How to start and monetize an escort business [Ultimate Guide]

Escort business is a very lavish business, with a lot of money to be made. Before starting an escort business, there are a few legal issues that you will have to take care of. Then you can go on and create a website. And after that, you can advertise it, and furnish your business. Alternatively, you can start an affiliate cam website that will make you money.

We will go through it step by step.

In New York City, escort services charge anywhere from $200 to $1500 or more per hour. The industry standard for dividing the money is 50% to the escort, 40% to the agency, and 10% to the booker.

1. Before Starting an Escort business

Starting an escort business today is easier than 20 years ago, but it is still challenging.

You see, when you say you want to start an escort business, you need to consider it as a full-time “job.”

The great news is that the escort business is a recession safe business. There are several escort business types you can start with.

Before you start, here are some things that you should know to be comfortable later down the road.

1.1 Is the escort business legal in your country?

Before starting an escort business, you need to ensure that this is entirely legal in your country. This is essential for running an escort agency while other services like escort directory and escort reviews forum, as you’re not involved directly. However, still, you want to make sure it is legal.

For instance, one of the leading classifieds websites in Romania, where escort businesses are tolerated but not legal, was indicted by prosecutors because they allowed mass ads for escorts services. They had to remove the escort ads category entirely.

You have to follow the rules and systematically run your business. If you fall foul of the law, you probably weren’t aware of all the rules. If necessary, consult a solicitor and get information about the legalities of running an escorts-related agency.

Make sure you talk with an attorney and give you proper advice about what is legal and what isn’t, what services you can advertise, which one you can’t etc.

1.2 Do you have all the funds ready?

Setting up an escort business means that you need capital to start. You could either save or raise money from third-party sources. A successful escort agency also requires a constant cash flow to be successful, just like regular businesses do.

But while regular businesses can opt for business loans, that is not the case for an escort website. The primary reason is the nature of the business. Most banks don’t consider it a legitimate business because it doesn’t fit into their criteria. This makes it very difficult to get them to approve a loan for an escort agency.

The only reliable way to get money to start your own escort business is to pitch to your acquaintances, friends, or maybe some investor. You need to consider capital for at the beginning, mainly the website and an advertising budget for the next 6-12 months.

1.3 Is your escort business in a lucrative location?

To run a profitable escort business, it’s essential to target big cities as these have the most potential. In big cities, mature and intelligent people live a modern lifestyle. Also, It’s easy to recruit escorts in big cities. In small towns, women are usually conservative. People in small towns are generally reserved.

One problem with the big cities is, of course, the competition. It’s tough to compete with the existing ones as a new agency. Unless and until you offer a unique, valuable, and engaging angle along with a plethora of benefits, your escort agency may fail to entice big clients.

1.4 Are you good with recruiting?

Recruiting classy escorts presents another challenge in running an agency that you should know about. Most women enter this business because they want money, not just love the job.

You will need to train them well and know precisely what the job entails. If you have been working as an escort for a long time, you probably have the right contacts and know some brilliant escorts to start with.

1.5 Are you good at advertising?

There is tremendous competition in the escort business, and you need to have a solid marketing plan if you want to succeed.  The escorts are more open to advertising their services today, so you need to do better.

Today, most escort agencies have a website as their front end and use it to get clients than through other contacts. You should have an excellent website up and running.

Go with a web development company that has built successful escort agencies in the past. Don’t know any? Signup on to a freelance website and post a project. Don’t rush to choose a web development company until you have seen the portfolio, discussed the project in detail, and agreed on everything.

Now regarding marketing, most escort business owners hire a marketing company to do their SEO for them. You should go with an agency with experience in escort and adult business advertising because this niche has its particularities.

Besides SEO, you should look for out-of-the-box methods to advertise your escort agency like video, dating apps like Tinder, online classifieds websites, and local SEO to avoid the high competition.

1.6 Are you sure you enjoy doing it?

Running an escort business is not easy and requires a lot of work done under stress. You should be comfortable doing that. Fiona set up her own escorts agency in Switzerland, Swiss-HighClass-Escort.ch describes, on her blog, a typical day of work “I hold job interviews, exchange ideas with our escorts and take reservations. I coordinate the operations and the drivers who accompany our escorts in the evening. The last calls I get around 1 a.m. during the week – on weekends, it gets a lot later.”

If that’s something you see yourself doing, then let’s move on to the next point:

2. Start an escort agency website

Today, an escort agency’s website is the breaking point for customers to make a booking or leave one of their competitors. You may have the best-looking escorts or outstanding fees, but if the contact methods are not easily found or the website is hard to navigate, you lose business.

