This article originally ran in the October 2015 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition.
Tanya Tate has few rivals when it comes to finding ways to interact with her fans. The British adult performer/director can often be found meeting fans at events—adult expos, comic conventions and cosplay events—and she’s used webcams and live chat services to interact as well. So it’s no surprise Tate was intimately involved in running her eponymous TanyaTate.com website. But recently she decided to get a little more help with the site, which is now part of the ModelCentro family.
"I have had a WordPress site, independently, for quite a few years," Tate told AVN. "I always had issues with it, there was never anybody to help me and I had to hire freelance web developers to work it. There was always trouble. Every time you try to do an update on software—it breaks.
"I didn't find anybody who would make the kind of site that I wanted,” Tate said. And then she met the owner of ModelCentro. “He came to me and he said, 'We've seen your site, and we'd really like to help you make it better, move it to our huge content platform.' Over some time we talked about my requirements and they talked about things they could offer me to meet my requirements. It was amazing, really."
Tate worked with ModelCentro to craft the look of the site. "They sent me questionnaires so they could find out exactly how I wanted it to be. I wanted a high-end feel to it, classy, something that would appeal to my fans. I wanted to give my fans an amazing experience."
The new site is built to appeal to Tate's entire fan base. "The last site was pink-y and girly. I wanted it to be more appealing to guys as well. If you've got a pink website and someone walks in, they can catch the pink in your eyes. This design is more clean, and it's more fresh, and it still says 'U.K.'"
The introductory page has links to a diary and list of upcoming personal appearances, a site tour, a calendar, a blog, and a selection of photographs and trailers: "Some of the trailers are long, and some are tease trailers. You've got to poke around. There's some stuff that I give away, but not too much."
Tate asked for feedback on the new site, and she got this from one member. Flutterbug said, "I love the new revamped site. It has a dominant, distinguished but still enticing, sexy twist to it. It's so much easier to flick back. P.S. Forgot to put that the new layout site is mobile friendly and just has easier use etc as that's how I mainly use it."
Jojospud responded: "I love the new classy and updated design and it's definitely more organized. It has more user-friendly features like the 'Favorites' tabs and more fan interaction, which is nice. I know how much you value your fans so being able to have one-on-one conversations with you is really special."
Tate likes the convenience of ModelCentro's interface: "When I ran the site, I had to go to four places to update it. Now I just literally click the button, I upload the video, I upload the images, I just write something and I can upload the content. It's very simple for the backend user."
"It was expensive to hire developers all the time to fix things as things break," Tate said. "Before, it felt like a constant struggle. There was always something wrong with the site. Occasionally it would go down. Now if there's a problem, they can troubleshoot any problem for me. I email them and they get back to me. They give me a lot of support and I'm happy with how the site is going."
Tate's site is live now at TanyaTate.com. For more information on ModelCentro, visit ModelCentro.com or email [email protected].
Pictured: Tanya Tate in Tanya Tate's Baby Sitting Academy (Filly Films/Combat Zone)
