HOOK: E-zine By, For, and About Men in the Sex Industry

Mac: Well, first of all, we in the industry don’t refer to it as porn. We never use that word, especially when it involves the Internet. It is an old cliché. It has to do with the old Kit Kat movie theaters where you went to see dirty movies. Because the Internet is an innovative place where there are new thoughts and ideas, it is considered adult content or adult sites. That is the terminology. The commercial ones. There is a whole other category of what I call underground adult content that has to do with specific themes or groups that have special topics that they weave adult content into that topic. For the most part, for the commercial stringing video or pictures and chat, it is considered adult content. Banks refer to it as that. Banks acknowledge that there are adult sites and content on the Internet and they support that.

HOOK: Is this different than when banks treat other porn businesses?

M: They are treating this business with more respect right now on the Internet. You can’t hide what it is on the Internet. It is a visual medium. When you have a retail outlet and distribution company selling adult videos, the banks don’t know what you are doing. You are in video distribution. The banks don’t know what you are doing. So, you get material from studios to the warehouse, sell through channels likes ads or 800 numbers, and the banks don’t really know what you sell per se. With the Internet, you can’t hide what you are doing. The banks are more open-minded to adult sites. Now there are premiums you do have to pay because they are considered higher-risks. They see people getting into business, making a lot of money, and then closing up shop. If you are selling chat sessions or streaming video and the customer gets cut-off for whatever reason to see this show, then they are going to call the credit card company and demand a refund. They didn’t get their product. So the banks consider adult sites a little more high risk for charge backs and general maintenance. They demand a certain amount of money like 500 dollars in advance. They keep that just because I am not working to change that, but some people are working to change that. It is a perception on the bank's part that adult sites are risky.

HOOK: How many sites do you manage?

M: There are three adult sites that I manage. One is http://www.bootjocks.com. Another called http://www.bootstuds.com and an unfinished site called http://www.gaytoronto30+.com

HOOK: Where do you get your models?

M: All my sites are amateur sites. We don’t get well known models. We don’t do any live video streaming. I am trying to sell to the guys who contribute to my site starting their own live video streaming action. That way they control their own work hours. I have met people through word of mouth. I have met people through local bulletin boards.

HOOK: Is there good money in doing adult sites?

M: The gross revenue for sites on a gross average is $10,000. Some sites do more. Others do a lot less. Depends on if it is original content, live video, live chat. A friend of a friend of mine in LA dropped 10 grand with a business partner in buying an adult site. It came with content and set-up. They flew me down to LA to have a brainstorming session because they bought all this pre-packaged material from vendors. They were just fronting the money. They got 10 or 15 thousand hits which is OK for a site. And not one sale. They didn’t know what they were doing wrong. But I isolated three key components were keeping the success from happening. First, it was taking up to eight minutes to verify a credit card. Second, the graphics were of medium to poor quality. And Graphics must be magazine quality. Shiny, glossy, glitzy, airbrushed to the nines. Third, people were not getting deep enough in the site to get them to stay. There was too much on the first page. The credit card authorization was on page eight. The first couple pages were so generic that people didn’t have any desire to go further. Success will depend on how innovative and quality-minded your sites are.