Traffic Generators TGP    A+ LISTINGS / For trades and Listings These are all hand picked       I recommended Greg Geelan, aka Otto, who then went to work for Rick Meunyong, founder of YNOTMasters. Greg worked for Rick for a bit, then negotiated the deal between FCI and YNOT for purchase. Andy Edmond, former FCI President, was so impressed with Greg's work.  -  a must for listings ,no trades June 19, 2003 – Cyndalie, Vice President of Marketing for PSW Billing Solutions (http://www.PSWBilling.com), has been appointed to assist in the moderation of the new Traffic Chat Board at http://www.YNOTMasters.com, adult webmaster community since 1996.   One of the things that I love most about being a writer is getting to interact with some pretty awesome people. This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jay Kopita, or LAJ, the Editor-In-Chief of YNOT News, and the VP of Marketing and Communications for YNOTMasters. Here is what Jay had to say about working for YNOT, his recent Internext trip, and what is happening in the industry. When did Link-O-Rama first "open its doors" on the Internet? Way back in June of 1996. How much bandwidth did you burn when you first started - and much do you burn now? I was free hosted at first, so, ummmm, none :) Right now, link-o-rama.com does 600-800 gigs per month. What is the most over-done and over-rated niche on the 'Net? It's a tie between 20-something teens & 30-something matures. What is the biggest mistake that webmasters make when submitting sites to link lists? They don't read the rules. How effective do you feel the black list is at keeping the cheaters at bay? What blacklist? ;-) What kernel of advice would you give a newbie who wants to start his first traffic site? You're not gonna get rich overnight - you have to work at getting your name out to webmasters as well as surfers. Most obvious question - how did you get your nickname? What does it mean? Back sometime in '97 before Standard Internet was formed I was sharing office space with Mojo and he was showing me the ropes, telling me who to send traffic to and who not to. I was JUST starting out and sending a little traffic to Serge. My board name at the time was "Big Ron." We met with Serge and a few other East Coast people at a bar in NJ and when Mojo introduced us, Serge said, "Oh, of course I know Big Ron 12 clicks!" This was Serge's way of laughing at the small amount of traffic I was sending him. I decided to keep that name as a remembrance of how I started in this biz. How long have you been working on the Internet? Since mid to late '97. Why did Standard Internet make a big move toward mainstream a few years back? Well, it just seemed - for stability's sake - that we should spread our eggs into as many baskets as we could. Things change so rapidly, we figured to smooth out the ups and downs by branching out into what was for us, a new area. What kind of potential do you see in mainstream that the rest of us are missing? Nothing. :) Mainstream has really taken it on the chin and most of our competitors have gone out of business. Sex ALWAYS sells. There is always a market for it. In mainstream, the advertising dollars have been sucked out of the market. It's very difficult too right now in mainstream. Only our overall experience and our early adult experiences have seen us through this tough time. What is your number one secret for success? Be an idea man - or marry one! haha If you're first to market with an idea, you'll make a fortune before your competition catches up. This is similar to what we did with blindlinks.com. It wasn't rocket science - it was just that no one else was doing it. EVERYONE signed up for it before any of our competitors came onto the scene. There's a big advantage to being on someone's page first. No one wants to change links unless they have to. What predictions do you have for the future of the adult industry? Change. Things will evolve and change but people will ALWAYS buy porn. There will ALWAYS be a way to sell it. Geez, maybe that means "no change?" Which do you prefer to work with - adult webmasters or mainstream webmasters? Adult of course - they are much more "savvy" and also know that I am, as well. You don't have to explain the elementary to them or argue about why their stats said their site received 10 visitors, but our stats only show 9. What message board or community can webmasters visit to read your posts today? Well, I don't really post like I used to, but I can be found at www.tunafishbitch.com and GFY. What do you think about today's newbies - better or worse than a few years ago? I'm afraid they are much worse. There are too many guys in this business that think they are experts after 2 months of gallery building.

It’s that time again, a time when I like to venture out and about the industry to find out what is going on and to catch up on some gossip. What better way to find out the dirt, then to hit the various message boards to see what webmasters are talking about? Now, I know that most of you are very busy and cannot dedicate hours a day to catching up on gossip, which is why I am going to share my findings with you. So, sit back and relax while I cut through the crap and deliver the newsworthy topics. 

