What was your big turning point? Story Telling Time :)
 

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?

Filming Lacey Duvalles first extreme scene (she was known as a diva & a cum dodger) but we all did our jobs & in a way, history was made. The news hit a lot of places & sales rolled in. We have had similar luck with things going viral/psuedo viral that has been pretty steady. I'm sure it had something to do with planning but these days, who knows. The universe threw me a bone.
Ds

I love that! The funny thing is she's so hardcore since then I can't even imagine her being that way.

How've you been?

Took a week long class in SEO I debated taken. Class was a complete waste except at the last day when the guy next to me said he wanted to hire my services after what I was doing on my laptop while the teacher was talking.

That was 8 years ago next week and changed the direction I was going as I started picking up other mainstream clients and moving myself into mainstream sites. They are still a client that bring me enough money to make a living and everything else is gravy.

That steady money allowed me to take a lot more risks I would have been afraid to do otherwise.

Doing well my friend, how about yourself?
Duke

Doing great :thumbsup I still remember when we met back in Vegas. We've rarely if at all seen each other since.

That is awesome! You never know when or where an opportunity will present itself :thumbsup

I don't remember what the turning point for Twistys was. I just remember we couldn't get 100 signups in a day. I was so determined to get it. Then one day we killed it. I think we not only beat 100 we had 129. And then, just like the Wetlands time, we never looked back it just blew up from there. Sometimes you just have to break through a certain level and then you are good to go.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

:2 cents:

:thumbsup:thumbsup

No way that's awesome! How've you been?

When I created the 1st IslandGathering.com back in 2001. It allowed me to meet ALL the key players in the industry and it was a damn productive show businesswise.

Small world, in same years I was in mainstream (java applets dev), but I had a link in The Wetlands "where wives get naked" too. Mine it was in the preview page, as credits for java applets I made them. That was 15+ years ago I just remember it featured the wife of the owner, who was my mail contact. I checked wetlands with archive.org for 1999 and link to mine webdesign site is there, sure it helped me too. In fact my "lake applets" and fading sliders contaminated the (porn) sites quite, that's how I've got in touch with adult and learned the guys was doing money. But I had no any adult site myself until java applets faded away, replaced by flash, then I had to refocus. It was already 2002 or 2003, when I registered in GFY to hire some guy to help submitting tgp galleries to thehun and shemp.. for an "adult mobile" site for Nokia phones.. and LOL again Nokia faded away, replaced by iOS and Android... perhaps this is boring.

He committed suicide :Oh crap

He was a great marketer, also got on Howard Stern. The Wetlands was an impressive operation, similar to Southern Charms -true amateurs.

We used to do business with Jon at Wetlands back then too. He was such a media whore! Good guy too, and sad that he passed away about 10 years ago.


As for me, a huge turning point would have to be when Danny and I put Carol's paysite online with IBill for the first time. The joins just flowed in non-stop. It was incredible.

You created the original lake applets or they existed and you copied them?

I started off in the industry making a small daily bikini page, which of course back then I updated by hand every morning. Some guy offered to pay $1k for a banner on my site for a month, and I told him as soon as the check cleared I would put it up. It was a banner for a preggo site, and the $1k was a HUGE amount of money to me back then. The next month he wanted to put up two banners fro $2k.

And thus I was hooked.

Similar situation here. I was linked from a major Everything/Nothing blog in 2001 that increased my daily traffic by more than 20 times. It was only a new site with a modest amount of its own traffic, so that link helped push it along nicely. I figured out how to monetise it not long after (banners and links to affiliate progs, plus a paid member area) so from that point on my hobby became a career.

I still have that first site open today and it is still responsible for the majority of my income.

Paris Hilton making a sex tape.

I am still chasing my big win. Sure i make some good money. Have done well in Adult, but nothing like the big boys. i'm not rolling in a bentley. I will let you know when i get there.

