Quote:
Originally Posted by DWB
Correct me if I'm wrong, as I know you've been around forever in the business, but you guys came into the online business pretty late in the game. No? I know you had a site but I think I remember you guys not really making real moves with it until just a few years ago. Is that accurate or am I confusing Homegrown with someone else?
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You aren't wrong - just not informed. We have been online since 1997 when we were still just posting pictures and mail order ads on BBS like the General and GiffyGirls. Eventually we had about 3000 members paying close to $50 per month when we made a marketing deal with Cybererotica. We grew quickly to over 4 times that with CE's huge roster of affiliates. That did really well but unfortunately for reasons I am not allowed to elaborate under the terms of our settlement the deal ended in a long and painful arbitration. From there we had to start all over again. Starting literally from zero members... and that is the dark ages where Homegrown went sort of off the tracks.
We had to grow yet we trusted no one and had issues with people loyal to the old program; so, we had to learn how to market in a new environment, and had to restore, rebuild, re-invent. This all sucked but it forged us into a new company online where we didn't rely on affiliates, not because we didn't want them, but because we had such a hard time getting them. We used RevEx and affiliates hated it. So, we made missteps along the way but through trial and error we scraped our way out. While we still have a long way to go, now we have sought a balance of our own internal traffic, affiliates again because we switched to NATS, and paid managed traffic.
Now, in direct contradiction to what many here claim, we convert better from join page uniques than we did 4 years ago. Our retention has always been great but in the same time it has improved as well. So that is why I am not anti-tube and not because I have to suck up to Manwin.
Truth be told, I think of Manwin as a 400lb gorilla that could tear us all limb from limb. I am more like Jane Goodall sitting in the brush watching them and studying their habits to try and understand something about marketing in this jungle we call online adult. That they are friendly to us is only the result of them feeling zero threat from us. As they become more used to us being around they treat us with bored curiousity and indifferent acceptance just like most of the other programs they partner with.
Today, btw, we are one of the very few old school brick and mortar companies to actually still own its own library and run its own online rather than completely outsourcing everything.