Earlier this week I-Bridge International launched The Adult CO-OP, a web based cooperative buying organization for adult webmasters. rnrn
"What we're trying to do is provide our members with the ability to get real honest-to-God quotes from real vendors in a detailed way without opening themselves up to getting bombarded by sales guys calling them back," Alan Edget, president of I-Bridge, told AVN.com. rnrn
Membership in the co-op, available for $20 a month or $200 a year, allows users to submit anonymous quote requests to over 180 vendors and receive anonymous purchase notifications of other members.rnrn
"If we were both members and I was purchasing some content, you get notified that a content purchase was being performed so that if you wanted to tag along, or if you wanted to know what the rates were you could find out - of course it would be in an anonymous fashion so that you wouldn't get competitive information," explained Edget. rnrn
Current vendors offer a wide range of products and services that cover the needs of adult webmasters. These include all IT services: networking, hardware, software, hosting, content delivery; and business services including: traffic swaps, bulk emailing and hosting, content acquisition, legal/Insurance services, office supplies and more. rnrn
The requests are pooled in an anonymous fashion with other purchase requests, enabling all members to receive massive volume discounts from vendors for routine and unique purchasesrnrn
"We've actually started adding basic office back end work, such as health insurance, anything that can help webmasters as their companies grow," said Edget. rnrn
Besides the membership fees, The Adult CO-OP also derives income from charging vendors a percentage of sales. rnrn
"We beat them up on price, but we bring them clients that in many cases, they normally wouldn't have obtained - and in this economy that's definitely a good thing," said Edget. "A lot of these companies just don't understand the needs of adult webmasters, or how to reach out to them. We provide them access to customers they haven't been reaching out to for whatever reason.rnrn
The Adult CO-OP has also created an affiliate program. "In addition to paying for a webmaster signup, we also offer the affiliate a cut of the commissions we get from any future purchases of that member," said Edget.rnrn
"I honestly can't believe how much I was paying for things on my own," says TheRealHouse founder Giovanne Barone, who beta-tested the site. "I probably overpaid on bandwidth alone by $600 last year. Now, all my purchases go through the CO-OP and I get much sweeter deals."rnrn
Interested webmasters or vendors can join the The Adult CO-OP at www.theadultcoop.com
