Crouching Tiger, Hidden Lily
by Ed Rampell

PART ONE: Creating a Character...

Enter the Tiger's Den

What will users find when they log on to www.thetigersden.net? It's a pretty basic site, consisting mainly of photos and video with sound that doesn't have all the high tech bells and whistles. The tour includes our gal TigerLily performing golden showers, playing with sex toys, having sex with women, and exploring fetishes. The latter include foot-ishes, "high heels, bondage, me being dominated, me dominating," says TigerLily.

How does a webmaster decide how much or how little to put on a tour, in order to entice the casual surfer to "Come inside my home on the 'Net" (as TigerLily puts it) and join? "I do lots of different things, so you want to put various things on the tour that represents what you're about. I do glamour stuff, but also insertions, so of course, you don't want to put only glam pics on the tour. People might want to see you in many situations. Like, I do public nudity, so I put some of that on there. I also let them know I work with other girls, and have different looks, from naughty with heavy makeup, to just me, very innocent looking… I feed different appetites, so you've got to give them what they want on the menu," states TigerLily.

Membership costs $14.95 a month, although a three-month fee costs $42.50, which includes a free DVD (usually $20). Once a surfer becomes a member he'll find picture galleries and videos. "Tiger's Video Shelf" includes: "A collection of video clips you can see on my site, in high or low res, depending on your speed… A FantAsian video shot by [fellow Asian pornster] Mimi Miyagi, with boy-girl penetration… There's my wonderful foot job, to the point of ejaculation. You get quite a workout from these shoots!" laughs TL.

There's more in depth pics of TigerLily, playing Naked "Twister" with Akira (www.akira-pm.com), and flashing at a beach, on a park bench, etc. "Me and my girlfriend Satomi (www.sexysatomi.com) at Catalina Island. I have live chat with Linda Tran (www.lindatran.net), a popular Web glamour model. There's my appearance at the San Francisco strip club Crazy Horse. I also have photographers I've worked with, like Matrix's Robbye Bentley, Julie Strain, who's so great... I'm glad to be a part of her Beautiful Girls section," TigerLily says of B-movie queen Strain.

Although all of the site's galleries and video feature TigerLily, many other girls are also glimpsed, such as Penthouse/Playboy model Linn Thomas, and Asian/ Polynesian model Mika Tan, in a who's-been-naughty-or-nice Christmas tableaux, with Santa lingerie and candycanes. Thetigersden.net links to the sites of the various women appearing with the den's eponymous denizen.

Intrigued by fetish, TigerLily reads Japanese magazines to keep abreast of this trend. Thetigersden.net's fetish-oriented selections include TL peeing in the dark and getting tied up. One gallery, features bondage and photos by Jim Martin. In another section with black and white photos by Soldi, called "The Ties That Bind," Tiger Lee ties up TigerLily, who uses a spread bar she's chained to so she can't close her legs. "It's a corsetry-type bondage. Actually feels very good, it controls your breathing, and when you're untied, all your muscles can relax. It's like a massage - I really enjoy it. I recommend it to everyone," TigerLily gushes. She's planning an artsy new site, www.witheredlily.com, influenced by Japanese photography, featuring "shibari, an old art of rope bondage popular in Japan - very intricate knots, and working of the body and breathing. It has to do with levels of your enjoyment." She calls bondage "another fantasy, role playing thing… There's a trust factor there, too."

The site includes TigerLily's bio, and a diary providing members schedule updates and info, such as when TL will hold her next chat (currently conducted only via e-mail on Yahoo!, although she plans to add Webcamming). Like an adult Aunt Abby, she also dispenses dating advice, asserting, "I'm good at that, because I've been through it all."

Tiger's Milk

In addition to membership fees, TigerLily generates revenue from her site's e-store, e-selling products, such as her videos, including Pantyhose Attacks, a fetish video with a self-bondage feel. There's pictures TigerLily created herself, including "a teaser card, with an actual feather you blow on to reveal my derriere, for people who like something simple that's not too vulgar, something very '40s, '50s." There's her new DVD, TigerLily On the Run, which she "produced myself. It's very personable, very amateurish - as lots of people like. It's not done up with special effects, it's just all me, doing boy-girl, girl-girl, solo stuff, a shower scene, and just me being silly… It really says 'TigerLily,' how fun and sexy she is." On request, customers can e-buy pantyhose, panties, shoes, and lingerie TL's worn with credit cards via a shopping cart, or moneyorders.

She also "does custom shoots, such as a pantyhose shoot, and we can burn CDs when requested." However, TigerLily warns she's declined some requested custom shoots, because the orders came from abroad, from places such as Singapore. "That's something webmasters should be wary about - sending products overseas, because of different laws." TL adds that although she and Satomi play tenth graders in their schoolgirl video, "It's only fantasy - of course, we're all legal age. Since the Supreme Court passed that law, where you can dress up like little girls, as long as the performers are of legal age, we're good. We're just playing a fantasy - that's what it's all about: visual stimulation for their self stimulation."

Public Enemy Number One

Public nudity is a TigerLily specialty. The intrepid feline has done shoots at Southern California's clothing optional Black's Beach (naturally, she opted to go au naturel), San Diego, and Griffith Park in L.A. But random acts of kinkiness in the great out-of-doors carry risks. At Black's Beach, a male sunbather kept trying to talk to the likewise naked TigerLily as she vogued. "It was like, 'hey, we're doing a shoot. Can you and your cock ring please go away?'" In a San Diego residential street, "lowriders kept driving by, shouting: 'show us your tits!' I replied, 'I already am.'"

What's streaking's appeal? "It's dangerous, naughty. It's fun to be in the open, you feel free, the cold air hardens my nipples, it's kind of a rush," she laughs.

Lilies of the Field

TigerLily offers other pearls of wisdom. Customer service is invaluable: "Show your fans you really care, that you're not just trying to make a few bucks. I get many comments from fans that I'm very 'personable' at shows I go to," such as Erotica L.A., InterNext in Las Vegas, and the Asian Sirens Expo.

She maximizes profit with efficient productions that kill two birds with one stone. "Every time we do a shoot, we also do a video," says TigerLily, who spins the same material off into different mediums, increasing what and how she can sell her content. She advises models who want to launch sites to "start an online portfolio."

Although TigerLily has fun with her pay site, "it's lots of hard work; harder than I expected. It's not fun and games; it's definitely fulltime… four to eight hours a day… Marketing is very important, because it's linking and bringing traffic to your site, so people will know you're out there amongst the many girls and sites… so you get memberships. That takes lots of time, because you want to be on all the search engines, be found, and get exposure... I link on thumbnail galleries, which are free… and exchange links with other models, and appear on other models' sites, where you can get work and exposure."

The webmistress believes putting "lots of text on your site helps with search engine listings… There's lots of Asian sites out there, so there's lots of competition. Everyone uses 'Asian' and 'amateur,' but I like to stand out on search engines. I add adjectives, such as 'fetish,' 'goddess,' 'submissive,' 'dominating,' because there aren't too many Asians doing fetish." And, of course, her unique persona makes her shine. Adding a one-of-a-kind character helps TigerLily find her own distinctive, uncanny cranny within the amateur and Asian niche markets.