An Interview With Kevin of ShapCash
I spoke with Kevin the Business Development Manager for Twistys, TwistysCash/Shap Cash. Kevin once worked for IBill where Twistys was a client of his and then made the jump to the affiliate side of the adult internet when he joined the TwistysCash team. ShapCash is the newest evolution of TwistysCash. We spoke about Twistys, content and traffic.
Webmaster Vault (WV): When did you start your affiliate program?
ShapCash Kevin (SCK): Twistys the site was started in Oct 2001. TwistysCash open its doors in June 2002.
WV: Did you buy your sites/program or build it from scratch?
SCK: Shap, the owner, and his wife/co-owner Shapette built the site and the program from the ground up.
WV: How many people do you have working for you?
SCK: We have about 20 counting the programmers, designers and other people that work for the program that don’t work in the main office.
WV: Where in the world are you located?
SCK: Most of the operation is in
WV: Your site has a lot of exclusive content on it. What percentage of the content is exclusive?
SCK: We started the site with 100% Licensed content in 2001. We had the traffic and the idea for a layout and business model for the site. Not being photographers and not being 100% sure of the glamour market we bought 100% licensed. It was a cost-effective way to get our feet wet and learn the market. Our layout was a huge hit with members. They loved the ease of navigation and the frequent updates. We knew we had a winner so we immediately began contracting out to photographers for exclusive content. It took some time for the exclusive content to start rolling in. At the beginning of 2005 we increased our level of exclusive content to where 40% of all updates were exclusive content. Now we are at over 60% exclusive content. New exclusive material is added every single day.
WV: Twistys is known for having a lot of beautiful women in it. Can you tell us a little bit about how you find the models and go about getting the content with them shot?
SCK: We have photographers from around the world that shoot our exclusive content. There are beautiful women in every country of the world as there are talented photographers. We try to get the two together to provide Twistys members with high quality photography of women from around the world. :) We have a few photographers that we are currently negotiating with to become 100% exclusive to Twistys.
WV: Much of your content is softcore. Was that a conscious effort, or was it just kind of how it turned out?
SCK: We are a site that is known for its more glamour girl style, but we actually have a lot of hardcore content in the site. I would say that even though most people associate us with softcore stuff if they were to see our member’s area they would see we have a nice mix of both hardcore and softcore content.
WV: You are renaming and re-launching the affiliate program. What brought this on?
SCK: there are several reasons for the rename and re-launch. We started some new paysites and after some debate we decided it was better to incorporate all of the sites, including Twistys, under one roof instead of starting a different affiliate program for the new sites. Also we own some other sites including Thumbzilla and we wanted to be able to offer our affiliates a one-stop shop for traffic, affiliate sales, promo material and more. We also thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring the affiliate program into the modern age. The old TwistysCash program is an old school program and it’s missing some of the bells that affiliates are looking for. With ShapCash we will be able to offer our affiliates everything we have wanted to offer them and it gives us more room to grow and add new features as needed.
WV: ShapCash will is using the MPA3 stats package. What made you decide on it over others like NATS?
SCK: That was actually something we did a lot of looking into. Both MPA3 and NATS have their pros and cons and in the end we felt we were more familiar with MPA3 so we decided to give it a shot. It’s nothing against NATS, we just felt most comfortable with MPA3.
WV: You had mentioned owning Thumbzilla. I know that was a site Shap bought a little while back. How has that worked out for you?
SCK: Shap bought Thumbzilla in Jan 2004. It was a deal that just kind of fell into his lap and it was a great opportunity to own a prime site. It has turned out to be a great site for us and is one of our largest traffic generators.
WV: You also run Sex Ape and Big Breast Lovers. Did you purchase those sites as well or did you build them up yourself?
SCK: Those are sites that we still get a lot of traffic from and they were built from the ground up by Shap.
WV: What is the best part about running a program like ShapCash?
SCK: It is getting to work with some great people. Shap has a very good reputation and is known as one of the good guys in the industry and I enjoy working with him and the other people here. It’s a challenging and fun job. I’m having a great time.
WV: Any regrets?
SCK: Nope, no regrets at all.