So when you start an escort agency website, make sure it has the following features:

2.1 Mobile-friendly and easy to navigate website.

The mobile traffic surpassed the desktop one several years ago. The tendency continues, especially in the entertainment niche where users are looking to get information or do an action quickly. If you care about SEO and keep in mind that your website is not mobile-friendly, you will not rank very high.

Your users need to navigate easily between pages to get the information they need. Otherwise, they will get frustrated and leave to your competitors.

Use the mobile-friendly test tool from Google to ensure your website looks and works well on mobile devices.

2.2 Have these mandatory pages

Each escort website should have the following pages easily accessible on website:

2.3 Awesome images and videos

Having awesome pictures of your escorts is mandatory for your escort business. Never forget that and invest in quality photo services and equipment.

Creating great pictures for the escorts will give you a competitive advantage over your competition. It will also make independent escorts join your agency because they don’t know how to advertise themselves, and here you come into play.

With video now accounting for almost three-quarters of all internet traffic, your adult escort website should be taking this trend into account.

Escort videos can give your clients an idea of what to expect. Seeing them move can excite potential customers and turn visitors into clients at a higher rate than still galleries. Instagram allows 60-second videos, but most people only watch the first few seconds for social media. Ensure the first few seconds of your videos are energetic enough to keep viewers glued to their screen.

2.4 Contact ways

Clients are looking for comfort and convenience, and calling a hundred times and emailing each other forever is not something people would do for a couple of leisure hours. Most of them live busy lives, so they don’t have hours installing different apps or services to contact agencies.

Ensure you have a working contact form on your website and list your phone number and email address in multiple visible places. These contact methods should be easy to access using a smartphone.

2.5 Speak more languages

Having your website translated into multiple languages can give you more business and offer you another advantage over your competition.

English is mandatory, but you should add German, French, Russian, and Arabic depending on your territory or tourists’ numbers.

3.  Start an escort directory

If you want to avoid all the hassle of running an escort agency, you may start an escort directory where the escorts pay a fee to list themselves. These escort directories are more comfortable to run and can make you serious money.

On the other hand, hundreds of escort directories are online, so you have to stand out from the crowd and come with a unique approach.

Check below, EscortRankings.co.uk, an escorts directory created for the UK. At the moment, they are not charging for escorts o add their listings in the directory. Another escort directory/ dating website you may want to look into is EasySex.com.

3.1 Who can I charge for listing?

Both independent escorts and agencies are looking for more exposure in the escort business. Also, you could list photo models, cam models, massage parlors, etc. We will talk more about this in the monetization section.

3.1.1 Independent escorts

Escorts will be able to register on your escort directory site and add their full details. All escorts will have a profile page to add images, descriptions, and more information about themselves and their rates and services.

3.1.2 Agencies

Agencies can add more than one escort profile. All agencies have their profile page showing reviews for that agency and a list of escorts added by that agency.

3.2 What escort directory software should I use?

There are several escort directory scripts available you can use. I will list several here to decide which one fits your needs better.

3.2.1 xScorts

You’ll have everything you need to run a successful, profitable escort site with xScorts! Simply install this script and have your escort site up and running within a few minutes.

xScorts is fully customizable, written in clean open source code, and packed with cutting-edge monetization channels.

Xscorts from Adent.io costs $399 and comes with free installation, 100% non-encrypted source code so you can hire independent developers to add features or do changes, lifetime support, and free upgrades.

3.2.2 Escort Directory Script

Escort Directory Script from EscortScripts.com comes with four templates that you can easily customize. Also, it comes on top of WordPress so you will benefit from all its advantages like multilanguage, multiple payment gateways, powerful cms, and SEO options.

It comes with some robust features like Google maps integrations (so your users will know the nearest escort location), a membership system, private chat, and messaging system, which you will not find in other escort directory scripts. Still, these come with a cost, which at the moment of writing it’s $748.

3.2.3 Escort Directory WordPress Theme

The  Escort Directory WordPress theme will help you build your escort directory in hours. There is no need for many configurations, no need for ten extra plugins, just the theme.

This theme comes on top of WordPress and Woocommerce for the payment integrations, so you will be able to install plugins that will take care of SEO, payments, and other features you may want to add.

EscortWP theme is compatible with WPML and Polylang, so multilanguage is not an issue.

It costs 169 euros, which in USD, at the moment of writing, is a little over $190, making EscortWP the cheapest option if you intend to start an escort directory website. You may also look into our list of 50+ affiliate marketing themes for WordPress as some of these themes can be easily customized for any niche.

