Shawn Monroe

Traveling can be a headache, but I find it ultimately rewarding. If you can figure out how to navigate it and stay sane the perks will outweigh the benefits. I will say, though, that there are a few counterintuitive things that come with traveling. First off: summer isn’t the best time. Clients are usually traveling themselves, and there are lots of events and pride festivals happening. August is basically a wash. You can make summer work, but make damn sure there’s not any event happening where you plan to travel. You don’t always need the best most expensive hotel. The doors need to be on the inside, but besides that, location within the city matters much more (and i kill myself over this more than anything). Time of week matters a lot too. Another counterintuitive thing: weekends can work, and if they’re the only time you can travel (like in my case) you can make it work. But in many instances some combo of weekday and weekends work best for travel spans. Also, drum up interest before hand. It can be a pain, but pick your travel cities and advertise them in advance, put them in your headline and your body text, and put them here. Having advanced appointments will save you some headache and give peace of mind that the trip is worth it. In many instances, traveling to a city more than once is better as people know you’ll get there fairly regularly. And if you end up canceling the trip, you won’t be out much, or you can keep the trip and end up seeing something new (OR SLEEPING).

Traveling can be a headache, but I find it ultimately rewarding. If you can figure out how to navigate it and stay sane the perks will outweigh the benefits. I will say, though, that there are a few counterintuitive things that come with traveling. First off: summer isn’t the best time. Clients are usually traveling themselves, and there are lots of events and pride festivals happening. August is basically a wash. You can make summer work, but make damn sure there’s not any event happening where you plan to travel. You don’t always need the best most expensive hotel. The doors need to be on the inside, but besides that, location within the city matters much more (and i kill myself over this more than anything). Time of week matters a lot too. Another counterintuitive thing: weekends can work, and if they’re the only time you can travel (like in my case) you can make it work. But in many instances some combo of weekday and weekends work best for travel spans. Also, drum up interest before hand. It can be a pain, but pick your travel cities and advertise them in advance, put them in your headline and your body text, and put them here. Having advanced appointments will save you some headache and give peace of mind that the trip is worth it. In many instances, traveling to a city more than once is better as people know you’ll get there fairly regularly. And if you end up canceling the trip, you won’t be out much, or you can keep the trip and end up seeing something new (OR SLEEPING).

I feel like we all have that one city that we can’t deal with. For me it is Kansas City and Houston.

It’s not easy for us to be generally available 24/7 either as most of us do have other things we like to do outside escorting, or to deal with different communication styles and preferences of providers. I do appreciate that you at least try to stay within the bounds of the escort as many guys don’t. But it seems that the overwhelming majority of us prefer appointments to be booked in advance. In fact, I’ve cancelled trips if I didn’t have enough advance appointments booked in advance, and the guys that like to book on a whim would text me and ask why. All that said, I find it odd that anyone would object to an advance booking - it’s easy enough to schedule it and reconfirm closer.

Congrats! *screams* one of us! One of us!

Also make sure you book enough time. It’s hard to have your first time AND feel comfortable in 60 minutes in most instances, from both perspectives, even if you think it may be. Just make sure you have enough time.

Some guys change their location when they move around, not just to appear local, but to show what part of town they’re in. In a lot of major metros, a provider’s location can play a part in their business. The pros of travel locations are basically to try as much as possible to drum up interest before you’ll be in a city. Some of us will cancel trips if there’s not enough interest (sorry for the guys that wait). The cons of advertising beforehand is that even if you try as much as possible to mitigate it, by changing your headline of including travel cities in your text, you’ll still have guys whom won’t pay attention. If you advertise multiple travel cities at a time, you’ll find yourself texting “hi! I’m not currently in [city]. My as says I’ll be in [city] from [date to date]. Would you like to meet while I’m there?” Sites handle this differently - RM shows you a month before your travel dates, MF a week - but it’s still a pain. That being said, the bad of annoyance is outweighed by the good of guaranteed appointments before you visit. Hope that sheds some light.

I’ve found masseurfinder to be worth it. Just on this last trip, i apparently forgot to put my travel dates to dallas on, and booked 3 appointments on the drive down. It tends to have the best SEO compared to other sites (though they may have killed themselves last month) and the biggest reach. Reviews are hard to get, and MF changed the rules recently. But keep at it. I know my friend will give someone a discount on their next appointment if they leave a review. But in my opinion masseurfinder is worth it.

A better delineation of a city you plan to travel to, vs. one you’re in. I swear I type: “Hi! I’m not currently in [your city]. My ad should say I’m in [city] & I’ll be in [your city] from [date-date]. Would you like to meet while I’m in town?” More than scheduling actual appointments when I’m in that city. I know men don’t read, but there has to be a better way.

I would agree with everyone here. There are some amateur photographers on Grindr et al. You can also play around with self timers and angles (all the Instagram models have given me ideas for sure). It’s harder now, but when I was starting out, I used craigslist to connect with photographers (and get comfortable being naked in front of a stranger). It can be like pulling teeth to find ones that will film naked dudes but they do exist. And many photographers are looking to expand their male boudoir portfolios right now since that’s in. Since the personals ads no longer exist, look in the gig section. Search “male” and “erotic” and other terms together, and search “-women” to weed out dudes with cameras trying to creep on girls. Push comes to shove, post an ad and see whom responds. That’s how I got connected with my most recent photographer, Shawn Moorman in Little Rock. I’ve been there. If you need I could try to help more.

I’ve always been a big fan of group fitness, a la Crossfit. Some of the stuff is dumb (do I need to be upside down to get a good workout?) but the group aspect has helped me a lot. Everyone is struggling or striving to achieve the same goal, not to mention the workouts are written for you, so it’s more difficult to lose motivation (it was much easier for me to skip a workout if I was working by myself). These days gym has become a time for me to Think, and I do a lot more barbell Olympic lifting, but I dig Crossfit for the community aspect as well.

Yes. On top of escorting, I’m one of the daily editors for fleshbot, if you’ve ever read that rag. And if you haven’t, you should...

They were prepared. Once the idea of FOSTA was even being entertained months ago, that made us tighten our ads then. Made us take out some verbage. And then they made us tighten them again more recently. 2 weeks ago I tried updating pics, and nothing with the slightest hint of chest (even just my face) made it through. And then this most recent change. And their dismissive attitude.

I haven’t come up with a strategy yet, though I’ve run into all the problems you’ve described, in terms of photographers being generally flaky.

Same here. Escorting is on top of my other 2 jobs. No gap. :-)

The answer I got: As part of our continuing site enhancements, the Overview section has been replaced with a new section, Massage Summary. It can be 75 to 150 words. It is optional. Full instructions can be found on the Ad Editor form. Maddie A. Masseurfinder Customer Support

I asked for an example of an ad or ad copy that was acceptable and haven’t heard a response. If I hear one I can update.

The frustrating thing about this is their customer service sucks. You ask them about it, and their only reply is that they’ll prorate your monthly billing if you wish to cancel. They know their the best SEO-wise though, so they can do whatever they want. No matter how frustrating to all of us.