How did you get into the biz?

[drunken]

Before I got into adult I had a little website selling a CD full of mobile phone ringtones and screensavers...this was about 5 years ago, way before crazy frog or any of the mental advertising you see everywhere now.

Back then you couldn't just text a number and get new ringtones, you had to mess about connecting your phone to your pc with a data cable, and use ghetto software that I used to get from Poland LOL...the whole mobile phone ringtone world was in its infancy back then and I cashed in big time for about 18 months.

Unfortunately the big boys cottoned on quick, and came in and crushed me.
I couldn't afford daily full page adverts in all the major newspapers and magazines, and at the end of the day consumers would much rather just ring/text a number to get a new ringtone (usually from the work office heh) rather than bugger about with data cables and such like.

So I watched my money go right up, and live off it for about a year and a half...then it started to drop, and drop...it was a horrible feeling and I knew I had to move on, find something else.

Like any redblooded male with the internet I was surfing around for free porn, and one night thought I'd look about to see how money was made from it. Found a few tgps, and a couple of webmaster boards...5 years later here I am, first paysite opening very soon :)

well hope I haven't bored any of you too much lol, lets hear some more stories if you have any

[Geezer]

Back then you couldn't just text a number and get new ringtones, you had to mess about connecting your phone to your pc with a data cable, and use ghetto software that I used to get from Poland LOL...the whole mobile phone ringtone world was in its infancy back then and I cashed in big time for about 18 months.

Unfortunately the big boys cottoned on quick, and came in and crushed me.
I couldn't afford daily full page adverts in all the major newspapers and magazines, and at the end of the day consumers would much rather just ring/text a number to get a new ringtone (usually from the work office heh) rather than bugger about with data cables and such like.



I don't understand how, if you "cashed in big time for about 18 months" you couldn't afford to advertise and or get the technology required to allow them to "ring/text a number to get a new ringtone"

[dvtimes]

I did a degree in Marketing (ba hons), but the thing is I have dyslexia, which means unless I was happy to stack shelves or work in a factory, then I werent going to get a job.

Actually I did work in a factory for a week. I did 9pm to 7am in an ice scream factory. I said I would kill myself before I ever did that again.

To be honest I like to take photographs and film, so I guess I just did it.

I have done sales which was ok, but too much stress. I did door to door gas and electricity, which I was one of the best sales reps. It was nice in summer but far far too cold in the winter.

And I also tried nursing, but found some nurses total bitches, so left.

In truth I am a lazy sod. Getting up at 6 am for work each day, for the rest of my life, is something I will not do.

Sure I may be able to get a decent paid job, and make good cash, but money means nothing to me. Life is too short.

I see people each day working long hours, just so they can buy a bigger house, car, or whatever. Sod that. I am happier just getting by. I go each day to the park with the dog.

[-HF]

started out with computers in the times of the Sinclair ZX-81. refused to go online for ages cos i was fully aware the access to info of all kinds would make me an addict. got a left over modem in spring 97, thought a quick try cannot really hurt, right? slammed in a CompuServe CD that came in the mail that day, of course i got hooked, 2 months later i was asked to join the staff on an adult forum - big mouths do pay off sometimes. met my partner, worked our ways up the ranks to fully running forums, adult and family orientated. AOHell bought CS, with the then joining trailer park trash CS goes down the drain quality wise, left CS in 1999, started own webbased mainstream forums for political and other discussions, from there we went back to doing adult related sites n stuff.

[drunken]

I don't understand how, if you "cashed in big time for about 18 months" you couldn't afford to advertise and or get the technology required to allow them to "ring/text a number to get a new ringtone"

back then sms portals to send out ringtones in this way were stupid money, they're still pretty expensive now. I was buying advertising on a few other mobile phone sites at the time, as for full page adverts in the major press - don't even go there. I just couldn't compete.

when i said I "cashed in big time" I didn't mean I was making millions LOL

[Geezer]

Oh yeah I forgot to answer the thread question.

I first got a computer when I was 18, it was a Texas instruments thing, and I learnt how to do some basic programming.

I had always wanted to be a photographer from a very early age and many moons after my Texas thingy, I was a qualified photographer and there was a slight buzz about Digital photography. Back then a digital camera that was even close to producing 35mm quality would set you back £20k Plus.

Anyway I bought some old computer from my sister, who knows fuck all about anything with an on/off switch and used it to re acquaint with a "computer". It had something like windows 3.0 or something.

Anyway, I fucked that off and got myself £1,300 worth of 166 processor and shit and finally got on the net.

Obviously I was doing searches for cunt, wank, fuck and all the other childish things we all looked up in the dictionary as kids, didn't we?

