Since the enactment of FOSTA-SESTA, the bill and subsequent law that was intended to stop sex trafficking, on April 11, 2018 and the subsequent closure of Backpage, TER to US sex workers and other popular sites that hosted sex worker's ads, panic ensued. "What will we do now?", many sex workers implored apprehensively, many of us thrust into ununcertainty
certainty, into darkness, worrying about how we would pay our bills, take care of our kids, live with the abrupt loss of, for some if not most of us, our sole income.
Floundering, some sex workers took to the streets, back traipsing the track, while others who had already been dabbling in webcam modeling, decided now was as good a time as any for that much desired career change and thrust themselves full-time into webcam modeling. Then there were those of us who scoured the internet for the perfect Backpage alternative, a high-traffic, user-friendly site to post our adult ads, and there were a few out there, some long-established sites and some new ones, Backpage clones that even called themselves "Backpage"-Something or Something-"Backpage".
Many sites, such as Erotic Monkey and Adult Search, continued to recycle old ads as they had done all along, which had it's advantages and disadvantages with the most notable advantage being that our ads were still running without Backpage, et al.
(Consequently clients could still find us online by putting our last known phone number in Google Search) and the greatest disadvantage, especially for those who had had numerous phone numbers over the past couple of years or moved around a lot, was the recycled ads contained erroneous and old information rendering those ads useless for us. Other sites, such as Nightshift and CityVibe went offline permanently while others, The Erotic Review for example shut their proverbial doors to US-based escorts, while others, such as Preferred411 (P411) stopped accepting new members and new clients.
Despite the calls I still continued to receive from new clients desiring to see me and even though I was able to continue working seamlessly, the inability to post my ad, therefore have even a semblance of control over the fate of my business was more than unnerving. How could I rely on income that was entirely out of my control? Hotel/motel life was expensive and I am definitely not cut-out for street living so in the next couple of days that ensued after Backpage was abruptly seized by the Federal Government and taken down and what seemed like their entire operation indicted on prostitution and human trafficking charges, I had to quickly plan my future, at least my near-future and decide what I was going to do for work.
I was loathe to give this all up though. Adult services was my niche. I'm great at it, having found my piece of the pie soaked in Nuru Gel and plastic/rubber sheets, and I love it, not to mention the abundant income that came with it, and failing to save even a penny of the wealth that had blessed me over the past 4-1/2 years I had been in business, I found myself without a safety net and street living seemed hopelessly imminent if I didn't come up with a viable plan quickly, which is exactly what I did.
The Plan : Move to the Antelope Valley because I had people there. I could get a place to live, a place to post my ads and buy me some time to come up with a more definitive plan because frankly, I did not want to live in the AV. As much as I detested the thought of actually moving to the AV, desert-living was favorable to being homeless on the street and/or living in the Santa Ana Riverbed or in "Tent City".
Armed with a solid, definitive solution, albeit temporary, to my plight, I used the next couple of days I had prepaid on the hotel I was staying at to try and see whatever clients I could so I would have money when I had to move, though I would try to keep the hotel for as long as possible. That night was decent, better than most and I saw a couple new clients with plans to see more the next day. But the uncertainty of the adult services industry, specifically sex work, coupled with the knowledge that most of us sex-workers had little to no other prospects, as business was drying up or already had dried up for a lot of us, brought out the absolute worse in the men who fancied themselves "hobbyists". More games were played, phony destinations for outcalls, the low-ballers got even lower if that was possible, confidently demanding full-service with GREEK and every other acronym out there for a cool $20-40 and I was almost raped as my last Manhattan Beach client tried to force himself on me after I vehemently said "NO" when he broached sex with me, though I am most decidedly certain that he never bargained for Jazz-hamed Ali and I got to release much pent up stress-related aggression. By the time my security had arrived, I had the coward pinned on my door and was mercilessly pummeling him after I kicked him repeatedly with my stilettos so hard I broke one and my shoe flew off. In fact, my security actually had to secure him and get me off of him. No one tries to rape me.
