Some people get it and some just don't. Adult film star Taylor Wane gets it. She sees the bigger picture. Beyond a life of on-camera sex, fame, money, and dancing tours, the curvy blonde porn vet sees her career in adult as a gateway to opportunity.
Over the past 13 years, Wane has built a porno empire, elevating her status from up-and-comer to stately matriarch, morphing into an independent producer and becoming a marketing and promotional machine, all the while using technology to run a successful studio and Website.
At her Chatsworth compound, Wane, her small in-house crew, and dogs Boo Boo and Buddy, run her Website, fan club, and photo studio. Yet this is no ordinary home office. Wayne's home is a luxurious mansion with a pool surrounded by Roman-style pillars, a Jacuzzi, stone waterfall, and enough rooms to get lost in. Here, Wane and her team work on TaylorWane.com, the paid membership site where fans can read her diary, shop in the sex store, view photos and Webcams, watch live shows, call Wane on her cell phone, and more; all for a fee of $29.95 a month. In addition, there's an online movie theater that offers Wane's full-length movies for download or purchase.
To promote the site, Wane links with other sites, publishes a quarterly newsletter, sends out e-mail newsletters, and includes the URL on her posters, on the back of her movies (which she produces), and in her recently released comic book Vamptrix (by Tim Tyler, available on Bomb Comics, distributed by Diamond Distribution). Plus, all her movies feature a catalog of her products and a plug for the site. These efforts are paying off as, according to Wane, her site receives 1.5 million hits a day.
Through TaylorWane.com and TaylorWane.net, surfers can access Wane's other sites, PlanetPorno.com, where she spotlights her many porn and amateur gal pals, and MoBooty.com, her ethnic-themed site. She is also launching a separate portal to her Webcam section at www.taylorwaynepeepcams.com and recently signed with Sexcam
Central.com. "I get access to 66 other girls and they get access to me. It's great cross-advertising," Wane says, "but you're not going to find my content anywhere else because it's all shot right here. It's all exclusive."
Wane shoots her own content right in her home, which doubles as a production studio. There are Webcams strategically placed throughout the house, including in the bathroom, the changing room, and the studio itself. "I'm going to put cams in my gym too," Wane says. "I've had a lot of requests from people to see me work out."
Her main office, where she does her own design work, is located in a back house and features an editing bay with a plethora of PCs and Macs. Here, she works on the site and runs her own independent photo agency (Laurien Photographic, named after her partner), where for the last decade Wane has licensed photos of herself and other porn stars to stock agencies and magazines such as Hustler, Gallery, and Jugs.
Across the pool lies the studio that contains her two servers, and where she shoots content. Sex scenes for videos, photo layouts, and Web content are shot here, all to the enjoyment of her Website members, who get to view every steamy moment of it, unedited. "My members get to see all that on the Webcams," says Wane. "Not just me, but all the models that come in here, all the videos and whatever else is going on."
Members can watch models change and do their makeup in the studio. Sometimes the girls' makeup is applied by Wane herself, who is an accredited graduate of the Joe Blasco School of Makeup Artistry.
"I make as much money staying here as I do going on the road where I beat myself up," Wane says, discussing her retirement from dancing due to a dog bite and a disrespectful club. "They don't treat the girls the way they used to. They have lost the level of respect they had 10 years ago," she comments.
Another way Wane makes her money is through her paid-membership fan club, where she offers a deluxe package with a membership card for 10 percent off TaylorWane.com store purchases, a pin, a temporary tattoo, photos, a bio, a trading card, a calendar, a movie slick, a poster, a signed certificate of authenticity, and a "stud certificate." "So if you join my fan club you are officially a stud," she laughs.
"I've had the fan club for 12 years," Wane recalls. "I wanted to have a way to reach the public directly instead of just making movies for companies. I found that it was incredible how much business I could do by reaching the customers directly. Sometimes you can get paid more from a custom video than you can working for some guy on a set for 10 hours. So I knew the way to go was to reach the public."
Fan club members also receive a yearly Christmas card with an "exclusive revealing photo" and opportunities to purchase a plethora of goodies, including a Taylor watch and "pussy soap" ("Take my pussy in the shower with you and rub it up and down your cock to get my pussy wet").
Fans get a whole lot more than just a lathered crotch from Wane, as she goes the extra mile to connect with them in a personal manner. She answers her own e-mails and has a cell phone on her hip (literally) where fans can reach her at almost any time for $4.95 per minute. Wayne also shoots customized masturbation videos for her fans, and she owns 1-900-226-9989, which plays prerecorded sex stories at $3.99 per minute. "Some people call me live on the phone and watch me on the Webcam for maximum contact," she says with a sly smile. "My fans practically live at my house through this site."
Additionally, Wayne writes several sex columns (for Erotic Expo and InsideTheLair.com, among others), and will soon be the inspiration for an anatomically correct love doll. "It's the same as the Real Doll but better and lighter," she explains. "She talks, too. You can load MPEGs into her and she'll speak in any language. It also has a vibrating pussy, mouth, and asshole. I told the makers, ?You're gonna put me out of business! It's better than me!"
Born in New Castle, England, Wane lived in London before moving to Los Angeles 14 years ago. She did her first scene in November 1989 before taking a break and wondering if this profession was indeed for her. "I didn't really intend on being a porno star, and I wasn't going to do guys, but then in 1990 I went to do a second scene when Peter North walked in with no shirt on and I said, ?Okay, I'll do guys!' But I didn't get to fuck Peter that time. I fucked Randy West instead. That was my first real scene. I just fell in love with the job. I thought, ?This is great. I get to fuck, they're giving me money and they feed me!' I can't think of anything better than food, sex, and money. I definitely found something that was for me."
Wane's popularity grew throughout the ?90s, but, she says, it is not wealth or fame that drives her; it is her fans. "I love meeting the fans and I treat them like they are my best friends," she coos. "I'm glad they jerk off. I'm making a living off them wanking off to me. Some people come in this business just for the money, and those people don't have the longevity. You have to like what you do. But if you like to be sexual and like to be an entertainer and you like to make money too, then you can make a whole career out of it.
"It's all about pushing your brand name," she says. "Look at J. Lo. You have to expand your empire and branch out. I will be launching my own clothing company through a new Website soon and just signed exclusive distribution deal with Avalon. You have to look at business strategically and seek areas to capitalize on."
Building a business takes much hard work, something to which Wane is more than accustomed. So what does she do to unwind after a hard day's work? She plops down on her couch at 10:30 p.m. and opens her laptop to do... yet more work.
"I never stop," she sighs. "People say, ?How can you be on the computer all the time?' It's because I have a computer in every room in my house. I am so addicted to my computers.
"But I'm not complaining," Wane adds. "It opens up so much for you. I've had the Website now eight years and it's amazing, the world that it opens up. Actors and models are now more like business people than just porn stars. There was never another side to them before because there was no way for them to vent their business side, and mainstream media outlets didn't want to talk to porn stars. Now all that is changing."