GoFuckYourself.com
This notorious board is home to many conflicts, bitch-fests, and dramas, which is why I usually make it my first stop on my road trip around the boards. I like to compare this board to the National Enquirer because you can come across some juicy information, but who really knows if it is true or not. There was a thread proclaiming that Pamela Anderson lost her virginity to rapist (http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=172495). There were so many Madonna/Britney kiss threads that I lost count. There was an extremely interesting thread in which a regular GFY’er called SleazyDream auctioned off his signature space for thirty days, on EBay. Believe it or not, his auction received eighty bids and his signature space ended up selling for $2,000.00, which he claims he is donating to a local charity. Check out the thread and the auction at http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=170296. As usual, there did not seem to be too much actual business being conducted, but it sure was a lot of fun. 

YNOT Masters
The YNOT chat board is where the dinosaurs of the industry hang out, and by dinosaurs I do not mean old and extinct, but rather that they have been around since the dawn of online porn. Now, on this board there is definitely a lot of business being talked about as well as current issues being discussed. One issue in particular that got the attention of the YNOT board goers, was the fact that PSW has threatened to sue Visa and MasterCard. It is nice to see that a company is taking a stand. You can find more info here: http://www.webmastervault.com/pr-psw005.shtml. There was another great thread about a member of the YNOT board starting up a Yahoo! group called EntrePORNeurs. This is a place where workaholic webmasters can go and share stories. It sounds like a fantastic idea and you can read all about it at http://chat.ynotmasters.com/public/ChatView.cgi?T=1574&Site_ID=yno.

Netpond
Netpond features both a threaded and non-threaded board. I chose to review the threaded board because I find it much less confusing. Now I find that Nepond is definitely a runner up to GFY in the sense that there is much less business and a lot more non-industry related threads. There was a neat thread discussing bandwidth and communications speed and it even provided a link where surfers can go and test their speeds for free. The thread can be found at http://www.netpond.com/threaded/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5070. I was appalled when I discovered another thread claiming that strip clubs are offering to pay tuition for college students. What is this world coming to? Read all about it at http://www.netpond.com/threaded/showthread.php?&threadid=5517.

XBiz
XBIZ features twelve different boards catering to everything from female webmasters to gay webmasters, but for the purpose of this review, I headed to their Speak Your Mind board. I ran into a very controversial thread discussing people’s opinions on gay marriages (http://boards.xbiz.com/showthread.php3?&threadid=14959). Any of you that have feeling on this issue may want to check it out. There was another intriguing thread that read “I did a month in jail for a webpage” which had webmasters curious as to what kind of site it was to land the guy in jail. It turned out that the guy really went to jail for drug possession and was just trying to get some attention.

Oprano
Football seemed to be a very dominant topic on this board, but there were also a fair number of threads discussing business issues. On the first page alone, one devoted poster had about ten threads at once going about various political issues that are affecting the industry, ranging in topic from President Bush to the battle of the pop-ups. They were an interesting read and if you would like to view these threads, do a search for threads started by the user sarettah. 

Porn is Bad
I will admit that this was my first time visiting this particular message board and I was actually impressed with how popular it is. There was one incredible thread rightly named “The World’s Biggest Thread Contest” that so far had a whopping 36,318 replies. There also seemed to be some debate and discussion about President Bush’s speech and you can join in at http://www.pornisbad.com/showthread.php?&threadid=11652.

Porno Junkies
One of the more popular recent threads on this board was one that asked members “How Often Do You Think About Sex?” It seems that most of us do not let a minute go by without actually thinking about sex in some way, shape or form (http://www.pornojunkies.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12190). There was another bitch-fest and slandering post that asked the porno junkies “You want to know which companies SHAVE?” Needless to say the thread created quite a response.

Adult Insider
I came across a very cute thread that made me chuckle titled, “Canadian Tragedy”! It displayed a picture of a dropped case of Labatt Blue surrounded by shattered bottles, a cross, and two very dismayed gentlemen. I guess you have to be Canadian to get it. There was definitely not much business going on around this board, but it was really entertaining with threads such as “Post your hot girl”, “Zelda the windwaker” and “I just cleaned my room”. 

Underwear Lounge
For those of you that haven’t been to our message board in a while, I suggest that you check it out. We have added a contest that allows you to earn money for posting. It is a great way to be rewarded just by getting involved in some Webmaster discussions. Come on in, say hello, and help make our message board the place to be for webmasters!