IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Dave is the Co-CEO of Platinum Bucks, a successful online Ad Program located in Toronto and established in 1998, and the newly launched PornoJunkies webmaster chat board…

YNOT: Platinum Dave, great to have you with us this week! And a quick note to everyone – since Dave and I share a November 8th birthday, there are plenty of shopping days left this year.IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Dave is the Co-CEO of Platinum Bucks, a successful online Ad Program located in Toronto and established in 1998, and the newly launched PornoJunkies webmaster chat board…

YNOT: Platinum Dave, great to have you with us this week! And a quick note to everyone – since Dave and I share a November 8th birthday, there are plenty of shopping days left this year. Alrighty then, go ahead Dave, and introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you do!

Platinum Dave: Hello and thanks for the opportunity to do a spotlight with YNOTNews. I’ve been reading many YNOT spotlights over the past several months and am honored to be able to contribute. My name is David, better known as Platinum Dave from the company Marketing Extensions, Inc. Most people know us simply as Platinum Bucks. I am Co-CEO at Platinum Bucks and have been with the company since it’s roots in 1998. I oversee the corporate marketing and sales strategy of Platinum Bucks. In addition, I am constantly improving the daily operations of our team. I work closely with our team as I think it is important to be a good leader and role model.

YNOT: What are some of the goals for Platinum Bucks?

Platinum Dave: Platinum Bucks’ goal currently as an Ad program is to consistently make our webmasters as much revenue for the traffic they send to any of the numerous Platinum Bucks web sites. We feel that consistent earnings and maximum revenue is what our webmasters want. We have recently been adding tools to help our webmasters do this. Anyone signing up to Platinum Bucks is a valued advertiser. Every hit counts and we help our webmasters earn the most for every visitor they send to any of the Platinum Bucks vast array of niche sites.

YNOT: Now, there are tons of Ad programs out there with plenty of niche sites to choose from. What makes Platinum Bucks different or unique from the rest?

Platinum Dave: Standing out in a crowd in the ever-increasing competitive business of running an Ad program is difficult to do. What we try to do is listen to what our webmasters are asking for. Bringing personalization and value to the Internet is paramount to survive in this industry. If our webmasters ask for features that we don’t have we will access the value and add it. What sets Platinum Bucks apart from other Ad programs are the quick responses to our webmaster questions. We have been told on many occasions that our response time to webmaster questions or comments are unlike any other program. We value our webmasters highly. Also, of course Platinum Bucks converts like mad, but every Ad program will tell you this. I left this one last because we let others do the talking. Ask around about the Platinum Bucks program and you will hear much positive feedback.

YNOT: What pulled you into running an Ad program for the adult Internet?

Platinum Dave: The industry pulled me into it. I woke up one day and a bright light said, “Dave, you have to supply porn to thousands of horny people across the world, and you have to give it to them at the highest quality possible.”

YNOT: That’s strange… I would think that most people would consider the “bright light” a near-death experience rather than a guiding light to porn. You must not be a terribly religious man, or perhaps, you practice a religion that I would like to know more about…

So, moving on here, what type of work were you doing before you got into the biz?

Platinum Dave: I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life. My first entrepreneurial venture was in the sports memorabilia business. Before that, my previous jobs were black jack dealer, cashier at a grocery store, and stocking shelves at a drug store. While in college I worked on my business and after graduating from the Business Computer Systems program, I went full time with Platinum Bucks. This was in 1999.

YNOT: I recall meeting you in New Orleans about two years ago. So how hard was it for you to make the transition and get started in the biz given that you were kind of venturing into new territory? Can you give us a timeline?

Platinum Dave: How we got started is a pretty interesting story. My partner Dan started with a site called irecommend.com, and was planning on building this site into a full-fledged mainstream search engine. However, most of the traffic and all of the earnings came from the SEX category. With little effort (back in 1997), Dan made decent money running an adult link site part time. In early 1998, I was introduced to this new way to make money, so I started a site called privatezone.com. Then, following a year of working separately, we decided in early 1999 that we would join forces and start the program we run today – Platinum Bucks.

Platinum Dave: The adult industry is moving in the right directions in many areas. I’ve been happy to see new regulations from Visa, which prohibits any transactions to be made from sites that contain lolita, bestiality and other types of sites I didn’t agree with for sometime now. However, as the adult Internet industry becomes more competitive and regulated, making money will be harder for some webmasters. Building strong relationships and sound business models will be key. This industry revolves around trust. Those who cannot be trusted will quickly leave this industry.