Slightly disheartened and completely broke since my plan to make money before I left failed miserably, I boarded the train to the AV and spent the next 2 hours creating an account and posting forum ads on the AV Escorts Board where by the time I arrived in the AV two hours later, I had two appointments set up. Backpage? Who needed it? When one door closes at least 10 usually open in my experience. Optimistically, confidently I disembarked my train and waited for my ride to my motel, which after the first week, though now I was fully verified and level 4 on AVEB, I found myself unable to pay for due to no calls in 2 days and counting and was getting kicked out.
Fast forward 4 months 2 weeks, now living in an approximately 150-200 sq ft Terry Travel Trailer with my two 4-1/2-month-old Husky-Wolf Hybrids who incidentally are smart as whips, smarter than most of the people I deal with for sure, perhaps even smarter than me but need a substantial amount of attention and exercise and, thus, keep me pretty busy when I'm not drawing, I have now moved on to colored pencils because I found myself with plenty of time to learn it. I work from time to time, all of my needs currently being met WITHOUT working myself to the bone, seeing roughly 2-3 clients per week...who am I kidding? It's more like 2-3 every OTHER week, not exactly by choice although I really don't post ads too often, especially on AVEB ever since some verified members started public shit with me for no reason. My only real choices out here as far as places to post a sex work ad are AVEscortsBoard, Humaniplex & Switter, which incidentally is the site to be on for independents if you're in Vegas but completely dead in the AV. I decided to check online for places to post ads online for sex workers. I had checked, halfheartedly prior to coming to the AV but since I had continued to receive calls & texts, there was not an urgent need at the time. Alas, that time has most likely arose or it will soon, I would have to move out of my travel trailer and foray once again into the big world. After perusing the internet with various key words for some time, I was only mildly surprised at the lack of information online, at least from anyone I would consider a "credible" source, such as an escort or a hobbyist.
With AVEB & HX being my only real choices of places to post my ad, AVEB being a wannabe Facebook for hoes where a handful of extremely cheap, decidedly petty pretend "hobbyists", who believe they run the board and who are under the impression that the escorts work for the, troll the forums starting shit needlessly with hardworking providers right on their ads (in the middle of their workplace would be the equivalent) having inappropriate,ridiculously trivial, business-killing conversations right on the escort's ad. Like it even matters with the girls on that site boasting a whopping $110 (or less, I have seen $50 no shit) per hour full service BARE SERVICES, have your way with me because I lack the necessary self-respect to charge higher prices, it has been almost impossible for me to make any money there. And HX 4 months ago, discontinued their classified section, leaving us nowhere to post an ad, thus rendering it pretty useless as my private messages, texts and calls trickled to a halt except for the occasional stray communications from people I had already talked to in the not-so-distant past. No, though I have been content to draw and play with my puppies all day every day, if I were going to have to move soon, I predicted I would need real business.
Had the other girls left the industry to make it big on webcam? Or were they all attaining fortunes selling amateur vids and their panties on Snapchat and ManyVids? Doubtful, so they had to be posting somewhere. I perused the AVEB forums one day when I was bored and discovered that the ladies of AntelopeValleyEscortsBoard were working and making money but oddly enough nobody was really writing any now-mandatory-or-lose-your-verification-and level reviews and no one was being busted down. The lack of reviews is obviously not because they're too busy to write them. I would see complaints and I would see levels change. So they were posting other places or they had enough regulars to support them which was dubious due to the lack of evidence in the forum posts to that effect. No, the girls were posting somewhere else. Armed with my new laptop, thanks to 2 great and generous new clients I met on HX and a largely rewarding weekend, and a fresh cup of Indian Tea, I decided to do a little research.
Basically as there was next to no information on the internet, I had to compile my own data, which is perfect because I know it's current and I know it is correct. I will share what I have compiled in my next blog and hopefully, I can help another working girl or 2 find a posting home as busy as Backpage was. But in the meantime, what I did find was a couple of places to post my ad that wasn't too expensive and so far, the traffic has been Backpage worthy. One place was Bedpage and the other was AdList24.
I am convinced that things will be back to normal soon and that change is sometimes necessary and is not always a bad thing.
Stay tuned for an extensive list of sites so all you other ladies can get back to work. Vacation is over!
💋Jazzmin Jayde