IN THE SPOTLIGHT

ContentGuys.com

YNOT: Great to have you as our guest this week Derek! So what are you doing for ContentGuys.com? When did you start?

Derek: Thanks Jay.IN THE SPOTLIGHT

ContentGuys.com

YNOT: Great to have you as our guest this week Derek! So what are you doing for ContentGuys.com? When did you start?

Derek: Thanks Jay. My job title is the head of Sales and Marketing at ContentGuys.com and I have been with the company for about two months. My main focus is content sales and promotions, but like most jobs in the adult Internet my responsibilities span across the board from traffic generation to general Webmaster support. My full responsibilities are as follows:

· Maintain close relations with, and provide a high level of service to all of the ContentGuys.com clients;
· Maintain a visible presence on behalf of ContentGuys.com. Be prominent on the popular adult Webmaster message boards and chat rooms;
· Assist the CEO and Content Director with ideas and any jobs they see fit;
· Take charge of promoting ContentGuys.com whenever possible. I am responsible for writing press releases, following through with contacts, and bringing new exposure to the company;
· Aggressively promote and introduce new ContentGuys.com features and products;
· Help out the general Webmaster community in any way possible.

YNOT: That’s quite a list! Kinda sounds like mine! Well, you definitely have your work cut out for you. But of course, to be successful in this business I’m sure you know that it is often mandatory to wear several hats on the job.

With all of your responsibilities, what would you say is your primary focus? Tell us about some of your products.

Derek: Our primary focus is providing Webmasters with the highest quality adult video feeds. Our slogan is, “Content produced by Webmasters for Webmasters.” Among the staff we have over 20 years adult experience and we took everything that lacked in content and produced some of the most exciting feeds I have ever seen. Sextvlive.com is our back-to-basics feed. A 100% live action feed with no upsetting up-sells to drive your members away. We found that up-sells kill retention, Jay.

YNOT: Really?

Derek: Yes. Say that members already pay 30 bucks a month to join a site… and now they have to whip out their credit card to buy additional minutes or credits or whatever. Bullshit I say! His or her pants are already halfway down and now they need to go down stairs to grab their wallet?! We eliminated that.

YNOT: Okay, I hear ya…

Derek: We also have some great cutting edge features like the bi-monthly chick-fest where all the Sextvlive models come out for an evening of fun and naughty games. In addition to the live feed you also receive a video clip archive of all the girls performing live on Sextvlive.com. It’s updated weekly, so this will have your members coming back for more day after day, night after night. Pretty cool, eh?! My Canadian is coming out! LOL…

YNOT: Haha! Speaking of… there are so many of you up there in our industry too! I think something like 10% of all of our Webmaster traffic at YNOTMasters is from Canada. Tell us about your life growing up in the Great White North…

Derek: I was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and I spent my youth moving from town to town. I’m not complaining… it kept me alive and fresh. I spent the last 15 years or so in Brandon, Manitoba. I was a white middle class boy in a white middle class town so I fit in well! I was not the coolest kid but I have the best friends in the world. I’m very blessed that way. I went to college and graduated with a major in business and a minor in computers. I did my stint as a bartender and car washer but I always dreamed of something bigger and better. I was too little to become an oil rigger (a common way out of Brandon) and I didn’t have wealthy parents so I had to make some choices earlier in life that no one else had to. I eventually found Mike Brown, president of www.xamo.com (and my old kickboxing buddy) and soon my life changed forever.

YNOT: I’m telling you man… they should almost make a movie on you. Were you planning on ending up in the adult Internet?

Derek: You never really plan it. If someone told me three years ago that I would be where I am today and have done what I have done I would have laughed in his face. There were no Porn 101 University courses where I went to school. I simply wanted more and craved more. I wanted to be something to someone and I was sick of these dead-end jobs and not having the right skills. I knew that Mike was doing adult sites and making a killing. When I heard he was looking to hire someone I was all over it. I wanted to make more money, felt I had the skills he was looking for, and thought I would give it a shot. He was producing adult games for paysites and taught me a lot! I’m forever indebted to him. We had a mutual spilt in late 2002 and after I did some soul searching I found myself at ContentGuys.com. There is no turning back for me. I’m so happy I can’t even explain it in words really.

YNOT: Not too many people in their 20s can say that my friend!

Getting back to business here… tell us more about ContentGuys.com and what you have to offer. Also, what makes you different from the thousands of other adult content companies out there?

