Why I left Backpage

There are tens of thousands of women everyday who are placing their ads in the escort section of Backpage. All of the women in hopes of becoming the next pretty woman like Julia Roberts. Well maybe not so much but they do it in hopes of making lots of money. Some of these girls are controlled by agencies or pimps but most are independent women who are chasing the American dream of riches in this country’s oldest profession. However, there seems to be an increasing number of defectors from do to some stiff competition. Due to the sheer amount of women posting on Backpage, most women post ads multiple times a day. This is normal for most women to continue to post but when the phone does not ring, it’s just not good business anymore. We spoke with one woman who post on Backpage name Lola. Lola is a beautiful woman who is here from Europe who cannot legally work and decided to make a life here in the U.S. She decided to get into escorting as it was a good living and allows her to control her hours without needing paperwork. She has been working in the industry now for 3 years and was earning a six figure income and was able to turn away clientele. Today, she says the environment dramatically different. “Three years ago, I was making close to 200,000 dollars a year. I was living in a door man building in Midtown and traveling around the world. I could put my ad on Backpage and the phone would ring off the hook. Now, I put up my ad four or five times a day and I am lucky if the phone rings once or twice and I find myself negotiating my service.” This seems to be a trend that will not end anytime soon. More girls are posting every day and based on the sheer volume of ads, girls like Jasmine are struggling to make a living.

So Jasmine and other escorts are finding alternate sites to promote themselves and make a living. Websites like Meetaphrodite.com has seen an increase in new escorts posting ads on their site. Jasmine is one of those women who have moved over to Meetaphrodite. “Since I have started posting on Meetaphrodite I am booking more than I was exclusively posting on Backpage. My phone rings a lot now and with Meetaphrodite I can see how many people have looked at my page each day. So if I see that they stop looking as much at my page, I change my pictures and my ad.” We took a look at Meetaphrodite and it seems focused on the women. The look of the site is elegant and tasteful. It is free to join but escorts must create a profile. Guys which they call viewers can go and look at the escort ads without joining but can join also.

What we liked about the site is that it shows the month a person first joined the service. It also allows the client to leave a review of the escort and her services. The customer must become a member to leave a member. According to Jasmine, this was a major plus for her. “With so many girls who are out there posting fake pictures and not providing good service, it is hard for a guy to tell what they are getting. If they see reviews on you, they can get an idea of who you are and they don’t have to leave the site to find out.” Meetaphrodite has seemed to really give the escorts some nice tools and also let them market themselves. The traffic to the site is smaller in comparison to Backpage but they are growing in site visits and membership. The best thing we liked about the site was the price. To post an ad is $3.99 which considering what we saw was a real value and hidden gem of this site.

Backpage is still the largest provider in the space but with some new competitors such as Meetaphrodite, it may not be too long before there is a viable contender in this space. “They make not have tons of traffic but it works for me because all I know is my phone is ringing and I am making money again and that is all I care about.”

Well I guess in the end, that is what really matters to anybody in this business. It works on supply and demand and when there is too much supply and not enough demand, the market becomes saturated. I guess you don’t have to be an economist to figure that out. Jasmine did.