pridebucks
Count Your Blessings
Joe, David and I were in Spain in September of 2008 when “Dubwya” officially announced the US economy was on life support and I feel like I have been in a bad mood ever since.
Trying to Keep Up Just to Keep Up
We are smut peddlers: that is what we do. But just because our business is the business of fucking, why did we have to develop and cling to such a fucked up business model where the companies that put up the money to produce our product are the very last one to enjoy and profit from it?
Down the Aisle
Gay Pride spans the summer months and this summer, we have some things to be proud about. In the words of President Obama, “I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met,” Obama said in a statement. “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days – on Sept. 20.” I will spare the “won the battle but lost the war: metaphor: we have come a long way baby, but there’s so long still to go.
Erosion of Freedom
We begin the summer with Memorial Day, end it on Labor Day and sandwich both Gay Pride and the celebration of our nation’s independence in the between. Last month focus on Gay Pride was a personal perspective that I realize 90 percent of you can not relate to, this month, Independence Day is a holiday for every American; straight, gay, transgendered, black, white, Christian, Jewish and Muslim.
Retail Therapy
Initially thought I was watching a skit on Saturday Night Live when I first heard the reports that America’s department stores emerged from the second most active selling season of the year, Easter week, with the some of the best numbers in nearly a decade: Bloomingdale’s upped their dividend payment and those made by Marshall Fields actually doubled. With gas and grocery pricing gobbling up a large part of discretionary income, how could these large brick and mortar dinosaurs be making bank when the rest of us are battling to sell $5.95 trials?
Pride and Seek
Perched on a balcony, well, those of you who have never lived in the Big Apple might call it a fire escape, outside a fifth floor walk up on Christopher Street, I had the perfect vantage point to witness the annual spectacle of the New York Gay Parade, literally a half a block from location of the historic Stonewall Bar where our gay ancestors first rebelled in 1969 and gave birth to the modern gay rights movement.
Irregularity Begins at Home
On July 26, 2008, when the First National Bank of Nevada failed, seemingly taking adult processing favorite Humboldt Merchant Services along with it, one of first signs of trouble on Wall Street showed up on Main Street in Porn Town: Whether you are an affiliate program, a performer, a hosting company or a credit card processor, straight, gay, bisexual, transgendered or something in between, we all reside in the same ZIP code; this hit us at home.
Think Pink, Then Think Again
Maggie Prescott marches though the manicured headquarters of “Quality Magazine” in the ultra-chic Technicolor love letter to all things fabulously ’50s, Funny Face, commandeers the intercom system and issues an order that has echoed 50 years later in the offices of some of the biggest companies: “Banish the black, burn the blue and bury the beige —from now on, think pink!” With tube sites multiplying at a rate that would rabbits to shame, the number of productive affiliates plummeting faster than an Arab dictator’s approval rating, and content being pirated faster then the latest designer bag, it seems perfectly logical that a straight program would seek to augment their revenue stream with a gay program. Just as the bean counters found out during the course of the movie, however, turning pink into the new green is not as easy as it sounds.
Let Freedom Swing: The Shepard and His Flock
TGIF, and Friday, Jan. 21, sure started out that way. Then I ran across a bit of news, likely unnoticed by many, but stopped me dead in my tracks: a gay marriage ban passed first test in Wyoming’s State House. It was not what happened, but where.
Fight the Good Fight!
It was two years ago this month when Mr. Deeds, or in our case, Larry Flynt and Joe Francis, headed to Washington on a mission: “With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America,” Flynt said.
Advertising: The Bare Facts
The power of advertising never ceases to amaze me. Even more astonishing, considering I have made my living on in the internet for the past eight years, was the realization that I had never acquiesced mentally to include online advertising in this robust avenue of social change. Given the amount of weekly promotion done for the Pride- Bucks’ family of sites, adding the role of “advertiser” kind of snuck in there on me like the freshmen 15; but, whoop, there it is. As we end the year, I thought it was prudent to really take a look at kind of messages we are sending out.
It’s About Model Behavior
My columns are usually aimed at affiliates: after all, we all make our living one sale at a time and unless you have spent the last few years living lottery dreams, we all know that sales are anything but easy these days. Our ability to make sales often lies with a tremendous X factor: the talent. With the number of episodes on the PrideBucks.com family of sites hovering at 1,000, there has been a parade of models through our studio that would rival the population of a small town, and today’s column is an open letter to each one them.
Let Freedon Swing: Our own Medicine
We are made as hell and not going to take it anymore” is an iconic line from 1976’s “Network” and has also become a call to action in many forms of networking in 2010: social, telephonic and now, right here in Gay Porn-Dum,” and saddest of all, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Real Reality Shows
"Chicken Little” starring Cockey Lockey does indeed sound like it could be the latest twink DVD sensation to make its way to the video-ondemand theaters on the Internet in the ultimate pornification of art imitating life. Though the plausibility of the title and the stage name could be mistaken for a legitimate headline in this very publication, they are simply fabrications of this writer’s mind.
Let Freedom Swing: Cleaning the Closet
It arrived in an ordinary envelope but landed with a still reverberating thud. I am talking about a invitation to my, gulp, thirtieth, high school reunion – complete with a questionnaire to bring my fellow alumni from the class of 1980 up to date.
Let Freedom Swing!
Every webmaster, affiliate program, tube site, MGP, blog, review portal, VOD mall or traffic hub has one thing in common; we all make our living one sale at a time.
PrideBucks Offers $50 Payouts in May
Gay affiliate program PrideBucks is boosting payouts for all affiliates by offering a $50 payout per sale every Thursday and Friday in May.
GayAdPros Offers Spring Cash Bonuses
Traffic network, GayAdPros, owned and operated by PrideBucks, is offering cash bonuses to both new advertisers and publishers through the end of May.
PrideBucks, TrafficDude Debut GayAdPros.com
PrideBucks and TrafficDude have partnered to release GayAdPros.com, a self-service ad network for the gay adult market segment.
The Phoenix Forum's 10th Anniversary Poolside Bash Announced
SexKey, PrideBucks and MetroContent have announced their Desert Splash Poolside Bash will be held during The Phoenix Forum on Friday, April 3, from 10 p.m.-1 a.m.