By M. Christian
YNOT – People in the adult entertainment business have a tendency to dismiss so-called new technology as something they’ve seen before. Because the industry traditionally has been a proving ground for new ideas, much of what is touted as “new” has been seen before in one form or another. Sometimes products are just a little too far ahead of their time to gain traction, and at other times there’s no good reason to abandon an older product that continues to do its job admirably.
Bernhard G. hopes to avoid those pitfalls with Clipshaker. He calls the video player “a whole new way for adult entertainment consumers not just to access their favorite content, but also to organize it to their liking.” The product comes complete withan affiliate program: Shakecash.
We’ll let him tell you about it himself.
YNOT: Give us a quick history of your introduction to the crazy adult entertainment business.
Bernhard G.: Coming from the software business, I realized that watching adult movies could be improved. After research, I started this project, and that brought me to the industry.
Give us a quick explanation of Clipshaker.
Clipshaker is a software application for Windows or Mac that helps users to organize their favorite scenes in their porn collection. The product was made to let users separate the best from the rest and let them manage the clips they own.
A user can take his video files, trim — or “clip” — them with three mouse clicks, and then associate tags or keywords with the clips he has created. He then can search for his clips and create playlists that contain clips. Think iTunes: All the clips in one playlist can be played one after another. Also, a user can play his clips or playlists in up to 16 players in parallel, like on a surveillance monitor.
It is our ultimate goal that our users only watch the stuff they like, in a very new way, in order to get the maximum level of satisfaction.
Shakecash is the affiliate marketing arm of Clipshaker. How does it vary from other affiliate programs out there?
First of all, there isn’t anything out there like Clipshaker, so from that standpoint it’s totally different from the start.
Second, Shakecash will pay 35 percent over the life of the customer. Most software affiliate programs pay 5 to 12 percent at the most.
Third, since we plan new versions of Clipshaker in the future and plan to sell other things in relation to Clipshaker, the affiliate has the opportunity to make money not only on the initial sale, but also on all of the sales in the future from that customer.
What’s been the response to Clipshaker? It’s easy to imagine a lot of people are just too satisfied with their usual players to want to switch to something new.
The response has been absolutely overwhelming. Virtually everyone who has seen Clipshaker has loved it, both inside and outside the industry. Sales have started out very brisk — much better than we expected.
How have adult industry insiders responded to Clipshaker? Have a lot of sites been open and receptive to the product?
When we first started demoing it to the who’s who of the industry, we got comments like “I wish I had thought of that” and “this is going to change this industry in a big way.”
Response to our affiliate program also has been overwhelming. Our affiliates and partners like the fact we came up with something unique and different.
Give us a quick rundown on what Shakecash offers.
Essentially, we offer 35-percent commission on all lifetime sales, which as I said earlier is an unheard-of commission for a software product.
The processing is done by CCBill. We have tons of banners in various sizes and dimensions, and that allows affiliates to start using the program immediately. Sign-up is easy.
You’ve said you developed Clipshaker out of frustration. Are there other things you’d like to fix about adult content?
Yes. We believe that in mid-term our offering could evolve into a kind of iTunes for adult content. iTunes was the disruptive business model that has reshaped the music business. While many factors contributed to its success, allowing users easily to get only the pieces they like — one song instead of the whole album — for a very reasonable price with a very easy payment scheme that made iTunes such a big smash.
While we don’t plan to produce any content ourselves, I could envision us becoming an intermediary platform for bringing buyers and content providers together at some point in time.
What are your plans for Clipshaker and Shakecash in the future?
We have tons of ideas for cool features in mind. It is our plan to roll them out in four- to six-month cycles in order to provide an even better user experience for both new users and existing users. Since our Shakecash program pays affiliates on a customer’s lifetime purchases, affiliates will continue earning money with every follow-up sale. And there should be many of those down the line.
Bernhard G. – a native German who was born and raised in Berlin – is a serial entrepreneur in the software business. After his education in computer sciences and business administration, he started a couple of software businesses in the area of enterprise software serving large organizations. Around three years ago he wanted to do something else and identified the business case that eventually lead to the development of Clipshaker.
He is married and has two boys. He loves travelling the globe, is interested in reading, cuisine, riding his motorbike and soccer. He welcomes contact via Skype at bernd_clipshaker or by email.
