IN THE SPOTLIGHT

YNOT: Well, hello there Chrystal! One of my favorite people in the biz, and a regular YNOTNews article contributor…

Chrystal: Hey Jay! Well first off I’d like to thank you and YNOT for giving me the opportunity to expose myself as this week’s “In The Spotlight” webmaster.IN THE SPOTLIGHT

YNOT: Well, hello there Chrystal! One of my favorite people in the biz, and a regular YNOTNews article contributor…

Chrystal: Hey Jay! Well first off I’d like to thank you and YNOT for giving me the opportunity to expose myself as this week’s “In The Spotlight” webmaster.

YNOT: The pleasure is ours! We love it when women expose themselves for us. Sorry… Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the lovely Chrystal Hanson (aka Atomic C)! Can you give everyone the lowdown on who you are, what you do, and what services your company provides?

Chrystal: I am one of the owners of a company called Atomic Creations, Inc., which is best known for its content management software called ConMan.

I started our corporation a year ago as a sole proprietor and found that there was simply too much to do as a single operator, and so last October I took on an equal share partner whose name is Quana (aka Q). Currently we have one full-time employee and two part-time employees. We manage over 30 paysites, and build traffic through free sites, TGPs, AVSs and search engine promotions.

YNOT: Excellent! So what are your day-to-day responsibilities as Head Chix?

Chrystal: Other then shocking tourists for cheap thrills, my general duties with Atomic Creations include pretty much everything from software sales to traffic generation, accounting to human resources and a whole bunch of odds and ends in between. Every day is a new challenge, and in the last year not one single day has been the same. Honestly though, I really don’t think I would have it any other way.

As a result, we have really learned how to work smart, and not just hard. We are always looking for a way to maximize our time and automate our mundane tasks, so that we can invest our time into more profitable ventures.

YNOT: That’s how we like to operate at YNOT. How is your company different than other companies that provide similar services?

Chrystal: I’d say there are a few things that make us different, aside from our unique sense of humor and outlook on life’s twisted sense of irony. Our company is currently the only provider of a ready to install, content management solution, which we lovingly call “a-ConMan”.

ConMan is an amazing combination of PHP scripts backed by a powerful PostgreSQL database that enables you to build and update category specific websites from a web-based interface. The best thing about it is it was built by and for adult webmasters, so it’s a complete solution for any webmasters who want to maximize their time and the flexibility of their content. We truly believe that the complete control this software provides our customers will enable them to hone their niche and mega websites to then in return, offer a better service to their customers and the adult industry.

YNOT: Any specific legal issues you need to pay extra special attention to?

Chrystal: Some of the issues we have had to deal with legally are creating software licensing agreements and an employee confidentiality contract to protect our intellectual properties. I sought the help of a lawyer in these fields, and to date have been very lucky as to not have to act upon these safeguards.

YNOT: So… what’s a woman like you doing in an industry like this? We’ll give you extra points for originality here…

Chrystal: Well you see Jay, as a young woman the Lord came to me late one night and showed me his grand purpose for my existence. He said, “Chrystal, you must free the sexually deprived souls, and show them the light of sexual gratification…” OK, well maybe that’s not true but unfortunately I did grow up in an incredibly repressed society of Jehovah’s Witnesses. So, after greatly disappointing my parents by not joining the JW’s, I was always looking for ways to impress them and make them proud. One day when the opportunity had presented itself, it dawned on me that being the owner of a successful porn company would most likely do the trick! But, just in case it didn’t, I made sure to send them pictures of the homemade “pornaments” on the Christmas tree last year.

YNOT: Where did you grow up and go to school? Any other hobbies other than building pornaments?

Chrystal: I grew up in a small redneck town called Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. After high school in Kamloops, I attended a private college in Victoria (Vancouver Island), Canada.

