This year’s keynote address followed a Q&A format moderated by XBIZ President Alec Helmy.
Internet entrepreneur Shaw told the large crowd assembled inside the historic Hollywood Roosevelt hotel’s Blossom Room that he started his first online business in 1997. Shaw started building free sites while still a college student eventually progressing to paysites in 1998.
Shaw, and his parent company Shaw Investments, owns and operates the SIC Cash affiliate network, adult webmaster board JustBlowMe.com, gay affiliate program Rainbow Revenue and VIP Earnings.
Shaw recounted his various endeavors in the online space starting with free sites then progressing to paysites, photo licensing, leased feeds and affiliate programs.
“I always wanted to have multiple eggs in multiple baskets to prepare my business for changing markets,” Shaw said. “The glory days of just throwing a site up and making money are long gone.”
Shaw believes that the two key ingredients to operating a successful affiliate program are great content and solid affiliate payouts.
As the operator of one of the most heavily trafficked webmaster boards, Shaw opined on its reach and effectiveness.
When he first got in the business Shaw joined a few message boards and lurked, but after posting his stats, he found a lot of business to be done with the board denizens.
“Boards are still an effective way of marketing, but these days you have to sort through so much crap to find a valuable thread,” Shaw said. “There are a lot of lurkers and you might never know who will hit you up to do business.”
Shaw recommended always launching new things because “stuff on the Internet gets old really fast.”
When asked by Helmy what his biggest regret was, Shaw said that in 1999, he switched from generating his own traffic to buying traffic exclusively, which cut down on his joins.
In the end, after more than a decade in the business, Shaw is still an ambitious person and following his own philosophy of doing new things, he’s planning to launch a new affiliate program by the end of the year.