ShapCash is now open for business and offers you some of the best, highest retaining sites on the internet to promote. They offer revshare, pay per signup, tons of high quality promo content and hosted galleries along with some great promotional opportunities to help you get some good traffic. Check them out today at www.shapcash.com
ShapCash Kevin (SCK): Twistys the site was started in Oct 2001. TwistysCash open its doors in June 2002.
WV: Did you buy your sites/program or build it from scratch?
SCK: Shap, the owner, and his wife/co-owner Shapette built the site and the program from the ground up.
WV: How many people do you have working for you?
SCK: We have about 20 counting the programmers, designers and other people that work for the program that don’t work in the main office.
WV: Where in the world are you located?
SCK: Most of the operation is in
WV: Your site has a lot of exclusive content on it. What percentage of the content is exclusive?
SCK: We started the site with 100% Licensed content in 2001. We had the traffic and the idea for a layout and business model for the site. Not being photographers and not being 100% sure of the glamour market we bought 100% licensed. It was a cost-effective way to get our feet wet and learn the market. Our layout was a huge hit with members. They loved the ease of navigation and the frequent updates. We knew we had a winner so we immediately began contracting out to photographers for exclusive content. It took some time for the exclusive content to start rolling in. At the beginning of 2005 we increased our level of exclusive content to where 40% of all updates were exclusive content. Now we are at over 60% exclusive content. New exclusive material is added every single day.
WV: Twistys is known for having a lot of beautiful women in it. Can you tell us a little bit about how you find the models and go about getting the content with them shot?
SCK: We have photographers from around the world that shoot our exclusive content. There are beautiful women in every country of the world as there are talented photographers. We try to get the two together to provide Twistys members with high quality photography of women from around the world. :) We have a few photographers that we are currently negotiating with to become 100% exclusive to Twistys.
WV: Much of your content is softcore. Was that a conscious effort, or was it just kind of how it turned out?
SCK: We are a site that is known for its more glamour girl style, but we actually have a lot of hardcore content in the site. I would say that even though most people associate us with softcore stuff if they were to see our member’s area they would see we have a nice mix of both hardcore and softcore content.
WV: You are renaming and re-launching the affiliate program. What brought this on?
SCK: there are several reasons for the rename and re-launch. We started some new paysites and after some debate we decided it was better to incorporate all of the sites, including Twistys, under one roof instead of starting a different affiliate program for the new sites. Also we own some other sites including Thumbzilla and we wanted to be able to offer our affiliates a one-stop shop for traffic, affiliate sales, promo material and more. We also thought this would be the perfect opportunity to bring the affiliate program into the modern age. The old TwistysCash program is an old school program and it’s missing some of the bells that affiliates are looking for. With ShapCash we will be able to offer our affiliates everything we have wanted to offer them and it gives us more room to grow and add new features as needed.
WV: ShapCash will is using the MPA3 stats package. What made you decide on it over others like NATS?
SCK: That was actually something we did a lot of looking into. Both MPA3 and NATS have their pros and cons and in the end we felt we were more familiar with MPA3 so we decided to give it a shot. It’s nothing against NATS, we just felt most comfortable with MPA3.
WV: You had mentioned owning Thumbzilla. I know that was a site Shap bought a little while back. How has that worked out for you?
SCK: Shap bought Thumbzilla in Jan 2004. It was a deal that just kind of fell into his lap and it was a great opportunity to own a prime site. It has turned out to be a great site for us and is one of our largest traffic generators.
WV: You also run Sex Ape and Big Breast Lovers. Did you purchase those sites as well or did you build them up yourself?
SCK: Those are sites that we still get a lot of traffic from and they were built from the ground up by Shap.
WV: What is the best part about running a program like ShapCash?
SCK: It is getting to work with some great people. Shap has a very good reputation and is known as one of the good guys in the industry and I enjoy working with him and the other people here. It’s a challenging and fun job. I’m having a great time.
WV: Any regrets?
SCK: Nope, no regrets at all.
ShapCash is now open for business and offers you some of the best, highest retaining sites on the internet to promote. They offer revshare, pay per signup, tons of high quality promo content and hosted galleries along with some great promotional opportunities to help you get some good traffic. Check them out today at www.shapcash.com
