I suppose we shouldn't be surprised if we see you on the cover of Forbes one day.
One of my goals is to make the Fortune 40 Richest Americans Under 40 - As of 2004s list I am close to making the list. Once I'm comfortable in the fact I qualify to be on it, I'll hire a publicist and get the ball rolling.
Marc, can we go back to the beginning? Most of the questions don't seem to have covered the early years.... we only know about you post-ARS.
How old were you when you started your online/porn business? Why did you do it and how did it come about? Did you have any guidance or peers involved in the early stages.
I guess I'm most curious to know how a really young man winds up creating a very successful affiliate program at a time when there weren't so many programs out there.
Did it take a lot of investment.... surely you needed to be a programmer or have some programmers to create and design your sites/programs. Did you get your start under the tutelage of an existing program or friend in the business?
In other words, how did you get the idea and seed money to get started. Once you had the idea, you would need capital to program, design, promote, and have content for the sites or pay thousands of dollars in plugin content. Bandwidth was more expensive back then too (but perhaps not a problem for an affiliate program because their were no free hosted galleries at that time) and pay sites dont eat up much BW.
One of my goals is to make the Fortune 40 Richest Americans Under 40 - As of 2004s list I am close to making the list. Once I'm comfortable in the fact I qualify to be on it, I'll hire a publicist and get the ball rolling.
I'm not clear on whether it's just your adult company that's private or whether your video game company is already public since you acquired it.
Can we buy stocks in your video game company? If I recall correctly, you said you're the 4th or 5th largest out there, I assume you want to be number one someday? Do you expect lots of growth.
If it works out, everybody can thank me later. Substantive advice rocks!
I'm not clear on whether it's just your adult company that's private or whether your video game company is already public since you acquired it.
Can we buy stocks in your video game company? If I recall correctly, you said you're the 4th or 5th largest out there, I assume you want to be number one someday? Do you expect lots of growth.
If it works out, everybody can thank me later. Substantive advice rocks!
I doubt he was saying his software house was the 4th/5th in the videogame market...
One of my goals is to make the Fortune 40 Richest Americans Under 40 - As of 2004s list I am close to making the list. Once I'm comfortable in the fact I qualify to be on it, I'll hire a publicist and get the ball rolling.
i'm wondering if andrew conru made this list - his assets arn't really public knowledge though
This dog, is dog, a dog, good dog, way dog, to dog, keep dog, an dog, idiot dog, busy dog, for dog, 20 dog, seconds dog!
show floor, or do you recall where the shot was taken? ?
It was around 4PM right by that bar where ARS was having a party toward the back side of the hotel right before you go outside on the right side facing towards the ocean.
It was around 4PM right by that bar where ARS was having a party toward the back side of the hotel right before you go outside on the right side facing towards the ocean.
wow, sounds like someone else is blessed (or cursed dependant on situation) with the same insane memory for details that I inherited...
PS: Great interview! Interesting read...
Investor with 5m - 15m USD to invest. Do you have a site or network of sites earning 50k - 200k a month income? Email your contact and preliminary data to: domain.cashventures (at) gmail.com....Please...no tire kickers...serious offers and inquiries only.
21. What businesses do you own/run outside of adult now? Did adult fund their startup?
I own the following businesses, I'll try to follow each with a short description.
DMA Real Estate - Owns income producing property, also owns most of the locations that our restaurants are on.
DMA Food Group - A hospitality company with 6 restaurants throughout Mid Michigan.
S2 Games - Develops PC video games, first title Savage which won Indepent Game of 2004 (a VERY high honor)
iGames - owns happypuppy.com and sells millions of ad impressions per month to video game distributors
nXi - Builds composite goalie hockey masks - considered the best mask in the biz and soon to break into the catcher mask market.
22. Who do you look up to in the adult business? Down on?
I look up to anyone who runs a professional, ethical shop. Specifically I looked up to Rich & Bob Botto, and Dean Shannon (many others included but those 2 stick out).
I tend not to look down on people, however, those people that run their mouth with no regard to how unprofessional and ignorant it makes them look (REGARDLESS for the reasons of acting like such an asshole).
23. Who was your favorite affiliate? - not necessairly volume.
Dr Bill - come back dude!
24. If you could do it all over in this biz from day 1 - what would you do different?
Have more stringent requirements for content minimums and quality for sites in the ARS portfolio.
25. How many salaried employees did ARS have at it's peek?
I would guess approx. 25
Ok - I'm done for the evening... Sorry for the delay. Tomorrow I'll go through and answer specific questions and finish up question 26-30
DMA Food Group - A hospitality company with 6 restaurants throughout Mid Michigan.
nXi - Builds composite goalie hockey masks - considered the best mask in the biz and soon to break into the catcher mask market.
Is DMA involved with Damon's?
