Interview With Q'on
Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Q'on, the owner of Onprobation.com, one of the biggest ebony resource and link list sites on the Internet. Here is what Q'on had to say about his site, his success, and the industry in general.
Muffy: Ok...first up...How and when did you get your start in the online adult entertainment business?
Q’on: Well, I was in college in 97. My girl bought me a computer and I was surfing adult sites. I saw a banner that said, "Get paid 2 cents per click!” I was like, "whoa! I can get paid that easy? lemme give it a shot..."
Muffy: Obviously it worked then?
Q’on: I bought my first domain name (buddababy.com) and put up a little site to make some money off of banner ads. I made a little money and it grew, not enough to sustain myself at that time, but it paid a few bills. Then, I met YNOT Rick. He was really cool and I started working with him on a couple of projects. He then invited me out to Las Vegas for the ia2000. I didn’t have the money so he paid for it.... that was cool :D
I had dinner with some big time cats at the Rio in Vegas: Rick, Joe E (CEN) and a few others that I can’t recall right now. Joe took a liking to me and asked me to come work for him in Ft. Lauderdale. I left college (I was sick of that shit anyway) and he moved me down to help promote their sites. I only stayed a few months and the guys at CEN were great. I still kept my own little biz going while working there (that was the agreement) and when I left, I still had it going. It’s grown to what you see now. I guess thats the short version :D
Muffy: ;-) I love stories about climbing the porn ladder. Could you give the patrons of Webmaster Vault a brief overview of what your site is all about today?
Q’on: Onprobation.com is simply a resource site. It has links to "exotic sites" and my editors link to sites they find and give a brief review of them. There are other sections of the site that have been added over its evolution including Top Referrers, Site Reviews, Dr. Feelgood (advice column), Video Reviews and since I shoot models for OP Premium, a modeling application. The site gets around 17-20k/day, tracked by PayCounter. It used to get more but volume of traffic is my least concern. Quality of traffic is top priority and you could ask just about anyone on our top referrers list how good our traffic is. Our surfers click EVERYTHING, they are curious, dedicated and they pay.
Muffy: Well, you already answered my next question, which was about your traffic :-) So, what has been the biggest obstacle or challenge to your success so far?
Q’on: hmmmm... good question. I think that diversifying and keeping things going is tough as a small business. I have to really rely on myself and the few people who work with me to do EVERYthing. That includes marketing, promotion, maintenance, customer service and offline necessities. And I have to balance all that with personal issues. But, I wouldnt trade it for anything. My hosting company, Cyberwurx.com has helped keep me afloat with phenomenal uptimes and super fast response to all my requests. I cannot tell you how important that has been.
Muffy: I read on your site that your business partner and you have recently split. How has this affected your business?
Q’on: Man, that was a MAJOR change. I am still recovering but I think well be ok. I had to restructure, but I think starting fresh is good because many things were mismanaged and luckily I do not have to worry about most of it. But now that I know, I can handle things properly and insure that the IRS is happy with my activities :D
Muffy: hahaha...yes, keeping the IRS happy is important ;-). Ok, I already asked what your biggest challenge has been, so what has been the key to your success in this industry?
Q’on: Diversification! I think that is more the key to survival though. So, I would say that the biggest key to success is just staying honest and committed to what I have chosen to focus on. I love the ethnic "niche" and it shows in my work. I think that there are still so many money hungry people and big corporations screwing up the industry. I feel that as long as you run a tight ship and handle your customers like you would like to be handled, the money will come. Maybe not tomorrow, in two weeks, two months or two years, but it will come and I will be around long after those "get money quick" cats have disappeared.
Muffy: Can you tell us a little bit more about the future for this type of niche and is it still high in demand?
Q’on: Oh man... I believe that this niche is the best in the business. Maybe I should not spill so much of the beans, but here it is. "Exotic" women are everyones fantasy. The net and television are overrun with white chicks and that shit is BORING, it’s OLD and even the white chicks know it, lol. That will always be there, but the customer base for the ethnic niche has a long way to grow while the "white" niche is almost at its peak, but that’s just my opinion. I am simply positioning myself to be one of the companies that takes advantage of this growth in customers over the next 10 years.
Muffy: I think that one of the biggest mistakes that is made in this industry is that Asian people like only Asian sites, Spanish people like only Spanish sites, etc. Would you say that your customer base is made up of only ethnic people?
