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Old 10-08-2010, 07:53 PM  
Socks
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Toronto
Posts: 8,478
Good post Doug. I don't usually wade too deep into these threads but this one has some good discussions.

We launched in late 2001 and at the time there was only Adult Reviews, Janes Guide and X3Guide (which has now bitten the bucket), making us one of the first review sites online. At least that I can remember! My model was simple. Do everything exactly opposite of what everyone else was doing. I knew there were enough good sites out there that I didn't need to lie and say every one of them was "the biggest" or "the best". At the time there was very little information about what lay beyond the free tour for each site.

I took a bus to Mexico City from Toronto Canada because I couldn't afford a plane ticket, and brought a notebook with me. Was going to see my girlfriend. I wrote out all my ideas and planned what would become Adult Site Surfer on the bus there. I had a solid 3.5 days to think about it! I wish I knew to register "pornreviews.com" instead heh.. ;) I was happy with the ASS branding at the time.

When I got home my business partner at the time and I started hammering out the site, and the rest is history.

I will also write reviews of sites with no affiliate program, as I think it's important to not only think about the money when trying to run an impartial review site. In the past, it was a solid strategy too, because there's a lot less competition for those terms.

Another interesting thing to note is that when we got started, nobody had written these paysite owners before asking for a password to write a review. Many would say no, especially the sites trying to hide something. So we used uhm, any means necessary... to get inside and write out reviews whether we had approval or not. The way I saw it, I was either A> doing a service to our readers or B> doing a service to the paysite owner. Who else broke in to make them money?

Anyways thanks for the writeup Doug, I only wish I'd been as aggressive as that pedal bike riding Mantis was. Hats off.
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