"I have a head for business and a bod for sin." What better than Melanie Griffiths' famous quote from the film Working Girl to introduce us to this week's guest in the Executive Suite chair: Allie from NaughtyAllie.com and NaughtyBank.com
Yes, she's a stunner, but she also works hard. The business/personal relationship with Jake, another hard worker with terrific business acumen, has paid off substantially for the dynamic duo. Both the affiliate program and membership site have performed remarkably since their respective debuts—from content and style to customer service and functionality.
So it's time for another go-round with a mover and shaker in the adult Internet biz. This time Naughty Allie talks about a range of business themes, from webmaster boards and Richard Branson to the allure of working in the buff.
Tripp Daniels: What's the latest news at Naughty Allie and Naughty Bank?
Allie: I can't really let the cat out of the bag yet, but let's just say that Jake and I are working on something that will take NaughtyBank to the next level. It's something that is going to make our current affiliates very happy and will also attract a lot of new webmasters to the program. I promise you'll be the first to know when it comes time to make the announcement. I'd say definitely before Internext in Florida.
TD: You and Jake are partners. Do you have a system of who oversees what and handles what part of the business?
A: For the most part Jake handles NaughtyBank and I take care of NaughtyAllie. It's really the perfect partnership because I'm able to focus all my energy on my members and keeping them happy while Jake is able to dedicate all his time to our affiliates and their needs.
My site is very interactive and I could spend an entire day sitting in front of the computer responding to member email and comments in my journal/forum. Not to mention the time involved in maintaining and updating the site. So that leaves little time for marketing, business development, and taking care of our affiliates. That's where Jake comes in, he handles all our marketing campaigns and everything associated with NaughtyBank. There is some crossover between our responsibilities and occasionally one of us will get a little swamped but the other is always there to lend a hand.
TD: Is it difficult to have a business relationship with someone who is also your significant other?
A: Surprisingly enough, no! I would have never in a million years pictured myself working on a daily basis with my husband and being happy doing it, but now I couldn't possibly imagine it any other way. Besides, there's such a blending of our personal relationship and our business relationship that at times it's difficult to say where one stops and the other begins.
TD: How long have you been working in the adult industry?
A: Jake and I actually became involved in the adult industry over four years ago in the fall of 2000. This was long before we ever conceived of the idea of having our own site. We started by promoting one of the larger live cam sites and within a couple of months we were making a very lucrative living pushing several different sponsors.
Since we had the marketing experience and a lifestyle that seemed to lend itself to a "porn site," I proposed that we start our own site featuring the two of us and our sexual escapades. After some lengthy conversation debating the pros and cons of plastering our naked asses all over the Internet we decided to go for it. At that point we shifted our focus from promoting other sponsor programs to building our own pay site and sponsor program. That was the birth of NaughtyAllie and NaughtyBank. Ever since that point we've put all our energies into these two sites and they're both seeing incredible growth day by day!
TD: What generally are your work hours?
A: Oh, wow, now that's the hard part of this business. Let me just say that I'm really glad we work from home and don't have to add any commute time into our schedule. We literally work from 6 in the morning to 11 or 12 at night, pretty much seven days a week. We usually have breakfast, lunch, and dinner sitting in front of the computer.
TD: What do you and Jake do to relax, to get away from the work for a while?
A: I'm not sure if you would consider it relaxing, but we try and make it to the gym at least five days a week. It's really a must, if I don't have that small break away from the computer each day I tend to get a little cranky.
TD: What's the best/worst advice you've ever gotten?
A: Hmm, I can't really think of any bad advice at the moment. Possibly because I tend to let that sort of stuff go in one ear and out the other. As far as best advice goes, I had a professor in college that said, "The key to success in any business is customer service above and beyond what the customer expects." That's always stuck with me and it's one of the guiding principles that drives NaughtyAllie and NaughtyBank.
TD: Do you listen to music when you're working or do you like it quiet? If music, then what do you listen to?
A: I don't really like to listen to music while I'm working, but I also don't like it totally quiet so I keep the TV on as background noise. I usually have it tuned to the Fox News Channel so I can keep up with current events. I love listening to music in the car and at the gym though and I tend to listen mostly to hip-hop and top 40.
TD: How much time do you spend on the various webmaster boards? Is that a helpful means for you to stay connected to webmasters?
A: I'd say about an hour a day. It's imperative to know what's going on in the webmaster community, and the boards are a great tool to help stay on top of things. I also find that attending trade shows is an invaluable way of keeping up with the latest trends and maintaining a feel for what webmasters are looking for in a sponsor program. The main reason I really like the shows is because I'm able to meet face-to-face with, and get feedback directly from webmasters who are promoting my site. Just like any other business, networking is critical.
TD: How do you stay motivated?
A: Logging in my processor's stats. Seriously though, it's a big motivating factor. For the most part I really don't need a lot of motivation since I enjoy doing what I do and I feel very lucky to have this type of lifestyle. However, if it's been a particularly long day or I've had to deal with a lot of crap that day, I just take a look at my stats and it has a way of putting things back into perspective.
TD: Usually we ask about office fashion, but you work from home, so I assume you just wear whatever around the office. I guess it's all about comfort.
A: Absolutely, the biggest benefit of working from home is that you can just roll out of bed, stroll down the stairs to the office in your pj's and start working.
TD: OK, I have to ask. Have you ever worked at your desk in the buff?
A: Quite frequently! I'm a natural born exhibitionist so I get naked as often as I can. I honestly don't know why we even need to wear clothes in public anyway. I mean we were all born naked, right? My members love it too because I have live 24/7 streaming voyeur cams place throughout my home and one of them sits on my desk so they can watch me work naked all day long.
TD: Is there a CEO at a mainstream, or adult, company that you admire for their business insight or what they have achieved?
A: There are several from both mainstream and adult that I admire for one particular reason. They were all "self made;" I'm talking about the one's who had nothing when they started and now their heads of a multimillion or even multibillion-dollar corporations. Richard Branson of Virgin is one that comes to mind. I don't have much admiration for guys who basically had everything handed to them on a silver platter and are just taking over where daddy left off.
TD: Looking back to when you started in this business, is there anything you would have done differently?
A: I only wish Jake and I would have met sooner and started in the business several years earlier. I think we entered the market at a point when it had already become very competitive and we've managed to do quite well for ourselves. I can only imagine where we'd be today had we started two or three years earlier.
TD: Have any advice for future business leaders out there?
A: Don't follow the pack! You have to be aware of what everyone else in the industry is doing, but don't just do what they do because they are successful doing it. You have to be innovative and come up with your own ideas and concepts. Sure you may want to incorporate some elements of what others are doing successfully but you have to make those elements fit what you do and implement them in a way that makes them your own.
TD: Where do you see NaughtyAllie.com and NaughtyBank.com – the businesses – in five years?
A: Jake and I will continue our efforts to aggressively brand the site and the program and grow both at a steady pace. We want consumers to know the name "NaughtyAllie". More importantly, we want webmasters to know that NaughtyBank is a trusted sponsor program that will be extremely productive for them. In the next five years I'd like to see NaughtyBank recognized by webmasters as the No. 1 revenue-producing program for their amateur traffic.
TD: If you were to one day be featured on the cover of Forbes, what would you like the headline to read?
A: Yeah, that I'd like to see, an amateur-porn company featured on the cover of Forbes. I guess the headline would read, "NaughtyAllie—From Girl Next Door to Adult Entertainment Entrepreneur!"