Q’on: No. It is made up of mostly white men. I have got plenty of black/ethnic surfers that visit but based on what I have seen in my customer databases and the feedback that I have received, most of them are Caucasian. I think that Asian men tend to stick to Asian women but I think that other races tend to be more open. I actually have contact with my customers. I answer all emails and I actually do a lot of updating. I am not just telling someone what to do like many of the companies out there. So, I have an opportunity to hear directly from my customers and interact with them, to give them what they want and that helps me to understand them better. I think that is where a lot of companies are lacking. They like to make assumptions about what others like based on THEIR views... not a good move.
Muffy: I completely agree with you there. As you know there have been lots of changes in the industry lately. What has been your take on the new regulations imposed by VISA and MasterCard?
Q’on: I’m not sure what to think really. In some ways I think its positive, in others, its negative. On the negative side, I think it is just a way for the credit card companies to squeeze a few million dollars out of adult merchants, simply because they know we have it - bastards! Lol On the positive side, I think that it increases accountability and will decrease competition and give greater market share to professionally owned and operated sites. Basically, if youre not legit...scram. If youre not making the money (which may have a lot to do with how you manage your sites), take a hike!
Muffy: What do you think has been the biggest change to the industry since you made your start?
Q’on: When many of the sponsor programs went from paying per click to paying per signup, when we started accepting the inflated amounts as if they were real... I don’t even want to get into that garbage. I think also it has become a LOT less personal. I used to know just about everyone in the biz, all the key players and we were all on a first name basis. I still see many of them but the biz has been overrun by big corporations whove just thrown money at this opportunity and have had a lot of success. It was previously just a bunch of upstart entrepreneurs. I liked it like that. But hey, those were the good ole days.
Muffy: hahaha...Ok...one last question for you. What advice would you give to a new Webmaster just starting out today?
Q’on: lol... yeah right... starting today? Good luck... there are so many sites out there and so much competition, I doubt highly youll be able to make a real dent unless youre coming in with 100 grand and a staff of competent, experienced people who know how to navigate such a turbulent ocean. But, if I had to tell them something to make them feel better it would be to just have fun and the money will come.
Muffy: Ok...thats it! Thanks for the interview Qon :-) I would like to wish you continued success with your site :-D
Q’on: no problem... anytime! ;)
Q’on: Well, I was in college in 97. My girl bought me a computer and I was surfing adult sites. I saw a banner that said, "Get paid 2 cents per click!” I was like, "whoa! I can get paid that easy? lemme give it a shot..."
Muffy: Obviously it worked then?
Q’on: I bought my first domain name (buddababy.com) and put up a little site to make some money off of banner ads. I made a little money and it grew, not enough to sustain myself at that time, but it paid a few bills. Then, I met YNOT Rick. He was really cool and I started working with him on a couple of projects. He then invited me out to Las Vegas for the ia2000. I didn’t have the money so he paid for it.... that was cool :D
I had dinner with some big time cats at the Rio in Vegas: Rick, Joe E (CEN) and a few others that I can’t recall right now. Joe took a liking to me and asked me to come work for him in Ft. Lauderdale. I left college (I was sick of that shit anyway) and he moved me down to help promote their sites. I only stayed a few months and the guys at CEN were great. I still kept my own little biz going while working there (that was the agreement) and when I left, I still had it going. It’s grown to what you see now. I guess thats the short version :D
Muffy: ;-) I love stories about climbing the porn ladder. Could you give the patrons of Webmaster Vault a brief overview of what your site is all about today?
Q’on: Onprobation.com is simply a resource site. It has links to "exotic sites" and my editors link to sites they find and give a brief review of them. There are other sections of the site that have been added over its evolution including Top Referrers, Site Reviews, Dr. Feelgood (advice column), Video Reviews and since I shoot models for OP Premium, a modeling application. The site gets around 17-20k/day, tracked by PayCounter. It used to get more but volume of traffic is my least concern. Quality of traffic is top priority and you could ask just about anyone on our top referrers list how good our traffic is. Our surfers click EVERYTHING, they are curious, dedicated and they pay.
Muffy: Well, you already answered my next question, which was about your traffic :-) So, what has been the biggest obstacle or challenge to your success so far?
