In the past several years, the phrase “porn star” has been co-opted by just about every new starlet on the rise. The Jenna Jamesons, Tera Patricks, and Ginger Lynns of the industry notwithstanding, very few actually have done anything to earn such a title. Genuine porn stars of major star caliber have been even scarcer on the Internet, where the proliferation of pretty girls has yielded few bona fide sensations. On the upside, there are more young women than ever starting up their own sites and running their own careers. Chances are they owe their success to Danni Ashe.
“I’m still surprised at the extent of Danni’s influence,” says Layne Thrasher, vice president of operations at Danni.com, the influential site that Ashe founded more than a decade ago. “I’ll be reading a trade magazine or some little blog or reading an interview with a local porn star in a mainstream publication, and out of nowhere the girl will say, ‘I really want to create a big site, and I always look at a site like Danni.com as a model.’ And, I’ll just think, ‘Wow, here’s an up-and-coming star out of [somewhere like] Lincoln, Neb., who knows about Danni.com and is trying to model her career after her. That’s pretty amazing.”
Of course, as almost anyone in the industry already knows, Ashe has been one of the most recognizable names in adult content ever since the entrepreneurial model/dancer began posting photos of herself on adult Usenet newsgroups in the early ’90s. She built a loyal fan base before exploding with the creation of Danni’s Hard Drive in 1995. (The site later became simply Danni.com.) Her unprecedented success led to her inclusion in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most downloaded woman in the world (earning her the nickname “The Billion Download Woman”).
Not bad for a former exotic dancer who invested $8,000 in computer equipment and taught herself HTML.
Ashe was the guiding visionary behind Danni.com for many years, overseeing the company’s growth and progress through the Internet boom and the eventual onslaught of younger models—although few of them came close to the same success. “A lot of these young starlets are interchangeable,” Thrasher posits. “A lot of them are very talented, but the star power isn’t there. Danni was a true star back in her day.”
Ashe eventually retired from modeling and relinquished a good deal of her creative control over Danni.com, but she brought in a new management team—including Thrasher and Creative Director Misha (a former employee who left Danni.com to found MishaOnline.com and then returned after her site was acquired by Danni.com)—to take over the day-to-day aspects of running the company in her absence. (Ashe, who was unavailable to comment for this story, maintains a position on the board of directors as well as a 25-percent ownership interest in Danni Ashe Inc.)
“What we’ve done is hold on to a lot of the initial values that Danni started the company with,” Thrasher claims. “[Those include] treating talent well, making sure they are comfortable with everything we do, and just providing the type of programming for the user to enjoy without feeling dirty or feeling like they have to hide it.”
Danni.com has, in fact, built its reputation on providing softcore adult material that has been embraced by other webmasters and various mainstream business partners alike. “The market is saturated with a lot of sites out there that are degrading to women,” says the company’s director of Web products, Derek Devore. “We like to keep on the opposite side of that and do something that is respectful to women in some degree.”
“We’re trying to make Danni.com as much of a lifestyle/entertainment site as possible,” Thrasher adds, “while also offering the best adult content experience one can imagine.” That includes interactive programming such as Danni Live, model diaries, etc., Thrasher says. “It’s really evolved from being a one-woman show to being one of the leading companies this industry has seen.”
Indeed, Danni.com has grown from one site to a company that supports five subscription sites, multiple supporting sites, two home-video and DVD lines, and the DanniCash affiliate program, not to mention the ancillary partnerships that have evolved over the past several years. “We’ve really evolved into many different lines of business,” Thrasher notes. “Danni.com is the four-star core focus, but we’ve got all these other supporting ventures out there. Danni was always very entrepreneurial and always had a desire to do more, and I think one of the things we’ve really done, especially in the past year, is forge a lot of partnerships” to promote the site.
Thoe deals include a long-running partnership with Video Secrets (which resulted in the creation of 24-7 live-chat program Danni Live), AdultFriendFinder (the self-descriptive DanniPersonals), Pure Play Media (distributor of all Danni.com DVD products), Truition (DanniAuctions.com), and Marc Bruder’s BRI/CED, which has helped secure broadcasting opportunities with InDemand and TVN Entertainment Corporation. “We were always open to exploring new marketing and branding opportunities,” Thrasher comments. “We don’t see it as competition; we look at it as supplemental. We feel that many companies have their own core business lined up correctly, and it’s just making good business deals, good business relationships and hopefully increasing incremental revenue and profits on both sides [to align with them].”
Still, as any customer of the site knows, it’s the super-hot content—and the ever-popular Danni Girls—that keep surfers coming back. “One of our core strengths is that we have content that goes beyond just sex,” Thrasher boasts. “We offer one of the best selections you can find with adult recorded video content, but we also offer intimacy. That’s been a core focus with our brand value since Danni started the company. You get to know the models through the interactive programming and live chats, the embedded Danni shows, where two girls start off interviewing each other before they start having sex, whereas on other sites, you might see just the sex. We give you just as much sex as the other guys do, plus we give you more on top of that. I think that’s one of the key differentiators that separates us from the pack.”
With Ashe having all but retired from modeling (her last appearance on the site was well over two years ago), Thrasher and company have filled the void each month with a new Danni Girl, though Thrasher admits it’s been a struggle dealing with some of Ashe’s more devoted fans. “When a member writes, ‘I love your site, I love your content, but I want to see a new Danni Ashe performance,’ there’s only so much you can do,” he admits. “Danni is the most downloaded woman in history. It’s really hard to overcome that when the core product is gone, so the site has really evolved [since she stopped modeling] into an overall entertainment site. We’re still the home of the most exclusive Danni Ashe content, along with the most beautiful models out there. Whether you want busty content, glamour content, or hardcore girl-girl content, we want to be your home for the most content with the most beautiful girls.”
Even so, Thrasher says Danni Girls are chosen precisely because of their Ashe-like qualities. “It’s a combination of several aspects that really brought Danni to the forefront that we try to look for in a Danni Girl,” Thrasher says of the decision process. “We choose women that are obviously beautiful, charismatic, energetic, and who have a positive attitude and a sharp, entrepreneurial spirit.” To that end, he adds, “Many of our Danni Girls run their own successful websites. We have partnerships with some of them and run their sites for them.”
As Thrasher is quick to add, many of those models are taking their example from Ashe’s ambitious nature. “More and more within the past decade, there’s just been a slew of women out there starting up their own businesses, and the rapid advancements in Internet technology have allowed them to open up their own live websites, live interactive cam sites, and chat sites—especially as Danni.com has taken off. And I think you’ll continue to see a lot of women making a living for themselves and not giving away the farm to other businesses or working for other people based on what Danni has been able to accomplish on her own.
“I feel like Danni really opened up a lot of doors for everyone with her pioneering website,” he continues. “She really made her mark in the online world, and that’s just expanding into every little nook and cranny of the industry. To be fair, a lot of these deals that we are signing are because of the availability of technology that didn’t exist five years ago, but it’s also in part due to her entrepreneurial spirit and continuing and honoring that.”
