Indie Pornstars: Dealing With Adult Award Season

There used to be an “adult industry awards season” that came and went, with red carpets mostly dedicated to mainstream porn production companies. These days, however, every site and publication seems to be handing out awards, and several sites exist for no other purpose than to run their own awards.

The biggest awards events are multi-day parties, with industry expos, fan meet-and-greets, live streaming awards shows, and performances from major artists. When it seems like every site publishes model ranks, and there are awards handed out every week in every category imaginable, many models are left wondering what it means to be never nominated–or always nominated, never victorious.

 

My Experience With Awards and Winners

After about 4 years in the industry, I became obsessed with awards. I started recognizing winners of cam sites and clip sites awards as models who had started around the same time as me–or even more recently. Why wasn’t I being nominated? Why hadn’t I gotten recognition from the work I was doing? Sure, I was paying the bills, but was I any good?

Following awards nominees and winners consumed a lot of my time, and finally I had to sit down and take a good long look in the mirror at what my awards-stalking had actually accomplished. I was bummed out and burned out, worried more about trophies on shelves and profile badges than the content I was creating and the clients I was satisfying.

It took a while, but I finally shook my focus on awards as measures of success in the industry, and I’ve been both happier and more successful in my business since then. How did I do it? I changed my thinking–and you can too.

 

Understand What Awards Are and Aren’t

What awards are:

  • An opportunity for sites to profit from paid voting and/or the increased traffic driven to their site raising advertising rates.
  • An opportunity for companies handing out awards to increase their visibility and brand recognition amongst both industry members and potential customers.
  • An opportunity for models to raise their profile with other industry members and potential customers.

What awards aren’t:

  • An independent, unbiased assessment of the quality of performance or content.
  • An indicator of the financial success or stability of nominees or winners.
  • A predictor of future income or success in the adult industry.
  • Companies do not hand out awards from the goodness of their heart. They are a business opportunity, plain and simple.

 

Awards Are All About Business / ROI

The money they spend on prizes and events is a business expense that is calculated carefully against the perceived gain received by running the awards. Are there benefits to nominees and winners? Absolutely, but they are not guaranteed, and winning is not a ticket to fame and fortune.

 

Dealing With Award / Contest Hype

 

Defining and Follow Your Own Goals (Instead of Awards)

I’ve covered camgirl goals before, but understanding your reasons for working in the adult industry, and what you want to accomplish with your business, will help you set achievable goals. The most important part of your goals is that they are achievements that are within your control. Paying down debt, covering your bills, camming 4 days per week, releasing 100 videos in 2019: all of these are examples that are completely within your control. Hitting 20k Twitter followers or being ManyVids model #500 or better are somewhat in your control, as there are steps you can take to improve the chances of them happening–posting Tweets with media attached, regular video uploads, running flash sales–but they also depend on the actions of others being in your favor. Goals like winning an award are nearly entirely out of your hands, making them much harder to achieve. Set goals that you have more control over to give yourself a chance of success.

 

Unplug From Awards Social Media / Hype

When every model you follow is going for one award or another, your feed can easily become overwhelmed by tweets and retweets about voting. I rarely look at my Twitter home feed, instead using lists to divide accounts I follow into categories. When I find that a model is going all-in on awards, and their posts about following/nominating/voting/whatever are starting to ramp up, I quietly move them from my main performer list to a secondary list that I save for just this purpose. I review the accounts on the second list every month or so, moving models back to the main list when their awards push is over. Minimizing my exposure to the constant flow of awards-related posts helps me avoid dwelling on why I wasn’t nominated or why I didn’t win when I entered. It also frees up space in my feed so I can promote and interact with models creating content and posting stuff that isn’t “vote for me” 24/7.

 

Celebrate Your Accomplishments.

If you’ve set some goals, celebrate when you achieve them! Sure, it might not be a red carpet event with men in flashy suits and women in gowns with plunging necklines, but set aside some time and money to reward yourself. Focusing on goals that matter to me, and celebrating my accomplishments in ways that are meaningful to me, has helped me break free from the cycle of awards and contests, and I’ve been happier and more successful since then!

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