Q’on: hmmmm... good question. I think that diversifying and keeping things going is tough as a small business. I have to really rely on myself and the few people who work with me to do EVERYthing. That includes marketing, promotion, maintenance, customer service and offline necessities. And I have to balance all that with personal issues. But, I wouldnt trade it for anything. My hosting company, Cyberwurx.com has helped keep me afloat with phenomenal uptimes and super fast response to all my requests. I cannot tell you how important that has been.
Muffy: I read on your site that your business partner and you have recently split. How has this affected your business?
Q’on: Man, that was a MAJOR change. I am still recovering but I think well be ok. I had to restructure, but I think starting fresh is good because many things were mismanaged and luckily I do not have to worry about most of it. But now that I know, I can handle things properly and insure that the IRS is happy with my activities :D
Muffy: hahaha...yes, keeping the IRS happy is important ;-). Ok, I already asked what your biggest challenge has been, so what has been the key to your success in this industry?
Q’on: Diversification! I think that is more the key to survival though. So, I would say that the biggest key to success is just staying honest and committed to what I have chosen to focus on. I love the ethnic "niche" and it shows in my work. I think that there are still so many money hungry people and big corporations screwing up the industry. I feel that as long as you run a tight ship and handle your customers like you would like to be handled, the money will come. Maybe not tomorrow, in two weeks, two months or two years, but it will come and I will be around long after those "get money quick" cats have disappeared.
Muffy: Can you tell us a little bit more about the future for this type of niche and is it still high in demand?
Q’on: Oh man... I believe that this niche is the best in the business. Maybe I should not spill so much of the beans, but here it is. "Exotic" women are everyones fantasy. The net and television are overrun with white chicks and that shit is BORING, it’s OLD and even the white chicks know it, lol. That will always be there, but the customer base for the ethnic niche has a long way to grow while the "white" niche is almost at its peak, but that’s just my opinion. I am simply positioning myself to be one of the companies that takes advantage of this growth in customers over the next 10 years.
Muffy: I think that one of the biggest mistakes that is made in this industry is that Asian people like only Asian sites, Spanish people like only Spanish sites, etc. Would you say that your customer base is made up of only ethnic people?
Q’on: No. It is made up of mostly white men. I have got plenty of black/ethnic surfers that visit but based on what I have seen in my customer databases and the feedback that I have received, most of them are Caucasian. I think that Asian men tend to stick to Asian women but I think that other races tend to be more open. I actually have contact with my customers. I answer all emails and I actually do a lot of updating. I am not just telling someone what to do like many of the companies out there. So, I have an opportunity to hear directly from my customers and interact with them, to give them what they want and that helps me to understand them better. I think that is where a lot of companies are lacking. They like to make assumptions about what others like based on THEIR views... not a good move.
Muffy: I completely agree with you there. As you know there have been lots of changes in the industry lately. What has been your take on the new regulations imposed by VISA and MasterCard?
Q’on: I’m not sure what to think really. In some ways I think its positive, in others, its negative. On the negative side, I think it is just a way for the credit card companies to squeeze a few million dollars out of adult merchants, simply because they know we have it - bastards! Lol On the positive side, I think that it increases accountability and will decrease competition and give greater market share to professionally owned and operated sites. Basically, if youre not legit...scram. If youre not making the money (which may have a lot to do with how you manage your sites), take a hike!
Muffy: What do you think has been the biggest change to the industry since you made your start?
Q’on: When many of the sponsor programs went from paying per click to paying per signup, when we started accepting the inflated amounts as if they were real... I don’t even want to get into that garbage. I think also it has become a LOT less personal. I used to know just about everyone in the biz, all the key players and we were all on a first name basis. I still see many of them but the biz has been overrun by big corporations whove just thrown money at this opportunity and have had a lot of success. It was previously just a bunch of upstart entrepreneurs. I liked it like that. But hey, those were the good ole days.
Muffy: hahaha...Ok...one last question for you. What advice would you give to a new Webmaster just starting out today?
Q’on: lol... yeah right... starting today? Good luck... there are so many sites out there and so much competition, I doubt highly youll be able to make a real dent unless youre coming in with 100 grand and a staff of competent, experienced people who know how to navigate such a turbulent ocean. But, if I had to tell them something to make them feel better it would be to just have fun and the money will come.
Muffy: Ok...thats it! Thanks for the interview Qon :-) I would like to wish you continued success with your site :-D
Q’on: no problem... anytime! ;)