I found a site called babylon-x.com, and I think they are still going in some kind of way today, and they had an afiiliate programme where they would pay me a couple of cents for every click I could send their way.

I built some fucking two bob "sites", just pages actually and started seeing my clicks turn to cash. I don't think I ever got paid from them but they got me started.

My first ever cheque was from X-pays.com (I think) and was for $16, that felt so fucking good I can't tell you.

Anyway, I could go on some more but this is enough.
That's basically how I got into it.

[mellenig]

Started off in 96ish by building a directory for hotels it was getting nowhere..then there was an article in the Sun about the fireman who was making money with porn sites anyone remember it? he was into some real dodgy shit.

Thought fuck the hotels...found pornopass and adult check and took it from there.

[drunken]

I found a site called babylon-x.com, and I think they are still going in some kind of way today, and they had an afiiliate programme where they would pay me a couple of cents for every click I could send their way.


These were one of my first sponsors as well :)

wasn't it celebs if I remember rightly?

[Geezer]

These were one of my first sponsors as well :)

wasn't it celebs if I remember rightly?

They had a bit of everything but I do remember a lot of Madonna stuff on there.

They said they had 50,000 members and I really don't doubt it.

[JT]

I was running a marketing and design biz and thought I'd make more money doing adult, I probably dont but I think the potential is there to.

I make more than anyone I know offline, I probably work longer hours too, but I like the flexibility, especially with wireless. Means I can be anywhere in the world and work

[Cardinal_Sin]

In 1996 we were searching the net for some educational papers and somehow came across a fetish forum for balloons. We were a little puzzled by the a) fetish and b) how this forum apeared in our search term.
Did a bit of adult surfing and realised that cash was changing hands and wanted some to fall into mine!
So, being a reasonably good photographer and knowing that a unique fetish existed with no paysite to furnish it, we decided to give it a go and opened one. Quickly learned about html, seo and forum spamming and began making a few sales a day.
We then opened other sites based on leg/hose/stocking/panties/foot fetish and with it, our programme (Wasn't called Harlot Cash then, just a webpage on our legshow site.)
I do not remember other fetish sponsors being around in 1996 so we may well have been the 1st, however, as time went on and programmes grew huge, I decided that way forward wasn't for me - Always been more than happy to plod along at my own pace!

[Geezer]

These were one of my first sponsors as well :)

wasn't it celebs if I remember rightly?

Your'e right about the celebs, I was thinking about it and I rememberd other celebs and also their banners.

Anyway here's a little tripdown memory lane for you:

Babylonx-x is Here! (http://web.archive.org/web/19970414224514/www.babylon-x.com/main.html)

[JT]

Your'e right about the celebs, I was thinking about it and I rememberd other celebs and also their banners.

Anyway here's a little tripdown memory lane for you:

Babylonx-x is Here! (http://web.archive.org/web/19970414224514/www.babylon-x.com/main.html)


Seemed like every site you found took you to that site then, wonder what happened

[mellenig]

Your'e right about the celebs, I was thinking about it and I rememberd other celebs and also their banners.

Anyway here's a little tripdown memory lane for you:

Babylonx-x is Here! (http://web.archive.org/web/19970414224514/www.babylon-x.com/main.html)

love web archive its great looking at some of the crappy sites we used to build..

[Geezer]

Seemed like every site you found took you to that site then, wonder what happened

Maybe made so much money they simply retired, althoughmybe as more and more laws and shit came into play they either got sued too much or just got out while they were ahead.

I think it was run by a woman called Tracy, but then I write using a womans name so that don't mean much :p

[Elisha Jade]

Whilst I was at uni I met a guy on yahoo who said he liked my picture. He then showed me a bbw paysite based in the UK and I thought "hey I could do that!!" So I opened my first paysite in 1999 / 2000. I closed it down a couple of years later when I entered my final year at uni cos I couldn't cope with all the work. Finished uni... and decided to get back in :) Opened a paysite for me.. then 3 girls approached me and I opened paysites for them.. then decided to branch into the tranny niche :) I have no intentions of leaving the industry again :)

[a1ka1ine]

i started with computers when i was 5 with an atari xe, you had to be a programmer just to run a game in those damn days! i messed around with most aspects of pc'ing from sound/graphics/video/programming/gaming so i have a pretty well rounded understanding of stuff.

i started a hacker/warez site (yeh yeh im not proud of it) when i was 17 and had some porn banners on. this was about 1998. why the helll i didnt see the opportunity to join porn then i dont know, but anyway i went and worked down south for a few years before coming back north in desperation for money from the debt i had, and went back to my roots and did adult - but this time all legal!

