Kenny B. is one of the few legacy players who, after two decades in the adult industry, has proven he can go the distance and roll with the punches.
From his early days of hawking nude photos of a stripper he found on Craigslist, to building his YourPaysitePartner.com enterprise, this ever-adaptive entrepreneur has always seized upon the prevailing trends of an era with alacrity and determination.
At the core of his success is a devotion to his clients and a positive workplace environment that encourages the very best out of his employees. Together, his company branches deliver top-notch service to a multitude of producers and paysite creators.
And Kenny recognizes that the most dramatic change of the past few years has been the rise of content as king, with many of the smaller and medium-sized traffic hustlers who had thrived on delivering less high-end fare falling by the wayside.
Now, he has set his eyes on the future with more experience and confidence than ever before. To mine the riches of his imagination and insight, XBIZ sat down with Kenny for this executive interview.
XBIZ: Tell us about your earliest ventures in the adult industry, from launching an amateur solo site for Angie in 1999 and selling your cellphone business, to expanding your portfolio over the years.
Kenny: I’d say it’s been 20 years and hard to remember, but time flies. The reality is, it doesn’t seem all that long ago. Prior to getting into adult I was peddling cell phones and I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Jan of 1999 with my father to see what other products I could offer. Downstairs from CES at the Sands Expo Center was an adult tradeshow. While walking the floor, snapping pictures left and right, my father said, “This is the business you should be in.”
A few months later, my mother called me to tell me she read about an online porn trade show coming to Montreal, so I joke that my parents pushed me into the industry. It was at that show that I met Danny and Carol Cox. I visited the Coxes’ office almost daily until, I believe, it was Evil Chris who told me to just find a girl, take some pics and just get started. I listened and found a stripper on Craigslist who was willing to get naked on camera, hired a graphic artist and with 10 photo sets of scanned pictures we launched WildAmber.com in August of 1999. By mid-September, “Amber” vanished.
Disappointed, but undeterred, I came across (pun intended) a cute 19-year-old party girl, Angie, who was internet-savvy and wanted a website. She was serious, reliable and we had a hardcore solo site up in a couple weeks. Within the first month, we were featured with Carol Cox and Greenguy — more money was generated in that month than the previous three months in the cell business. I quickly sold my cell phone business and invested the money into a full-time designer/webmaster, equipment and travel to capture Angie swinging, using my new 1.3 MP camera.
We launched a bunch of solo sites, which worked well for a few years, until the large PPS programs got into the amateur market and made it difficult to compete. We switched our focus to niche and micro niche sites — pregnant, smoking, pee, etc., as there wasn’t much competition and it was much easier to target the audience. Like many in the paysite sector, we took a major hit with the economic crisis and introduction of the tubes, which led to us completely transforming our business model in 2012. Since then, strategic partnerships and taking risks with various acquisitions have been key to our growth and why today, 20 years later, we are still in the paysite sector.
XBIZ: What led to the creation of YourPaysitePartner.com (YPP) and how did you end up joining forces with JC?
Kenny: From 2008 to 2012, membership sales and overall income kept dropping. Like many in our industry, I watched a once successful business turn to shit because of the plethora of free porn. It was early 2012 when I had what I call my “come to Jesus” moment. I had to decide if I wanted to stay in adult, or do something else.
Either way, a major change was needed. I had access to great designers, developers and all the back-end administration, but all that meant noting without great content. There were so many great artists creating fantastic content, yet they couldn’t monetize it because of the state of the industry. It was then that I changed our business model. We focused on what we excelled at — becoming more of a services company, partnering with content creators. And thus, YourPaysitePartner was born.
I reinvested myself, what was left of my savings and started over, seeking out content partners and reasonably priced acquisitions. It was around that time that I was introduced to JC, who was also experiencing similar issues with the downturn in the industry, but also had a toxic business partner that was killing the company’s reputation and morale. Anyone who knows JC knows he’s a fighter. He wasn’t about to give up on his business. His company needed a drastic change, my business was undergoing a drastic change and the timing to join forces couldn’t be better.
The company JC built with Morgan, Nick and CJ is something I highly respect. To have multiple partners, ride the ups and downs together, continuously strive and encourage each other and grow year after year is quite the accomplishment. I truly value the partnership and friendship we’ve built over the years.
XBIZ: In the past two decades, what have been the most significant changes to the paysite biz and how does YPP manage to stay ahead of the curve?
Kenny: For the better part of a decade, we’ve been hearing people bitch that tubes killed the paysite business. It’s a load of shit and a scapegoat for those that couldn’t adapt to the shift of traffic being king to content becoming king. The tubes killed the thousands of small to medium affiliates who promoted mediocre content for the highest payout. Hands down, I would say content becoming king has been the most significant change I’ve seen.
