper people in an office and you can actually talk to a bod. They will address any concerns you may have. Be aware when filling out your profile, like Adultwork they do ask for personal details such as your real name and address and passport number, neither of which I would recommend for a provider to give to anybody, but they assure me that it is to safeguard themselves against underage escorts, so you may find that understandable. I'm told by the manager himself that these details aren't necessary but you do have to prove that you're an established provider to advertise on their site. A decent website ought to do it. Aside from that minor detail its franchise comes highly recommended.

Niche Directories

To get your site noticed, it is very much worth linking up with who you may see as your competitors. In this business, guys like a bit of variety and will see lots of different girls. In fact to many guys, a big part of the thrill is seeing someone new each time. So, if you have a specific attribute or service, look around for directories which list those girls within the same niche. For example, Pretty Big Escorts lists UK working girls of size 14 and over, PAMFAN offers advertising for pregnant working ladies and those offering the specialist 'milk maiding' service or, if you fancy working with an agency while you get established then Judy's Mature Escorts caters for mature ladies as does Vintage Vamps.

For Black/Ebony escorts there is london-ebony.com.

Regional and Other Country Directories

There are a few regional directories around so look out for ones that cover your area but also remember that if you go off on tour to another part of the country, many of these directories will accept a touring ad which is ideal for drumming up business outside of your own catchment. There are also a number of yahoo groups covering various areas so look out for those but in the meantime here are links to some of the current regional directories:

SCOTLAND

Escort-scotland.com paid for advertising at £20 a week or £40 a month and forums catering for Scotland.

Albaladies.com paid for advertising at £30 a month. Really good for Scotland: highly recommend it if touring or working there.

IRELAND

Escort-Ireland.com (by the owners of Escort-Scotland and Escort-Wales) is is expensive but don't tour Ireland without it as it's the busiest website there.

OTHER CITIES

Copy and paste any links given into your browser address bar, or put any site name into Google to find it if the link isn't given here.

Other sites you may find particularly useful and come recommended by service providers:

How much should you pay for advertising?

In reality, if you are clever with your marketing it shouldn't cost too much each month. £50 a month including the cost of hosting your web site is more than sufficient in most cases and remember many girls do not pay anything near that amount yet make a good living.

There are sites that will charge you £50 a month and more just to be listed, so imagine what the site owners are earning if they have hundreds of girls on their books! Of course, one could argue that they have worked hard to establish their site and if, as a result of that work, girls are getting a lot of business for their outlay, then it is worth it. Some may say money for old rope for the owners; some might say what great business acumen they have shown. As we said above, YOU need to decide what a service is worth to you.

Try pretending to be a client and think what you would put into Google to find the right kind of escort in the right area. "independent escort London" or "mature escort Manchester", for example. Remember, nobody searches for "red-haired escort who works 1.2km from Slough but sometimes travels to Dundee" so anyone who tries to tell you they'll put you at the top of Google listings is likely trying to sell you a silly listing for a never-used search term. It's mostly directories that will be at the top of "independent [town/city] escort" searches (and they'll therefore be the ones clients are most likely to find, too) so see what those directories are and how much those listings cost.

Check out Google Analytics if you want to monitor who is visiting your site and where they're finding it and what they're looking at on it. Google Analytics is free so don't let anyone talk you into paying for this sort of information. It's quite simple to install yourself but if you have trouble, your webmaster should be able to do this with no more than 20 minutes' effort - so don't let them try to charge you £100 for it, either!

Oh and as a final point, some girls report that some male website owners have used their 'status' to gain freebies from the girls. In case you are in any doubt, this is NOT required. If you feel comfortable 'networking' in this manner then fine, but don't EVER be pressurised - only you should decide what to do with your body.