ThrillBucks program manager Scott Thrill said that while advances in CGI technology and computer processing power made it possible to create the animated fantasy sites carried by the new program, the company didn’t initially plan to create a whole new program around the content.
“We didn’t set out to create a new affiliate program,” Scott told XBIZ. “We just wanted to create a 3-D animated big-boob site for our current program.”
Scott added that nobody within KCW was sure that spending a small fortune and an entire year to create the first 3-D site was the right decision — until the site ThrillCurve.com was launched in July 2006 with tremendous results.
“Sales were through the roof from day one and response was amazing,” Scott said. “What was most exciting was that none of our traffic was toon traffic, only big-boob traffic that was sent to our site PhotoClubs.com. One of our bigger affiliates put up our promo and began converting like crazy on straight big-boob traffic. When they immediately began advertising on the adult boards to hire animators to create a site similar to ours we knew we were onto something huge.”
The combination of an enthusiastic response from affiliates and strong conversion rate of the non-toon traffic sent to a 3-D toon site made it clear that a stand-along affiliate program should be launched to exploit the full potential of the niche and underlying technology, Scott told XBIZ. One week after the launch of ThrillCurve.com, the concept of ThrillBucks was born.
“We decided to attack different sub-niches within the big boob niche to start with, but the plan is to cover every conceivable niche that our affiliates wish to promote,” ThrillBucks owner Gary Thrill told XBIZ. “We knew that there were other 3-D sites out there but none had created an affiliate program that offered multiniched sites, most didn’t offer animated video, and they were all primarily promoted by affiliates with toon traffic.”
For its initial launch, ThrillBucks is offering seven sites for affiliates to promote: ThrillCurve.Com, ThrillAsian.Com, ThrillSpice.Com, ThrillBang.com, ThrillDoll.Com and ThrillChicks.Com.
“Our goal was to launch ThrillBucks with all big-boob 3-D sites, since we had successfully served that niche for 10 years,” Gary said. “However, we received so many requests from affiliates wanting a non-big-boob site, we decided to go ahead and build ThrillChicks.com just for them.”
Gary said that the ThrillBucks team is already hard at work developing the program’s next addition, ThrillDark.com, an interracial 3-D animation site, and has 19 sites slated for development in all.
With so much work in the pipes, Gary and Scott both said that efficiency is obviously a key component, as the cost in terms of both time and money in creating the 3-D sites is far greater than with “real world” adult sites.
“Our first site took over a year to create but now we have built a great team of 3-D comic artists and 3-D video animators that can create a new site every six weeks,” Gary said.
“The ability to create realistic-looking models with realistic movement, and without physical limitations of regular adult material really captures the imagination of the surfer,” Mary Thrill, head animator for ThrillBucks, told XBIZ. “Adult entertainment has spurred the growth of so many technological advances it seems to us that it is in reverse when it comes to 3-D computer animation.”
Scott told XBIZ that the success of companies like Pixar and DreamWorks demonstrates that mainstream audiences have fully embraced 3-D animation, indicating that the time is right for the adult industry to embrace the form as well.
“The timing for this program could not be better,” Scott said. “We have a program that is new and different; 3-D sites that sell really well don't directly compete with real-world programs but convert the same traffic and don't require 2257 record-keeping efforts. The 2257 issue alone is big.”
Gary told XBIZ that the main challenge for ThrillBucks will be in getting affiliates to adopt cartoon content to their promotional palette.
“It is difficult for some affiliates to believe that these sites convert straight traffic and not just toon traffic, but it is absolutely true,” Gary said. “We are making believers out of affiliates every day. I’m not sure we would have believed how well these sites would sell if we hadn’t stumbled upon the success of our first site and built this program organically.”
Gary added that the future of the 3-D cartoon niche is “unlimited as computer processing gets faster, animation software gets more advanced, and real-world adult webmasters realize how well this material will sell to their current surfers.”
“We see no reason why 3-D animation would not be as big a part of the adult world as animated movies are to the movie business,” Gary said.
ThrillBucks currently offers 60 percent revshare on all sites and a 10 percent webmaster referral program. The program offers a wide range of promotional tools, including free hosted movie and picture galleries.
To signup or get more information on the program, visit ThrillBucks.com