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Community Profile - 10 Questions for Andrew |
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How long have you been in the adult industry?
I have been in this business since 1998. I started out working for transsexual information sites and porn sites. So that's 5 years now.
Where did you get your start? What types of sites did you build, programs did you work with?
I got started just programming HTML when I lived in my home town in Florida. [Carrabelle, Florida] It's a very small town without any stop lights and the police station is a phone booth. There isn't a lot for kids to do there, so I spent my time reading. I would design AVS sites and little homepages for myself. They were seen by a company based in Portland, and they liked what they saw. 2 months later they moved me to Portland, OR and I headed up their updates department. 3 months after that they asked me to move to Los Angeles, CA and handle their new adult paysite. I did that for a few years, and helped friends with other sites, but my heart wasn't in it.
Congrats on your new program SpankyCash.com - can you tell us about it?
I have a lot of friends that are in this business and they all tell me that people in this business are just out for themselves. So I took SpankyCash online, and with the help of my friends, it is becoming a stable place for people to buy content, get free content, get ideas about advertising, and just all around help. [It also helps to promote my sites to come!] I want SpankyCash to stand for honor, respect, and a willingness to work with all companies online.
Right now we produce gay live video streams. The feeds have barely been online one year now and have already been nominated for a Cybersocket Award for Best Specialty Adult Pay Site. We also have video streams that we give to webmasters to use as upsell avenues. We are in the process of creating video on demand plug-ins with the help of SpankyCash's friends in the VHS/DVD market. With hard work, good people, and being determined, it should be a great season.
How hard was it to start your own program?
Actually, since I've been thinking about it for about a year now it wasn't that hard. I've worked with other programs, content production companies, and have friends that own most of the major programs already. Plus I learned a lot being a moderator for YnotMasters. There where already sites that produce content ready to come work with me. So it made the transition easier than it normally should have been. It is still tough sometimes.
What do you feel are some of the essential elements for success as an affiliate program?
Well the major part of the affiliate market, to me, is honesty. You can have great kick butt content, but if you're not honest people will catch on and not want to work with you. The second thing is traffic. Without traffic you're dead in the water. I always think about it like this. 'You have a great new store, no one's going to buy anything unless they know you're there.' It's the same with Affiliate Programs. No one will join if they don't know you're there.
What is your favorite part about working in the adult industry?
My favorite part about being in this business is I get to meet all kinds of people! Black, white, green, straight, gay, Jewish, etc... we have them all! I've meet a lot of people that I used to just admire when I was first starting out. A few of them are YnotMasters, Gay.com, Klixxx, Chi Chi LaRue, Bedfellow, Video Secrets, SexxxyContent. They were all companies that I admired, and kind of looked up to when I first got online back when I was 21 years old.
On the other hand - what area do you feel needs the most work in this biz?
The part that I think needs the most work is our willingness to try new things, and work with new people. All of us get online daily and deal with what we know and work with already. What we should be doing is building bonds with other companies to make both companies grow. From design companies, pay sites, traffic companies, to content producers. If we worked together, we could raise profits, and grow faster and become stronger over all - especially in the gay business area.
If you were starting all over today, would you do anything differently? If so - what?
The one thing I would have done differently would be to go to school for computers and programming way back when. (laughs) I went to collage for Culinary Arts and I'm a licensed Chef. I never use it! Other then that, I really wouldn't change anything. If I did I might not be the person I am today.
Spankycash.com is a 50% revshare program - what do you feel are the advantages to webmasters to working with revshare versus per sign-up programs?
Well, you tell me. Would you rather get paid once for your hard work? Or keep getting paid for it? People that have traffic work very hard to keep that traffic. I feel that they deserve it. Besides, if it wasn't for them sending me that sign-up, I might not have gotten it at all. Or if I did, there is no telling when.
What advice would you give to a newbie looking to get in on the industry today?
If you have a passion for it, DO IT! There is always room for you online. Going into this business is a lot of learning, trying and failing. People aren't going to just give it to you on a tray. Your going to work your butt off, but it is worth it.
You can find out more about SpankyCash by visiting www.spankycash.com and can meet Andrew in person at the upcoming Internext Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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