Suppose you consider it difficult to install and configure such a script no need to despair. We have you covered: Check our top of the best WordPress maintenance and support services here.

4. Start and monetize an escorts review forum

There are no vast differences between escort directories and escort review forums. Those two can work well together.

An escort review forum’s a forum 🙂 where members post ads about escorts, give reviews, ask questions about services, etc. These forums are not new but have become more popular due to the escort industry’s scams.

Some escorts take customers only from these forums to screen them first. By being a member of such a community, you can check opinions about a particular escort, ask her questions about a fantasy you may have, etc.

I’m not going into detail about how to start and monetize such a forum because we covered the topic in a different article (one of our most popular): How to start and monetize a forum in 2021.

5. How to advertise your new escort website

I will discuss promoting all the presented escort business models (agency, directory, and reviews forum) because there are no vast differences for each of them.

5.1 SEO

SEO is an excellent way to get traffic and advertise your business in any niche. The only downside is that it takes time to rank your website for the terms you want, and the competition is fierce.

Do proper onsite SEO and then start hunting for backlinks. You can acquire backlinks through guest posting,  listings in directories, forums, web 2.0 profiles, etc.

A particularity for this niche is to rank the website for keywords like escort + town name, escort phone numbers, and scene names. These are searched in Google by users interested in finding out more about the escorts.

For instance, Swiss-HighClass-Escorts.ch ranks for local cities by creating different pages on their site for the most important cities: Escort in Bern, Escort in Lugano, Escort in Basel, Escort in Zurich, etc.

We’ve written many articles on both onsite and offsite SEO and covered everything you need in detail. Here are several of them that will help you do proper SEO:

5.2 Online forums

Adult webmasters are at liberty to post videos and pictures to popular porn forums such as pornbb.org. You should open several bunches of threads to get large volumes of traffic.

You can drive adult web traffic from your forum signature. First, register an account and add the URL of your website in your forum signature and profile. Now, slowly and steadily, make a few posts.

If people like your posts, they will check out the links in your forum signature. You should know that a few forums do not allow site URLs in the signature. Understand the rules and adhere to them.

Also, post articles that could interest potential clients. Anything informative that builds the conversation around your specialties will help develop your company’s brand authority.

We’ve written a detailed guide on how to get targeted traffic from online forums.

Here’s a list of the most popular adult forums: Xnxx, JdForum, Jodic-Forum, ForumOphilia, Freeones.

5.3 Image Sites

There are many reputed porn photography sites. Upload your watermarked images to popular porn photography sites such as ImageFap.com.

A small watermark is enough to attract quality adult traffic. However, do not overdo it. Image Fap has policies against mass promotion and advertising. Too many images with too many watermarks and links will undoubtedly get you banned. You should have all the rights to the watermarked images you uploaded.

5.4 Twitter

Many adult webmasters do not know how to promote an escort business website on Twitter. As a result, they get either completely banned (terminated) or shadow-banned (also called ghost-ban).

It’s mentioned in TOS (Terms of Service) that Twitter doesn’t encourage or entertain any nudity in profile avatars and banners. Adhere to this guideline. Mark your Twitter account as sensitive for viewing. You can do this in the settings area.

Twitter allows one pinned tweet per user. Your pinned tweet should contain links to your web properties. Also, organize Twitter competitions. Get retweeted by cam girls, porn stars, and other adult industry influencers.

5.5 Tumblr

Tumblr has restricted uploading any content, including images, videos, GIFs, or illustrations, depicting sex acts. The new guidelines prohibit adult content. In their Community Guidelines, you can read more about what kinds of content are not allowed on Tumblr.

Certain exceptions are permitted in the website related to written content such as erotica, nudity related to newsworthy speech, sculptures, etc.

5.6 Sharesome

Sharesome is yet another fantastic platform that’s dedicated to the adult industry. Verified models, porn stars, content producers, and studios can post links to their respective clip sites, social media accounts, and other profiles.

This platform has adequate features to let you create an excellent profile page with a custom profile photo, bio, website link, and newsfeed. This platform doesn’t cater to the requirements of adult affiliate marketers.

If you post content on this platform, it’s mandatory to have ownership rights. There’s a built-in token system. Fans can tip their favorite models by using the token system.

5.7 Buying adult traffic

Advertising on significant adult-related websites seems the most common way many webmasters increase visitor numbers; the key to buying adult traffic is getting repeat visitors.

