Rarely do I get excited about gay porn. It could be because I’m straight. However, it’s hard not to get excited about gay porn when you’re talking to AlleyBucks CEO John Paul.
In a little more than a year, Paul has made some noticeable innovations in a market that some of us on the other side of the fence consider complacent – with the exception of a few movers and shakers.
Paul is proving himself to be one of those movers and shakers. Before AlleyBucks.com, which launched in May 2005, even reached its one-year anniversary, the company had already laid claim to one of the most popular gay community sites, reinvented the solo-site market, and introduced members to a series of bells and whistles that would make a techie proud.
That’s an impressive start to say the least, particularly from someone who used to be an information warfare consultant to the Pentagon.
The 27-year-old Paul hit the scene in October 2004 with the twink megasite BoyAlley.com— and with it, a goal to make porn surfing more user-friendly. He introduced ranking systems for BoyAlley’s photos and videos, an on-site search engine, and personalized photo albums.
More impressive is AlleyBucks’ community site, GayMainStreet.com. It’s much more than a chat board, incorporating photo galleries, member journals, and directories. While similar sites have remained a blip on the radar, GayMainStreet, launched in October 2005, trails only GayWideWebmasters in terms of traffic.
Finally, there are the exclusive-content solo sites like JoshTucker.com and AlexDark.com, which have others taking notice. Paul, who employs his models full-time, says their constant interaction with customers has produced astounding retention ratios.
By the time this hits print, AlleyBucks should be up to five solo sites and include two more Alley sites to complement BoyAlley.com and AsianBoyAlley.com, clearly making AlleyBucks a company to keep an eye on.
