Micro-Dommenomics – Re-Inventing the Wheel

When I have a “normal” life, not going out a lot, not changing time zones like my underwear, I have a habit that annoys everyone around me, which is getting up at 7:30 in the morning.  I love the morning and generally have an excitement for the day ahead.  In college I worked two jobs while going to school full time, but I always gave myself a couple of hours in the morning to take a nice, long bath, eat a big breakfast and generally enjoy myself.  The rest of the day would eventually spiral out of control with all the things to be done in a little amount of time and I often fell asleep with a textbook on my face.  It became my personality that I would pop out of bed in the morning because I associated it with “my time.”

Fast forward to 2004 with my newly built dungeon and my mornings, dawdling about my studio finding something to obsessively clean or some such nonsense. The climate of the pro-domme message boards and general feedback was that session prices were too high.  My hourly rate was $250, which was the top end, meaning an indy domme with a private studio to use.  Of course I wasn’t renting a private studio by the hour, I had my own place--a fixed cost.  So here, my friend, is a story never heard before in the past 8 years.

Oooohhh yeah, just hanging out in my leather corset, skirt and boots. The top my throne was dusty.

The outcry of session prices was palatable by clients on the boards, clients contacting me and in the general rumor mill.  The debate was answered by dommes in how much it costs to be a pro-domme. A typical outfit cost $300-$600; advertising was $1,000+ a month; equipment used in a session was about $1,5000, and so on.  Of course the outfit and equipment was used more than once, but one had to have a wide range of such outfits and equipment to accommodate various kinks.  “My type of session doesn’t need all that stuff!” A client would inevitably say. “I don’t need to see a super famous, skilled domme.” “Dommes would make a lot more money if they didn’t spend so much on outfits and gear and did more low cost sessions.”

Okay, challenge accepted.

A simple foot or OTK session in the morning might be a nice way to start my day.  What say $75 for a half hour foot or OTK session in the morning?  NO ONE could beat that.  The houses charged $120 for a half-hour session. Heck if you wanted to rent from a house or private dungeon it was $40+ to rent for the half hour.  Never mind no one was open at that time and no one was going to come let you in her place at 8 AM for $40.

That point in time, I was just climbing the summit of my popularity.  There was no way I was going to dilute the “Domina M” brand with a blue light special.  Besides the argument was that they wanted the minimum, simply a focus on their fetish.  Okay fine.  I created a new yahoo email account and advertised, “Simple foot/otk sessions with a beautiful, busty, 29-year-old blond. 8AM-11AM. $75 per ½ hour” every free place I could.  Gotta be true to the scheme and keep all costs related to this down.  I did use a lot of actual pictures of me that I had paid for, only with my face cropped out.  Hypothetically, Miss Morgan, my thrifty alter ego, had spent $300 for foot photos on this endeavor. 

In summary, get an “Off-Brand Domina M, No Frills Session for $75” with the idea that I could pick up a foot/OTK session a few times a week, no fuss, no muss.  There was a market out there, wasn’t there?

The secret to getting a discounted session was recognizing that was my butt.

“R U AVALIBL 4 A SESION?”

“Yes.” Yeah okay, this wasn’t going to be an up-market clientele, was it.

“IN 15 MINS?”

“Sure.”  Ugh, well I was sitting in the dungeon anyway.

Two hours later, nothing from that potential client. I suppose I could have a perfectly stimulating conversation with myself for 30 minutes if he was a dumb-dumb.  With that mental consolation I trudged forward.

“Does that include sex?” That delightful message arrived not too long after I posted an ad on CraigsList.

“What? No.”

“How about if I tip you another $10?”

This was not going well.  Was there someone out there thinking they can get professional sex for $85? And did they think someone who turns tricks for that little money would provide a quality experience?  Well I guess there’s always going to be that guy.

Or a lot of those guys.  Fair enough.  I deleted the emails and blocked them from my instant messenger as time wasters.

“Hello Miss Morgan!  I am very submissive and would love to serve you in the morning!!!1!1!” Oooh, here we go. “Do you have fully-fashioned Cuban-heel stockings?  Like I said, I am very submissive and also enjoy CBT, cross dressing, spitting and face slapping. Do you have suspension?”

“No, just some nice black stockings for some domestic play.” Of course, I had all of that stuff, but geeze-louise, fully-fashioned Cuban-heel stockings alone are $50 a pair. I wanted an easy morning session.

“Sorry. Email me when you get that suspension.”

Yeah, buddy, right on that.

This = not enough value for a $75 half hour.

“R U AVALIBL 4 A SESION?”

“Yes.” He was coming back?

“IN 15 MINS?”

“Sure.”  But no, he never replied after the initial questions.  Was he just checking to see if I was sitting, waiting for a session???

“Dear Goddess, I would love to see you.  Do you offer nude sessions and are you a clock-watcher?  I would love to be naked over your lap.”

My office was the discount champagne room at a strip club? Granted it wouldn’t cost me anything to be naked, but, ew.

What happened next in this series of photos was NOT what one would find in a strip club.

“R U AVALIBL 4 A SESION?”

For the love of Pete. . . .

After all of that, how many people did I see in those three months? None. Zero. Goose-Egg.

Okay, I understand that it was a VERY limited time frame in the morning.  I was doing an experiment; I wasn’t stupid.  It was pretty typical to get a mid-afternoon session, an after-the-workday session, and/or an after-dinner session at my normal rates.  I still had invested in my brand and a butt-load of equipment. There’s a different between being curious and reckless to be pure to an experiment.

The response to that would be I did see no less than two clients regularly in the morning at my usual rate.  These were full blown sessions and all, but there are those who see professional dommes before 11 AM.  And, you know I was still doing simple foot sessions and OTK sessions in the “regular times” for the going rate.  In fact, they were much more respectful that the “slaves” who were getting the bargain of a lifetime.

Years after that I did more experiments with my pricing and attempting to be more sensitive to the economy by offering trades and such, both more publicly and such much more of a disaster.  So take it from me, dommes and subs, the price of a session is the price.  One will get into trouble trying to out-clever oneself.