Buying traffic for your website is fast and straightforward. For many adult webmasters, it’s the best way to get those repeat visitors and much-needed ad revenue.

5.8 Buying banner ads

In adult businesses, banner ads are still effective, and you should consider them to get targeted traffic to your site. Bellow are several providers (ad networks and marketplaces) that we recommend.

5.9 PPC Ads

PPC is a very valid and high-impact form of adult marketing. If you hire a PPC agency, they’ll take care of your PPC campaign’s entire end-to-end process, from analyzing your business to customers clicking through to your site.

5.10 CPA Marketing

CPA marketing is a usual way to advertise a website in the adult industry. If you own an escort forum, an escort directory, or an escort agency, you should try CPA marketing to get leads for your website. We’ve written a complete guide on how to use CPA marketing for an e-commerce business, but most of the details there apply to the adult industry as well.

Here are several CPA networks we recommend: MaxBounty, AdWorkMedia, CPALead.

6. How to monetize your escort website

This section will present several options to monetize an escort website properly. If you started an escort agency, the only way to monetize it is to share the profits from escort contracts/appointments.

There are multiple ways to monetize the websites for escort directories and escorts review forums.

6.1 Get a share of the profits from escorts

If you’re running an escort agency, you can make money by asking the escorts a fee for being listed on your agency or a share of the profits.

6.2 Sell subscriptions and memberships

If you run an escort review forum or an escort directory, adopt the freemium model, and utilize both free and paid versions of your site. You can offer multiple benefits for paid memberships like premium placement, removing the ads, etc.

6.3 Sell advertising space

This is the traditional way. Let advertisers place their ads on your site, and you make money. It’s a great way to make money as your site grows.

Some advertisers are keen on investing in Ad spaces with escort sites. They know you have got quality traffic. You just have to find the advertisers who would be interested in your site.

You may try to approach directly to the advertisers. Doing so can boost your Ad revenue by almost 20-30% without extra effort.

6.4 Look for sponsorship

Don’t mistake it with Advertisement. Sponsorship works in collaboration with the relevant brands. You can approach to get sponsorship from an adult brand and promote their products on your site. For example, you can ask the cam models to perform using the toys given by your sex-toy sponsor.

6.5 Sign up for CPA affiliate networks

You can sign up for the top adult brands’ CPA affiliate networks and promote their products on your site. This is a little more difficult than just lending your space, as you are responsible for marketing your affiliate links. The more you sell through the affiliate links, the more money you make.

6.6 Sell your traffic to the Ad networks

You won’t have to sell your traffic but let the advertisers capitalize on it. This is the most popular way to make money from an adult tube site.

Unlike affiliate networks, you don’t have to search for sales or customize your site. Instead, you can sign up for a popular ad network and let the advertisers show Ads on your site on the allocated spaces.

It’s different from lending an Ad space, as you get to choose from an array of Ad-types such as banners, display ads, native ads, popunders, push notifications, and many more. Moreover, you are paid based on the per-impression made on the Ads.

6.7 Look into affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you earn commissions by promoting someone else’s products on your site. It’s similar to advertising because it’s a passive income stream, and you don’t have to produce goods or services, but unlike advertising, you only get the income if you make a sale.

If you don’t know much about affiliate marketing, you should check our affiliate marketing for beginners’ complete guide. Also, here is a list of 65+ affiliate marketing high-paying programs that can inspire you. Now you should know enough about affiliate marketing, so check the best 21 affiliate marketing networks you can signup for.

Though you can treat affiliate links like advertising and make them a passive element of your page, affiliate products are more likely to sell if you review them or promote them with an actual post.

You should only endorse products that you believe will help your readers if you want to maintain their trust and loyalty. You should also ensure that the product connects logically to your escort niche.

Conclusion

There you go. You now have the complete roadmap on starting, advertising, and monetizing an escort business. It doesn’t matter if is an agency, escort review forum, or an escort directory; the key is to accumulate as much traffic you can to your website to make money.

The more traffic, the more chances to show ads, sell stuff, collect data, get sponsorship, and make great money.

You can’t even imagine how much money adult sites make once popular among the viewers, advertisers, and brands. To make money from the adult industry, you have to try every option you get. Just be patient, prepare a strategy, follow it, and wait for the traffic to drive money to your site.

Need help to monetize your escort business? Book a session with a monetization consultant and I will gladly help you get clarity on your strategy and plans. Prefer to monetize your website with affiliate marketing? As a certified affiliate marketing consultant, I can help you as well.

Do you have questions? Let me know in the comments form, and I will gladly answer.