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JBM:
Hi DJ, thanks for doing this. Let's start by finding out what
you did
before the adult internet?
DiamondJim:
Well, life began in the primordial stew, literally millions
of years ago...or was it thousands? I can't remember...
Anyway, I had a couple other businesses....mainly contracting
and contracting supplies. Some vending routes (that are still
out there not being collected on I guess), etc...
Nothing really big...some of the young guns on the net are
much more ambitious than I was at that age
JBM:
How did you get into the adult net?
DiamondJim:
Hmmm...purely by accident and bad luck. I used to be a regular
in a newsgroup called alt.aol-sucks back in 1995-96. A couple
of guys that were also regulars were starting a foot fetish
site and needed some help with web design, which I could do
pretty easily back then. I helped them with the site (gone
now), saw that they were making some decent money pretty damn
fast and decided to join in the fun. Unfortunately, I was
extremely dumb back then and it took me a loooooooong time
to figure out how to build an affiliate program, get webmasters,
make sales, etc. It wasn't like now where you can buy off-the-shelf
programs to do everything. If you wanted something, you had
to program it yourself and hope it worked. There was no iBill,
CCBill, Epoch, et al with plug-and-play revshare systems.
You had your own merchant accounts (or DMR) and you scrubbed
yourself. It was a fun time, but I wish I had been smart like
Maxcash, CE, CEN, and the like. That's why I'm parking cars
for a living!
JBM:
What was your greatest accomplishment?
DiamondJim:
Getting the fuck OUT. Well, as out as I can be and still maintain
the friends I have and the paltry $$ that still comes in with
no work. It wasn't that easy to leave that all behind.
JBM:
What's your biggest dissapointment?
DiamondJim:
Not making more money when it was easy to do so. For as early
I got in, there's no excuse for not walking away completely
retired. Using my best friends and the people I hang around
with every week as a measuring stick, I am a financial failure.
That kind of sucks. I wouldn't trade my life, because I'm
married to the greatest woman in the world (which most other
people will admit, too...hahaha), have AMAZING kids, and what
the average person would consider a fantastic home and lifestyle.
BUT....I wouldn't mind having a bunch more money, too..
JBM:
How has the webmaster community changed over the years?
DiamondJim:
Fractured like I never would have guessed possible. It's hard
to tell how many of the people I see (read) on boards these
days are even webmasters, anyway. Calling yourself a "webmaster"
when your job (or hobby) appears to be posting 500 times a
day on a message board is beyond ridiculous. The only people
who can appreciate the difference are the people who were
on YNOT in the beginning, before Serge led the migration to
Condom (Netpond). My guess is you will never see the likes
of that again.
JBM:
You say your pretty much out of the adult net, I dont believe
you, but what are you doing these days?
DiamondJim:
HAHAHA. Well, I AM out right now except for my somewhat daily
communication with people still in the biz and some domain
names that generate cash with nothing to do on my part. So,
yes, I still receive some income from adult, but I am not
IN the biz in the sense of the word. I kinda think of it like
a pension. :)
Right now I am just goofing off, waiting for something to
strike my fancy. I first planned my exit with real estate
investing, which was a good start, but I quickly realized
I could give money to other real estate investors that knew
far more than I did, take a percentage and end up with the
same profit WITHOUT doing anything. If you can't tell, at
the moment, I'm a big fan of doing nothing.
JBM:
Are you enjoying life more or less these days?
DiamondJim:
I am extremely happy with life. My wife and I have one more
year of indentured servitude to our family and then we are
outta here....travelling the globe and seeing everything we
would liked to have seen in our twenties. That is, if Americans
are still welcome anywhere else on the planet. If not, there
is plenty to see here in the U.S., too.
JBM:
How do you see the coming years for the adult net turning
out?
DiamondJim:
I am an optimist and would consider coming back in at the
right time. The adult net has been in extreme stagnation because
of all the uncertainty with processing, 2257 crap, obscenity
fears, etc. Most of those factors will be solved at some point,
and then I expect a revival. I can't see how there will ever
be a return to the "golden days" because there are
too many people trying to take a bite out of a shrinking pie...but
there will be opportunties to jump in and make money that
would be very difficult to duplicate for ROI in another biz.
JBM:
Would you adopt me?
DiamondJim:
I feel like I've paid for enough dinners and drinks for you
to be adopted already. But *I'm* the cheap one! I like your
wife, though. No idea how she puts up with you. Must be the
big schlong.
JBM:
Who do you admire?
DiamondJim:
If you mean in the biz, the people I admire most wouldn't
want me to say, so I won't. I've been a big fan of what Marc
De has accomplished. I remember a phone call with him back
in the day, before he started ARS. We were talking about another
biz venture and he was telling me about this program he had
coming and how many signups a day he was going to be doing
and blah, blah, blah, blah. I hung up thinking "that
guy is DREAMING"...and the rest is history. :)
JBM:
Any advice you would give to newbies?
DiamondJim:
The usual. Go away. Nobody likes you and you smell really
bad. Quit making fools of yourselves at the trade shows....that's
the job of the veterans.
JBM:
Anything you want to plug or say?
DiamondJim:
Nothing to plug. I was never good at plugging even when I
HAD something to plug. I'll plug Laura blessing Brad with
baby Iz. Many, many congrats to them. Next one will be a boy
if Brad can figure out how to not let all that light in...
JBM:
Thanks DJ!
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