Two projects about to open in so called mainstream, so with dedication i hope they are turning point i seek. :)

For me getting the fuck out of adult lol and earning a lot more £££. Still in the sales side of things but just not in adult. Things have never been better for me now although I do go away for weeks at a time specially during the summer months and I can work 6-7 days a week sometimes but its worth doing it because of the amount of money I can make

Do you have a set $$$ amount you are aiming for? Or just an idea of what you are aiming for?

Just a general idea. No set number in my head.
In fact i don't think id stop anything for a certain figure. I mention the Bentley as it is something i have set in my mind as a present for myself when i can afford it properly.

I am aiming for more then just money with my current projects as well.
OF course i want the big payouts, but i am also looking to be a large employer and to enrich peoples lives with both of the projects. Sounds like a pipe dream, but we are close to opening so....we shall soon see i guess.

Hope you are doing well man. Bring the family to Asia, some amazing courses here.

Set a number. When you get close, you can raise the number, but you need to set the number.

Quantify, don't qualify.

That reminds me the Pam and Tommy tape was such a gold mine! Thanks to CE Cash for those sweet checks!

Exactly what I was getting at. It's important to be hungry and want to achieve great things but I think it's also very important to have a specific goal so you can feel the accomplishment. It doesn't have to be an end goal. But just setting it will probably speed up the time it takes you to get there and increase the satisfaction when you reach it. Win win win all around :thumbsup

I have picked numbers many times.
It usually gets pushed up based on my wants.

The number is high, higher then i feel comfortable mentioning here.
Goals are set, they include money targets for income, and plans on what to do with that money in the various countries we operate in.

For now i'm dealing with the day to day, and focusing on the now. The goal is nice to have i agree, however i am forced to keep my eyes on the screen for now. :)

Don't take this as dismissing what you said. I do have a monetary target in mind. Just it is fluctuating with my wants...upward.
Respect both you and Shap.

Good question, its funny back in the mid 90's a lot of sites did advertising for Cyberthrill casino and that's where I got started then by following some links found the brighter horizon, I saw quite a few sites advertising in porn and man did it take off, back then everything sold you really could sell ice cream to a eskimo :thumbsup

made $100 profit off buying plugs off nude.hu

sadly things have been pretty steady since

Stick with it. It's not end game. Smash that target. Celebrate it. Then set a new target. A moving target is hard to hit :thumbsup

Two bits of luck for us:

1. Back in 1998 we had a forum and were shooting for other sites just for fun and just by pure luck a couple that we knew running a solo site came up to stay for a few days to shoot content with us. When they were up they used our office PC to check their stats and they showed me the screen and they were were grossing over $23 fucking k a day (with Lancelot back then, blast from the past) for what was basically just a small photo site so we shot, built and had our own LS site shot, built and up online in about two weeks flat!

We got the site ready and submitted it to the processor and back then they said it would be about a week to get everything done. The processor got it all done on the friday instead of the monday we were expecting and by the sunday we already had over a thousand members just from our own forum traffic!

2. Speaking to a very well known guy from here back in about 2003 he said to forget about photos as the future was video. I took his advice and we concentrated on video and started our CCBill program and never looked back.

Those were the days :)

Hopefully: yesterday i bought out my family run business and its turned in to a full time job with adult left on auto pilot.

Indeed! I remember Lancelot back in the day.

Oddly, I got my start in video - working as a video editor for AOV (Adults Only Video) here in Canada. But with our own websites we went with photos only - and stayed that way. I burned out of shooting vids through the 80s and never had the desire to shoot video alongside of our photography (even though we bought vidcams to use).

But he was right - video was definitely the future.

He told me about "wide pipes" broadband long before when everyone here was on pay per minute dial-up :)

We've had a few big moments/breaks that catapulted us to new heights. I'd have to say the most important was Jim's first appearance on Howard Stern and the great relationship that started because of it and still exists today. Howard is still big but having a long segment of his show to promote the Anatomy Awards each year back when he was on terrestrial radio was insane. Thousands of joins, ravaged servers etc. Taught us a lot and triggered many major upgrades.

