AVN Online recently caught up with amateur Web mistress Carol Cox, and talked about her Wild Roses' Amateurs site (www.carolcox.com). She and her husband, Danny, also run the Montreal-based WRP (www.wrp.net), which offers services such as hosting, content and programming to Web masters. Cox, one of the pioneers in the adult amateur market, is dedicated to helping Web amateurs and therefore founded the Internet Amateur's Network (www.iamateurs.net), which brings attention to all amateur women, men and couples on the Internet in order to provide them with resources they can use to help their sites thrive.
First of all, when did you start Wild Roses' Amateurs?
We started the site in January of 1994 as Wild Roses' Fireside Chat on a small server here in Montreal. It started off as quite a small site and quickly became successful. The name "Wild Rose" was something I had been using for many years in various Bulletin Boards (BBSs) that were predominant before the Internet. My first site was actually part of an adult BBS and was started in the late 1980s. It too was called Wild Roses' Fireside Chat and had pictures, stories and a chat room where people would hang out.
Why did you start your site?
The site was originally started just for fun and to meet people who were swingers like my husband and me. Back in '94, there was no way to make money from the Internet, and it wasn't even something I had thought of doing. The site grew quite quickly and started to cost money to run. Since there were no advertising programs or pay sites at that time, we produced an amateur video and sold it through the site to cover the costs. It did quite well and kept the site going through the first couple of years.
Specifically, what content do you offer on the site?
There are well over 20,000 amateur pictures of myself and other women, men, and couples who love to have explicit fun for the camera. I also have a large selection of amateur videos, stories, and humor and well over 10,000 mainstream XXX pictures. I do have one of the largest, most complete sites on the Internet. The prime reason [for our success] is that we've been in existence for so long and we update it four to five times a day - yes, a day - with hundreds of new pictures, videos and stories.
How many members do you currently have and what does membership cost?
I currently have around 20,000 members who pay $16.95 a month for subscription membership. I would say that close to 95 percent of my members are from the U.S. and Canada. The nice thing is, I have no advertising costs whatsoever. Luckily, I get very good and productive traffic that converts quite well. The site has become extremely profitable.
Have you received many awards for your site?
I have received numerous awards for my site - too many to even keep count of. I won for the "Best Amateur Site" at the XWebExpo for the past two years, and won "Hottest Net Star" this year. I was also nominated for two AVN awards last year and hope to be nominated once again.
Are you a "tech-head?" Do you run the technical aspects of the site? Do you run the creative aspects?
I'm probably as far from a "tech-head" as you can be. I'm involved in the technical aspect only insofar as knowing something is "there." I know nothing about programming or about the technical side of the operation. My company, WRP, has a tech Department that takes care of everything. I make a suggestion and they make it work! I do get heavily involved in the design aspect of the site and meet with my design staff regularly. There's a total of four people that work on the site.
What have been some of your biggest problems with running the site?
The biggest problem in running the site is trying to keep all the surfers and members happy. Everyone wants something different and it's truly difficult to keep up with the requests people have for site content. We do try, though, as we really believe that the customer is the most important asset of our site.
What do you enjoy most about the site?
The thing I enjoy the most is meeting my fans. That alone makes everything I do seem worthwhile. It is still hard for me to believe that I have fans! I still think of myself as a wife and mother who does something that she has fun with and not as someone important. When I do appearances, I'm amazed at the turnout and the distance people travel to meet me. At my last party, I had a group of fans from Mexico, a fan from Chile, numerous fans from all over the United States and a couple from Europe. They all traveled to Montreal to meet me and enjoy one of my get-togethers. I really love them for it.
We do a "FanClub" party once a month for our members and typically get about 300 people showing up. They have proven to be a lot of fun, great for "customer relations" and great for site content.
How much E-mail do you receive?
I receive over 500 E-mails a day. Thankfully, I don't have to answer them all myself. Our assistant pre-filters the mail for me and sends E-mails to the various company departments. She forwards the truly personal ones to me and I spend about two hours a day answering them. We never pretend that it's me answering everything, as each person signs his or her name to anything they might answer.
How has amateur adult Internet changed since you've been around?
The main difference is the reason people start sites. Back then, amateur sites were started just for fun. We were exhibitionists and swingers who used our pages to show off, enjoy ourselves, and meet people that were into our lifestyle. These days, profit is the prime reason for starting an amateur site. There is nothing wrong with that, but I get the feeling that most of these women don't do this for fun at all and that's unfortunate. There are also too many "corporate" amateur sites these days. Many people are jumping on the amateur bandwagon by hiring models and building sites around them. The problem is, these sites tend to not have any personality.
Also, in the beginning everyone tried to help one another. We all exchanged good links and helped one another with problems. Recently, it has become much more cutthroat and that, too, is very unfortunate. I still try and help those that I can and I make it a point not to get involved in the cliques that are constantly being formed.
Do you have any advice for amateurs on the Net?
Too many new amateurs look at the Internet as a get rich quick scheme. They think that if they build a site, people will come. That just isn't true. Running a site is a lot of hard and dedicated work. Half of your time must be spent in cultivating relationships and building traffic to your sites. People will never "find" a site; they have to be shown the way. The only way to get into an amateur site is to think of it as a fun - as well as a profitable - hobby. Take your time and build on what you have. You must enjoy what you do or people won't believe it. The surfer is smarter than our industry gives them credit for and they can tell what is "real" and what isn't. If you care about it, it will show through the content, and people will stay with your site.
My other advice is to stay out of cliques. Stay away from those and take care of your own business. At the first sign of "bully" tactics from anyone - run - don't walk, away! Those aren't the people you want to do business with.
What are your goals for the site?
I plan to make the site the largest amateur site on the Internet. I will be adding many new girls to my pages - girls that will exclusively be on my site. The site is currently in total redesign and we will be adding more areas to it because I really feel that you have to change with the times and listen to what the surfers and members want.
