2256

Horsehead Nebula

plays backdrop to dire warfare

allegiances torn

Ballooning your Blog Stats with Porn Star Tweet

Some girls will, some girls won't
Some girls need a lot of lovin' and some girls don't

-Racey, Some Girls

In case you haven't guessed, this post discusses porn stars. If this is something you can't handle or don't want to read, go ahead and skip it. But you could be missing out on a social media goldmine.

Just over a month ago I told you I had a plan to get my blog up to 100,000 hits by the 18^th September, using Twitter, this blog and a third site.

That third blog site is Porn Star Tweet, a syndication of all the tweets being uploaded by all the English-speaking pornstars of the world. Or, at least, 1500 of the actors and actresses in the field. I discovered it in this article on tech blog Mashable. For more info on the site, and an insight into the world of pornstars who use Twitter (it's a thing) check out this article on The Daily Beast.

For a month I absolutely blitzed Porn Star Tweet, asking as many listed people as possible to retweet a link to my blog, with the promise of giving them a good mention here. As the majority of accounts have over 1000 followers, it wasn't long before the page views started to ebb and flow in.

It wasn't an easy ride, though, (no pun intended) and there were lots of ups and downs along the way (okay, pun intended). I approached 903 people for an RT. Like Frank Drebin once said in Naked Gun 2+ 1/2, “It's like having sex. It's a painstaking and arduous task that seems to go on and on forever, and just when you think things are going your way, nothing happens.”

Getting someone to RT your blog takes two tweets- one to introduce yourself and your blog, with a link to the site included, and another to ask to retweet the first one with a promise of a good mention on the blog should they agree.

Here's a few pointers I made, throughout the month, about my self-imposed task.

1. Before requesting an RT, follow the individual first. Show commitment. Also, once you've asked a few hundred people, it makes it easier to check if you've already approached a particular person. (If you're following them, you've probably already asked.)
2. Check spelling when tweeting. Make sure your tweets look professional.
3. Add their name when you ask for the RT- not on the one you want them to RT. People respond to their name. Show that you're tweeting them individually. Don't put it on the one you want their followers to see. Remember, you're addressing them too.
4. Don't shorten names and be too “friendly” when you address an individual- you're not their mate. You're still a stranger to them, so show respect.
5. Use manners. Say please. After receiving an RT, always tweet again for thanks. If a conversation arises, roll with it. Essentially, they're giving up their time for you. Be nice.
6. Unless you have some outrageous ablity to hold hundreds of names and figures in your head, keep a spreadsheet of who you have asked. Include fields for their name, whether they responded at all, whether they RTd, their stats to the nearest thousand at the time of tweeting to them and a notes field.

Unfortunately 7 people RTd the wrong post and wouldn't RT the one I asked them to, despite my pleas. 5 people put my @ handle at the start of the tweet, essentially tweeting my blog back at me and me only by copying and pasting the text of the tweet into a new one. Why anyone would do that when you can click one button to properly RT is beyond me. But, I suppose that out of the 900 I asked, 5 isn't too bad. You're going to get the odd person who's not Twitterate. 

I had other problems throughout the project. Some people won't promote something uless their name is on it. Others won't promote at all. One girl told me she would if I “took her to England.” Sometimes their followers would give me shit if they didn't like my blog. Another girl replied with a simple “nope”, which surprised me as it actually took her more effort to write that and send it to me than to just hit the Retweet button. My skin certainly thickened over the month!

One downside to this form of promotion is that a retweet is a momentary benefit. It appears in the followers' newsfeeds only to be piled on top of by hundreds of other tweets from possibly hundreds of other followers. If they don't see it within minutes of the RT, they may never do. So the instant surge of hits is helpful, but in a different way than leaving a comment on a blog post. That post could be hit on through Google searches at any time in the future.

In the middle of this project it transpired that the porn industry was on shutdown due to a syphilis outbreak. I'd not picked the best time to approach people, when many people were suddenly out of work and a few were possibly never to work in the field again. The atmosphere out there must be tense, so I've got to give extra credit to those that still wanted to help me at that time.

After a few days of heavy tweeting, the Porn Star Tweet feed was full of stars I'd already asked. On the right hand side of the site's home page, there's an alphabetical list of all participants listed, so I switched to this to blast a few more tweets out, which was quite effective... until this happened.

Oh, shit.

