A few years ago, Bill Pinyon was at a convention in New Orleans when co-worker Lisa Turner excitedly approached him. "She says, 'You'll never guess who's here and who wants to see you,'" recalls the owner of BadPuppy.com. It was William Higgins… the man behind the first porn film Pinyon, fresh out of high school in 1981, ever saw.
"He's my Cecil B. DeMille of gay porn. I've looked up to him, I've respected him since Day One. I'd always wanted to meet him… and it was him. And we have become very, very good friends… that was a dream that came true."
Fast-forward to 2006. Pinyon has another dream: "I have a studio that I've always wanted to work with, and it's taken us thirteen years to get to the discussion table, and we're there. And we're so close… and I don't want to jinx it by saying their name. To me it would be the ultimate feather in my personal cap."
Just what is it about this site that has everyone clamoring to get a piece of Pinyon, his crew, and their expertise? Established in 1995, BadPuppy.com is a smorgasbord of gay porn content, featuring video clips, photos, live sex, webcams — and a membership that grants access to more than 100 affiliated sex sites, like ClubAmateurUSA.com and FraternityGuys.com.
"Customers get a taste when they're offered the tour, but it's not until they actually get into the main site that they realize what they've got. And it does overwhelm a lot of people," Pinyon says. "We have actually had people call or send in a cancellation notice that says, 'Your site is too big.' They have problems navigating it, and that's been our biggest thing since Day One, finding a navigation method that is amiable to everybody."
Pinyon left a job at NASA to concentrate on his website project, and was nervous about taking the leap into porn. But he quickly realized he made the right decision. "I wanted BadPuppy to be a repository for anything gay that was available on the Internet, and I've opened that door to anybody that wanted to participate with us," he says. "And because of the way that we've handled our customers and the way we've designed the hosting with the bandwidth, with the support and the marketing, I believe that's what kept the contributors, the host sites, with us."
BadPuppy also launched Dog Gone Video, its own Video-on-Demand company, and QueerPalm.com is its own mobile device video site, just fueling an already huge library of content that necessitates a daily "what's new" update on the site. "I daresay that you could go onto BadPuppy and through one of its services you can always find someone live doing something," Pinyon says, adding that featured contributors have domain names that work with BadPuppy's membership program. "These guys offer whole niches that we couldn't even think of offering, and you could just about take any fetish that is legal and we've got it."
Pinyon notes that BadPuppy's focus on emerging technology trends has enabled it to thrive; the company is even getting set to release new audio-video communication software, and continues to look at ways to deliver content better and faster. "Over the years as a team, we have integrated the site in so many ways with allowing user profiles, allowing these people to customize their total experience with BadPuppy on an individual basis," says Pinyon. "There's so many companies that think they can just throw pictures of a naked man up there and that's going to keep people coming back."
Besides offering a quality product, Pinyon cites BadPuppy's customer service as another aspect that keeps membership growing — that and contributors. "There's only a few studios that we're not doing anything with nowadays, and I would never have dreamed that that would have been possible," he says. "I thought it would have leveled off long ago. I am amazed every day when I go into the office. The crew that's there is finding ways to go in different directions and do new things all the time, and they're always working on new projects. Lisa is always looking for that right piece of content, that website that's doing something right, and she'll make them a deal they want to accept."
A major goal for BadPuppy in the coming year will be a focus on more promotions and advertising, and getting the name out more in different countries. Pinyon says that a big European branding campaign will begin within the next four months, which will undoubtedly lead to even bigger name recognition — something he dared to dream about.
"I'm totally humbled and floored by it," he says of BadPuppy's success. "I believe people think it's a very classy, online adult magazine, and that's what I would hope. I have always wanted to be the Playboy of gay porn."
Contact Info: 800-219-5650; BadPuppy.com
