What was your big turning point? Story Telling Time :) - Page 2 - GoFuckYourself.com

Femjoy Michael · 08-05-2013, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Anybody else have a story about a turning point that changed their business forever?

Yes. The day Dave hired me to work for you. I learned a lot from Dave, Michael, you, and everyone on the Twistys team. Thank you.

Shap · 08-05-2013, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Femjoy Michael

Yes. The day Dave hired me to work for you. I learned a lot from Dave, Michael, you, and everyone on the Twistys team. Thank you.

Hi Michael!

You are with Femjoy now? Nice. Where are you working from? How's it going? Hit me up some time

Shap · 08-05-2013, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slapass

I downloaded a gallery template from the sites that Pimpdog ran. It was Girls Fuck Guys. It was totally off the chart as far as keyword stuffing, about 90% keywords. Google was doing this "fresh" thing. This meant anything new was put to a different test of whether or not it was relevant. I was number 1 for 3 days. I did that all summer with Topbuck's new sites and some others. I was making $10k a week sometimes. It made me realize that online porn was for real and had the potential to make me rich.

Very Cool! It's great to see and understand that there is huge potential in whatever you are doing if done right

Shap · 08-05-2013, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scubadiver626

I was tech support and went on a smoke break with good ol Mac. He told me about dudes making money in adult, this was hack in 1999.

I went home and started my first ac gold site in the bukkake niche. The day after it was approved, and 36 signups came in. That was a morning dump to remember!

DAMN! Now that's awesome! Every see that guy again?

xNetworx · 08-05-2013, 01:15 PM

Adult Check Gold

Roald · 08-05-2013, 01:22 PM

For me it was the contract FreeOnes offered me in 2005. Maybe not the best step to become a millionaire but i've learned so much business wise and created a a very proper network around me.

That millionaire thingy is still on the list but hey im young ;)

MaDalton · 08-05-2013, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roald

For me it was the contract FreeOnes offered me in 2005. Maybe not the best step to become a millionaire but i've learned so much business wise and created a a very proper network around me.

That millionaire thingy is still on the list but hey im young ;)

so you haven't collected enough dirt about Maurice yet?

Shap · 08-05-2013, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roald

For me it was the contract FreeOnes offered me in 2005. Maybe not the best step to become a millionaire but i've learned so much business wise and created a a very proper network around me.

That millionaire thingy is still on the list but hey im young ;)

Maurice had good timing on that. I was going to try to convince you to join us but he beat me to it. Geography didn't play in our favour but would have loved to have you on board.

fuzebox · 08-05-2013, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzebox

Google Penguin. Crushed my traffic network overnight, and I was forced to get into media buying. Best thing I ever did

Just realized I wrote Penguin and not Panda. The event predated Penguin

CaptainHowdy · 08-05-2013, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaDalton

when you took me to that dinner in Miami 2004 and introduced me to all those people like Score etc

MaDalton · 08-05-2013, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainHowdy

lol - only valid if he was still in the business

Shap · 08-05-2013, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaDalton

lol - only valid if he was still in the business

Shap · 08-05-2013, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzebox

Google Penguin. Crushed my traffic network overnight, and I was forced to get into media buying. Best thing I ever did

Funny how sometimes the best opportunities come right after a major failure or disappointment.

Shap · 08-05-2013, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

When we launched Kastle Archives back in '99 - we were a free site hosted through GoCasino.com. By the end of the second week we were already exceeding our 2gb/day bandwidth - and GoCasino contacted us to say they wouldn't continue hosting us and that we should look for an alternate option.

That was pretty much our turning point.

I knew of a father/son owned hosting company overseas that specialized in hosting fetish/bdsm sites - so we worked out a deal with them and turned Kastle Archives in to a paysite under their hosting.

That's awesome!

Shap · 08-05-2013, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

Honestly, I can't recall any ONE single turning point that was like what you had laid out in your initial reply. There has been any number of them that I find equally or greater than the last.... pay sites, clips stores, hosting, email, mainstream...

While I have always made good money in adult, when 2007/2008 hit, it effected me the same as everyone else. However, as a fetish or niche provider, much less so. I decided to diversify. I went into the hosting side of things, and after some tinkering I found some niche markets that were insanely profitable. From there we screwed around in some mainstream and other markets over the past 5 years, and found some mainstream marketing stuff that was even more profitable than the stuff before.

I would love to say I am a genius, but I simply follow the money, it's really always been that simple for me. As long as it's legal, the web is still the wild west and there is sooooooo much money to be made. Especially if you know some level of marketing 101 and think outside of the box. The biggest issue for me was holding on too long to the 'glory days' when I should kept innovating and listening to the trends as the ground of the industry was shifting.

