Juicy, Sleazy, Lensman, Legacy, Tassy, A1R3K, RRRED, Legendary Lars, JFK….You know them, you’ve seen them, and if you don’t know them or you haven’t seen them you are a newbie.
Having stated that, it would be wise to have a few words on one important word: your online handle, or nickname. The significance of having one of these, and only one, should be taken very seriously by every newbie, and this isn’t just for company reps and sig whores, or those who want to be.
Nowadays, with growing online communities like Adult Who’s Who, YouTube, MySpace, and AdultSpace, it’s more important than ever before to have a singular “cyber” persona when you’re working in the online adult industry—especially if your job consists of advertising, representing, or otherwise handling communications chores.
Working for yourself or a smaller company, you inevitably will be playing different roles and performing different functions—as a webmaster, tech support, a company rep, a board rep, an online presence, writing press releases, or being interviewed. Don’t be tempted to come up with a separate name for each function, role, or duty you have. Without a doubt, this will put you out of focus and diffuse your presence in the cyber realm.
When you’re surfing the boards and learning the trades, take your time, lurk a while, and check out the scene before you register a username you may regret later. Define the role you already play for yourself, your site, and in your company. Think about how you want your board handle to define you. Given time, the name will pay off. That’s “who” you’ll be.
In order to gain immediate presence, you should create a handle that defines who you are but at the same time is memorable on its own, even if it’s just your company name and your name hyphenated together—although that can cause trouble if you change companies in the future.
ItsYourPorn.com’s Ron Stewart (Ronaldo on most boards) invariably has used different names as he migrated to different companies throughout the years. About going from XamoRon to PlugInFeedsRon, he says, “The name changes weren’t the wisest decisions I’ve ever made—if only for recognition purposes, as you suggest. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have simply chosen the name Ronaldo, or whatever, and stuck with it since day one.”
Another sin common among beginners is using a different board name at every board while not noticing that many others travel from board to board. Although each board is its own community, the adult industry community at large is its own mega community, with pocket tribes through which many board presences travel like nomads from various webmaster forums.
But it’s not just for forums. A recognized username or nickname can be useful when you register with someone’s program, or when you subscribe to a listing service and it’s recognized by a fellow adult-business board member.
Furthermore, at trade shows, a strong board presence has helped create innumerable instant friendships when two real-names introduce each other by board nicknames and realize they’ve already “known” each other for a long time.
It’s not important whether you’re a site operator, owner, sig whore, whatever. Use one name for all time. Your nick is your niche, so market yourself as well as your product. After all, any salesman will tell you what they’re selling is secondary to whom and how they’re selling—and the “schmooze” is king online and at the tradeshows.
Reps and managers are hired based on their track record, along with how well they are known. Ultimately, that’s why their track record is so good.
Greg Jones is the 2Much.net mediaguy, although he is officially the general manager at 2Much and LiveCamNetwork.com.
