The McAlears broke into the adult industry in 1994 with their first site, CarolCox, as a way to profit from their swingers lifestyle.
They used the site to sell videos via mail order until 1997, when they were finally able to process credit cards and switched to a subscription model, offering streaming video and charging a monthly membership fee of $9.95.
Wild Rose Productions was born.
With the adult Internet still a virtual frontier, the McAlears rapidly added more sites and built a system of webcams and chat rooms, with an emphasis on providing one-on-one interaction between members and performers.
“We introduced these things because the ability to interact with the girls is critical to a niche like ours,” Danny McAlear said.
The business topped off at $3 million per year from 20,000 members, with 24 full-time employees occupying a 10,000-square-foot studio.
But then came the gold rush. According to U.S. Justice Department statistics, the number of adult sites jumped tenfold from 28,000 to 280,000 between 1998 and 2001. Suddenly, the McAlears had competition — and lots of it.
As a stop gap, they started buying overseas content at a fraction of the cost of producing their own. But because the European models couldn’t offer the one-to-one contact their members had come to expect, the McAlears once again improvised by joining with 60 other amateur sites across North America, marketing the sites as a package and sharing traffic and revenues.
Today, Wild Rose brings in about $100,000 a month. The McAlears also have launched AdultLifestylesNetwork.com, where singles can connect via webcam. The site has about 12,000 members, of which around 500 have been converted to subscribers at $24.95 per month.
The McAlears hope the venture pays off in profits, but are also committed to staying true to what got them into the adult Internet in the first place: the swinger lifestyle.
“This is something we’re going to take slowly,” McAlear said. “We’re not out to be another personals site; we’re trying to develop a true online community.”