It didn't occur to me that this was a form of spamming as I only approached each person once, and if they didn't respond, I moved on. But after one of Darla Crane's followers showed her displeasure, I asked my friend Tomleecee if he thought what I was doing constituted as spamming. “Yes,” he replied. “And a little neurotic.” Hmm.

I personally don't think it is spam as I addressed each person individually and engaged in conversation when appropriate. Besides, if it was spam- which it's not- wouldn't the spammer be the retweeter filling up the timelines of thousands of people, as apposed to the guy with less than a few hundred followers?

Still, I thought, if my Twitter disappears at least my blog will still be operational. So I figured it was time to go for broke. I cranked up the tweeting and the RTs kept trickling in, but as the deadline closed it became obvious that I wasn't going to make that 100K page view target unless something incredibly radical happened.

And it didn't. I'd started project at 83,784 page views. I'd asked 903 accounts. 251 RTd me. I had just under 93K views at the self-assigned deadline.

At the time of writing, I still have my Twitter account, so I've had no Twitter-imposed spam sanctions as yet. I started the project with 450 followers. I finished with 745. Most of them will be spam, but 44 of them were the porn actresses / actors I approached.

There's something I haven't discussed in this post yet- something you MUST have been wondering since you started reading this. It's possibly the same question that Tomleecee asked me in a text after discussing this project. “Why porn stars?! You mentally unstable Mr Tuckey?”

It's a good question. Well, the “why porn stars” part, at least. I've found that traffic comes into my blog from a number of sources- mostly Google searches and links attached to comments that I left on other sites. But my stats surged a year or so ago when I started to ask porn stars for RTs. I'd asked all sorts of people prior to this: TV presenters, radio jocks, authors and journalists- the majority downright ignored me. Adult entertainment actors and actresses just seem, on the whole, more helpful. They are nice people.

So who gave me the RTs and the exposure to new audiences? Find these people by simply typing their name into Twitter's search bar. They are all worth a follow.

Heather Summers (20)

Kurt Lockwood (161)

Kenna Lennon (472) Followed back

Scarlett Monroe (475)

Cheyne Collins (475) Followed back

Lacey Logan (483)

Cami Smalls (593)

Ember James (626)

Lesley Cummings (722)

Scott Lyons (735)

Buck Wylde (772)

Savannah Jayne (786)

Gina DePalma (790)

Gavin Steele (804)

Aiyana Flora (850)

Allie James (870)

Tara Star (874)

Gaia (1K)

Missy Monroe (1K)

Kira Sinn (1K)

Brynn Jay (1K)

Aiyana Flora (1K)

Lana Sands (1K) Ms Sands' words: “I didn't retweet ur blog cuz u asked,, but becuz I really enjoyed it! I like ur "ode 2 Beyonce". Great skillz Matt..”

Dillion Harper (1K) Followed back

Luc Wilder (1K) Followed back

Kid Dynamite (1K) I retweeted his fetish site as he asked.

Gen Padova (2K)

Tommy Pistol (2K) Followed back

Persia Pele (2K)

Nick Da Cannon (2K)

Niko Lee Young (2K)

Shane Dos Santos (2K)

Daniel Hunter (2K)

Casey N Jennifer (2K)

Penny Lynn (2K)

Amber Peach (2K)

Angela Salvagno (2K)

Mike South (2K)

Kimber Peters (2K)

Jody Rose AKA JR Carrington (2K)

Felicia Flint (2K) Followed back

Barrett Blade (2K)

Angel Kelly (2K)

Jon Jon (2K)

Brandon Iron (3K)

Jezebelle Bond (3K)

Madison Rose (3K) Favourited

Payton Leigh (3K)

Kaylee Evans (3K)

Chris Evans (3K) Married to Alana Evans, who also RTd

Callie Carter AKA Callie Cobra 3K

Brianna Beach AKA Goddess Brianna (3K) Ms Beach RTd a few weeks later, which made a pleasant surprise. Followed back. She RTd a second post off her own back as she's so nice. Her tweets are syndicated on her site, whereby I got some extra traffic.

