IN THE SPOTLIGHT

As Senior Web Developer with YNOT since April 2001, Jim is responsible for plenty of the programming and design at YNOT. With a solid background in Perl / SQL as well as in streaming video technologies, Jim also currently produces wholesale gay content, and has run his own separate commercial and adult web hosting websites since 1996.

YNOT: This week I felt it was high time that YNOTNews spotlighted one of it’s own! With YNOTBob, Otto and LAJ being the more “public” side of YNOT, there are plenty of behind the scenes people here too, without who’s hard work, dedication and expertise, there would exist some major voids.IN THE SPOTLIGHT

As Senior Web Developer with YNOT since April 2001, Jim is responsible for plenty of the programming and design at YNOT. With a solid background in Perl / SQL as well as in streaming video technologies, Jim also currently produces wholesale gay content, and has run his own separate commercial and adult web hosting websites since 1996.

YNOT: This week I felt it was high time that YNOTNews spotlighted one of it’s own! With YNOTBob, Otto and LAJ being the more “public” side of YNOT, there are plenty of behind the scenes people here too, without who’s hard work, dedication and expertise, there would exist some major voids. This week we are proud to spotlight the man behind the man, and someone who I personally have a lot of respect for as a both a friend and co-worker, Jim Ruga. And besides, Jim is a great sport for the number of times I bug him on technical issues. Anyway! Jim! Thank you for taking some time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions and further put up with my BS! Tell everyone what you do here…

Jim: Well, I’m one of YNOT Network’s web developers. Basically, when it makes sense to develop a particular web application or database in-house, I do it. I’ve been with YNOT for over a year now, but I’ve been working in the adult Internet for almost six years.

YNOT: Boy… you have been here literally “since the beginning” as well! From your perspective, what do you think makes YNOTMasters the best adult resource site on the Internet, and certainly the oldest?

Jim: The amount of information about the adult Internet available at YNOT is tremendous. Adult Webmasters needing to do business planning and marketing, or legal research, or really anything having to do with the adult Internet have a wealth of information at their fingertips. YNOT is where I got the information for my business before I started working here.

YNOT: What type of work were you doing prior to 1996?

Jim: I’ve always worked with computers, databases and programming. Before I got into the adult aspect of my career, I installed and maintained engineering design databases and layered applications. It was a great job but it was kind of boring compared to what I do now. People always ask me if I went to school to learn all this stuff… actually, I didn’t. I did go to college at Cal. St. Fullerton and got a degree in Biology, but the computer thing was learned out of the necessity to make a living. If I wasn’t in the adult Internet today, I’d probably be in a really boring job in engineering somewhere.

YNOT: It always amazes me how people can learn so much of the technical aspect of our business on their own. I bow down to you and Gary G. (YNOT’s co-owner and VP of Operations.)

So let me guess, you prefer porn over engineering?

Jim: Oh yes!

YNOT: What is your favorite kind of content?

Jim: Well, gay content of course silly!

YNOT: So what REALLY made you make the switch from mainstream to adult?

Jim: That’s easy! Seeing all the hot, horny, naked guys on my computer! Hehehehe… OK, well, if you must know, I got my start working for an adult video company. A friend of mine knew the owner and introduced me. I helped the video company to start their online video sales, and things kind of grew from there…

YNOT: Sorry to interrupt you, I was going to throw in a pun but decided against it!

Jim: …While I worked with the video company, I learned about creating content and then started creating my own content and running my own membership sites.

YNOT: You must have been in heaven. So making the transition must have been relatively easy for you?

Jim: Well, because I got involved through a “friend of a friend” thing, I got started with a relatively prolific gay porn studio. That’s not where most adult Webmasters get their start (although I think many would like to ultimately end up with their own studio). The porn studio business is all about “how you look” or “who you know” or “how much money you have.” Since I’m not exactly porn star material, and I’m not rich, I consider myself lucky to have gotten my start outside the Internet side of the biz. It was a really good learning experience because I learned the “business” side of porn, before looking at the technical side of the Internet.

Once I decided to get into an adult business of my own, I had a significant amount of background knowledge to work with. It was sort of the next natural step to begin producing content, and creating my own websites. That was the easy part. The marketing was the hard part. I’d done some simple marketing, but that wasn’t really enough to get things going as quickly as I’d wanted. I’m a behind the scenes technical kind of guy. I don’t really like attending all the shows and parties. So figuring out marketing was kind of a puzzle to me. But with the help of TrafficDude (Scott Rabinowitz) and the information I found at YNOT, I was able to successfully grow my own web business.

YNOT: Totally cool! As well, your reserved personality is a good complement with some of us more hyper and overly extroverted types here at YNOT!

Alright… do you have a good story for us or what? I want some dirt here, Jim…

Jim: I can think of one incident that happened at one of the YNOT parties. But I’m not sure that I should tell you about it.

YNOT: That’s OK… I promise not to print it. [Editor’s Note: I lied.]

YNOT: But I’ll bet you were laughing, HAHAHA!! You probably could have REALLY freaked that guy out if you wanted to. Damn, wish I could have been there for that!

So tell us… from a professional standpoint, what do you love most about the adult Internet industry? What do you hate most?

Jim: I think what I like most are the new technologies that are developed to expand the options available to surfers. I am always amazed at the variety of new ideas that people come up with in computer technology in general. I’m a technophile at heart.

I hate the perception by people outside the adult industry that it’s all fun and sex. Rarely do I run into a person who’s not an adult Webmaster who doesn’t have this perception. Many newbies looking to get into the biz have the same view as well, which is why most of them aren’t around for very long. My advice to them would be not to plan on retiring overnight. Don’t give up your day job! I don’t mean to be pessimistic, but it takes a lot of work and time to build a successful business. Treat your website as a business and you’ll get rewarded. Treat it as a hobby and you better make sure you enjoy it, because your reward isn’t going to be monetary.

YNOT: When you aren’t making everyone’s life a little easier around here, what is your favorite hobby?

Jim: Motorcycles! I had 2 broken arms from the last accident I was in… kind of hard to program that way!

YNOT: Jim, this has been an extreme pleasure. Thanks for taking the time out this week, and introducing yourself to everyone!

To learn more about Jim, check out his YNOT Chat profile.