Interview with Nation-x, well known webmaster in the online adult business community.

Nation-x is a well known webmaster in the community who started his adult career in 2001. He is a skilled PHP Developer and has worked for a variety of adult companies, including AEBN and Slick Cash. He has worked for AdultReviews.net for the last 3 years as TGP Network Manager and now enjoys his position doing in-house SEO, PHP Development and webmaster work. The AR TGP Network is made of over 100 tgps and soon AdultReviews.net will launch 3 new blog hosts managed by nation-x that will help expand the AdultReviews.net affiliate program.

WJ: What experiences prepared you for your current role as a webmaster/online publisher? What did you do prior to your current business?

I started my Information Services career in 1996 as a Software Quality Specialist for a mainstream software company. This was a great experience that gave me an opportunity to learn a lot. The company was purchased by another company in 1997 and I moved on to work as a Web Developer for a number of consulting firms. In late 1999 I accepted a position at Amway Corporation where I was the sole developer in a small team that developed the Amway Business Network (ABN) website. This was my first real taste of e-commerce but the site was doing around $1.6 million in sales per week. Shortly thereafter, Quixtar was released and they closed the ABN site and laid off 450 salaried employees (including me). I went on to start my own consulting firm and did well servicing office furniture manufacturers Herman Miller and Steelcase until the dot com bubble burst and 9/11 when most of these companies really started tightening their budgets and closing contracts. In a pure business sense this experience helped me to get where I am today.

WJ:  What do you think of Web 2.0 and how has it impacted your business? What is the next trend for user interactivity?

Most of the adult sites that tout the title “web 2.0” aren’t actually even web 2.0 companies/sites. This includes tube sites. The basic idea behind a web 2.0 website is not the look of it. It’s about user contributed content and conversation. Too many companies are trying to ruin the web 2.0 idea by turning it into their idea of marketing and I see it as a problem for the whole community because it’s the companies that are giving away all of the free content under the guise of web 2.0… it isn’t the users providing the content.  A “true” web 2.0 site would be like xpeeps.com or even alt.com. I think the impact of fake web 2.0 sites on the industry is negative as a whole and the companies that are pushing it are short sighted. There is a lot of profit to be made in user contributed content if the service the customers are provided allows them to maintain privacy while providing the means to interact with others that share their taste. I think that sexual expression is becoming much more mainstream with every year that passes and the companies that cater to that will profit in a big way. I see a huge trend of people getting their fill of professional content and gaining interest in truly amateur content.

WJ:  Should the Internet be regulated?  Are there any parts of the Net that could use regulation?  Please explain your position thoroughly.

I am totally 100% for free expression and I don’t want to see that inhibited in any way and I am totally against any government being in control of it. That said, I think that we do need user driven regulation in cooperation with government authority. It’s just like anything… people need to get involved and companies and governments need to start being more responsive to combat the evils. Spyware should be outlawed because it’s only valuable to the profiteer and not the surfer. There needs to be a more reasonable way to protect your copyrighted material as well as combat against trojans, viruses and phishing sites. It’s all being half assed at the moment and much too costly for copyright holders to defend their rights. I don’t know what the answer is… I just hope someone can come up with a solution.

WJ:  What is the future of affiliate marketing?  Where do you see yourself in this future scenario?

I think that too much money is being spent to combat affiliate fraud. I would like to see US and European programs tighten up their programs. I personally would like to see a total lockdown that would deny any new affiliates who are from a country that can’t purchase memberships. I know I will get a lot of hate for saying that… but when I see criminal organizations like the Russian Business Network, who have undoubtedly been payed millions in affiliate payouts, that are responsible for as much as 50% of phishing crimes and have installed trojans on millions of pcs worldwide… It seems like common sense to me. The adult industry needs to take this lesson from mainstream affiliate programs. There are a lot of mainstream programs out there (especially in the credit and banking industries) that have stringent standards for affiliate qualification. One suggestion is that programs limit the programs that new affiliates can promote until they prove themselves or unless they can provide reputable references. As far as my own role, I am confident that every program I promote can recognize that I am a good affiliate and that AdultReviews.net is an invaluable affiliate. We will continue to honor that tradition.

WJ:  Please discuss your future plans for your web properties and other future developments.

The keywords here are “maintenance” and “expansion”. I will continue to maintain our current sites and work toward their growth in addition to expanding. I think the key to adapting to the ever changing ecommerce environment is continuing expansion but I see a lot of webmasters spending time on expanding their networks with garbage sites and then they wonder why they get punished by search engines. In order to actually grow a valuable network you need to focus on quality. Stop copying everyone else and think outside of the box. These are my goals and the where the real work and reward can be found.

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