Sex Work Marketing: To Selfie or Not to Selfie?

Why is my most popular photo on Tryst a grainy still from a low quality video I shot of myself flexing my dainty arm muscles? This is, by all standards, a shitty photo in that I'm not even fully in frame with one arm totally hidden. The other arm's elbow is cut off. There's no interesting, eye-catching backdrop. I'm fully clothed, standing in front of a boring blank wall. And yet this image garnered almost as many clicks as a nipply selfie.

In this post I'll be overanalyzing my top Tryst photos in an attempt to dissect the horny (generally) male mind and discern what works in terms of compelling men to click on my profile.

Because I'm in the most oversaturated city in the world, NYC, my CTR is lower than providers in less crowded markets. I talk to other SWers across the country and they have a higher CTR due to there being less providers to choose from in their area. Everyone and their mother lists NYC as a homebase since Tryst's illogical and greedy implementation of the higher priced three home base tier so don't let a 7% CTR confuse you: This is average for established (not new) providers in NYC.

Selfies Sell

Many providers report that their selfies garner the highest CTR (click through rate) on Tryst. Why is this? As you can see from my analytics, my shitty selfies do prompt more Tryst users to click on my profile. I've discussed why selfies = clicks in prior marketing blogs and will reiterate here: Selfies sell intimacy. In an utterly disconnected world in which there's a literal loneliness epidemic, especially amongst men, they want to feel like they "know" a provider via her/his/their marketing. A selfie on an ad site invokes a feeling of familiarity, like I'm your girlfriend sending you an arousing photo. So you click.

Folks know that professional photo utilize lighting, editing and other techniques to make a SW look like a Goddess and these aren't always realistic. Pro photos also feel a bit disconnected and like the provider is unattainable. Some guys love the "unattainable centerfold" vibe but the numbers illustrate the fact that, in terms of prompting potential clients to actually click on an ad, this vibe isn't as effective.

Selfies are also more casual and approachable. I'm wearing a Justice tarot card tank with black yoga pants in the gym photo and look like a woman you'd know IRL. This is more appealing, apparently, than images of me in a gown or lingerie and I have yet to figure out why so please, leave your comments on my social media if you have any thoughts. Why are my lingerie photos less popular than a fully clothed gym photo? I can only surmise that guys are bored of lingerie photos and are expecting to see said photos on a SW ad site. Anything expected is boring, not noteworthy and doesn't grab attention.

Yet, when I didn't have professional photos my clients were less generous. Well, some of them were great but they booked shorter dates and I had more issues with them being cheap, unwilling to screen and more difficult to deal with. Although pro photos are less likely to lead to profile clicks, they lend an air of professionalism to my brand. Clients think, if she can afford quite a few pro photoshoots then she must be financially successful and therefore must be a skilled provider. It also appears as though I invest in my brand and take my work seriously, another feature that will attract serious clients who are also professional businessmen. I'm signaling that I'm the utterly wealthy lady that I am by doing professional photoshoots and that I'm "on their level."

Plus, pro photos are simply hot. Some of my pro photos have garnered very high CTR but those were older photoshoots and the "buzz" around those pix fell off as the dudes in NYC have seen them too many times.

Cult Recruiters: The Mammalian Brain

Let's analyze my Muscle Mommy photo. Why is a poorly framed, low quality video still with a boring background so appealing? I believe it's because the photo is different. Eye-catching. I doubt many companions post photos of themselves flexing their arm muscles. According to behavioral expert Chase Hughes, shocking images prompt folks to slow down and pay attention.

Mr. Hughes worked with cults and tried to decipher which of their recruitment techniques worked. This involved him studying recruiters as they approached folks at a mall. The technique they used involved saying something weird and shocking to strangers.

"Did you see the goth fistfight outside of Hot Topic?" cult recruiters would ask unsuspecting passersby who, taken off guard, would stop and engage in conversation with recruiters.

"Huh? A goth fistfight?" folks would stop and chat for a bit due to utter confusion and recruiters could then charm the more vulnerable passersby into maybe attending a cult get-together.

If the recruiters had said, "Hi, can I talk to you for a minute?" to these passersby, they'd appear to be selling something and folks would walk right past them, totally uninterested.

I apply this same technique to my marketing. Mr. Hughes describes how our "mammalian brains" can't be controlled and we're unconscious of the power this part of our brain has in terms of dominating quite a bit of our behavior. The more shocking an image is, the more likely we are to stop and give it our attention. If I wasn't flexing my arm like a man in that photo, it wouldn't have a high CTR. Barely anyone would care. I'd be another attractive woman in gym clothes standing around blandly. The mix of femininity, with my long, luscious red hair flowing down my chest and masculinity (a flexed arm) is different. Yet, it's not too different/masculine to scare off potential clients because I still look very femme and my muscles are cute but not intimidating. If I was more jacked, the photo wouldn't play well because I would intimidate most men.

The combination of an "intimate" and crappy selfie makes clients feel as though they truly know me. The weird pose gets them to click. I also believe that the whole gym thing is very attractive to potential clients because it conveys the fact that I love and take care of myself. Folks who workout with enough consistency to have visible muscles are seen as attractive for obvious reasons. We're attracted to people who are confident and care about themselves.

I'm still confused by this photo's popularity because I didn't think the Muscle Mommy thing was that popular. Sure, it's a huge niche in the kink world but I assumed that even my tiny delt and biceps would scare/intimidate most men who would see them as a threat to their tiny penii. Maybe the photo isn't intimidating because my muscles are small, dainty and "ladylike"?

Booty Boot Boot and Cleavy Cleave

It's a bit sad to me how predictable men are. Of course, photos of my butt prompt them to click. What more can I say? My rear does look amazing when I'm bent over. I'd do me. I could expound on this point a bit more in an attempt to pad out this blog with BS and attempt to sound intelligent but there's nothing more to say.

Man dog. Man see butt. Man like butt. Man do anything for da butt.

The other top photos feature selfie cleavage or selfie nip. I wish my artistic, beautiful photos (still featuring nip/cleave) prompted dudes to click but that generally isn't the case. Well, it is when my pro photos are new but once the clients in NYC have seen them for a month or two, interest wanes. Selfies have a longer shelf life when it comes to CTR.

Selfies trigger something within their unconscious minds that says, "Click on her profile. She's a "real" girl. Look, she just sent you a selfie of herself!" They feel as though these photos can't be edited, are more intimate and realistic when... I edit my selfies as do many providers. My videos on Bluesky are filter-free and unedited so clients can see what I "really" look like but... That damn selfie truly does lead to more profile clicks than professional photos.

My unsolicited advice remains the same: Don't fool yourself into thinking that you don't need professional photos. Although they're less likely to prompt a potential client to click on our profiles, they do persuade clients to take us seriously and actually book sessions. They also attract higher quality clients who book longer engagements because pro photos convey a high level of status that a selfie doesn't.

Don't forget to click ❤️ on my Bluesky post promoting this blog and let me know what the heck is going on here. I'm a bit confused by that random gym video still's popularity. I simply uploaded it without thinking because sensual wrestling is very popular and I wanted to cater to this demographic of clients. So please, leave a comment if you read this entire blog because it makes me happy to connect with other via my writing.

Many dommes wrestle but won't also get sexually intimate with guys so I'm a rare find: A woman who actually works her upper body out in a very intense manner, can pin guys down and overpower them (if they don't regularly weight train their upper body) yet also provides more intimate fun at my Kinky GFE rate. I didn't post that photo to appeal to most clients. It was supposed to be a random, niche thing and yet it's taken over! Help! Please explain this to me.