Speaking with Julien Jegard is easy over ICQ, but in person you can sense he’s self-conscious about his English. He was born and lives in France and he looks sort of like the young wizard Harry Potter – a tall, lean frame and shaggy brown hair, but with the lightning bolt scar noticeably absent from his face. When you speak with him you can sense his passion for the adult industry and you get the impression that he, like Potter, is destined for great things. Together with his business partner, Johan, they’ve recently launched a new program, NeoSexCash.com, and it seems quite possible that the program may just be that great thing that he is destined to do.Their story, like countless others who have found either success or failure in adult entertainment marketing, starts out with humble beginnings and big dreams. Julien was 22 when he bought his first computer. It was 1998 and he was still in school and like most students was starving for additional sources of cash. His brother-in-law, Johan, or Damonx as he’s known in adult, was in school, too, but studying management. Johan was building personal websites on the side when he found out how easy it was to make money through adult banner ads and pay-per-click programs. At that point, it was 1998 and online adult entertainment worked and responded differently than it does today. Johan taught Julien how to build a basic website and instilled the idea that with hard work came rewards.

“He told me that I could make some money with it,” says Julien. “I was a student. All students dream about having cash (so) I decided to launch my first website. It was crappy, had loads of popups and blind links and was hosted by a free hosting service.”

Julien admits that his first attempts at building sites were less than groundbreaking. With his first check, though, he bought himself a hentai-specific domain and started making money through dialer programs. It wasn’t until three years later, in November of 2001, that he started focusing his attention in earnest towards adult entertainment. With three years of studying law and two years of marketing education under his belt, Julien reached out to the field he found himself in. He built his bankroll from the bottom up, choosing initially to focus on the cartoon niche. All the while, Johan worked with him to improve his knowledge of adult entertainment marketing.

By 2002, Julien and Johan were quickly expanding their empire. After a chance meeting with the founders of DeluxePass, the boys took the next big step for their company. They used the DeluxePass script to launch a dozen sites under the name of BucksBunny.com.

“Johan and Julien were one of our first affiliates at DeluxePass,” said Clement, co-owner of DeluxePass. “They helped us to improve all of the services and they definitely helped (by) bringing in lots of signups. They know how to do that!”

Their Deluxe Pass push was a major step for them, but Julien and Johan both knew they wanted to open up a real program – something that was worthy of their talents. To do this, they needed a plan.

“As far as I remember, we always wanted to create our own program, but that required an investment,” said Julien. “We had to earn money another way before (we could make it happen and) search engine marketing appeared like something profitable and interesting.”

They read the chat boards and watched what others were doing to get an understanding of how the technology worked. Eventually they were able to see results from their search engine efforts. Managing their growing empire taught them how to deal with affiliate programs and they spent a great deal of time honing their search engine strategies, amassing the profits and reinvesting them through content buys. By 2004, they were ready for the next big step. They created a plan to develop their program, picked the sites and set to work building and launching their first exclusive site, SuckMeImFamous.com. If all went as planned, the new program would launch in the Fall of 2004. Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly until something caught their eye.

“In October 2004 we were ready to start our program using the affiliate script MPA2, but a great opportunity arrived,” said Julien. “AmazingPass.com (an AVS program) was for sale. It was a small adult network with its own affiliate manager script. We bought it, changed all the layout and made massive investments in new DVD content.”

The guys thought that merging their program and AmazingPass would allow webmasters a unique opportunity to earn money from both AVS and pay sites. But then they hit a brick wall. AmazingPass was processing with Ibill, which had suddenly disintegrated. This meant a major overhaul. As a result, they switched to cascading billing through Epoch and CCbill. Once that was in place, all that was left was to put the icing on their x-rated cake: creating the brand for their program.

“First we picked the name,” said Julien. “SexCash sounds explicit and “Neo” because we would mark the identity of the program like something new — never seen before.”

The second step led to the development of the programs mascot. To do this, they hired a graphic designer to create a hot, honey-brown haired siren to adorn their homepage and shirts for their affiliates. With the marketing ideas out of the way, they turned their attention to the sites they would offer. They decided on 18 in total across a number of niches and settled on domain names. They also engaged content producers, such as Easton from WildWestCash.com, to help build their brands.

“I have been shooting custom exclusive content for (their) two reality sites, ArizonaWhores.com and SuckMeImFamous.com, since they opened,” said Easton. “It’s hardcore reality porn at its best, but with a twist of humour throughout.”

Easton has been working with Julien and Johan for the past two years and says that their “super easy-going” attitude has gone a long way to building the relationship that they now share. Once the program launched in June 2005, the relationship strengthened through traffic trades and a continuing production schedule. Julien says that he understands the importance of strong bonds between business partners and says that they are not always easy to find in adult entertainment.

“In six years in this business, I have seen too many (people being) ripped off,” said Julien. “We have been disappointed too many times by sponsors who never sent checks or who used to shave.”

The only shaving Julien says he plans on doing is when he drags himself to the shower every morning, usually at the insistence of his girlfriend. As he looks in the mirror and sees his tired eyes glaring back, he can smile knowing that the hard work he and Johan have done over the past seven years is finally starting to pay off.

“We have built NeoSexCash with passion and sweat and it is our baby,” said Julien. “If we are destined for great things, NeoSexCash is it. It’s live so now all you can do is sit back and watch the show.”