As far as staying ahead of the curve, we make sure we put out the best product we can. From content, site design, functionality and speed, to user flow, member management and affiliate support, we do our best to offer the best products possible. I don’t know if that keeps us ahead of the curve, but it does make for satisfied members, successful partners and employees that love their jobs.
XBIZ: Discuss the primary ways you leverage your experience with traffic, marketing and promotion to partner with content producers.
Kenny: We make it possible for content producers to do what they do best, create amazing content. Once they do their job, we do ours, monetizing their content. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Oh, how I wish that were the case! I believe we give the producer peace of mind, knowing there is a full team behind them.
We are nothing without our amazing crew. We have offices in Montreal and Mani and have many remote team members throughout North America and Europe. Subscription sales via the paysite are just one avenue of monetizing our partners’ content. We also focus on broadcast, DVD, VOD, premium and non-premium tube income streams, ensuring we maximize the potential of the content.
The fact is, we aren’t a traffic or marketing company. We are a hard-working team of 37 dedicated people with 20 years of experience that works with producers to bring a high-quality product to market.
XBIZ: What major genres and micro niches seem to be performing the strongest at the moment, and how does that impact your allocation of resources?
Kenny: We no longer focus on micro niche sites, as the clip stores now own that market. We are fortunate to be able to add more resources so we can build on our business in the gay and trans markets, which perform extremely well.
I believe that re-investing in new resources rather than allocating existing ones has been a key factor to our growth. The purchase of Stunner Media made it possible for us to double our workforce overnight with experienced and devoted staff, with an expertise in the gay market.
TransErotica has been growing steadily since its inception a few years ago. Our performer roster and Dan’s focus on the models have all contributed to TransErotica becoming a solid brand in a sector that was dominated by a small group of companies.
XBIZ: Given the sheer volume of sites in the YPP network, which ones require the most attention and yield the biggest gains?
Kenny: Like most businesses, the 80/20 rule holds true for us as well. The top 20 percent of our websites represent 80 percent of our overall income. That said, we treat all our content partners equally. If the quality of the content and the commitment of the producer is on point, we throw our resources into building the brand. Income does not dictate the attention given to a particular site.
That said, the sites within Sticky Dollars (Swallowed, TrueAnal and Nympho.com) require more man hours than any other sites. Mike Adriano is a machine. I don’t know anyone more dedicated and harder working than him. The sheer amount of content he produces, the time and resources he personally puts in, drives all staff that work on his sites to give their all as well. Income aside, when a partner is as dedicated as he is, we make sure to do our best to match his commitment, otherwise the partnership won’t work.
XBIZ: What have been a few of your most significant site launches recently?
Kenny: We recently launched ToughLoveX.com featuring the adventures of Karl Toughlove, the brainchild of XBIZ Best Actor award winner Charles Dera. The range of content and characters that Charles has come up with is fantastic. I love porn with a comedic twist, so ToughLoveX is a favorite of mine.
PurgatoryX.com is another site we recently launched in partnership with SinnerG Studios and the creative team at No Monkeys. The high caliber content is delivered in trilogy format, with each scene containing a different episode making the combined scenes a feature length film. The storylines are split between Heaven, where sexy, passionate scenes are featured, or Hell, where devilish, taboo and dark scenes are featured.
We are in the works of bringing on an extremely unique tattoo and piercing site, which I believe has incredible potential.
XBIZ: Any new updates to your site and services, as far as technology or features that clients have found particularly helpful?
Kenny: One of the main reasons we partnered and subsequently purchased Stunner Media is for their outstanding systems and processes.
We’ve developed a very robust yet user-friendly CMS for partners that wish to update or make modifications to their sites themselves. There is no “one size fits all” solution, each content partner has their own needs, and we’ve developed a system to ensure they all get the tools and resources needed.
Through the internal ticketing and IM systems, partners are kept in the loop and always have a point of contact in each department.
XBIZ: In your view, what is the state of the paysite and affiliate market at present?
Kenny: Very healthy. While there aren’t as many affiliates as there once were, just like there aren’t as many paysites as there once were, those that provide a quality product and bust their ass are doing very well.
XBIZ: Give us a sneak peek at your major ambitions for 2019 and beyond.
Kenny: Last year we sponsored one of our long time Filipino employee’s move to Canada with his family. One of my personal ambitions for 2019 and beyond is to be able to assist more of our team in the Philippines in moving to Canada, should they desire it. As for business, continue doing what we do to the best of our ability and keep on truckin’.
