If you've attended an adult industry convention, you've probably met Darren Blatt, aka D$. He's the man behind the popular Player's Ball, a house-rockin' free-for-all where rappers such as Snoop Dogg, Ice T, and Sean "P Diddy" Combs have been seen "pimpin it on stage."
"It's the ultimate schmooze," explains D. "You get to see some great music and maybe get some business done." And for D-Money, the latter is always on his mind, because the Ball gives him a chance to cross-promote his other businesses, including the Marketing Firm (www.marketingfirm.com), his Internet consulting interest.
It also made for a perfect transition to another venture, The D-Money Show (www.d-moneyshow.com), a weekly Webcast of "adult Webmaster entertainment" produced in partnership with XBIZ (www.xbiz.com). A cross between Howard Stern and Neil Cavuto, D holds court with rappers, Webmasters, and adult industry personalities, providing solid information, humor, and the raunchiest moments from the Player's Ball.
What you won't hear from D-Money is trash talk. "We try to be a positive show," he says. D sees himself as something of an industry peacemaker, and tries to make sure that the conversation and tone remains civil, even in the site's chatroom. "A lot of people show up in the chatroom prepared to fight, or slam somebody, and I try to (steer the conversation) in another direction," he explains. The show's mission, he says, is to "try to extract good information from my guests - something that can really help a Webmaster; a small little detail that people might overlook - or maybe just have a laugh."
The entertainment aspect of the show is important to him. "I don't like it when my show gets too serious and people get bored," he says. To keep things from getting staid, he tries to have guests with whom he's already established a rapport. "The best way for me to tell people how to network at a trade show is to have some people that I've met at trade shows on and have a laugh about some of the memories we've had together." In that kind of relaxed atmosphere, "once in a while a little bit of business will get spurted out, and we'll talk about a deal we've done."
Clips from various Player's Balls also keeps The D-Money Show awash in juicy grooves. "I think the two have really promoted each other very well," he says. If the show were just "me and Webmasters having fun that would be great; but being able to see footage from [Internext] and the Player's Ball gives people a lot more incentive to check out the Website." Or to be more blunt, "Someone might rather see Too $hort performing at the Player's Ball than a Webmaster interviewed about email lists."
Finding the balance between the general public and Webmasters is not just a matter of demographics, but of economy. In addition to the weekly Webcasts, the archives, and the Player's Ball clips, the site is quite video-intensive. "If you're going to have a surfer-oriented site and you have that many free videos, you're going to push a lot of bandwidth and the cost will be very high," D explains. "To rein in bandwidth, the membership area of the site is exclusively for Webmasters, which keeps the cost fairly low." He also filters the audience by marketing The D-Money Show specifically to Webmasters and to Webmaster resource areas.
The site currently gets 1,000 unique visits a day, and the Player's Ball content sometimes attracts surfers unconnected to the adult industry. "They'll check out the clips," he says, "but some of them stay for the live show." And some even become Webmasters themselves. "I've gotten emails from people telling me they just found my site and found it so interesting they became a Webmaster."
Given his high profile, a lot of people want to be in business with D-Money. He says he was approached by hundreds of people before he partnered up with Alec Helmy and XBIZ.
The two met, as you might expect, through the Player's Ball, and Helmy was impressed with D's drive. "The fact that he built a name for himself in the industry in a rather short period of time shows he is definitely great at what he does - marketing and promotion. His Web radio background with the original D-Money show was a perfect fit for what I envisioned: expanding XBIZ.com's impressive array of Webmaster content."
Helmy's partnership offer was attractive "because he pretty much lets me do my own thing; he doesn't try to take over the show, doesn't want to change my views or opinions or change the show's format." This allows D to keep doing what he does best. "It's really all about putting our resources together and standing for a show that maybe could do a little bit of good for the industry." If he can have some fun, and perhaps help you have some fun as well, so much the better.
