“My name is Queen Ava, and I have been in the industry my entire adult life…” – and so Queen Ava begins our interview together.
Queen Ava is a content creator, cam model, web designer and mentor.
“A fun fact about me is I am in the top 50 of panty sellers around the world!” she shared. “I have sold over 300 pairs of my used underwear and I get top dollar for them!”
Seems like a pretty good source for mentoring and guidance if you ask us!
Not everyone one’s entry into sex work is smooth, and Ava shared a bit about hers.
“I was actually introduced to the industry by a trafficker, and my first year engaging in sex work was terrible,” she told us.
“I decided to stick to sex work — independently, of course — because I love the freedom of being able to work from home,” she continued. “I love creating things, from websites to explicit videos. I am very fulfilled being able to get paid for being creative every day.”
You can learn more about Ava’s experience being trafficked by reading her books, which can be purchased here: queenavasworld.com/books
Today, Ava has incorporated her vast experiences into vibrant coaching work and entrepreneurial endeavors, crafting a career she loves, on her own terms.
“Some of my favorite aspects of being in the industry are traveling, making my own schedule and working from home. I have had the freedom, for over a decade, to pretty much do things on my own time,” she shared. “The freedom of being able to just book a plane ticket and being in a new place to network and make money is amazing. I love not having to ask my boss if I have permission to go. I am my own boss!”
There are downsides and challenges to every aspect of life though, and Ava made sure to share some nuanced perspective on the “other side” of her current work life.
“Being an entrepreneur does have its setbacks though,” she shared. “I do not get paid a set rate and am responsible for finding people to use my services. If I am not successful, I do not get paid.”
Commenting on the very real ups and downs of online sex work, Ava shared that, “That is a whole different level of pressure than just clocking into work and knowing you will leave with $200 towards your paycheck at the end of the day. I can make $1000 one day and then not having many sales for a couple weeks. The unknowns of being an entrepreneur can get stressful at times.”
Queen Ava shared quite a bit more about her entrepreneurial endeavors online — all with independence in mind. Read on to learn more!
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YNOT Cam: How did you decide to start pantyseller411.com?
Queen Ava: I decided to start my adult entertainment class and community, pantyseller411, because I wish I knew communities like mine existed when I got into sex work. Because I got introduced to sex work under unsavory circumstances, it was not until I changed my surroundings that I realized there is a real community amongst sex workers, and it is a beautiful thing. It never needs to stop, and it only needs to be built upon.
I took my first adult entertainment class when I was 25. (I am turning 30 this April.) The information in it was great, and it came with a chat group for other ladies who also took the class to ask questions and motivate each other. I found the class helpful but felt I could offer a class with totally different information that would also be helpful to models. That is where pantyseller411 was birthed.
I cover topics like selling your panties, of course, but I also teach about things like building your own website and attaining payment processing. I talk about how to shoot the best content and stick out from other sellers — in a positive way, of course.
Do you want to be my Valentine? pic.twitter.com/TIbXKJMzdS
— Queen Ava 💖 OF no PPV (@iamqueenava4) January 27, 2022
It seems like part of the entire coaching process is making things “less mysterious” and also giving people an accessible place to ask questions, which then enhances success. Do you think so too?
With many third-party sites becoming more difficult to work with — for instance, I have had videos sitting in the review process on iWantClips.com for almost two months — and the market becoming saturated as more people are out of work — eg due to COVID — it is important models know how to shoot the best content and get it to entice the best buyers. It is also critical that models have their own personal home on the web for when these third party sites leave us high and dry — think AVN Stars ending all monetization features with little notice or communication.
The information in my class is stuff I had to learn myself, so it’s technically available for anyone who wants to research, but I have put it into an easy to access format so my students don’t have to spends days and months researching these things. My class is a masterlog of information I have learned over the last decade working as a sex worker. It also comes with a group chat, hosted on discord, where you can ask me and other experienced sellers anything.
Speaking of building your own websites and so on, I see both pantyseller411.com and queenavasworld.com are independently hosted and payment processed. Why, in your opinion, is this approach worth it (vs using a third-party service like Centro or VXPages)?
Both of my websites pantyseller411.com and queenavasworld.com are independently designed and hosted by me. The benefits of having a fully independent business are too many to name, but one of my favorite “perks” is having a place on the web that I know will never be closing.
With sites like AVN Stars ending monetization and sites like OnlyFans going back and forth with whether or not they will continue to allow sex work, it is a huge deal for a model to have a website that takes payments that they themselves know will never close. I use a reliable system for my uploads and love that I no longer have to deal with OnlyFans’ and iWantClips’ slooow upload interfaces.
Having my own website does have cons, like a fair amount of upfront cost, but at the end of the day I retain 87% of all my sales after expenses are calculated. This, compared to only getting 40 to 80% on third-party sites. For a majority of my career, I have focused heavily on individual clip sales on sites like Clips4Sale and ManyVids. Their revshare is typically 40% of total earnings. That is a lot! I am way happier with the amount of money I keep after selling services or videos now that I have my own independent site.
It is ironic that you bring up Centro. I like the features they offer as well as their payout scheme. Their revshare is only 20% and in exchange models get a functional website with features like a video store, subscription business model like OnlyFans and live camming. For what they offer, 20% revshare is not bad at all. I considered using them myself for my website, but I just do not feel confident in any of these third-party sites.
At the end of the day, they could decide to close any day and then I would be stuck starting over.
When going through a service like Centro, it is the same process as clip sites. You have to upload the video directly to their server. That is a lot of extra work. My business model for years has uploading my videos to a storage cloud like dropbox or MediaFire and then processing my payments myself. I have worked like this even before I had my own website and payment processing. I took PayPal, CashApp and Venmo.
Now that I have my website, it works in a similar way. I upload the video to a cloud storage and then send the paying customer a link. (It is automated: they pay and then are automatically sent the link, no work for me!) It is easier for me this way. I only have to upload the video one place. Having to upload a single full-length video for sale to iWantClips, ManyVids, Clips4Sale, AP Clips and more is a lot of work if you produce a lot of content — which I do.
I would much rather just upload a free video to these sites and direct people to my personal website where the revshare works out to 87% — compared to 60%.
Outside of work, what are you most passionate about?
Outside of work, I am passionate about family. I love to relax at home and spend time with my loved ones. I also love animals. I have a yorkie, two cats, and four Guinea pigs – all girls!
If you could change one thing about today’s world, what would it be and why?
COVID. This pandemic has really changed the world. I know we are adapting as people, but I hate it. So many sad changes have occurred over the last three years.
Find Queen Ava on Twitter at @iamqueenava4.
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Erika is a sex positive people watcher (and writer). Email her at erika@ynotcam.com.
Header borders via Pexels here.