And are you famailar with "Badger" masks, owned by Bob Perani (if you're involved in hockey and live in Michigan chances are you've heard of Perani's), does your company produce similar masks or are yours the "next generation" of masks?
3. How many cars do you own? pics. Talk about the garage you had built for them.
I own 17 cars in total. 15 in Michigan & 2 in Las Vegas. You can find pics @ http://www.marcscars.com I built a 9000 sq ft garage to house them and be used as a base of operations for my groundsmen & car detailers.
haha, wow, i emailed you back on 12/6/04 at that geocities address about those cars
to get to the top 400 people in the world ya need 750 Mil or so
That's only for the people they know about; it's probably much higher. I've met a few people who could be on the Forbes list but they're not.
I was once introduced too a billionaire who was walking down the street to his stamp collecting meeting; I'd never heard of him and to look at him and his attaire you would have thought he was poor.
It's really quite amazing at the amount of money that is out there.
And are you famailar with "Badger" masks, owned by Bob Perani (if you're involved in hockey and live in Michigan chances are you've heard of Perani's), does your company produce similar masks or are yours the "next generation" of masks?
ROFL - I know Bob personally... cool dude.
Secondly, Steve "Badger" operates nXi for me - so I'm VERY familiar with the "Badger" mask (as obviously Steve is) haha
Have you ever been approached by other companies interested in buying ARS from you (serious offers)?
a.) Where do you see yourself and the adult industry 5 years from now?
b.) How did you feel when Nastydollars took the industry by storm?
c.) What's the dollar value of the largest loan you've ever taken?
d.) What are your thoughts on P2P marketing for adult sites, spam, and mobile phone marketing for adult content?
e.) I assume most of your peers know about your success. Has that ever caused any problems for you?
a.) I see ARS doing very well and myself far less involved than I am now (which is already diminished than my peak) involved in day to day operations.
b.) Nasty Dollars didn't 'take' anything, they grew just like any big program. I vew them as a big program, no more, no less They have great content and a solid payout structure. It's actually pretty easy to grow with those 2 things!
c.) $3,000,000
d.) I'm unfamiliar with all those aspects of this business. I'm quite interested in the future of Mobile though, so some investigation and market studies may be done in my organization soon. Spam = bad, always has always will. Now it = worse
e.) I don't flaunt my success and I don't belittle anyone because of my money so its not much of an issue
26. How long did it take for you to get to processing over 1 million dollars a month?
About 8 months
27. Do you make employees live with you to controll their entire lives?
Oh this is too funny. No no no - that is called me having a big heart and helping a friend who is also an employee with this 'situation' Trust me, it was not I who controlled his entire life haha ;)
28. Discuss the 2 most impacting life changing experiences of your life?
Quite simple - meeting my wife who has made me a better man and opened my eyes to experiencing life in ways I never would without her and of course, having children. My 2 boys (soon to be 3) have taught me things about myself and life that I would not have learned without them. They've also given me the patience I so desperately needed. Don't get me wrong, I could use some more but I'm sure that will come with age
27. Talk about your new online adult ventures. (Scott, learn to count hahaha ;) )
Right now ARS is growing fast and furious. With the addition of over 350 new BYOT tours to our existing stable of sites and a killer cam portfolio combined with the latest promotions and soon to come FREE LAPTOP Promo, things are going well. If you haven't check out ARS in a while, you should. We have the best stats in the biz, over 400 tours in total crossing most niches, price point control and high payouts.
28. What are your favorite webmaster events? Which do you attend now and plan on attending? (again)
Not a fan of any really and I'll probably attend Vegas in January
29. Who are your closest friends in this business outside of your company?
I'm an intrevert and I don't really form strong friendships outside of 'circle of trust' (yeah, straight out of Meet The Parents). I enjoy conversation with many people in the biz.
30. How many miles do you think you could swim before not being able to go any further? Would you wear a loose fitting swim suit or skin tight?
hahaha dayum good question - I think I could swim a mile before I collapsed - oh hell I dunno I'm in good shape, I play hockey and tennis often. I think I would wear loose fitting swim trunks... Its not that I'm afraid to show the goods but skin tight trunks are goofy to me haha
PK - my RV is a Mandalay 40E - 42 ft w/ quad slide out, 400 hp 1200 torque diesel. I love it, great ride, plenty of power, nice amenities.
Ahh.. kewl.. I bought a Bluebird Wanderlodge M380, dual slide, Cummins 400hp ISL diesel about 2 years ago. My parents use it more than I do. In fact, it's in Alabama right now. I just got off the phone with them, checking on my relatives' storm damage.
Quite simple - meeting my wife who has made me a better man and opened my eyes to experiencing life in ways I never would without her and of course, having children. My 2 boys (soon to be 3) have taught me things about myself and life that I would not have learned without them. They've also given me the patience I so desperately needed. Don't get me wrong, I could use some more but I'm sure that will come with age
To hell with the money questions - when is the next blessed event??! Congrats!!
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