I’m into music, collecting old advertising and promotional products, animals, and enjoying my youth with my friends. I have actually always had an artistic side and found myself drawing art that featured naked people or sexual acts…

YNOT: Me too! It was usually in notebooks and in school textbooks…

Chrystal: …I had a diploma in design and over ten years in sales and marketing experience, with the last three of those years specializing in Internet sales. So, I’m not so sure if I picked the industry per se, as much as it picked me! However, it has been a perfect match so far and the life I had before it seems like a distant nightmare.

YNOT: Was your work history before really a nightmare?

Chrystal: Well, I guess I’ve been incredibly lucky in the mainstream jobs and opportunities that I’ve had in the past. Right out of school I was hired by an ISP that had the regional government contract for building and managing a dynamic tourism website. I enjoyed my time with that project, but the tourism folk were a little boring, so when the opportunity arose to work with the adult industry, I jumped on it full force.

YNOT: Well, it sounds like you were prepared mentally to take the plunge as it were… how tough was the transition into the adult arena for you overall? How long have you been involved so far?

Chrystal: I started working in the adult biz about two years ago. At first for another company under contract, and when that expired I decided to jump in headfirst and start my own corporation. I had met a few great friends that I’ve been most honored to learn from, so I was lucky that way. Although getting started was a little overwhelming, and I had a few people tell me that it would be hard going, or even a lost cause, but for as many negative people I met, I saw just as many great role models, and decided that I personally was strong enough to endure whatever was thrown my way. I worked very hard and made a few sacrifices (simple things like sleep and sanity) and even though it wasn’t every day that I saw results for my efforts, now that I stop and reflect on the last year I am very proud of my co-workers and our achievements.

YNOT: I know you don’t embarrass too easily… but would you be willing to share something personal or embarrassing so that we can have some dirt on you?

Chrystal: OK, I’m trying to forget about this but it just happened a few weeks ago so it’s still fresh, and you might as well get a good laugh out of it at my expense. So I have this little Jack Russell Terror (yes… Terror, not Terrier!) named Vinnie Barbarino (as in Welcome Back Kotter, the 70’s American TV sitcom). Anyhow, one sunny Sunday morning, I was checking my email and ICQ’s, having my morning coffee, and basically just waking up. Little Vinnie came running from his morning constitutional and started playing with one of his toys (or so I thought). About five minutes later I looked over to see my dog chewing on something with a long wire-like thing waving in the air. I thought to myself, “What the hell does that rat-dog have now?!” Well, much to my surprise, Vinnie was chomping on a HUGE rat that was now twitching and close to its dying breath! Needless to say this caught me off guard and I screamed at the top of my lungs like a little old lady! Now, with that one fatal scream I’ve lost my reputation within the household as the tough chick, and to add insult to injury my so-called friends have been hiding fake mouse cat toys in my shoes and coat pockets trying to re-enact my girly scream.

YNOT: Ah well… you’re entitled! If you were a dude however…

Any changes you’d like to see made in the adult Internet industry?

Chrystal: I’d like to see webmasters not being ashamed or afraid of working in our industry. I’ve heard many horror stories about child custody battles, and fear of reactions from relatives, and I think it’s really sick that society forces these good people into living a lie.

Unfortunately, I feel that a large percentage of society speculates that our industry is all crafty bastards taking advantage of poor helpless individuals who are not sane enough to make their own decisions in life (oh, that poor girl with a dildo in her ass!). I think the only thing that is going to alleviate somewhat the stigma attached to the adult industry is to weed out the bad apples and to continually let people know about all the good our industry does for society.

YNOT: And I do agree with you that our industry IS good for society. Living out healthy sexual fantasies in the privacy of your own home can certainly help those with repressed feeling in my opinion.

So it’s safe to say you are really “into” porn?

Chrystal: You know Jay, sometimes late at night I think of porn as an abomination on our society and can be blamed for all its evils, and immoralities… then I wake up screaming! As mentioned before, I grew up with very repressed religious people, where sex was more a functionality of creating servants for God rather then an expression of love or inner fulfillment. I really do enjoy porn, and living in a society diverse in sexuality. I love to debate with friends about the pro’s and cons of our industry, and I’m happy to say that I think I’ve converted a few close- minded people in the process.

