Our Interview With John From Revengebucks
Our interview with the John Gleem the founder of Revengebucks.
John Gleem started Revenge Bucks on his own and still to this day does almost all of the work and affiliate support himself. An old school webmaster himself, John prides himself on knowing what affiliates need and he works hard to help to help them maximize their traffic. We interviewed John to find out about his program.
1. When did Revenge Bucks get started and can you give a little background on how it got going?
We started revengebucks back in 2006 when I took my top converting AVS site RevengeTV and ex-girlfriend site and converted it into a paysight. RevengeTV was my top converting AVS site since 2002, and it has been around since 1998 in one form or another, it just slowly evolved as I zeroed in on it as being a cash cow in a completely unexploited niche.
I wanted to create a way I could gain more control over billing than AVS allowed and of course a way for other webmasters to promote it but it seemed a hard and daunting task back then to build a sponsor program until NATS provided a great turnkey solution for doing so. Like most other projects I figured I could up and running with all the features for the sponsor program in a matter of months, but of course it took much longer for it to evolve into a full fledged sponsor program. We just overhauled the entire system we use to create new paysites and created a killer backend for members to maximize retention and create a great surfer experience, and we just arrived this month at a point where we are confident we can launch new sites quickly and efficiently without having to skimp on quality and promo materials.
2. How many people work for your program?
Two! LOL, no seriously I work my typical 18 hour days as most of us in the biz do, and I have 1 "employee" and then a host of part timers and free lancers that I hire as needed, at times we have as many as 10 people working on RevengeBucks projects, and other times maybe 3. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I like doing all my own graphic design, programming and video editing and overall affiliate/site management... but I am slowly and painfully learning to let go of some control to get more done with hired help.
3. Where in the world are you located?
Sunny Boca Raton Florida! Love it down here besides the occasional hurricanes, and honestly even though Ive been through some bad ones, I think they are kind of cool!
4. You have some pretty wild sites. What percentage of the content on them would you say is exclusive?
Well at the moment we only have 2 official sites, RevengeTV started as 90% non exclusive/Semi exclusive and 10% exclusive, and in the past 2 years weve been shooting exlusive scenes weekly or monthly, so we are at about 70% Exclusive now. I think that a good site doesnt need to be 100% exclusive to be a money maker, as long as you can package the content right, add your own twist on the content through creative video editing and marketing, any content can sell a site! Perfect example is BustedonFilm.com, initially I just wanted to see what I needed to do to my existing platform to make it more stream lined to launch new sites quickly. The site is 90% non-exclusive content, and the content is on other sites that I promoted as an affiliate and did pretty good with. So I repackaged the content into my own site, presented it in a unique way, added some exclusive content, and now my site outsells other sites with same content 3:1 easily.
Of course Id love to be able to create a new 100% exclusive site each month, but we are a new program and are not quit at that point yet, but will be in the not so distant future!
5. Speaking of content I have heard you have been involved in some pretty interesting shoots. What would you say are some of the coolest/wildest shoots you have done?
Well the "Frank is Busted" scene which you can view the trailer for on the top of BustedonFilm.com definately sticks out as pretty wild even though it was not a sex scene. Ended up getting my hand all cut up by the smashed windshield when cleaning up the location we shot it on.. turns out glass is sharp! lol. Watch the trailer and tell me if you ever seen anything like that on anyone elses tour... I dare you! Also we did a shoot where the boyfriend jumps out with a baseball bat and chases around his cheating girlfriend the guy, as the dude chased him a german shepherd that was locked up in a room got loose and went berzerk on the guy with the bat, pinned him to the ground, was pretty funny since no one got hurt.
6. There has been a surge of girlfriend/revenge/ex-girlfriend type of sites out there in recent years. What sets yours apart from the crowd?
Well first off I think I have created the most authentic LEGAL ex-girlfriend site out there. There are many other EXGF sites, and most of them are thieves plain and simple.. they scrape the newsgroups, rip whole member sections, and you end up with a site that is filled with undocumented pics and videos many of which are underage, and of course if you use their promo material you have a good chance of ending up with CP in your servers.
