An Interview With Marc From Movie Room and Hoes.
Marc runs the now legendary link list site hoes.com which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary. After a short foray into the paysite waters he has launched a new full DVD site, Movie Room, and a 50/50 revshare affiliate program to go along with it. We talked to Marc to learn a little bit about him and his new site/program.
Webmaster Vault (WV): How many people do you have working for the program?
Marc from Movie Room (Marc): -5- myself, a programmer, an encoder and two content guys.
WV: What part of the world are you located in?
Marc:
WV: You run hoes.com, a legendary link list. Is running that site a big job?
Marc: It doesnt have to be, but I tend to make a bigger deal about it than I have to. Im one of those people that is never satisfied with the way things are with my sites. So Im constantly tweaking and changing things around. I like to test new stuff. I like to think this has helped me grow over the years. Im also very lucky to have two guys dedicated to the site. They keep it fresh and clean.
WV: Movie Room was just released. When did you get the idea for this site and how long has it been in development?
Marc: This took way too long to get released. I noticed the DVD-site trend starting to take over a couple of years ago. Thats when I went to work. But like I mentioned in a previous question, Im never satisfied with the way things are with my sites, so I kept changing it, tweaking it, growing the scope of it. It probably should have been released last year. But I wasnt happy with releasing just another DVD-site clone. So I beefed up the flash offerings and niched the shit out of it to make it have more value to more webmasters and in turn more surfers.
WV: Speaking of Movie Room, it is a site that allows people to watch entire DVDs online. What made you decide to start a site like this as opposed to a more traditional porn site?
Marc: This is a result of experience. I started a site about 4 years ago called Zarnia. It was a "babe", glamour style site. It was a great looking site, but never really took off. The reason for this was simple, it didnt cater to a very large audience. There are a few babe sites like Twistys that really clean up because theyve built a solid reputation and incorporate custom content. I never took it that far. So when I decided to take the plunge into paysites again, I wanted to build something that had mass appeal. And I wanted to build something with a long shelf-life. Video is king and MovieRoom.com touches most popular niches. So it seems like a good bet.
WV: You are currently offering 50% revshare for all signups and rebills. Are there any plans for a single pay per signup option in the future?
Marc: Doubtful. Its not worth the hassle in my opinion. Im not into cross-selling, popups, spam, etc. So it would be tough to do well with that sort of strategy. I push several hundred affiliate programs with hoes.com, so I see what works and what doesnt. I do much better in the long run with simple 50/50 programs than even those that pay $35 per signup. There is a place in the mix for those pay per signup programs from an affiliates standpoint, but a sound strategy isnt one that always takes the money upfront. Youve gotta have a long-term approach to really do well in any business, including porn.
WV: What type of stats package did you decide to go with for Movie Room?
Marc: Im using MPA3 and have been very happy with it so far.
WV: Getting back to hoes.com for a second you are one of the few big sites that actually lists their sales ratios and amount earned per click for the different programs that you promote. Have you ever had any negative feedback from sponsors who are unhappy with you posting bad results?
Marc: You would think that I would, but its been pretty quiet. You might have noticed that I do cut-off the poor performers at around 1:2000. So you would never see the rare 1:10,000, but there are several of them. Needless to say, they arent getting my traffic the following month.
WV: What do you like most about the adult internet biz?
Marc: The freedom. The fact that I can make my own hours, stay at home with my wife and daughter, travel whenever I want to. The diversity. I love that I can fire up my icq and chat with 3 people from 3 different countries at the same time. What a time were living in! Instant results. Its nice to be able to come up with an idea, throw it online, test it and tweak it. (all in the same day) No board meetings, no committees, no bullshit.
WV: Any new projects down the pipe?
Marc: Youre going to see some major changes at hoes.com. The largest project, which has been in development for too long as usual, is the paysite review section of hoes.com. Its a fun project, but a hell of a lot of work! Im definitely looking forward to its release in a couple of months. Paysites can get involved here:
http://www.hoes.com/reviews/webmasters/.
I also have something neat cooking for my monthly paysite stats reports. Taking it to the next level! I can say that youll be able to research paysites by niche for the first time. Other than that, its too soon to talk.
WV: One last question. If we put the crew from hoes.com, Greenguy, Tommy from Tommy’s Bookmarks and the crew from Richard’s Realm all in the ring for a UFC style battle royal, who wins?
Marc: I think wed all have too many cervezas to actually ever get the fight started.
Marc from Movie Room (Marc): -5- myself, a programmer, an encoder and two content guys.