Katt Dylan (3K)

Izzy Taylor (3K) Followed back

Charlize Danay AKA Deidre (3K)

Destiny Sin (3K)

Ariel Piper Fawn (3K)

Ron Getz Lucky (3K)

Mae Olsen (3K)

Christy Wild (3K)

Sandra London (4K) Followed back

Mistress C (4K) Followed back

Rilynn Rae (4K)

Kris Slater (4K)

Tegan Tate (4K)

Hayden Bell (4K)

Kandy Kash (4K)

Teal Conrad (4K)

Ellie Idol (4K)

Bradley Suicide (4K)

Niyah Leta AKA Pleasure Bunny (5K)

Cheyenne Jewel (5K)

Sahara Knite (5K)

Anita Peida (5K)

ButtaflyAzz (5K)

Bella Blaze (5K) Her words: “Will you buy me a present?” Followed back

Lindy Lane (5K) Says “Done :) For the record though you're a total nerd.”

LeiLani Love (5K)

Leena Sky (6K)

Jasmin St Clare (6K)

Lexington Steele (6K)

Rebekah Dee (6K) Says “Check out the talent”

Clara Beau (6K) Ms Beau asked me: “Depends, City or United?” referring to the two Manchester football (soccer) teams I live near. I said I'm interested in combat sports only. Although I also regaled the time I got stuck in Old Trafford's lift with a group of hot women at my graduation ball. This was a good enough anecdote to get me an RT.

Mandy Armani (6K) Favourited. Ms Armani wants to switch jobs! If only my blogging was a real job. I think if she found herself babysitting a photocopier for 9 hours a day in rain-drenched, recession-battered Oldham she'd be quite happy to go back to porn. (Not sure the same could be said for me if I was swording in San Fernando, mind.)

Sasha Sparks (6K) Twitter slipped up when Ms Sparks fired out the RT. I only got notified 23 hours later, and through email, not in my mentions. Her message was lovely though. “no prob! Wish more ppl could learn from u- just b direct, honest & respectful- & doors will fly open for u!”

Kaz B (6K) Followed back

Nico Luna (6K)

Ashley Renee (6K)

Lucky Starr (6K)

Eric John (6K)

Ana Foxxx (6K)

Ainsley Addison (6K)

Xander Corvus (6K)

Julie Simone (7K)

Voodoo (7K)

Aria Rae (7K)

Asia Zo (7K)

Brittany Blaze (7K) Followed back

Scarlett Star (8K) Followed back

Kali Dreams (7K)

Shane Diesel (7K)

Victoria Love (7K)

Darcy Tyler (7K)

Mari Possa (7K) When I checked her profile I found she already follows me. Word must be getting around!

Evilyn Fierce (8K)

Anna Joy (8K)

Zoey Kush (8K)

Scarlett Fay (8K) Says she “expects a warm reception if she comes to England.” If you come to the North West, Ms Fay, it's guaranteed.

Christina Skye (8K)

Jessica Jensen (8K) I saw a tweet of Ms Jensen's whilst I was on the Twitter page of another porn star. She had tweeted to Michelle B not long before I'd landed on Ms B's page, so I fired a request out to Jessica knowing she would see it. I tried to keep my eyes peeled for opportunities throughout, rather than just sticking to Porn Star Tweet's newsfeed.

Dawn Marie (8K) Followed back

Angelina Black (8K)

Desiree De Luca (9K)

Rita Faltoyano (9K)

Krysta Kaos (9K) RTd her site in return, as she asked. Followed back)

Melody Jordan (9K)

Tara Holiday (9K)

India Babe (9K) A girl from my home city of Manchester!

Alexis Venton (10K) Followed back

Europe DiChan (10K)

Candy Alexa (10K)

Lori Anderson (10K) Followed back

Laura Still (10K) Followed me first. Presumably my name is doing the rounds in the industry!

Satine Phoenix (10K) Followed back

Elania Raye (10K)

Krystal Niles (10K)

Alia Starr (10K)

Rayne Falls (10K)

Brenda James (10K)

Carla Cox (11K)

Claudia Valentine (11K)

Sabrina Linn (11K) Favourited. Followed back

Sasha Pain (12K)

Farrah Fox (12K)

Stacy Burke (12K)

Tara Lynn Foxx (12K)

Carey Riley (12K)

Rebecca Jessop (12K)

Christina Carter (12K)

Kenzie Karter (12K)

Dan Leal AKA Porno Dan (12K) Owner of Immoral Productions porn studio.

