Each month, industry news media organization XBIZ spotlights the career accomplishments and outstanding contributions of Women in Adult. WIA profiles offer an intimate look at the professional lives of the industry's most influential female executives.
How did you get into this? What in your background prepared you for what you are doing now?
Internet porn is no longer the novelty it once was.
I started in the industry in 1997, providing customer service and affiliate support for a gay affiliate program owned and operated by my brother. From that day on, I have been constantly learning and growing with the industry. I've held various positions in his company, including vice president of marketing, chief operating officer and chief executive officer. In 2004, I started the company Storm Media to provide the paysites that were marketed in the affiliate program Adult Revenue Service, which was owned by my brother. In 2005, I purchased his company from him. I currently continue to own and operate Adult Revenue Service and have also built a new affiliate program, HD Pays. I can't say anything in my background prior to 1997 prepared me for what I do today. But, my extensive experience in the industry is what allows me to be a program owner today.
What do you see as the challenges to working in adult and how do you overcome them?
I think the biggest challenge to my business is the slow extinction of the customer willing to pay for a subscription to an adult site. The lethal combination of stale product, abusive billing practices by a number of site owners, and the glut of free content is working — very well I might add — to kill off any potential buyers there are left. Internet porn is no longer the novelty it once was. It is no longer something that you have to buy if you want to get the good stuff. I try to overcome this by concentrating on providing a good product of exclusive content, using ethical billing practices and making sure I work hard to keep the customers that I have.
Another challenge I face is the huge competition for affiliate traffic. There are hundreds of affiliate programs selling the same content repackaged into thousands of different websites. With all of these options, you have no loyalty from affiliates. When my site stops converting for them, rather than work with me to figure out what happened, they just move on to the next program that has a site in the same niche as their traffic. I plan to overcome this by opening up Adult Revenue Service to other site owners, on a very selective basis, to make sure that my portfolio offers sites to promote you can't find anywhere else. Providing affiliates with great products to promote, bonus incentives, loyalty programs, and top-notch support is the formula ARS has always used and I will continue to improve upon it in any way that I can.
