With a tagline of “Capture. Convert. Retain. Optimize. Monetize,” Madzuma.com’s goal is to provide a one-stop shop for all things digital.
The brainchild of industry veteran Alfonsus Kusuma, better known as “AK,” Madzuma offers nearly 20 years of online marketing and business development experience for clients to draw upon.
I believe that transparency is the key to productive communications. Advertisers can tell us what they are looking for and publishers can tell us what they expect to see in return.
Madzuma works with a range of affiliates and owners, including both advertisers and publishers seeking to score with CPA, CPC, CPL, CPM and other offers.
From premium members’ area traffic to remnant traffic across all verticals, Madzuma helps maximize revenue by doing all the hard work so that clients don’t have to.
This includes the services of a skilled design team, a search engine marketing and optimization team, reputation management and email list management specialists and more.
To delve into the rise of Madzuma and Kusuma’s vision for the company, as well as its future, XBIZ turned to AK himself. Here’s what he had to say:
XBIZ: You’re a longtime player that has seen so many changes within the industry. How did you venture into adult and how has your career evolved?
AK: Wow, this brings me back almost 20 years! I started in February 2001, when I responded to an ad on the Monster job board for a sales position at VideoSecrets, which is now more known for its flagship site, Flirt4Free. I’m sure that many readers will remember this, but back then, paysites used to lease much of the content and feeds used for their members’ areas.
As an account manager, my job was to offer paysite owners leased content from the company and I was promoted to sales manager 18 months later. By November 2005, I decided to “leave” the adult industry — but like many others who have tried to leave, I was drawn back to the business.
I then entered the adult dating market by joining DatingGold in November 2006 as an affiliate manager. I was later promoted to VP of sales and marketing in 2008, where I was lucky enough to build strong relationships with other companies in our industry.
I learned a lot from the two companies I worked for and by the summer of 2014, I decided to do something on my own — and it led us to here. Now, six years later, there is a great sense of satisfaction in my journey.
XBIZ: What led to the launch of Madzuma and how does it differ from basic CPA affiliate networks?
AK: The launch of Madzuma was driven in part by my desire to spend more time with my family. I had worked at DatingGold from 2006 to 2014, and when I began working remotely, my family moved from Agoura Hills to Stockton in 2008, where DatingGold’s main office is located. In 2013, my family moved back to Agoura — and after one year of living between both cities, I decided to be with my family.
As for how it differs from basic CPA affiliate networks, Madzuma is more of a service company, where I work with clients and partners to launch multiple business aspects with a focus on adult dating verticals. Yes, I found even more success in running a CPA network and I believe that difference is in the sole focus of the network — working closely with serious advertisers, publishers and affiliates. We tried to find a happy medium and I gotta tell you, it is way easier said than done.
XBIZ: How do you leverage the experience and industry trust you’ve earned over the years to further the success of Madzuma? What personal touches do you bring to the network?
AK: I feel lucky that my past business relationships have made it easier for me to forge new business relationships. I’ve always prioritized long-term relationships and goals as opposed to just making a quick buck. Honest and open communication is the key to our success.
XBIZ: What are the benefits of running a private network? What are the drawbacks?
AK: I would say that the advantages include closer relationships with a few partners, advertisers and publishers, as well as a lower overhead cost. The drawbacks would be the limitations on growth — but I will take controlled growth any day.
XBIZ: Madzuma has been involved with a variety of brands. What are some of the key brands and do they share any synergies?
AK: I work privately with various brands and companies on their back-end operations, but I would say that through private CPA network Conversion Sharks, I have learned a lot about traffic generation and monetization techniques.
My newer projects include Rude.com, WebcamOffers.com and several interesting back-end initiatives.
XBIZ: How do you help affiliate program owners leverage their existing resources and skill set?
AK: Those who know me personally will tell you that I am very open and generous when sharing my knowledge of new revenue streams and new technologies that networks can use to deploy to increase their bottom line. All they need to do is ask me. I also learn a great deal of valuable information from the program owners I work with, adding to the depth of the insights I can provide.
XBIZ: What sector of the online adult business do you see driving the market these days?
AK: Aside from adult dating, I would say that the live cam vertical remains strong, and is probably the strongest market these days. Then there is the Nutra business and the popularity of male enhancement offers, and adult content — including adult games — offered via free and premium channels.
The thing is, all of these adult sectors are very much related. It’s hard to explain, but I am available to discuss how this impacts a company’s business operations and plans.
Beyond the adult sectors, mainstream forces are influencing the marketplace, but these are not my current area of expertise.
XBIZ: How has the affiliate game changed over the years in terms of marketing strategies, new products, offers and so on?
AK: It has changed a lot! So much is different across the landscape of traffic evolution and the technology behind it. New tracking software and marketing technologies have contributed immensely to this ongoing change.
XBIZ: How do you balance the needs of advertisers and affiliates/publishers so that both succeed?
AK: I believe that transparency is the key to productive communications. Advertisers can tell us what they are looking for and publishers can tell us what they expect to see in return. Nowadays, everything is clear-cut, thanks to the newest technology for customer tracking and advertising optimization tools.
XBIZ: What is the most rewarding part of your job and what does a typical workday involve for you?
AK: What rewards me is when at the end of the day, I was able to complete the tasks I set for myself.
As for a typical day, I come to the office at around 9 a.m. — but I’ve already started working by the time I wake up around 6 or 7 a.m. My Skype, Telegram and WhatsApp are the first things I check, as a lot of business contacts are in European time zones, and this gives me an idea of what I need to do first when I get to the office. Then I work on emails and such, prioritizing my communications with Europe, and then the U.S. East Coast and then our time zone, here on the U.S. West Coast.
I enjoy going home for lunch — at least I have for the past couple of months or so — and then continue checking my messages throughout the day. Some days are much busier than others, of course.
XBIZ: What are your projections for the remainder of 2020?
AK: This year will continue to be “the new normal”! Staying positive is what I hope all of us can do, as we can all agree that 2020 has been bad for many people, and while our business might not have been affected very much, our personal lives were.
I like to travel with my family, and several of these trips have been canceled. So I think that for the remainder of this year, we’ll be dealing with the effects of the new normal. Some people I know are already projecting for 2021 and writing this year off.
