Traffic Dude, the company, provides full-service advertising management services and training, along with business development planning for adult Internet companies.Traffic Dude, the company, provides full-service advertising management services and training, along with business development planning for adult Internet companies. The company is in its second year, but the man behind Traffic Dude, um, Traffic Dude, has been doing similar types of work for companies like WebSideStory and Flying Crocodile since 1998. Traffic Dude manages business development and client relations, which includes oversight on a network of contract professionals who assist with meeting client objectives. Traffic Dude is also responsible for handling advertising accounts for all of the company’s clients.
Traffic Dude is well known as the contracted advertising sales agency that manages traffic on Sex.com and MyPorn.com . What sets the company apart from similar firms is that it does not broker traffic in the traditional sense; rather Traffic Dude provides formal advertising sales representation for high traffic adult Internet sites and networks. The company focuses on offering performance-driven advertising solutions, regardless of a company’s marketing budget and it takes the additional time needed to educate prospective traffic buyers on the different media buying options that are available.
Let’s find out how Traffic Dude got started in the online adult entertainment industry:
YNOT: How and/or why did you get involved initially in the world of adult online?
YNOT: What type of work were you doing, if any, before you started in the biz?
Traffic Dude: I was a mainstream suit and tie guy. Mostly, I was doing telecomm-related B2B sales for large companies.
YNOT: Where did you begin gathering info about the business and when did you get your start in the online adult industry?
Traffic Dude: ? I started with WebSideStory in 1998. In regards to gathering info about the business, it was from the front line atmosphere of working with customer support issues for HitBox counter network users, including the direct webmasters, hosting clients and ultimately companies who were advertising throughout the adult HitBox network. After leaving WebSideStory, my partner and I started to work on a consulting basis with companies that produced niche content and specialized in services that can capture a small market, such as GaySexToys.com, one of the only stand alone gay market product fulfillment sites on the web. I also had the pleasure of working for several months with Flying Crocodile, and seeing the variety and gamut of what a network scale traffic operation can do. My best source of education to date and ongoing has been the opportunity to interact with a wide variety of personalities and skilled persons within the adult industry. Being involved with advertising and promotions, it has been my pleasure to be able to see the masters of different adult industry skills in action.
YNOT: What types of sites and/or targeted business did you start with?
Traffic Dude: To better understand the free site market, which feeds the industry commerce machine, my partner and I developed gallery and AVS-based sites for their abilities in generating eyeballs for new niche products ranging from the straight smoking fetish to gay military porn. As we are more of a services firm than one that develops products, we have had the pleasure of working with a diversified group of clients and an equally diversified product line up. As it relates to traffic options, we have stayed focused on the sale and promotion of niche products and business models where the numbers focus is on quality rather than quantity.
YNOT: Give us your thoughts on how easy or difficult it was for you to get started.
Traffic Dude: Like a few of my peers, although I had the benefit of starting out in this business as an employee of a growing company, many of my initial clients were start-up adult businesses of different types, and the working relationships allowed me to see the required commitments of time and resources. Getting started these days requires not only tangible resources, but human connections as well, whenever possible. I still continue to hear from consulting clients that are new to the business.
YNOT: What do you love about the adult Internet industry?
Traffic Dude: The relationships that are possible with clients, vendors, and just fellow webmasters, whether they are down the road or across the globe. The value of relationships in a small industry like ours are priceless. The other thing that makes this industry professional nirvana is the time to market factor. Whether it be a link trade or a multi-million dollar ad buy, people in the adult industry typically don’t spend long periods of time with the decisions making process. I joke with some mainstream industry friends that adult companies can agree to and execute deals faster than it takes a mainstream company to convene the first meeting to talk about a prospective new deal.
YNOT: What do you dislike?
Traffic Dude: Politics, but they are present in every trade. Nonetheless, our most productive client relationships are with those that are equally focused on the business rather than the intangibles.
YNOT: What are your thoughts on the future of the adult Internet industry?
Traffic Dude: It is more of an industry now than ever, rather than a loose consortium of people who work too many hours helping their fellow man (and woman) find a little erotic fulfillment on the Internet. The industry is streamlining its business practices as a whole, which means that the mechanics of working in this business will actually become less complicated over time.
YNOT: Where do you see yourself in one year? Five years?
Traffic Dude: We expect to have traffic-related product offerings available for every category and volume of traffic that a mid level to very well established adult Internet firm could need. On the longer term view, I look forward to offering media buying and planning education services to companies and webmasters that are new to the market or ready to make the jump into the advertising segment of the business.
YNOT: If you had one bit advice you could offer new webmasters, what would it be?
Traffic Dude: Before you spend a dime on advertising, make sure you know all the variables involved in measuring how ad dollars are spent. The most successful adult companies know these variables well and it’s worth the time and resources to understand the whole picture, whether you learn on your own or need to seek out guidance from others.
