As adult site concepts go, they don’t come much simpler than the idea behind ThePornDude.com: A list of adult site links reviewed, ranked, racked and stacked according to the opinions and criteria of one guy.

In many ways, the site reminds me of old-school adult link lists and review site predecessors like SmutLinks, a long-defunct collection of “high quality” adult sites compiled under the rubric of a cartoon mascot of sorts, the inimitable “Cap’n Smut.”

Much like Cap’n Smut did back in the 90s, a cartoon ‘dude’ lurks over ThePornDude.com, an avatar for the man behind it, who prefers to be referred to as simply “PornDude.”

YNOT recently sat down with PornDude to talk about how his site got its start, what makes for a great adult site by his criteria and why legit adult site reviews have such an important role to play in the online adult entertainment market.

YNOT: What did you do for a living before getting into operating ThePornDude? And is running the site a full-time job now, or do you have other ‘side hustles’ as well?

PornDude: I’d always wanted to make a living online. Once I dropped out of college, it was pretty much sink or swim. My first project was a subscription-based pen-testing website; in laymen’s terms, people paid me to try hacking their passwords, so they could see how they’d stand up to a truly malicious attack. I devoted all my time to that project from around 2004 to 2008.

A funny thing happens when you work alone for 4 years, nobody watching or telling you what (not) to do. After getting pretty familiar with the pornography landscape on the web, I decided to broaden my horizons and maybe get a piece of that cherry pie. I started promoting paysites on a blog, and the rest is history.

I’ve since expanded into various niches, and now manage a team working on multiple projects. Some of them are SFW, others aren’t. ThePornDude is just a big, raging hard part of the empire.

YNOT: From your ‘about’ page, it sounds like the idea for the site sort of grew out of a list you kept for your own purposes; is that about right, it was a hobby that became an occupation, so to speak?

PornDude: ThePornDude wasn’t conceived as a big money-making project. I already had my own little porn notebook and knew from my experience surfing for porn that people would be interested in my reviews. When I added my first affiliate link, I wasn’t holding my breath for much more than a little extra beer money. Turns out, people were more interested in my professional porn opinion than I thought.

Even as the site has grown, the most important thing has remained the site’s value for the end-users. Part of that is the character of The Porn Dude. I can give you my straight opinion about my favorite free tubes and premium amateur networks, but it’s a lot more fun to read it coming through a porn-addicted, Viagra-snorting deviate with a public indecency problem. The goal is still to help you find the adult entertainment of your wet dreams. The mascot keeps you entertained along the way.

YNOT: ThePornDude has an old school, minimalist link-list type feel to it that reminds me of some of the earliest sites I administered back in the 90s; did you intentionally shoot for an old school web feel, or does that just flow from the site’s purpose as a review/link site?

PornDude: One of the inspirations for ThePornDude was TBLOP.com, or The Big List of Porn. It popped up on the web in 2008, but the owner stopped updating it at some point. The idea is solid, though, consolidating most of the info you need on one page. We wanted to do something similar but had some ideas about how we could build and improve on the concept. With so many links on the page in so many categories, the old-school, text-based format just works. Nobody appreciates a cluttered layout that gets in the way of navigation, especially now that so many users are using a phone for their fap sessions.

“Link lists” have been around since the beginning of the Internet and they’re still important even in the days of Google. They might even be more vital now, at least when it comes to dirty movies. One of the major complaints I’ve heard from porn viewers and webmasters alike is that search engines don’t really put the good porn sites at the top of the results. They can help you find a replacement part for an obscure gadget or tell you who held the boom mic in the third episode of your favorite show, but they have a hard time distinguishing the well-made anal flicks from the garbage. That’s where ThePornDude comes in!

YNOT: What are your primary traffic sources?

PornDude: The majority comes from search engines, with Google being #1. Like I said, Google’s usually really good about helping people find what they want. They’re just too impartial to tell you where to find the best lesbian sites or hentai tubes. Their crawlers read the text, but they can’t tell if a cam site really delivers on the “free” shows. They’ve got to send you to an expert.

Secondly, we get a fair amount of referral traffic, and more all the time. What can I say? ThePornDude is a trusted and respected authority on smut. Our social media presence is third as far as hard traffic numbers, but they all contribute to a word-of-mouth buzz that’s hard to quantify. Strangers are often familiar with ThePornDude when I tell them what I do.

YNOT: What are some things that sites can do which will assure they either score low, or aren’t included at all on your lists? I know you don’t list any site you consider a scam, but are there are other ‘deal killers’ so to speak, in terms of things sites might do that would prevent you from reviewing them, or give them low marks if you do list them?

PornDude: The #1 most important thing any site needs to have is value for the users. I don’t just mean a good bang for their buck, though that’s part of it. Even free sites need to have something worth busting out the lotion and the gym sock for, and they need to serve that up without an unfair trade-off to the user. Those free Latina clips start to look less appealing when you have a few pop-ups on the screen saying your computer’s been hacked until you send some bitcoin and buy some boner pills.

Sites that nuke you with spam are an absolute no, as are sites so slow you can’t see anything. Generic, low-quality content doesn’t make the cut, and infrequent updates can be a dealbreaker. I do make some rare exceptions when it comes to the deeper niche websites, but only when the content is so scarce that you don’t really have much choice.

YNOT: Now the opposite question – what makes for a great porn site in the eyes of ThePornDude? Are there some elements in common among the kind of sites that score well with you?

PornDude: It can really be boiled down to a few key features, and the best sites will have a good balance of them. I like a site to have high-quality content, plenty of it and more coming, a good delivery system for sifting through and utilizing that content, and a decent price. When I say “price” in relation to free tubes, I’m talking about that trade-off you typically make with the spam.

The content quality is obviously the most subjective part of the equation, and where my years of study and training really come in handy. Even if I’m not reviewing a site in one my favorite personal-use categories, I keep an eye on how well the actual smut is made. It’s easy enough to buy some 4k cameras, but it’s a lot harder frame a shot, set the scenario and hire the right talent for the gig. A lot of the older, more established studios have their formula dialed in, but I love to see new sites hit the ground running with fresh twists on the classic porn subgenres.

YNOT: Anything else you’d like to add?

PornDude: I’m just as worried about the coronavirus as everybody else, but as a guy who reviews adult websites, I can’t help but see a little silver lining to all that extra alone-time. I’m also in a position to see some pretty interesting things happen in the business.

Escort sites ain’t exactly thriving, but camgirls are having a hard time keeping up with demand. Studios aren’t shooting as many movies, but I can’t tell you how many new scenes I’ve watched in the last few weeks with a virus theme. Porn gets a bad rep sometimes, but so many paysites are offering discounts in an effort to help keep folks at home and happy. I’m doing what I can, too, which is to help people find the best porn at ThePornDude.com.