Hi - following up on a few posts about how the porn industry is broke, and PS' are making no money etc, I have a couple of insights to share.
 
I had an affair with a ps for about 6 months, which gave me a good insight into the industry from her perspective.  Admittedly she is one of the more business savvy girls going round.  
 
Her "business model" was to do about 20 scenes per year to keep the catalogue fresh and attract subscribers to her website.  Keeping the scenes fresh also lead punters to her webcam site - which made a decent income every month.  Finally, she did escort work charging out about $1500 per hour - again on the back of keeping some scenes coming every year.  Usually her escort clients would book multiple hours or days at a time ( this is how we met).  
 
The money she earned from the scene themselves was about $1500-$2000.  Across a year not much but she used that to cover her over head costs such as accommodation and other expenses while being in LA to do the scenes and then to pay for the agents, web masters, and escort agencies for the other income.  
 
Over the course of a year, she would gross about $200k.  Her final objective was to get about 100 scenes and then "retire" from that and hope to have that catalogue keep the webcam, website and escort work going.  
 
I spent some time with another high profile PSE who had the same approach.  
 
I guess like any industry, those that can work out how to "position" themselves and use the porn scenes to push clients into the other aspects of the industry (webcams and escort etc) will make a decent living for awhile.  
 
For both of these ladies, there biggest fear was understandably getting older and how to out compete all of the new talent coming.  For one of them, getting a massive breast enhancement and doing some harder scenes was a way to keep ahead of the competition - at least for the time being.  
 
Being in business myself, I was really impressed by the acumen some of these ladies have.

And I can confirm some of it from my brief time working in adult. The business has been hit hard by piracy and the economy, but there are still ways for them to make good money. Nowadays, the primary thing that girls need to do is to try and market themselves and establish their names. This opens up other options for them such as feature dancing, webcamming and skype shows, custom DVD's, escorting.  They need to target those that will become hardcore fans.  The casual fan or porn watcher most likely just uses the tube sites to watch porn, they're highly unlikely to pay for anything.  However, the diehard fans will spend BIG bucks on their favorite stars.

Staying relevant is also very important, and it's always a topic.  I tend to think that prolonging the transition from various levels of hardcore might be more profitable and better overall than coming out and doing the filthiest stuff right away.  I'm curious to see if some of the current big name teen porn stars are around in a few years.  The ones I'm thinking of already do anal, gang bangs, IR scenes.  Sure, this gives them a wide variety of scenes that they can get paid for, but it also will lead to people potentially getting bored of them quicker.  I also would imagine that by drawing things out with an "anal debut" or "DP debut," the girls can increase the $$$ for said scenes

I'd consider her in the top 10%, maybe top 2-5%, but like you said she's a BUSINESS person.

but the problem is shoots are down due to Piracy, internet,  plus proliferation of women entering it, there's a good read bout the biz from Christian XXX on his blog - whether or not you like the guy he has a pretty level assesment of wht goes on

ALTHOUGH new things like MILF & Creampie - porn keep cuming up with something new to help longevity.

but back to a more typical pornstar - she tries to break in, and the majority are begging to get a couple scenes a month, BUT if they are smart  and can tough it out a year, they can have enough credits and enter the really lucrative world of escorting, where just 2 gigs a week can bring in $1600 cash minimum.   but a lot of girls can't essentially run things themselves, spend a lot don't save, have agents picking off a lot of percentage, etc.   but even escorting is competitive, and the best ones have 5-10 'regulars which only makes them more selective.   The best escorts do get that $250k/year income, but that's rare.   and then there's the 'shelf life'  - it's a high wear and tear biz (except for a select few) with the compartmentalization, regulars regularly falling in love causing them not to be regulars, etc. lol

it's a tough gig, but for those that love sex, have good (don't need great) looks, they can really bank  a lot of cash, not to mention they can come upon some nice 'help' from attornies, accountants, web-masters, etc. at a discount.

 

plus the new girls can often get dragged down the road of doing more hard-core (anal, DPs, gang bang) that if done repetitively is more conducive to burn-out

smart ones will just work hard, supplement with cam work, etc. , limit their scenes, and get establshed as upper-end escorts  

but I bet the average porn star does about $35-$40 gross only per year,  and that is maybe high - so clearly the escort work is where they are going to cash and get into that 6 figure range and u

I don't understand how people say there is so many stars who are now escorting due to the tough economy, but I just dont see that many adds in the Porn Star adds section.  I feel like I am missing out on some mysterious place where all these out of work stars post their adds.

Most don't post ads.  Most work through agencies who list them on the website, and post ads when the girl goes on tour.

the porn biz is a highly selective one..there are the girls who pull down 50k a month with ease..the ones who are barely making ends meet..and the ones who will never quite make it..marketing..escorting..picking the right agency..the scenes they choose to do affects it..you can have all the looks in the world but if you dont have that " it " factor..you will languish in the mire..