Amber Lynn Bach (12K) Followed back

Grace Evangeline (13K)

Tori Taylor (13K) Followed back

Nikita Blade (13K)

Sienna Hills (13K)

Shay Hendrix (14K)

Anita Dark (14K)

Lola Foxx (14K)

Jill Kelly (14K)

Alyssa Branch (14K)

Eva Karera (14K)

Alicia Loren (14K)

Jewels Jade (15K)

Alexis Silver (15K)

Jordin Skye (15K)

Tegan Summers (15K)

April Flores (15K)

Sarenna Lee (15K) Followed back

Courtney Page (16K)

Danica Dillon (16K)

Erin Marxxx (16K)

Heidi Hanson (17K)

Dakota Taylor (18K)

Leilani Leeane (18K)

Jayda Diamonde (18K)

Rocco Reed (18K)

Morgan Ray (18K)

Moxxie Maddron (18K)

Charlotte Stokely (18K)

Cassandra Cruz (18K) Followed back. Says I “sorta look like michael fassbender” (sic). I'm not 
complaining!

Tristan Jaxx (18K) Who else can say they've had their blog RTd by a gay DJ porn star?

Darla Crane (18K)

Sinn Sage (19K)

Natasha Star (19K)

Jessi Palmer (19K) Followed back

Melena Morgan (19K)

Eva Knotty (20K)

Gia Grace (20K)

Vicky Vixen (20K)

Amber Chase (21K)

Christina Aguchi (21K)

Manuel Ferrara (21K)

Aryana Augustine (22K)

Ariella Ferrera (23K)

Kaci Starr (23K)

Sammie Spades (24K)

Nicki Blue (24K) Followed back, and thanked me!

Mr Pete (25K)

Paige Turnah (25K)

Misty Stone (25K)

Diana DeVoe (25K)

Carmyell (26K)

Amber Ashlee (26K)

Cate Harrington (26K)

Rachel Aziani (26K)

Delilah Strong (27K)

Syren De Mer (27K)

Michelle Maylene (28K)

Misti Dawn (28K)

Liz Viscious (29K)

Lexxxi Lockhart (29K)

Emily Parker (31K)

Ashlynn Leigh (31K)

Supasized ass cheeks (31K)

Dee Siren (31K)

Ava Devine (32K) Her words: “hey baby! I love British cock!”

Keiran Lee (32K)

Heather Starlet (33K)

Karlie Montana (34K)

Veronica Rodriguez (35K)

Mone Devine (37K)

Capri Anderson (38K)

Alana Evans (38K) Married to Chris Evans, who also RTd

Veronica Avluv (40K)

Nicole Aniston (40K)

Amy Anderssen (40K)

Courtney Taylor (43K)

Brandi Love (45K)

Emy Reyes (46K) Her words: “Check it out lovers!”

Alia Janine (46K)

Selena Rose (47K)

Jordan Kingsley (48K)

Skin Diamond (49K)

Stevie Shay (50K)

Aurora Snow (50K)

 
Chanel Preston (50K)

Leyla Black (53K)

Tinslee Reagan (54K)

Nikki Delano (55K)

Madelyn Marie (56K)

Carmen Valentina (58K)

Tabitha Stevens (61K)

Ava Rose (61K)

Deauxma (67K) Getting traffic from her website as it shows her tweets

Austin Taylor (75K)

Daisy Rock (76K)

Alexis Amore (77K)

Amy Brooke (78K)

Breanne Benson (86K)

Kirsten Price (88K)

Bobbi Eden (112K) Her words, in relation to my Ten Predictions post: “Cool stuff. Although i think that nostalgia will NEVER die ;) RT coming. ;) Good luck.”

Devon Michaels (140K)

Brooklyn Lee (142K)

Brianna Jordan (160K)

And my top retweeter...

Britney Maclin AKA Bibi Jones (244K)

Here's how my stats looked by the end of the month.

At the peak, when I was asking all of the regular tweeters, I was getting 1200 hits a day.

In conclusion, I can't thank all the retweeters enough- you didn't have to do as I asked; you did it out of kindess and I appreciate it. I think that, in retrospect, a task like this can become obsessive- I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see who the next retweeter will be, and how it affects my stats. Focussing on it for a month can take the balance out of your life. You forget to do housework. You run out of milk. And, like Lindy Lane suggested, it is very nerdy. I would say that asking for retweets- whether from porn stars or anyone else- could be a helpful addition to your blog marketing activity. Just upload your post, share on your own social media sites, comment on other blogs, ask for a retweet.

I may not have hit my target, but the RTing got me some great exposure. Thank you, Porn Star Tweet. And thank you, porn stars.