Derek: We have combined award-winning design with the latest technologies. Sextvlive has the ability to profile the connection speed of every one of your members and deliver the optimal video stream rate for the individual user. I truly believe we have an excellent feed. Our gay feed Crusier Boys is also kick ass! This is a streaming feed and it sells itself. We have over a year of backlogged content and we have new models added weekly. It’s a member favorite I have been told countless times. We are launching our Maximo Latino feed shortly… make sure you are sitting down when you see this!

Simply put though, we aren’t some cookie-cutter content company. We produce, deliver and maintain all our content. We have full creative control. We don’t digitize video and resell it as our own. We take great pride in our customers and I happen to know each one on a first name basis. They can call me up for anything; our relationships go way beyond the industry.

YNOT: How do your friends outside of the industry view your employment in the adult Internet?

Derek: HAHA!! My male friends think I’m some sort of Demigod when I show them pictures of me with Jenna Jameson. They see me in Vegas rippin’ it up and get jealous. They don’t see the hours put in behind a computer and all the other shit that goes on behind the scenes.

I was deathly afraid of what girls would think and/or perceive of me. I was scared I was going to be judged a pervert or freak, but all my close female friends accept it. I always loved flirting, playing around and pushing the limits with girls. This job suits me well, which is why it has been a success.

I would go out to clubs and everyone would whisper, “Oh, there’s Derek the pervert, the porn star, the freak, etc.” I have heard it all before. Three drinks later people are asking me for passwords to pay sites and guys are grabbing me drinks while their girlfriends tell me dirty stories. Did I tell you I love my job? LOL!

YNOT: I remember back in the day when you came to YNOT for advice on how to break the news to your family as to what you do for a living…

Derek: My family must know by now. It’s not exactly dinner table conversation, but they see my paychecks and the pure excitement and passion I have about what I do and they just leave it at that. They are happy I’m not in jail or something… hehehe.

YNOT: So from a social perspective everything worked out fine I can see. How about business-wise? What were things like getting started for you?

Derek: Having a solid base with a company like Xamo helped a ton. Even though Brandon is a small town, it has produced some great employees in the industry. Brandon has produced employees at Nastybucks.com, Porncity.com and Totalpayout.com just to name a few. Must be something in the Canadian beer!

YNOT: Pass me a Molson bro!

Can you attribute any of your success and livelihood to YNOTMasters? (He says with a shit-eating grin…)

Derek: To say that YNOT has been helpful would be a major understatement. You guys have the first message boards I ever posted on and the first guy I ever met in the industry was the one and only YNOTBob. You guys have always supported me from day one.

YNOT: Oh wow… thanks for that! What can I say? I like to think we are all very good judges of character around here. Tell us an embarrassing story perhaps at a show or a shoot or something. I’ll never forget seeing you walking around in awe at your first Internext.

Derek: I’m such a joker. I could go on for days with stories. Let’s just say seeing my first porn shoot was awkward and embarrassing to say the least. I guess it’s not common practice to stare. Tripping and falling on the bed is not cool either LOL!

YNOT: Any comments about the industry or hard lessons learned?

Derek: I’m really impressed where the industry is going. Quality is going up and interactivity is getting more and more common. I still think the adult Internet is in its infancy and I’m excited to see where it will go.

I have learned two things: don’t spam, and if someone has a beef with you, keep it off the message boards. Deal with it like a man and talk it out directly over the phone. If you fucked up then deal with it. You’re human – learn from your mistakes, pay your dues and be the bigger man.

YNOT: You have learned well!

Anything pissing you off lately? Never really had a chance to see you angry before…

Derek: I wanted to touch on member retention. I think pay site Webmasters are so concerned with sign-ups they tend to forget about retention. I get user/pass to pay sites and they are often poorly organized with the content having no bearing to the niche. Too often I see quantity over quality. I say revamp their members’ area, dump the dated irrelevant content and go with higher quality feeds that deliver as promised when it comes to updates. If I join an adult site and it has ten or so high quality feeds that are updated weekly, that’s a true winner in my eyes. Keep your members aware of new additions they want! They’ll feel that they are spending their hard-earned money on new content and not on your new beach house.

YNOT: Any final words of wisdom here?

Derek: The adult Internet is the only industry that offers help via ICQ, email, phone, and Webmaster resource sites, all for free. Just don’t be afraid to ask. There are no such things as stupid questions – only stupid answers. Find your niche but educate yourself in all the fields.

YNOT: Want to know more about Derek and ContentGuys.com? Visit his YNOT Webmaster profile, visit his website and look for that good-looking guy you see up above at the next industry tradeshow!

Do you know a Webmaster with a great story to tell? Someone innovative, unique or perhaps even entertaining? Tell us about this person for future consideration to be “In The Spotlight” here at YNOTNews!