Amidst the sandy beaches, Waffle Houses, Cuban cigars, beautiful girls, and Super Bowl Champion Buccaneers of Tampa, Fla. resides one of the adult Internet's most esteemed content providers. Launched in November 2001, Webmaster Central has become a big success story in the ever-changing, always competitive arena of adult content.
"The mantra behind Webmaster Central is to offer high-quality adult entertainment, seductively packaged and properly maintained for the ultimate end user experience," says Andy Alvarez, president of Webmaster Central.
With 30 content feeds at the onset, in the last year the company has added another 20, which includes premium services and the exclusive Webmaster Central Flash Toons.
The company's headquarters are located in sunny Tampa with eight full-time employees. There is also a Webmaster Central presence in Canada and California, with three employees at each location.
As the company continues to cultivate its thriving business model, Alvarez says the common denominator for their success hasn't changed one iota from the very beginning. "If Webmasters don't trust you, they are not going to work with you no matter how good your content is, and how can you argue with that?" says Alvarez. "We treat our clients like friends and work closely with them to keep everyone happy. We find out what they need to succeed and we try give it to them."
This philosophy extends to the company's branding strategy. "We advertise on all the resources and chat boards," says Alvarez, "but the real bulk of our success comes from straight sales. Personal interaction with the client is the best marketing tool an adult company can utilize."
Alvarez says the sales team scours the Internet seeking adult sites without Webmaster Central feeds. "We make direct personal contact with the Webmaster and begin to build a relationship.
"These efforts may not [result in] immediate gratification, but when that Webmaster is ready to expand his members area, he sees our banners everywhere and is more likely to come back to try us out."
Alvarez says that the company's greatest satisfaction comes when a client tries their content and feeds, and it soon becomes their Website's most popular feature. "It happens here relatively often, and totally validates our efforts," he says.
Webmaster Central doesn't shoot any content, but they organize and design the packaging and delivery in-house. "We find out what the most popular movie titles are, then we contact the producers to acquire the Internet rights," says Alvarez. "We then cut the films, optimize them for streaming, design the packaging, and test the product."
For example? "We just released a new line of premium full-length movies, one of which, Naughty Little Nymphos, won an AVN award. It's expensive for us to do all this, but it leverages out for us because the feeds are high quality, so our clients keep them for extended periods.
"You have to have content that updates weekly, or at least monthly, or your retention is going to suffer," he adds.
A graduate of Florida State University, Alvarez says his initial foray into the adult game was due in part to meeting two people who were already involved in the business: Mike Hoffmeyer and Sharky, both of whom who were with Cybererotica at the time and "loved the idea of finding a place in it for me.
"I didn't want to go the usual pay site route," says Alvarez. "So, after meeting Lee Noga and getting some contacts in the movie biz, we started MegaHardcore, and the rest is history, I guess."
For Kim, Andy's wife and V.P. of finance for Webmaster Central, the experience thus far has been first rate. "Although I had never worked in the adult business before Webmaster Central, I've found every one of our clients to be extremely professional and very easy to work with," she says. "It's great going to Internext and all the parties and seeing all of our clients and other people we do business with, and being able to talk face to face."
"I talk to many of our clients on a daily basis," adds Alvarez. "We specifically test our content on some of their sites, and if it works well, then we offer it as a product for the rest of our Webmasters. This kind of market research is invaluable and plays a large part in our success."
Alvarez says they recently released a new series of full-length movies that were tested on four sites, each with more than 25,000 members. "They became the number one feature on all of them within two days, so we knew our techniques were hitting home with the end user."
He continues: "I would say the key to staying ahead of the pack is finding great content and always looking for new ways to exploit technology to offer larger screens with higher quality at a reasonable bandwidth.
"You can see an example of this in all of our recently released premium feeds. With a screen resolution of 480 x 390, it's like watching television. Very premium by today's Internet standards."
With all of this positive mojo wafting through the air at Webmaster Central headquarters, Alvarez keeps close tabs on the state of the adult Internet industry, watching the pendulum swing back and forth in a volatile economy.
"I think the future is bright, but it's going to be a very different future from what we know. The adult community is being forced to transition into a legitimate, viable dynamic, and not only by the major credit card companies but also by the community itself."
He believes that retention rates are getting lower because, in many cases, "Surfers are canceling as soon as they sign up due to weak products and bad service."
Says Alvarez: "The credit card heavies are dropping the bomb on the crooks with the new chargeback rule, making for a stronger business environment that will trickle down and promote trust with users who will spend their money."
Alvarez says this transition period is slowing down the flow of money, "as is the economy and the state of world affairs right now."
But optimism reigns supreme. "That won't last forever. Adult entertainment will never disappear. When you're selling primal urges, everybody's buying."
Speaking of which, a full-length premium movie series is now available from Webmaster Central. "It's priced a bit higher than our other Webmaster Central feeds, but it's aimed at larger Webmasters looking for something a little more exclusive," says Alvarez.
A low-priced movie package for smaller Webmasters is also in the offing, as well a free content package for free-site Webmasters. "We have a lot of new or smaller Webmasters who want a package that their budgets will afford," says Alvarez. "We help them increase their cash flow with stronger content, and in turn, they come back to us when they need the premium stuff."