WV: What part of the world are you located in?
Marc:
WV: You run hoes.com, a legendary link list. Is running that site a big job?
Marc: It doesnt have to be, but I tend to make a bigger deal about it than I have to. Im one of those people that is never satisfied with the way things are with my sites. So Im constantly tweaking and changing things around. I like to test new stuff. I like to think this has helped me grow over the years. Im also very lucky to have two guys dedicated to the site. They keep it fresh and clean.
WV: Movie Room was just released. When did you get the idea for this site and how long has it been in development?
Marc: This took way too long to get released. I noticed the DVD-site trend starting to take over a couple of years ago. Thats when I went to work. But like I mentioned in a previous question, Im never satisfied with the way things are with my sites, so I kept changing it, tweaking it, growing the scope of it. It probably should have been released last year. But I wasnt happy with releasing just another DVD-site clone. So I beefed up the flash offerings and niched the shit out of it to make it have more value to more webmasters and in turn more surfers.
WV: Speaking of Movie Room, it is a site that allows people to watch entire DVDs online. What made you decide to start a site like this as opposed to a more traditional porn site?
Marc: This is a result of experience. I started a site about 4 years ago called Zarnia. It was a "babe", glamour style site. It was a great looking site, but never really took off. The reason for this was simple, it didnt cater to a very large audience. There are a few babe sites like Twistys that really clean up because theyve built a solid reputation and incorporate custom content. I never took it that far. So when I decided to take the plunge into paysites again, I wanted to build something that had mass appeal. And I wanted to build something with a long shelf-life. Video is king and MovieRoom.com touches most popular niches. So it seems like a good bet.
WV: You are currently offering 50% revshare for all signups and rebills. Are there any plans for a single pay per signup option in the future?
Marc: Doubtful. Its not worth the hassle in my opinion. Im not into cross-selling, popups, spam, etc. So it would be tough to do well with that sort of strategy. I push several hundred affiliate programs with hoes.com, so I see what works and what doesnt. I do much better in the long run with simple 50/50 programs than even those that pay $35 per signup. There is a place in the mix for those pay per signup programs from an affiliates standpoint, but a sound strategy isnt one that always takes the money upfront. Youve gotta have a long-term approach to really do well in any business, including porn.
WV: What type of stats package did you decide to go with for Movie Room?
Marc: Im using MPA3 and have been very happy with it so far.
WV: Getting back to hoes.com for a second you are one of the few big sites that actually lists their sales ratios and amount earned per click for the different programs that you promote. Have you ever had any negative feedback from sponsors who are unhappy with you posting bad results?
Marc: You would think that I would, but its been pretty quiet. You might have noticed that I do cut-off the poor performers at around 1:2000. So you would never see the rare 1:10,000, but there are several of them. Needless to say, they arent getting my traffic the following month.
WV: What do you like most about the adult internet biz?
Marc: The freedom. The fact that I can make my own hours, stay at home with my wife and daughter, travel whenever I want to. The diversity. I love that I can fire up my icq and chat with 3 people from 3 different countries at the same time. What a time were living in! Instant results. Its nice to be able to come up with an idea, throw it online, test it and tweak it. (all in the same day) No board meetings, no committees, no bullshit.
WV: Any new projects down the pipe?
Marc: Youre going to see some major changes at hoes.com. The largest project, which has been in development for too long as usual, is the paysite review section of hoes.com. Its a fun project, but a hell of a lot of work! Im definitely looking forward to its release in a couple of months. Paysites can get involved here:
http://www.hoes.com/reviews/webmasters/.
I also have something neat cooking for my monthly paysite stats reports. Taking it to the next level! I can say that youll be able to research paysites by niche for the first time. Other than that, its too soon to talk.
WV: One last question. If we put the crew from hoes.com, Greenguy, Tommy from Tommy’s Bookmarks and the crew from Richard’s Realm all in the ring for a UFC style battle royal, who wins?
Marc: I think wed all have too many cervezas to actually ever get the fight started.
Movie Room offers affiliates many tools to help you maximize your traffic including new daily FHGs, many different linking options and plenty of promotional graphics. Check out Movie Room at:
http://www.movieroom.com/
To promote Movie Room got to:
http://webmasters.movieroom.com/
For all your porn needs and a kick ass place to submit free sites check out:
http://www.hoes.com
http://www.movieroom.com/
To promote Movie Room got to:
http://webmasters.movieroom.com/
For all your porn needs and a kick ass place to submit free sites check out:
http://www.hoes.com
