This past summer, SilverCash's parent company, Price Communications, passed a milestone: It turned 10 years old. "Time flies when you are having fun" is what Mike Price, the company's owner and president, would say about the occasion. "It really doesn't seem that long ago when I was running my own free sites and top 50s," he said. "I am part of a second or third generation of online-porn pioneers, so there is much to say about those who gave me the opportunity to build my own business."
This may be true, but as most know, SilverCash definitely was Price's brainchild. Price launched the company in 1999 as a showcase for a series of high-profile adult sites - none of which contained exclusive content - and, by following trends within the adult affiliate-program market, quickly morphed it into a base for several realty sites before featuring a roster of exclusive solo-girl sites. Today, the company boasts more than 100 sites, from surfer-submitted amateur content (VideoSeekers.com) to down-and-dirty hardcore footage (AnalHell.com) to sexy teen stuff (SexToyTeens.com). Likewise, its spin-off program, Gay.SilverCash.com, has taken the gay industry by storm with an appealing roster of sites that includes GaySexResort.com, GayHitchhiker.com and GiantGayCocks.com.
"SilverCash has continued to research industry trends for new opportunities," said SilverCash Albert, the company's vice president of business development. "These opportunities address new business models, technology, optimizing operational departments and thinking in a global market. We analyze risk at all levels of decision-making to ensure [that] we can offer a premium affiliate program that yields consistent performance and results for our webmasters."
One of SilverCash's most recent ventures, a DVD line dubbed Silver Sinema, is among the company's forays into uncharted territories in an effort to further monetize its content. Repackaging the program's hottest content - which is shot in-house and by third parties, but exclusive to SilverCash sites - the company created Silver Sinema to prove that the DVD is not a thing of the past. "Our team entered this market because we were confident that we had a high-quality product and a strategic action plan in place to compete," Albert said. "We believe the DVD consumer and the online consumer represent two different markets with unique and different competitive features. Entering the DVD market with our exclusive content expands our business into a new profit center for the Price Communications corporate vision. Yet it is a complementary business model that demonstrated low risks due to our overall knowledge, resources and the business relationships we have accumulated within 10-plus years of operations."
The past two years have been busy for SilverCash, which added more than 15 employees who have been "dedicated to strategic planning and execution of new projects that correlate to the demands of our dynamic market," Albert said. Adding that the company's "largest asset is our human capital," he went on to say, "SilverCash has evolved into an organization that has structured itself to operate more efficiently to advance in this hyper-competitive market and refocus itself on cost containment and profitability. Like any business, we strive for long-term operations and providing the highest quality of life for our team members."
Though, as always, the SilverCash team withheld information about upcoming projects - "We still believe in the element of surprise," Albert said with a chuckle - they said several exciting things are coming up in 2008. Though panels at trade shows often "talk about how the industry has changed for the worse," Price said, he has "been blessed to operate each year and show substantial growth without compromising the SilverCash product."
Price said that, while good ethics and values have been instrumental to his success, his ability to keep the company going comes down to something just as important. "One component for our longevity has been momentum," he said. "Always understanding [that you have to] be competitive by launching new sites, new programs, new promotions, new business models and staying in the forefront of your competition is important. Being the first to market has its advantages, but adapting to make something better is not necessarily bad, either. I think what it really comes down to is specializing in things you are good at, and understanding your limitations is equally as important as having passion."
This story first appeared in the February 2008 issue of AVN Online magazine. To subscribe to AVN Online, go to https://www.avnmedianetwork.com/subscriptions/
