LAS VEGAS - Revshare affiliate program OCCash got its start back in 2004 with President JC Baumgartner, who began in the adult industry by shooting titles for himself, as well as content for TripleX Cash, which was distributed through Celestial Productions and Northstar. Over the past three years, he and his partners have built the company into a niche-based Web power, the success of which they hope to duplicate with the relaunch of recently acquired FreshChecks.
The vision began at TripleX Cash, where Baumgartner cut his teeth in adult.
"I saw how successful they were, and I was able to learn a lot about the adult Internet marketplace and what was going on," Baumgartner told AVN Online. "During my time working with them, I decided I wanted to start my own affiliate program, so I hatched a content deal with TT Boy and his company, Evasive Angles, and enlisted the help of my longtime friend and business partner Richie Zaye, co-owner of Northstar. I then partnered with a designer who had extensive webmastering experience, and we launched OCCash."
Baumgartner soon brought on OCCash's No. 1 affiliate, Jay Quinlan, aka XXX Jay, from JaysXXXLinks.com.
"Jay and I developed a relationship over ICQ and met up at a show in San Diego where we hit it off," Baumgartner said. "Jay had some incredible ideas and extensive knowledge of Web traffic and search-engine optimization, so he bought into the company and we relaunched everything. Things just jelled and came together after that point."
Thanks to the dynamic duo of Baumgartner and Quinlan, who now is OCCash's vice president and director of marketing, the program boasts approximately 40 sites in various niches, with a focus on TT Boy's interracial, ebony and ethnic content, as well as Richie Zaye's fetish content and various other lines.
In an attempt to expand its business further, OCCash acquired the FreshChecks program seven months ago. OCCash hopes to mirror its own success in FreshChecks by offering affiliates the same promotional tools that are available in OCCash, including handwritten RSS feeds, YouTube-style embeds, hosted free sites and galleries, Quinlan said.
"When we acquired FreshChecks back in February, some friends of ours couldn't quite get it headed in the direction it needed, so Jay and I stepped in to take over the program and relaunch it," Baumgartner said. "The rationale was that we've been doing so well with TT Boy and his content over at OCCash that we wanted to focus the same level of resources on the relaunch of our FreshChecks program."
However, Baumgartner initially felt FreshChecks lacked a solid content partner, and a lot of the content that was supposed to be provided was never delivered.
"We kind of had to put it on the back burner until we had some solid deals in place to manufacture content," he said.
FreshChecks since has signed exclusive Internet-distribution deals with Stoney Curtis Productions, Alex Sanders and American Hardcore. The idea is to offer webmasters a high level of traffic while providing consumers the extreme gonzo-type material that has proven to convert.
The revamped FreshChecks, which is in beta, will launch about five sites through American Hardcore, then several sites from Alex Sanders and Stoney Curtis in late September and early October, Quinlan said.
"We wanted to offer entirely different content to help us cover more niches, keep the traffic in-house and cross-promote, instead of farming it out to others and having to pay them for the traffic," he said.
OCCash also is in talks to acquire TTBoy.com to bring the site back under its banner, Baumgartner said.
"Beyond that, there has also been some discussion with TT Boy about starting a third program to focus on a lot of his white-on-white booty content and some [video-on-demand] ventures," he added. "We want OCCash to keep TT Boy growing and prospering; it just makes sense."
Despite having numerous irons in the fire, the primary focus for Baumgartner and Quinlan is to get FreshChecks up and running with more sales and exclusive deals, while preserving OCCash's momentum and helping both sites grow. By taking this path of expansion, OCCash is sure to be a vital presence in the adult industry and will be a company to watch in the future.