I love adult, and do not expect to ever leave it (especially my core niches) despite the ROI and business model has changed dramatically. But at the same time, diversity is never a bad thing if you can effectively manage it. I have invested in a lot of automation to help do that, not only in regards to minimizing labor expense in the number of bodies, but to dumb shit down to the point I can grab anyone off CL and have them doing the work within a few hours. That is a massive cost savings I can tell you. Plus they tend to work out much better than hiring people in the industry who tend to be lazy and apathetic. You need people who are hungry for an opportunity.

That being said, each venture has made me more than the last so it feels a lot like a game of leap frog. It does get a lot easier as you apply what you've learned to the next project and things go much smoother. People who know how to making money online really should be able to keep doing it fairly easily. If that's not the case, you're fishing in the wrong hole.

Wow awesome post! Well said! And well done on moving on to the next one and continuing to do well

kane · 08-05-2013, 03:08 PM

For me it was the week I finally got over some of my fears about costs in this business. Not long after getting my own hosting and domain (the first year or so I was in this biz I used free hosting) I got a movie gallery listed on The Hun in one of the top spots. I saw it listed before I went to bed and was happy, but nervous. Hosting back then (1998,1999) was a lot more expensive than today so I was paranoid about going over my transfer limit and spending way too much on hosting.

In the morning I woke up and saw that overnight I had blown through my transfer limit and accumulated $500 worth of overage fees. I had a couple of urgent emails from hosting company asking if I wanted to keep the site up or have them take it down. I checked my stats and saw that I had 71 signups from that gallery. I was very happy and told them to keep it up.

After three days I had about $1000 in overage fees, but I had gotten about 260 signups at $30 per so it was a very good trade off.

From that point on I realized that I was good enough at designing galleries and sites that they would convert and I didn't need to worry about losing a few dollars on hosting costs because I likely would make up for it in sales. That gallery also opened my eyes to following my own ideas. Up until then I was promoting the same stuff everyone else seemed to be, but this gallery was for a completely different site in a different niche. I realized I didn't have to do what everyone else was doing to be successful and that there was more low hanging fruit elsewhere.

Jel · 08-05-2013, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Funny how sometimes the best opportunities come right after a major failure or disappointment.

I think almost all do

VikingMan · 08-05-2013, 03:47 PM

Ok my turning point was when I got the Ibill email list and mailed the fuck out of it. 100 sign ups a day? No problem FTW!!!!.

Barefootsies · 08-05-2013, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Funny how sometimes the best opportunities come right after a major failure or disappointment.

You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you?re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.

Fred Brooks

The Porn Nerd · 08-05-2013, 04:22 PM

The day Shap emailed me off-GFY changed my life forever.

Thank you Shap!

SilentKnight · 08-05-2013, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barefootsies

You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you?re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.

Fred Brooks

I like that.

kane · 08-05-2013, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilentKnight

I like that.

His saying that reminds me of a quote from Bill Gates where he said that success was a terrible teacher because it makes smart people feel like they can't fail.

georgeyw · 08-05-2013, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kane

His saying that reminds me of a quote from Bill Gates where he said that success was a terrible teacher because it makes smart people feel like they can't fail.

reminds me of my favourite Edison quote

Quote:

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas A. Edison

kane · 08-05-2013, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgeyw

reminds me of my favourite Edison quote

That is very good.

johnnyloadproductions · 08-05-2013, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgeyw

reminds me of my favourite Edison quote

Yes, but Nikola Tesla said he was a blustering idiot for not having a systematic approach to solving problems. That is Edison used brute force.
You read accounts of him, even at old age, putting in 100+ (even over 130, which is just work and sleep deprivation), doing stuff.
Nikola put in insane hours as well, and despite his superior intellect to Tesla (proved AC was better than Edison's want for DC) he was not a business man.

Hard work, like love, covers many faults. The higher up the food chain you move the more your game has to be together.

johnnyloadproductions · 08-05-2013, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterPeabody

The day Shap emailed me off-GFY changed my life forever.

Thank you Shap!

Not sure if serious...

Is Shap a music friend? Did you meet him in that diner that closed suddenly, or are you just fucking around?

State your case kind sir...

SilentKnight · 08-05-2013, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by georgeyw

reminds me of my favourite Edison quote

The Edisons are distant relatives.

True fact

But while Thomas invented the longer-lasting lightbulb - I merely know how to turn it on.

Roald · 08-05-2013, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaDalton

so you haven't collected enough dirt about Maurice yet?

I'm pretty sure he has more on me by now ;)

Roald · 08-05-2013, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Maurice had good timing on that. I was going to try to convince you to join us but he beat me to it. Geography didn't play in our favour but would have loved to have you on board.

Imagine that huh ;))

Adam_M · 08-05-2013, 08:53 PM

Great thread!

The Porn Nerd · 08-05-2013, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnnyloadproductions

Not sure if serious...

Is Shap a music friend? Did you meet him in that diner that closed suddenly, or are you just fucking around?

