Cynthia Kwasny is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for AEBN, a well-known and long-established company supplying adult Webmasters with content and streaming feeds. Cynthia joined AEBN before anything was launched on the Internet, and at that time, AEBN had bought all the “pay-per-view” names on the Internet.Cynthia Kwasny is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for AEBN, a well-known and long-established company supplying adult Webmasters with content and streaming feeds. Cynthia joined AEBN before anything was launched on the Internet, and at that time, AEBN had bought all the “pay-per-view” names on the Internet. AEBN had planned to launch a whole new idea for watching porn, as CEO Scott Coffman and his friends had developed software for pay-by-the-minute / pay-per-view.

YNOT: Greetings Cynthia, very nice to have an industry veteran such as yourself with us this week! Let’s just jump right into it here… tell us about AEBN and what sets it apart from all of the other content companies out there…

Cynthia: We were the very first company on the ‘Net to launch full-length adult movies on a per-minute basis. AEBN has the largest selection of adult movies out there with over 15,000 movies available. No other adult media provider has anywhere near the over 550 contracted studios that we have.

We have remained consistently on the forefront of all the new technology. We’re constantly doing things no else has done. ”Pay-per-minute” had never been done. Streaming content that totally changes every month still isn’t being done by anyone but AEBN. To this day, we still offer everything customizable to match a Webmaster’s site.

YNOT: Could you tell us a little about your background?

Cynthia: I have always thrived under the spotlight. I made my first commercial when I was six and modeled (with my clothes on) throughout my teen years. I graduated from Georgia State University with a BA in Art. Before I came to AEBN, I was already an entrepreneur. I did independent contracting sales work and I had done retail sales for some time. I’ve worked in sales since I was sixteen years old.

YNOT: How did you end up in the adult Internet?

Cynthia: I was petrified of computers the first time I sat in front of one. My first experience with the Internet was when I worked on the website for an ex-boyfriend. My ex owned the dance club I was doing night work in. AEBN occupied the offices on the other side of the same building.

I came into AEBN when I answered an ad in the paper. The ad said that they were looking for a “Girl Friday”, kind of like a “gopher” to do office work. I had a degree in illustration and art history so I applied for the job thinking that I could use my degree and my experience with Photoshop.

When I got here, they took advantage of my years of sales experience and my ability to make contacts and close deals. Now I head the entire marketing department and own stock in the company.

YNOT: So, professionally everything is working out great for you! How was the transition personally?

Cynthia: I was never open about the fact that I worked for an adult Internet company. I kept it a secret for a while, but my family ultimately found out. When we finally talked about my career choice, they weren’t exactly thrilled. My mother’s biggest concern was were the police going to come to the house and arrest me for working for a porn company? I assured her that it wasn’t the case.

They eventually figured out that the job was a lot more legitimate than it seemed. The more that they recognized the names of some of the companies that I was working with like Playboy, Hustler and Penthouse, the more they understood that I was working for a corporation – I wasn’t working in somebody’s basement and my clothes stayed on. Hell, I wore a business suit! Although at conventions it’s not unusual for people to confuse me with Nina Hartley…

Cynthia Kwasny and Nina Hartley

I’m regularly asked if I’ve made any movies, even when I’m in my business suit and all!

YNOT: I could see how that would be both flattering as well as insulting. I have yet to have anyone mistake me for someone from the waste down LOL.

Given your time in the industry, has anyone been instrumental in helping you achieve your goals and get to where you are now?

Cynthia: I have to admit that there were a few wonderful people in the industry and a few big companies that gave me and AEBN a chance. In the beginning, I was very persistent when I contacted people, so they eventually said yes. I’m grateful for them for giving me the opportunity but it is very true that you have to pay your dues, especially in this industry.

AEBN is doing very well for an Internet company – we’re in our fourth year, and Scott Coffman, CEO, has been in the adult industry a lot longer. Years earlier, he started out with an adult retail store and a magazine.

YNOT was very helpful. I love you guys. You’ve always gone out of your way to help us at AEBN. YNOT actually promoted a show that we did called AllNudeSports.com, which is now off air. You guys gave us really good publicity on that.

YNOT: Yes, that was some fun promotion on our radio show! And thanks for the good word. In fact that reminds me, I would have to say that one of our best Humpday Lunch Radio Show pranks was on one of the AEBN employees, thanks to your help in setting it up! Can you tell everyone what went down that day last year from your perspective?

Cynthia: Most of the guys at AEBN used to pick on me and liked to play practical jokes. But Robert Sons, Marketing Manager for the gay division, was the worst. Robert must have played at least fifteen to twenty practical jokes on me. He did it all the time and I wanted to pay him back. He’d take stuff off my desk or move things around or hide them. I’d go back to my office and find things like fake bugs, spiders and other more embarrassing stuff that he left for me on my computer, in my desk drawers and in my purse.

