Hello All,
I have been surfing the forum now for a few weeks, purchased MJ's book and have made it about halfway through. I'm very excited to learn from you all, and just wanted to introduce myself and tell you all a little about me. I'm a pretty transparent guy, so hopefully this information doesn't offend.
After being fired from just about every job you can think of, I decided to start my own company with a friend of mine. The year was 1999 and we contacted a webdesign company through the yellow pages to build an adult e-commerce site for us. The site was created and none of us, including the design company, knew how to generate traffic aside from buying it. Funds quickly ran out and we were stuck with a website and about $2,000 worth of vhs tapes and dvds.
My buddy went back to work for Boeing and I continued to learn more about the industry. By early 2000 I had my first adult membership site up. As that began to gain steam I met other site owners, continuing to soak up knowledge and things began to slowly take off. Fast forward to 2003/2004, I had a full network of adult sites running and was taking home anywhere from $50,000-$70,000 per month, and those numbers began to grow with new sites added to the network
Work didn't seem like "work" and much of the income was passive so things were going well. Boy did I wish MJ's book exist then. I started off doing well with money management, spending less as I was making more. Then after a while of hanging out and meeting people I began to spend more and more until I was living well beyond my means.
Obscene purchases (3 cars and a 1.5 million dollar house) and horrible investments (3 indie horror films that never saw the light of day, 2 failed t-shirt companies, family members with their hands out) had become my "reality". I never thought the money would dry up so I continued to justify my spending. The combination of the economy crash and tube sites popping up everywhere giving away free content literally killed half of the industry, in what felt like overnight.
2009 was by far the worst year for my adult business so I got out of that industry, and with my interest in fashion, went balls to the wall in the world of eBay arbitrage. I currently sell (streetwear clothing & accessories) on eBay and do spam moderation for a large entertainment website. I came here hoping to gain some insight into other areas of business, so that I don't keep the tunnel vision of "entertainment" as my go-to.
I have been surfing the forum now for a few weeks, purchased MJ's book and have made it about halfway through. I'm very excited to learn from you all, and just wanted to introduce myself and tell you all a little about me. I'm a pretty transparent guy, so hopefully this information doesn't offend.
After being fired from just about every job you can think of, I decided to start my own company with a friend of mine. The year was 1999 and we contacted a webdesign company through the yellow pages to build an adult e-commerce site for us. The site was created and none of us, including the design company, knew how to generate traffic aside from buying it. Funds quickly ran out and we were stuck with a website and about $2,000 worth of vhs tapes and dvds.
My buddy went back to work for Boeing and I continued to learn more about the industry. By early 2000 I had my first adult membership site up. As that began to gain steam I met other site owners, continuing to soak up knowledge and things began to slowly take off. Fast forward to 2003/2004, I had a full network of adult sites running and was taking home anywhere from $50,000-$70,000 per month, and those numbers began to grow with new sites added to the network
Work didn't seem like "work" and much of the income was passive so things were going well. Boy did I wish MJ's book exist then. I started off doing well with money management, spending less as I was making more. Then after a while of hanging out and meeting people I began to spend more and more until I was living well beyond my means.
Obscene purchases (3 cars and a 1.5 million dollar house) and horrible investments (3 indie horror films that never saw the light of day, 2 failed t-shirt companies, family members with their hands out) had become my "reality". I never thought the money would dry up so I continued to justify my spending. The combination of the economy crash and tube sites popping up everywhere giving away free content literally killed half of the industry, in what felt like overnight.
2009 was by far the worst year for my adult business so I got out of that industry, and with my interest in fashion, went balls to the wall in the world of eBay arbitrage. I currently sell (streetwear clothing & accessories) on eBay and do spam moderation for a large entertainment website. I came here hoping to gain some insight into other areas of business, so that I don't keep the tunnel vision of "entertainment" as my go-to.
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