Al Sokol wasn’t sure just when he would re-start the once thriving AdultAmerica.com Web site.
“I just never had the time to really try to do it,” he says, after putting the site up for bidding on eBay for a minimum asking price of $2 million.
Sokol, who was one of the site’s owners in 1995 when it was shut down, said he hopes to sell the site to an investor willing to bring it back to its glory days.
“It was a great multimedia adult site that was very successful, but there was internal strife between the partners and in the end I acquired the rights to it, but I never had the time to try to bring it back,” Sokol said.
The site is also being sold along with the domain names AdultAmerica.net, AdultAmerica.org, AdultAmerica.us, AdultAmerica.cc, AdultAmerica.tv.
Although the AdultAmerica.com site has been dormant for nearly 11 years, Sokol said it remains one of the better known brands in adult content for videos and other related materials.
As the owner of Al’s Diamond Cabaret in Reading, Pa., Sokol has had his hands full running the club in recent years and has only recently realized he doesn’t have the time or energy to devote to bringing back the once lucrative online brand.
“I know that I’m only successful when I devote all my energies into something and for this site, I just don’t have the time to devote to it,” he said.
The site had been one of the pioneer Web sites which streaming video, downloadable clips, full length movies, chat rooms, member subscription areas as well as merchandising and retail areas.
“It was the top of the line for its time generated a lot of traffic,” he said.
But legal squabbles among its partners over unspecified issues doomed the site when it was ultimately auctioned off and acquired by Sokol.
A veteran of the food and beverage industry, Sokol has operated restaurants and rock music clubs before acquiring a strip club here. He soon turned the venue into a major moneymaker, thanks to his work in upgrading the building and promoting the business by attracting some of the region’s top feature dancers.
Sokol’s work was ultimately recognized when he earned the Club of the Year for the Northeast at the Exotic Dancer Gentlemen’s Club Expo in 2001. He would also win the Hall of Fame Award from the expo in 2004.
“It’s a great business, but it takes a lot of time and effort on my part,” he said.
Whether Sokol will find a suitable buyer, is unclear. Sokol is just testing the waters for now, he says.
“Because its name is AA (for Adult America), it’s going to be at the top of any search table, so that’s a big plus, but it’s also a recognized name,” he said.
For more information, visit http://cgi.ebay.com/ADULT-AMERICA-COM_W0QQitemZ9723535731QQcategoryZ11153QQs
sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem.
