It seems like a no-brainer: Winning a fan-driven popularity contest like Booble.com's "Booble Girl" has got to be good for business. But do such titles actually translate into increased Web traffic on solo-girl sites? To find out, AVN Online brought together some recent Booble Girl winners for a roundtable discussion. They are Catalina Cruz (www.CatalinaCruz.com); Sabrina Deep (www.DeepSabrina.com); and Vicky Vette (www.VickyaAtHome.com).
AVN Online: Which contests have you entered/won to date?
Catalina: Most recently, I have been participating in the "Booble" contest at Booble.com, where surfers/fans can vote on who has the best boobs -- really the best "OO"s in the word Booble - on a monthly basis. I entered it in the first place to give my fans something fun to do and, of course, for some more exposure.
Vicky: I am batting 100 percent so far this year. I won MissMySpaceUSA.com in March 2008 and I am the current Girl of the Year 2008 for Booble.com.
Sabrina: I have only entered the Booble contest, which I won in January 2008. I entered it mainly because I wanted to measure the impact of my natural boobs on people, in a market where silicon pollutes more bodies and brains. I also entered because of the $500 winning prize and as part of a marketing strategy to get more visibility.
AVN Online: Has winning boosted your traffic and helped your site?
Sabrina: It hasn't done much, in the short term, for the traffic; but it has definitely boosted the amount of opportunities to work for different productions. I would say that it has been
really beneficial in terms of B2B networking, and that's what I really wanted.
The traffic in this business has a very short life and quality is much more important than quantity, so I doubt that winning a contest can bring your business huge benefits from the traffic.
Vicky: I am proud to say that the traffic for VickyAtHome.com has never been higher in the last five years -- amazing because I have not made an official movie for a couple of years.
Did winning do that? No, but there is no doubt that winning a competition generates traffic, and gives you exposure and promotional tools. There are lots of reasons why the AVNs are coveted other than just for the stature. Marketing and advertising are crucial to stand out from the crowd. Being "the winner" of something cannot hurt.
In the case of MissMySpaceUSA.com, there was a link straight from my profile to my MySpace page, so I was getting tons of people coming over to say, "Hi, I voted" daily. In the case of Booble.com, anyone going to vote could also click a link directly to VickyAtHome.com. It was also a nice talking point on my blog at MySpace other than the usual "I am doing a camshow tonight" entry.
AVN Online: Is there a strategy you employed to increase your chances of winning?
Vicky: Annoy the crap out of your friends, family, fans, and anyone else you know on a daily basis for a month!
Sabrina: Generally speaking, let as many people as possible know that you are a contestant
and how to vote for you. The more detailed strategies might change from contest to contest, I guess. It's obvious, though, that if the contest is based on votes coming from end-users, decent traffic and a solid fan base are paramount.
Catalina: Yes, [but you have to decide] just how much of your own traffic you are willing to give up to win. You can force traffic to your vote page off clicks from your homepage, which I wasn't willing to do to win for the Girl of the Year, I am pretty selfish with my traffic! You can send out mass mailings to your current members and your fan clubs. Posting on public forums is another way, too. There are numerous ways to win an online contest; you just have to have the traffic and fans.
Vicky: The strategy for me was simple. I came in Third last year in the Girl of the Year contest in Booble.com and noticed one major thing: I had about 1,500 MySpace friends, and the winner, Lisa Sparxxx, had about 40,000! I am not a mathematician, but I needed more friends (ha ha). I figured it was good for my website and for any future Web competitions to increase my Web profile all over the net. [So] I took a hard look at MySpace, Facebook, Yahoo, and others to see not only what could win me a contest but what, in the long run, was going to beneficial for my website.
AVN Online: Does entering contests get you exposure in the mainstream market?
Vicky: Absolutely. I have already started doing interviews on the various radio stations around the country for Booble.com. I'm even doing radio interviews in England and Australia! I have not gotten my Tonight Show invitation from Jay Leno yet, though.
