Do It Yourself! Amateur Porn Stars Make Bank

Jan. 22, 2008— -- Antoinette is 25 years old. She is an interior designer from Baltimore with a boyfriend and a degree. She describes herself as "a pretty normal woman."

But twice a month she sets up a camera, takes off her clothes and with her boyfriend makes amateur pornography movies under the name Sexy Secret. For what she describes as about 20 minutes worth of "work" she makes $500 to $600 a month.

"I'm not a porn star. I don't want to be a porn star," she said. "I'm a pretty normal woman. I don't wear makeup that often. I'm 5'6 and 140 pounds. I'd say I'm nice looking, sure, but otherwise I'm pretty average."

Despite not being a porn star, Antoinette's films are explicit displays of hardcore intercourse that if released in cinemas would earn a "XXX" billing.

While plenty of amateur pornographers or exhibitionists have posted their work online for free, some do-it-yourself pornographers are now posting videos to a new section of the video-sharing site XTube.com — and making money on it.

With so much free media available on the Internet, sites have long struggled with how to get users to pay for content, whether it is Facebook, the Wall Street Journal or the band Radiohead.

As it has in the past, the porn industry is showing others how to make the Internet profitable.

XTube, which also offers thousands of free videos, thinks it has solved the problem of getting people to pay for porn by offering users something different.

"Everybody has got free porn," said Justin Arilan, XTube's sales and support manager. "How you keep users on your site and how you monetize the site is the real challenge. We think we've done that here."

Xtube's business model hopes to harness popular Web 2.0 innovations like wikis and social networking. People who typically view free porn will be more willing to pay, the company believes, if they can get to know the models, form relationships and play a role in directing the action filmmakers produce.

The audience pays 50 cents to $2.50 to view the short homemade porn flicks.

Those who post the videos receive 60 percent of the revenue after processing fees. Beginning next month, posters will receive 50 percent of revenues.