State your case kind sir...

A little hyperbole meant to draw Shap into giving me the secrets of his success. LOL

He did give me some great tips once concerning billing that helped my business grow tho.
Thanks Shap!!

Drake · 08-05-2013, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Hi Guys! I have to write up a brief history of my business (hence why i'm on GFY --> procrastination). Anyhow in doing so there is always one moment that I felt was a huge turning point in my business. It was completely out of my control and it changed everything from that day forward.

This is back in 1997 or 1998. I was running my own free sites and moved to Lake Tahoe to work for Xpics for the summer. While there my buddy Kevin who ran all the media buys was telling me at lunch (probably at Killer Chicken) how he just killed it. A client of his was going to be on Dateline in a few days. The client was Wetlands. I thought to myself
"HOLY SHIT i used to have a link trade with them. I need to hit him up to see if I can get that going again."

So later that day I hit them up and not only did I get a link trade but he put up my banner right on his main page just above his enter button. I think I was getting 50,000 uniques a day to my site back then. When Dateline aired HOLY SHIT! I got so much traffic from that one link. I think it may have hit 250,000 uniques. All I know is that in the days after that I was able to sustain the growth in traffic and where I used to get 50,000 uniques I was now getting 125,000 and growing fast. From that point on business never stopped growing. That little bump was exactly what I needed. Thanks Wetlands!!

Anybody else have a story about a turning point that changed their business forever?

Yeah I had a similar big break that got the ball rolling. Got a listing on SublimeDirectory directly to my site, not a gallery. It stayed there for several weeks and was the most traffic I had ever had. It allowed me to do link trades and grow.

Shap · 08-06-2013, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drake

Yeah I had a similar big break that got the ball rolling. Got a listing on SublimeDirectory directly to my site, not a gallery. It stayed there for several weeks and was the most traffic I had ever had. It allowed me to do link trades and grow.

Getting a listing on those big sites back then was the perfect way to really catapult a site

adultmobile · 08-06-2013, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shap

Getting a listing on those big sites back then was the perfect way to really catapult a site

Mh if you think it well.. in 1990's there was those few big tgp's as thehun, much like today there's those few big tubes as xhamster. Just in 1990's there was less third world countries traffic, and more buyers.

robwod · 08-06-2013, 05:40 PM

Back in 1995 or 1996, the Usenet groups were really starting to take hold and there were some guys scanning Playboy NSS and posting them. Some of you older guys might remember people like Scanmaster, PixelMaster, Skunk, etc. I watched at how popular these guys were. They had a real passion for it. It wasn't long before the Playboy legal team started sending threats of litigation to all the guys there posting their scans.

I still have that notice on some CD somewhere where one of them posted their "resignation" along with the Playboy notice scanned.

Anyway, I thought to myself I could build a site and use authorized content in exchange for traffic. So, off I went to contact every Playboy model agent I could find and pitched them on the idea of let me promote them in exchange for traffic. This took literally months. I get content, they get traffic. At the time, and few exceptions aside, this was basically unheard of with the Playmates. It was their own content, not Playboy's.

Anyway.. everyone turned me down... I mean everyone. After about 3 or 4 months of rejections, out of nowhere, Alley Bagget replied to me directly and said, "sure, why not". After that, the floodgates kind of opened. Doors were opening that were never opened before. I had all the content I needed and now the Playmates were contacting me and calling me at home, etc. all wanting to give me content in return for promoting them on our site.

The second step to the process was with Ynot. Back then, Ynot was basically a toplist and links list. Anyone remember "Wutz New" and Superlinks?

I submitted my site, full of all of this newly added authorized content and they turned me down for "unauthorized content". I quickly replied and then Lisa Boyle, who was an official member, vouched for me and then a moderator named "Khan" (from Khan's classy babes) wrote me a nice email explaining that it was a unique circumstance that someone had all this authorized content and they immediately just assumed it was from ill-gotten means. And then they featured my site.

The big traffic spike came when models mentioned us on Howard Stern, and one model, I **think** it was Kelly Monaco, mentioned our site on Entertainment Tonight (Television show). Our hosting provider turned us off for excessive traffic within hours of that. I forget the bill, but it was huge.. back then it was 7 or 8 bucks a GB.

But things happened quickly. By 1997 I was doing this full time and enjoying life. I just never spent it all on cars and such. I bought real estate, land, mutual funds, etc. and just flew under the radar. Heck I still do. I come online, get my work done, log out and go enjoy life.

Life is good.