Sabrina: In my case it did. It can help you get noticed by mainstream producers, but at the end of the day, you'll still need to do a casting call and then it helps when having won a contest becomes influential for getting the part.
Catalina: I think some contests can very much roll over into the mainstream market, depending on if it's aired over the radio or TV. I was just chosen for a TV segment that will air in January featuring "America's Most Popular Adult Websites," so I will get a taste of just how well this kind of exposure does, hopefully!
AVN Online: Have you been able to devise promotional campaigns that capitalize on your wins? If so, how have you done it?
Sabrina: I know I'll be called dumb by all the marketing strategists out there, but I still like to think that people like my boobs because they find them attractive and would like to get lost in them and not because I have won a contest and therefore they are supposed to like them. So, no; I didn't specifically capitalize on my win with promotional campaigns. The thing would have been different if I had won an AVN award or something like that, which is based on a full performance. Therefore, a promotion campaign can be beneficial.
Catalina: I have been able to capitalize on wins by using them as tools on my tour page on my websites. So if you win for "Best Adult Website," you can obviously use that everywhere to get surfers to want to check your site out.
Vicky: Funny, yes. When I was in the MissMySpaceUSA contest, some of my members started calling themselves the "Vette Nation Army" or "VNA." In the middle of the contest I was kicked out after other girls were complaining that I was not a "real" model because I am in adult. So many people wrote in from the VNA that the people running MissMySpaceUSA asked me to call them off. (I guess they deluged them with e-mail.)
When I wrote back to the army to thank them for kicking some ass it got me thinking: Why not promote around the theme of the Vette Nation Army? I had already received lots of military and navy apparel from fans and members to shoot in. [So] I sent out some promotional clips based on that theme. Those galleries on the Net did terrific, so I took it a step further and put up a lengthy promotional clip on the home page of VickyAtHome telling people what they would get if they joined the Vette Nation Army.
I was a bit worried because it was campy and tongue-in-cheek. Who in their right mind would join a site from a 43-year-old MILF calling herself "the Commander in Briefs"? A few months later and I am proud to say that the Vette Nation Army promotional idea that grew out of the minds of some fans took off all over the Internet. I have people writing to me out of the blue asking things like, "Ms. Vette, may I please enlist in the VNA?" or "Ms. Vette, I will obey all commands!" I have a members-only board where anyone who posts on my board starts out as a private but can get promoted to private first class (and up the ranks if they keep on posting). Amazing how something so silly but fun can keep thousands of people together. The moral of that story? Never take yourself too seriously.
AVN Online: Based on what you have all said, winning contests has had a positive impact on your websites. So what advice do you have for other adult stars wanting to win contests?
Sabrina: Pick the right ones for you. Participate only if you feel that you've got what it takes in order to win. Don't enter every contest you come [across] because if you win none you will get the opposite effect, in terms of visibility.
If you want to enter a contest, plan it right and don't give up until you win it. Don't just apply and then walk away and forget it, because you won't win it like that. It's a jungle out there!
Catalina: More than winning contests, I would really encourage adult stars online to focus on making their members' areas the best they can, with quality and quantity of content and fan interaction, and then to submit their site to different adult website review sites. If you can get a top review (a high rating), this can increase your traffic tremendously. It's a competition among all adult sites and gives surfers a really good idea of, "Is this worth my money to join?" Then you can use those top reviews in the tour of your website. I have gotten tons of traffic and exposure this way.
Vicky: I don't presume to give others advice (what works for me may not work for someone else), but I will say that it does not hurt to keep your profile out there as much as possible in the glut we call the Internet. Contests are a great way to interact and meet with old and new fans. Once you ask them to vote and they do, you know that they are interested enough to maybe be a fan for the long run.
If you do run, put your own effort into it. Fans that get involved take it very personally. I think there is nothing worse than certain adult stars using their publicist to write to their fans for votes: If you want their vote, ask them and thank them yourself. It pays off in the long run when "Mike from Indiana Falls" first votes for you and then joins your website because he went to go look at your clips on the Net.
This article originally appeared in the January issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe.
