Through his 17 years in the online adult space, JuicyAds’ Jimmy “Wizzo” Foreman has always found ways to help companies better monetize their sites and put deals together. In fact, Wizzo’s job title at JuicyAds — global publisher strategist — sums up what he’s all about: He’s a visionary traffic expert who’s got the experience that counts in an industry that always revolves around change.
Through the years, the online adult veteran has helped lead other businesses in the adult space — including MayorsMoney.com, Adult.com, GFY.com and ExoClick — to success.
Clients mostly are looking for one thing and that’s profit! Whether they are a publisher or advertiser the bottom line is profit.
XBIZ World this month checked in with Foreman to find out more about how he got where he is today.
XBIZ: First off, what’s the story behind your nickname, Wizzo?
FOREMAN: Back in 1997 when I was first learning how to build adult sites there was model who I built her a site. A group of us were in Las Vegas and all night she was bragging to people what a “wizard of the Internet” I was. We ended up at Excalibur shooting craps when she noticed the little wizard on the $100 chips was named “Wizzo” and from that night on it just stuck.
XBIZ: You’ve been in the online adult business for more than 17 years, working mostly with traffic networks and affiliate programs. How has the business changed through all of those years?
FOREMAN: The biggest change is the affiliate model. For many years it was very easy to rely solely on the affiliate model to drive traffic to a site, where today most sites have to take charge of their own traffic creation either through SEO, media buys, social networking, feeder sites, tube submits or etc. The number of affiliates that can drive sales has diminished and is tough for site owner to strictly depend on it as their sole traffic source. I think another major change has been the impact of mobile and how it’s become as important as web traffic and people need a solid strategy for both.
XBIZ: What’s your specialty over at Juicy Ads?
FOREMAN: My specialty or main focus at JuicyAds is dealing with publishers. Bringing in quality sites and traffic into our network, along with making sure we have a good balance between supply and demand of various types and geos of traffic. I also like to work with our publishers to better optimize their ads to make them more money and improve the quality of traffic. I do work with some advertisers as well, just because of my many years of experience being on that side of the fence.
XBIZ: What are clients looking for and what are some of the key targeting features that help companies reach greater conversions?
FOREMAN: Clients mostly are looking for one thing and that’s profit! Whether they are a publisher or advertiser the bottom line is profit. We offer a number of tools to help achieve that, starting with various types of traffic, mobile, pop-under both desktop and mobile, and banner ads. Then we can geo and niche target so that clients are getting the niche and geos that best match their product. Then we also offer pixel tracking and dynamic linking which for most are critical to creating a profit from their campaigns.
XBIZ: What’s coming up for Juicy Ads as we move into 2015?
FOREMAN: This upcoming year will be big for JuicyAds, we have a number of major updates and tools planned to better serve our clients.
We’ve spent a good bit of this year refining our backend code, moving hosts, hiring additional staff in preparation for the major updates which will highly benefit our clients.
XBIZ: Can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader?
FOREMAN: If I had to choose only one, I would say it was Joe Lackey who was also known as Lensman. I went to work for Joe in 1998 when he just had AmateurPages but it was one of largest adult sites on the net at that time. While there we created Adult.com, GFY.com, EraserCash.com, CashTour.com and a number of other projects as well. I learned quite a bit from him, not only about this biz but business in general, marketing, and how to lead people.
XBIZ: What’s a typical work day like?
FOREMAN: A typical day for me starts around 8-8:30 a.m., JuicyAds is completely virtual so there’s no office — we all work from home. So I go to my home office, usually start the day answering Skype calls, emails, checking the boards, viewing stats, etc., for the first few hours. A few days a week we have conference calls scheduled; they start at 10 a.m. for me and last usually around an hour. Then I try to shift to a more proactive role and contact potential or current clients about sending us traffic. Then usually around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. I take a break for around a hour, go for walk or bike ride. Some days run a few errands, just anything to get away from the keyboard and screen for a bit. Afternoons are usually spent talking with clients continuing to follow-up with emails, etc. Then around 5 p.m., 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. at dinner time, I usually call it a day and get out of my office. It is important for me to set that boundary, or otherwise I would work until midnight and quickly burning myself out.
XBIZ: When not thinking about the biz, what do you like to do?
FOREMAN: When not in work mode, I enjoy going to one of the neighborhood sports bars and playing video poker with friends. I also like hanging out with my daughters, who are 17 and 19, doing all sorts of various activities. My passion though is to go to the races, anything from the local short track/dragstrip, to Daytona or Talladega for NASCAR, to Circuit of the Americas for F1.