YNOT: I agree. Unfortunately it takes some longer than others to take a hike after leaving a path of destruction in their wake. On a more positive note, what do you love most about the adult Internet industry?

Platinum Dave: I love this industry because it changes very quickly. Adapting to change is important to the success of any company. However, with the Internet still in its infancy, the future is exciting for the adult Internet industry. There is no time to sleep because you are always building your business. As one side of the earth is going to sleep, the other side is waking up. More importantly, meeting great people every day and working with a great team is rewarding.

YNOT: Definitely. Anything you hate?

Platinum Dave: “Hate” is a strong word. I strongly disagree with individuals who support illegal porn. Areas of child pornography are simply horrific. Platinum Bucks and my own values DO NOT support this activity. There are already stigmas attached to this industry and we are constantly educating people to understand this business, so people who promote or support child pornography set us back dramatically.

YNOT: Especially since many in the mainstream media choose to blur the line between what is legitimate adult material and what is illegal by simply labeling everything as “Internet Porn.”

Where do you see yourself in the long run, and how do plan to get there?

Platinum Dave: We set short, intermediate and long-term goals here at Platinum Bucks. With rapid and tremendous growth, there is no ceiling for success. More importantly, I think quality of life is most important. True happiness for my team and for me is essential. I never look at myself exclusively. I have a fantastic team and we work really well together. I plan to get our end goals as a team and not an individual. I am confident that this attitude is reflected in our service and product. We are always challenging ourselves to reach higher goals.

YNOT: That sounds very similar to what we do here at YNOT. A very healthy, happy and productive environment. What is your outlook on the future of the adult Internet?

Platinum Dave: I am very excited about the future of the adult Internet. I believe as more surfers get online and more computers are surfing on higher speed connections and more surfers start feeling less nervous about purchasing a membership, the growth in this industry still has a long way before pure maturity.

YNOT: Do you have any newbie advice?

Platinum Dave: I most definitely have some newbie advice. The first thing I always preach if anyone wants to start off in the industry is to do something different! Usually I get asked how to run an Ad program. To those people, I always advise them to try a new approach to making webmasters money – be unique. The new programs that are around right now and are successful have all used new approaches to get webmasters to signup and send traffic. These approaches are lifetime memberships, free trials, unique/exclusive themed content, etc. If anyone wants to start an Ad program these days in this competitive market, you had better do something to stand out or else you will have a very tough time getting any traffic at all.

What I say to advertisers that ask for help is to pick a niche you really like, something that you would enjoy viewing and buying a membership yourself. Then, if you are a TGP gallery maker, make a gallery then view it, and say to yourself “Does this gallery look like something I would want to join? Does it grab my attention? Does it make me intrigued enough to pull out my credit card and purchase a membership?” If you enjoy the niche you are producing galleries for, and you don’t want to join the site you just built a gallery for, then that gallery needs more work, until you can actually sit back and say, “Yes this is something that even I would want to join.” Learn your niche. Stick to a few niches you really like and find the pay sites that have the best sites in this particular niche.

Ask your Ad programs what sites convert the best. Do not pick any site and just advertise it. Make sure you have done some research into the program and the site you want to advertise. This will ensure that this is a good converting site that will make you money at the best click through rate possible. There is nothing worse then sending thousands of hits to a site and getting no signups. This will happen if you don’t research the sites you are advertising beforehand.

YNOT: Very good advice! Anything you’d like to plug before we wrap this up?

Platinum Dave: I’d like to give an introduction to my new right hand person… Platinum Albert. Albert is my new marketing and sales partner in crime! He has been a fantastic addition to the Platinum Bucks team. We are very happy to have him on board. He has already brought great value to our team.

Also, we have some great things coming up with Platinum Bucks. $40 Per Sign Up / 80% Partnership, launching a bunch of new sites, increasing our content for all niches and our Rewards Program is fantastic! (I thought I would give you a quick shameless plug).

YNOT: Please, this is your time to do it! Throw another plug our way if you care to. I heard you just launched Porno Junkies. Tell us a little about that…

Platinum Dave: Porno Junkies seemed to be a natural progression for us. We are looking for market share in the Adult BBS area, and with aggressive marketing, I think we can make a great impact. There are many chat boards out there and we are confident that we can offer a competitive product. Check it out at http://www.PornoJunkies.com/.

YNOT: Right on! Thanks for your time this week, Dave!

To learn more about Platinum Bucks please visit http://www.platinumbucks.com.