YNOT: Just do your part to save the world one person at a time… that’s what I always say! So, what’s your favorite kind of content?

Chrystal: You’re going to laugh, but since I’m fairly desensitized to regular porn, it’s the comical side of our industry that tickles my fancy. Simply for the shock humor of it, I love midget porn. SO much so that at the porn Christmas party last year I played midget porn all night! You know, you tend to get really funny looks when you visit all the adult movie shops in town for this type of content – especially when you’re a girl.

YNOT: Well, that’s another thing that I feel makes it more difficult on women in society. Where do you see yourself in the long run, and how do you plan on getting there?

Chrystal: Well, in the long run, I see myself continuing to be successful in the adult industry, with the only difference being that I am personally more involved in the interactive webmaster chats and social events. I plan to achieve this goal by continuing to work hard, and staying informed, while setting aside time each day to socialize with my fellow webmasters instead of just being a lurker.

YNOT: What is your outlook on the future of the Adult Internet?

Chrystal: Personally, I think that sex will always sell and the Internet isn’t going away anytime soon. As scary as some country’s laws and regulations are, or are threatening to be, the world is a big place, and there are lots of cool places to live that have fast Internet connections. So, I guess I’d say my prediction is that we’re only going to get bigger, better and stronger as an industry!

YNOT: Right on! Hey, do you have anything you’d like to plug?

Chrystal: Yes, a little shameless self-promotion here! We have recently taken over the management contract for the new www.sunnydollars.com. For July, we’re going to be releasing pay per sign up, pay per active, as well as our regular 60% recurring revshare accounts featuring over 23 niche websites, free content, detailed stats and credit for sales on exit and pop up traffic. It’s an amazing program, and I’m always interested in hearing from other webmasters who wish to trade traffic or work on other special opportunities.

YNOT: Can you also tell us a little about the launch of your new software?

Chrystal: Thanks for asking Jay! Version 2 of our content management software (ConMan V2.0) was just released on July 2, 2002.

For those of you who don’t know, ConMan is a fully automated system that provides webmasters with the tools to manage multiple category specific websites and their continuous content updates.

Our software features include:

· Easy to use admin area, with access through a web based interface
· Ability for multiple categorization of content to use on unlimited websites
· Thumbnail and sort your content sets into specific gallery sizes
· Create and change a preview thumbnail for each gallery set
· Automatically build and update specific content to multiple websites
· Create custom galleries and websites (i.e. Asian, blonds, with dildos, etc.)
· Create backgrounds and HTML templates automatically
· Flexible scheduled updates for multiple niche websites all year round
· Automatic and flexible content rotation periods
· Statistics and inventory control for content types

ConMan V2.0 new features include an advanced output and control over gallery navigation, and also there was a redesign on the “add content” admin area that now enables multiple users to handle processed and non-processed content with ease.

On that note we would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers who have invested in our earlier versions of the ConMan software. Their feedback and suggestions for ways to improve our content management solution for their own specific needs, has given us many ideas for future features which will be released in upcoming versions. As a special offer to all of our customers who have or will be purchasing ConMan Pro before the release of V3.0 (slated for the end of August 2002) as a thank you for investing in us, you will be receiving free upgrades to all future versions of ConMan.

YNOT: Cool! Well aren’t you a busy little bee!! Alright, two last fun questions and we’ll close this out… describe yourself in 5 adjectives.

Chrystal: Positive, focused, determined, resourceful and loyal.

YNOT: Finish this sentence Chrystal… “If I wasn’t in the adult Internet, I’d be ___________.”

Chrystal: Bored stiff!

YNOT: Thanks for your time this week Chrystal, and best of luck to you!

To learn more about Chrystal, please visit her YNOT Chat Profile. Also be sure to check out ConMan V.2 at http://www.a-conman.com and email Chrystal at ch@atomic-creations.net for more details.