Meet Rainey Striklin, a familiar face in the world of online adult entertainment. Striklin, Reporo’s global vice president of the company’s gay market, works with publishers and advertisers that sign on to the lucrative mobile adult ad network.
Striklin is a veteran of the biz, particularly the gay market, clocking in at 16 years.
People who aren’t monetizing mobile by either buying or selling mobile traffic is losing out on the early days of where the adult industry is headed.
About two years ago, Striklin joined Reporo to launch the industry’s first gay mobile network.
XBIZ World checked in with Striklin to learn more about her interesting life in the adult biz.
XBIZ: How did you get involved in the industry?
STRICKLIN: In 1998, I answered an ad for a writing position at WebSideStory (aka HitBox) reviewing websites. My background was as a print journalist in Arizona, but I had moved to San Diego and the writing market was tough, even then. They told me they had an adult section, but I would be reviewing mainstream web sites, writing press releases, technical how-tos, etc. At some point, I was asked to fill in for a sales person on the adult side and it turned out I was pretty good at it. I took over the job and the rest is history! In my 16 years in this business, I’ve worked in advertising, billing, and affiliate programs, as well as having been a webmaster myself.
XBIZ: Tell me about your position at Reporo?
STRICKLIN: I joined Reporo almost two years ago to help launch the industry’s first gay mobile network. In that time, we’ve built a solid foundation and Mark Bower has just joined my team of 1 and will soon be moving to London so he can run things out of our home office there. My role is changing a bit to manage North American and Latin American-based clients with their advertising campaigns, while Mark will handle Europe, Asia, and basically the rest of the world. We’re growing the gay network at a steady pace and we launched gay redirects and pop-unders in February and have big things in store for the rest of the year!
XBIZ: What exactly does Reporo do with mobile traffic to make clients money?
STRICKLIN: Reporo is the industry’s largest mobile ad network, serving around 1 billion impressions daily. We take a “boots on the ground” approach and have offices in London, San Francisco, Argentina, Mexico, India, Japan, the Philippines, and South Africa. Each market manager knows the ins-and-outs of their territory, which is key in mobile as the laws in various countries change often.
That said, we help publishers maximize their profits on traffic from every country and match them with advertisers that work well on their sites.
With advertisers, we work closely with them, ensuring they’re matched with a manager in their time zone when possible, and someone that can speak whatever language they prefer. Once on board, we help them find optimum bids and targeting for their campaigns, so they achieve their CPA goals.
In the end, it’s a delicate balance of keeping publishers happy with their profits, while advertisers are reaching their financial goals. Based on our huge portfolio of clients, I’d say we walk that fine line pretty well.
XBIZ: Where is most of your business coming from?
STRICKLIN: Our business comes from all over the world. As I mentioned before, we have offices all over the world and market specialists that cover every region of the globe. Most of our business comes from North America and Western Europe, though Latin America is growing at a fast pace.
XBIZ: Are there any countries/regions that you don’t currently service but would like to in the near future?
STRICKLIN: No. We operate on the philosophy that every click has a buyer, and it really is true.
We often take on the traffic that other networks can’t monetize, because we’ve sought out buyers in those markets. It may be worth a tenth of a cent, but it does have a value and a buyer somewhere.
XBIZ: What sector of the online adult business is driving the market these days?
STRICKLIN: Well, I could be biased, but I’d say mobile. If you’ve been to a trade show recently, everyone is pushing mobile. I was around for the gold rush of the 1990s in online adult, and it is so similar to where mobile is now. It's new, it's cutting-edge technology, and it is profitable.
People who aren’t monetizing mobile by either buying or selling mobile traffic are losing out on the early days of where the adult industry is headed. As I said, I’ve been around this biz for 16 years, and I’m hedging my bets on mobile.
XBIZ: What’s a typical work day like?
STRICKLIN: I’ve been fortunate enough to work from home for most of the past 10 years. To do that, I’ve had to discipline myself by having a dedicated home office that I go to each morning, as if I’d be going to a typical workplace.
As I’m sure many of us do, I check stats first. I look at the inventory on the gay market as well as various advertisers that I manage. Then I check emails and respond as needed, and take care of any client issues that may have arisen.
I keep in touch with the various offices via Skype or email, and we all have VOIP extension phones that connect us to our home base in London.
After that, you’d probably find me prospecting for new clients, checking in with current clients, looking for new marketing opportunities, or working on the gay network blog (GayBlog.Reporo.com) before responding to any other emails that have come up throughout the day.
Like most of us in the 24/7 industry, when I close the office door at the end of the day, my laptop and iPad come out to respond to things as they come up throughout the rest of the night.
XBIZ: When not thinking about the biz, what do you like to do?
STRICKLIN: I like to hike, fish, spend time with family and travel with my partner. I also have two dogs that are stereotypically like my children, and I’m lost if I’m away from them for too long.