YNOT: Wow… I suddenly don’t feel so bad with how Bob and I burned him! LOL…

Cynthia Kwasny hard at work

Cynthia: One day I decided to play a joke on Robert. We were scheduled to be guests on the YNOT Bob Humpday Lunch Radio Show, and on that particular day I called Bob asking him to prank call Robert. Bob said that he and his co-host Jay would be more than willing to help me out.

Robert was fighting regularly with his roommate and there was an issue with a puppy. On top of this, Robert had been having parties at his house. Well, YNOT Bob and LAJ called Robert’s work extension and pretended that they were the police. [Editors note: Don’t try this at home!]

They told Robert he had been partying too much and needed to meet him at his apartment right away to discuss a few things. I wouldn’t let Robert leave as it was only 3:30 in the afternoon, and quitting time was at 5:30.

Well, Bob and Jay called back and said that they (still pretending that they were the police) had found illegal substances at his apartment, so they were going to come to the office to arrest Robert for what they had found.

Robert came in to my office and said that he needed to leave early – he had a major problem and needed to go home. Needless to say, I still refused to let him go. I kept saying, “No, you can’t go, you have to stay here.”

Robert kept saying, “But I have to go – it’s urgent!” He really didn’t want to be here, thinking that the police were coming to arrest him – and he didn’t want them to find him at a porn company. It was so funny. We were all cracking up, because the entire office was listening to the show on their computers, so everyone was in on it except Robert.

When they called him back and told him that it was just a joke, he laughed and thought it was funny too. Robert can take a joke. I had told him that when I finally paid him back for all the pranks he pulled, that it was going to be a good one – payback for every prank he ever pulled. YNOT Bob told me that he thought that it was one of the best they ever did.

YNOT: I will never forget that day as long as I live. I’m sure Robert could say the same!

Any thoughts, positive or negative, on our industry as a whole?

Cynthia: Well, I think I’ve learned that this is a very cliquish industry. People tend to want to wait for you to prove yourself, which is understandable. They want to know that your clients and Webmasters get paid like you promised that they would. Most of all, they want to know that your company is going to stay around. A lot of Internet businesses go under fast, especially those in the adult Internet.

Some things that irritate me are seeing other companies copying what AEBN has done. We did all the original work and they’re trying to ride on our success.

YNOT: I hear you there loud and clear Cynthia. Being copied suddenly stops being a sincere form of flattery and becomes theft in my opinion.

Cynthia: Well, the good news is that technologically and studio client-wise, we’re always doing something new and different, so we stay on top of it all.

We’re constantly upgrading our technology and changing our systems. They may figure out how we currently do something then launch that, but by the time they release it, we’ve already upgraded and changed again. I don’t think they’ll ever catch up with us. AEBN has an entire year’s head start. I don’t think they’ll ever have as many client studios working with them, so they’ll never be able to offer as much content as we can serve.

We have worked hard to take good care of the studios’ interests as well as our affiliate Webmasters. We have built a reputation for good service and for paying our clients on time.

More and more newer companies are coming onboard the Internet, bringing newer ideas and different ways to offer services. It was a good opportunity for someone like AEBN since they had been established from the beginning.

YNOT: Could you share any pearls of wisdom to all of our newbies out there?

Cynthia: When I first got into the adult industry, I really didn’t understand how big it was. The best advice for the newcomer: Don’t give up, be persistent and be honest! If you make promises – deliver. Most of all, be pleasant and stay professional. People remember politeness, respect and honesty a lot more than you think.

On a personal level, I remember every broken promise made to me. Now ask me if I do business with them? Well, it depends on the apology. [Cynthia smiles.]

You should also form friendships as you form business partnerships. I have always gone out of my way to make sure my customers get what they want or need. If you are willing to help someone in a crunch, people will be far more willing to listen to you and possibly help when you least expect it.

You guys here at YNOT are prime examples of people who go out of your way to help others and you have friends everywhere!

YNOT: Anything exciting and new we can look out for at AEBN coming up?

Cynthia: AEBN plans to release a version of the build-your-own-theatre template that will allow Webmasters to create their own pay-per-view theatres in French, Spanish and German. These theatres will be accessible to the international market through a dialer system. While translation of websites into other languages can be very expensive, we intend to offer our alternate language template system at the same price as our standard template, free.

AEBN also has plans to expand beyond the Internet, taking advantage of the new convergent technologies with IP based delivery. AEBN wants to put access to their massive selection of adult videos into mainstream businesses such as hotels.

I would definitely like to take the technologies we use for porn and make pay-per-view adult more accessible to the mainstream public. I want to put a broad variety of hardcore adult on the television instead of the softcore that’s currently available. AEBN will be attending Cybernet Expo in Montreal in June and Internext in Hollywood, Florida in August, so be sure to visit with us!

YNOT: We’ll be seeing you then! Definitely keep us posted on all of your progress, and thanks for your time this week Cynthia… it’s been a pleasure.

To reach Cynthia Kwasny, AEBN VP of Marketing, you can email Cynthia@aebn.net or call 800.628.0241. Be sure to check out the AEBN website at http://www.aebn.com!

(Jo Hawke transcribed the original interview.)

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