I'd also be crazy to not mention our "appearance" in Knocked Up. Coming off the heals of The 40 Year Old Virgin's success it was a massive deal for us traffic wise and with the longevity that film has enjoyed on cable it is easily the single biggest reason that 8 out of 10 people I talk to about Mr. Skin know of us.

You can't be free publicity!

In adult I think one of our big breaks was having JennaJameson.com put us at the top of their main page tour, was there for years. We had $40/join links from them through CCBill, made a killing.

Another big turning point will be when SHAP answers my EMAILS later today. :)

doing good, thanks! or do you see me complaining about tubes and stuff like that? :winkwink:

for us the money never came easy and sometimes the ups and downs can be a little annoying but overall we're doing very well :)

Great Thread!

My big turning point was realizing that my after hours fun (swinging and sex parties) where much more profitable than my corporate job.

I had a fantastic career with Compaq/HP, lots of travel, expense account, respect, great salary, etc.

When HP did a downsizing (after buying Digital Equipment Corp), I raised my hand.
Went to my PO Box and scooped out all of the checks from online companies.
I then realized that I was making far more money having fun, than working.

At that time I had only one paysite - www.TampaBukkake.com and no affiliate program.
I launched more sites and started www.HowIgotRich.com to pay affiliates.
The growth was stellar.

I have made, paid, kept and invested millions of dollars from my online ventures!
Life is good :)

My turning point was reading a post by Ramster in about 2004 on GG's board stating if you weren't making at least $6k a month from freesites alone, something was very wrong. I was still part-time back then, after coming in to adult in 2003, but it gave me an actual decent figure to aim for. Put the work in, and lo and behold, the income shot up. Went full-time shortly after, and made some good money. Definitely my turning point, and I still thank him to this day for making that post.

Heh, part of my forward strategy - hopefully this was today's equivalent of seeng Ramster's post back in 2004 :thumbsup

Ramster is a cool guy - one of our very first exclusive clients :thumbsup

I ran a few "webcam" chat rooms on Yahoo.. I mostly did that because a)I was young, and b) I loved being a script kiddie. ;)

Well, I also had a couple of websites linked at the top sending me an easy 20k/day. I didn't monetize for the LONGEST time. Why should I? Came from an affluent family.. I was fed. I had the site mostly to mess around code wise & put up random shit I found from tits to gore stuff.

Then someone bought an ad for 2k. That's when I went from developing random things for fun to doing traffic/marketing & just minor development to supplement that.

He is indeed.

For all the pissballing around I do on gfy (I somehow turn into Slim Shady on here lol) and elsewhere to a far lesser degree, I'm lucky to know some very knowledgeable, cool, and truly nice guys, all willing to help anyone who asks :thumbsup

Great thread, too :)

as was Shap, Karups, Lenny2, ATK, Pimproll and Mansef (hehe)

and many more since then.

thanks again, guys :thumbsup

I created from 1996, prior to this there was not even Java, but I sure did not invent the concept ot a "lake". I just converted effects I made before on commodore, including "lake" and other effects, here some 1993 code of mine:




I was in BBS's and thinking internet it was lame, and wrote the applets for fun, no idea I was wrong and get assaulted by "wanna be webmasters" willing to pay $20 shareware (I was using multicards biller, from 1997). A turning point, totally unplanned, I was a kid with the right product in the right moment of "net economy" boom. My hosting provider collapsed for too big traffic, switched to "webby.com" who was customer too (animated cards site). Had applets in the wetlands (I had no idea the guy died, RIP), and in leonardo di caprio site and thousands more I forgot, applets was viral in "geocities" too (along with matrix backgrounds). Then after year 2000 no one wanted to pay for java applets anymore, again I had not planned would end so abruptly (looked like what happened to pay sites in 2009), so I tried a few different businesses and ended up into cams. That business is super stable but also super boring, I wish to escape it soon :)