We have painstakingly worked with several content producers to create shoots that authentically recreate the amateur girlfriend look and feel.. some of the bigger sponsors use well known porn stars, and do completely unrealistic shoots and simply make it look grainy and call it a "real ex girlfriend" video.. it simply doesnt look amateur. We make sure our pics & videos look like some guy got his chick to take naked pics and videos and then later sent them in to us as revenge and I think we did/do a pretty damn good job!
7. What do you like best about working in the online adult business?
The fact that I make money staring at hot naked chicks all day! Thats actually what most people NOT in the biz think its like but as most of us that have been doing this for 10 years know, its not that big of a deal you get so used to it after a while, of course the vaginas tits and ass makes things a bit more bearable when everything else is stressing you out! The thing I like best is that I know that we have a biz that makes a product people will always want, its just a matter of making them believe its worth paying for.
8. What do you like least about working in the online adult business?
I can no longer jerk off to porn, its completely non-sexual to me anymore except some very rare occasions. Also hate the idea that the government can put a quick end to all of this overnight, or at least send alot of us running scared over the border. Like the most recent 2257 scare a couple years ago, I lost sleep over it, and it made me wish I had more mainstream businesses and now I do. Also hate all the back stabbing and cheating and stealing that goes on, but I think that its with any biz, and I honestly think mainstream online marketing is 10x worse when it comes to shady practices. I run a local message board for a reef tank club and their mainstream virtual host that charges us $9 a month sends emails each month that say "We are upgrading your service to blah blah, if you dont reply to this email and tell us not to your credit card will be charged $350 per month for the new service.." Unfucking believable the shit mainstream places do, and can get away with since they arent up against a 1% chargeback limit on their merchant accounts!
9. Any new projects coming down the pipe in the near future?
Of course, lots of new pay sites.. a new technology that every adult webmaster will be using by the end of the year and a new mainstream product Im launching on QVC :)
10. If you could give affiliates some personal advice on how to best market your sites what would it be?
Send me more traffic? No, Seriously, umm.. dont listen to 99.5% of the crap posted on message boards, always consider the source. If you think something will work, do it and dont let anyone tell you its not a good idea. Start thinking out of the freakin box and try new stuff and if it works, ICQ me and tell me how you did it! If theres one thing Ive seen over the years theres alot of money to be made in this biz and dont let anyone tell you otherwise! If its too good to be true, then its not true.
12. One last question. If you werent in this business what do you think you would be doing.
I would be a graphic designer I suppose, that or a psychologist. I have degrees in both. Who am I kidding, Id be broke unemployed living in alley fighting for dibs on a discarded cardboard refrigerator box!
In closing I want to say that I know we arent a mega sponsor site with 40 sites, $50 PPS on free trials and all that, but Revenge Bucks is my baby, and I really am a webmaster/affiliate first and a sponsor owner second. I run alot of my own free sites and send traffic out to over 150 sponsors with them, so I know what works, what doesnt. Im not some guy that just popped on the scene with some cash and made a whole buncha sites and a sponsor program hoping to screw affiliates and surfers out of their cash as fast as possible. I am my own top affiliate and Im just trying to find more webmasters like myself that I can partner with to make each-other more money, I am in it for the long haul. As many of my affiliates know I will stay up till 4am creating custom promo clips for you to use, and I do most of it myself, I dont trust any chop shops in the Philippines to do it because I know when I do it it will come out much much better. I do all my own galleries, tours and videos production because I know what sells. I have alot of myself invested in this program so you know I care more about my sites, my affiliates then some of the other programs that have a staff of $1 an hour guys overseas cranking out crappy galleries and designs. So if you are serious about making some money, give us the 5,000 unique pepsi taste test, I know you will be happy with the result from RevengeBucks.com, hit me up personally for any special promo request or traffic/sales deals you want!
Revenge Bucks offers you 50% revshare on their sites and you can choose if you want to have consoles or not on the tour. If you choose consoles you also get 50% revshare on all sales made through the consoles. You can check out Revenge Bucks here.