i met a guy with some money to invest and some photographer contacts then started a1ka1ine.com which later became solarcash.com

[Elisha Jade]

omg!! what a trip down memory lane!! I used to program on the spectrum ZX heheheh

[stembolt]

selling jenna jameson vcds on ebay at a £5 a pop
yup lost that account;)

[Shandy McAndy]

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. When I me a webmaster, he picked me up and turned me around and turned me into something new :mad:

[-HF]

omg!! what a trip down memory lane!! I used to program on the spectrum ZX heheheh


you just got it so you could play with the rubber knobs all day. :D

[Shandy McAndy]

selling jenna jameson vcds on ebay at a £5 a pop
yup lost that account;)


I bought one, Ive seen it now a few times, can I exchange it for another one? :mad:

[Elisha Jade]

you just got it so you could play with the rubber knobs all day.

Oooh err!! lol :)

[dvtimes]

I started off with a BBC B and Micronet (I think it was called). It was a sort of internet but with the look of teletext.

I used it when I was 14. I used to chat to loads of people, and used to send out my home address all the time as I had pen pals. I guess looking back it could have been very unsafe.

I watched wargames and thought I was a top hacker. In truth I could not hack one site.

I remember going on bulitin boards which were easy to set up.

Man, I used to soend hours looking at absulte drivel.

Micronet had a chat page. It crashed all the time.

Then we got a PC. Probably a 286. Looking back it sucked. I thought even the graphics were werese than the BBC.

Then I bought a 486. It did not even have windows 3.1 or a cd drive. It cast me £700. I still have it. I think it cost me over £100 for 4mb of memmory. And £80 for a two speed cd drive.

Thank goodness for Pentium and windows xp.

[-HF]

since it's the old fart thread.... The Micronet Story (http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/032/micront.htm)

[stouch]

I got in via domains. I grabbed a few expired adult ones that had residual traffic and pointed them at ARS. Within a couple of days I had my first sale and it progressed from there.

[aphrophoto]

I was a photographer already when I got into the adult side. Before digital use to shoot and sell glamour pics via a couple of contacts. Always been in the amateur market cos we didnt get many supermodels in my end of the world.

First PC I owned was a 166 - paid a small fortune for it at the time.

Built my first site to promote my photography business hosting. When digital cameras came close to 35mm quality bought into it and things just took off from there. Seem to be upgrading the machines and cameras ever since

[drunken]

I got in via domains. I grabbed a few expired adult ones that had residual traffic and pointed them at ARS. Within a couple of days I had my first sale and it progressed from there.

ahh yes i remember just the other day you were telling me about these...


www.ilovegays.com
www.homosexualsrule.net
www.cornishpastybois.com
www.baldingbikers.co.uk

with these domains under your belt, you can't fail to make money...can you?

[stouch]

Dont forget stupidbrummieaccent.co.uk and pissedonhalfashandy.net

[drunken]

weak.........so weak....i think im going to go and melt some rage against the machine CDs

[stouch]

Grrrrr.

[chilihost]

I have been doing I.T. support since 1991, just after graduating from uni. I got a contract doing server work for one of the bigger porn companies in 2000. I learned all about the adult industry and when I finished that contract I started doing galleries and freesites, but could not find a webhost that would take adult for less than $1-2/G bandwidth, so I opened up chilihost - we were one of the first to break that barrier and offer hosting at $0.75/G.

cheers,
Luke

[JT]

ahh yes i remember just the other day you were telling me about these...


www.ilovegays.com
www.homosexualsrule.net
www.cornishpastybois.com
www.baldingbikers.co.uk

with these domains under your belt, you can't fail to make money...can you?

:takethat: :takethat:

[XxXotic]

I was pushin some mainstream garbage for a while and my mom (of all people) showed me an article on how large (money wise) of an industry adult sites pulled in and actually talked me into doing this instead of the mainstream shit. I thought about it for a while, and 3 days later I made my 1st sale and I haven't looked back since

[JT]

I was pushin some mainstream garbage for a while and my mom (of all people) showed me an article on how large (money wise) of an industry adult sites pulled in and actually talked me into doing this instead of the mainstream shit. I thought about it for a while, and 3 days later I made my 1st sale and I haven't looked back since

cool mum you have there

[XxXotic]

cool mum you have there
yeah, I've been lucky. Growing up without a father pretty much made me and my mom pretty tight. I honestly consider her more of a friend then a mom, we talk about everything and anything. Hell my mom ICQ'ed me the other day SWEARING she was gonna be the one to register sex.xxx when the .XXX registrations start. Then she offered it to me for $50,000 She's a trip :takethat:

[drunken]

cool mum you have there

no doubt...respect to her man