08-05-2013, 01:22 PM	#56
Roald SecretFriends.com Industry Role: Join Date: May 2001 Location: IMC Headquarters Posts: 27,891	For me it was the contract FreeOnes offered me in 2005. Maybe not the best step to become a millionaire but i've learned so much business wise and created a a very proper network around me. That millionaire thingy is still on the list but hey im young ;) __________________ WE ARE BUYING PAY SITES! CONTACT ME ClubSweethearts \| ManUpFilms \| SinfulXXX \| HOT * AdultPrime * HOT Paying webmasters since 1996! Contact: r.riepen @ sansylgroup.com \| telegram: roaldr

08-05-2013, 04:22 PM	#70
The Porn Nerd Living The Dream Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Inside a Monitor Posts: 19,644	The day Shap emailed me off-GFY changed my life forever. Thank you Shap! __________________ My Affiliate Programs: Porn Nerd Cash \| Porn Showcase \| Aggressive Gold Over 90 paysites to promote! Now on Teams: peabodymedia

08-05-2013, 08:53 PM	#80
Adam_M Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,800	Great thread! __________________ DiscountedPorn.Com ReviewedPorn.com

08-06-2013, 05:40 PM	#85
robwod Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2,539	Back in 1995 or 1996, the Usenet groups were really starting to take hold and there were some guys scanning Playboy NSS and posting them. Some of you older guys might remember people like Scanmaster, PixelMaster, Skunk, etc. I watched at how popular these guys were. They had a real passion for it. It wasn't long before the Playboy legal team started sending threats of litigation to all the guys there posting their scans. I still have that notice on some CD somewhere where one of them posted their "resignation" along with the Playboy notice scanned. Anyway, I thought to myself I could build a site and use authorized content in exchange for traffic. So, off I went to contact every Playboy model agent I could find and pitched them on the idea of let me promote them in exchange for traffic. This took literally months. I get content, they get traffic. At the time, and few exceptions aside, this was basically unheard of with the Playmates. It was their own content, not Playboy's. Anyway.. everyone turned me down... I mean everyone. After about 3 or 4 months of rejections, out of nowhere, Alley Bagget replied to me directly and said, "sure, why not". After that, the floodgates kind of opened. Doors were opening that were never opened before. I had all the content I needed and now the Playmates were contacting me and calling me at home, etc. all wanting to give me content in return for promoting them on our site. The second step to the process was with Ynot. Back then, Ynot was basically a toplist and links list. Anyone remember "Wutz New" and Superlinks? I submitted my site, full of all of this newly added authorized content and they turned me down for "unauthorized content". I quickly replied and then Lisa Boyle, who was an official member, vouched for me and then a moderator named "Khan" (from Khan's classy babes) wrote me a nice email explaining that it was a unique circumstance that someone had all this authorized content and they immediately just assumed it was from ill-gotten means. And then they featured my site. The big traffic spike came when models mentioned us on Howard Stern, and one model, I think it was Kelly Monaco, mentioned our site on Entertainment Tonight (Television show). Our hosting provider turned us off for excessive traffic within hours of that. I forget the bill, but it was huge.. back then it was 7 or 8 bucks a GB. But things happened quickly. By 1997 I was doing this full time and enjoying life. I just never spent it all on cars and such. I bought real estate, land, mutual funds, etc. and just flew under the radar. Heck I still do. I come online, get my work done, log out and go enjoy life. Life is good. __________________ NSFW Last edited by robwod; 08-06-2013 at 05:55 PM..

08-05-2013, 01:15 PM	#55
xNetworx So Fucking What Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Whore Island Posts: 14,445	Adult Check Gold

08-05-2013, 03:08 PM	#66
kane Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: portland, OR Posts: 20,684	For me it was the week I finally got over some of my fears about costs in this business. Not long after getting my own hosting and domain (the first year or so I was in this biz I used free hosting) I got a movie gallery listed on The Hun in one of the top spots. I saw it listed before I went to bed and was happy, but nervous. Hosting back then (1998,1999) was a lot more expensive than today so I was paranoid about going over my transfer limit and spending way too much on hosting. In the morning I woke up and saw that overnight I had blown through my transfer limit and accumulated $500 worth of overage fees. I had a couple of urgent emails from hosting company asking if I wanted to keep the site up or have them take it down. I checked my stats and saw that I had 71 signups from that gallery. I was very happy and told them to keep it up. After three days I had about $1000 in overage fees, but I had gotten about 260 signups at $30 per so it was a very good trade off. From that point on I realized that I was good enough at designing galleries and sites that they would convert and I didn't need to worry about losing a few dollars on hosting costs because I likely would make up for it in sales. That gallery also opened my eyes to following my own ideas. Up until then I was promoting the same stuff everyone else seemed to be, but this gallery was for a completely different site in a different niche. I realized I didn't have to do what everyone else was doing to be successful and that there was more low hanging fruit elsewhere.

08-05-2013, 03:47 PM	#68
VikingMan Exploiting human weakness Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: next to a salmon stream Posts: 6,586	Ok my turning point was when I got the Ibill email list and mailed the fuck out of it. 100 sign ups a day? No problem FTW!!!!.