Moving house tomorrow - WOOHOO!

Well, in thoery anyway, obviously won’t count on it until i have the key in my hands. And even then have to shift everything from one house to another which is not going to be fun….

Have spent the last few days in London at the TFM&A. Not a massively exciting show, however as usual seemed to get some good business out of it.

I have to go to bed now, I am knackered and have a call at 7am.

Thats it, it’s over. I am just at in the hotel room packing up getting ready to check out.

Will spend the rest of the day shopping and relaxing, then catching flight out of here while all of America watches the superbowl.

Been a good few days, lots of business has been done, presentation went well, and managed to have a little late night/early morning fun in the process. World Dating Partners is going to get a big boost in business from this one event… I would love to take all credit for it - but in reality I am just so excited to be a small part of it.

My brain is going to be ticking away non-stop for a while now because I have just been opened up to so many more massive opportunities. The second I am back in the UK I want to get started working on some of these:

This has been a bit of a mindless rant from me, could be because of my brain working on overload, or it could be that I have sunstroke! I am off now, time to hit some shops and enjoy the sun.

We arrived yesterday afternoon, it was a cool 28 Celsius and the sun was shining.
This is my first trip to Miami, not done much wondering about yet so I shall reserve my judgement until later.

I didn’t enjoy my coffee this morning too much - filter with non-dairy creamer! Same as any other US hotel I’ve stayed in so nothing out of the ordinary or worth complaining about.

I have spilt some of this non-dairy creamer on my desk and it looks like I’ve wasted no time in obtaining class A drugs, however I assure you its not. I don’t do drugs, not this time in the morning.

For anyone wondering what Miami looks like, this is the view from the side of the hotel.

So, what’s the plan, why am I here?!
Tomorrow is the iDate conference where we, World Dating Partners, are gold sponsors and have a very sexy stand. I’m looking forward to the next couple of days, should hopefully meet some great potential business clients, do a spot of networking. Then on the weekend we’re going fishing. Not something I thought I would be looking forward to, but the prospect of landing me a shark has got me going!

Time now for my breakfast, then need to spend a few hours working as I have a mountain of emails to get through, a few calls to make and I will also be making some final changes to my presentation which falls at the end of the iDate conference. I am here after all, not to enjoy the weather, beach, drugs or women.

Let’s not forget I am a clean cut business and family man, a pillar to society!

I have reached that point now where I have to decide if or not I should go to bed. It has gone 4:30am and I need to be up within 2 hours. While the 2 hours would be very useful sleep I am worried that I will lay in bed, restless, then be annoyed that I have wasted my time!

I am not worried about being tired. I always find it good to deprive myself of sleep before flying west, backwards through the time zones, this way I can adjust very quickly to their hours. As I am off to Miami on tuesday, just over 24 hours away I could almost claim that this was perfectly planned! 5am = midnight, a very reasonable time to be going to sleep!

now, back to the matter in hand, sleep, or no sleep…. almost perfectly I have a USA quarter on my desk….

heads = sleep
tails = no sleep

………….
………
…..
..

Heads.

The coin has spoken. “In God we trust”

Good night.

I don’t normally get involved in the whole office humour and forwarding of crap emails. Actually I hate it, there are probably few bigger wastes of time.

But I did recently receive one email which I opened and read. It linked to a letter which was quite amusing:

Dear Internet Porn,

These last ten years have been quite a trip, have they not? My letter to you now, however, is not one of celebration… I don’t feel like we are the same anymore. We just don’t have that passion we used to.

When we first met I was a loser, and you were there for me. My parents told me that you were no good for me, but I didn’t listen. You showed me that there were plenty of people like myself getting laid. It was beautiful and passionate. Your softcore erotic videos were a tasteful introduction to my budding sexuality.

As I got older I started seeing girls on the side. I knew you were jealous, but you have always held a special place in my heart. You became naughtier and it affected my relationships. I started wanting all the things I had seen you do. I wanted to be just like you. I wanted to cover my girlfriend’s face, put it up her ass, choke her.

But that’s when I realized your dark secret, Internet Porn. You aren’t real: you are a fake and shallow individual. No girl wants a load on her face! Anal sex hurts and humiliates, and choking only leads to bruises that friends and loved ones ask about. You lied to me and changed my sexual expectations. Now no girl can please me.

I know it isn’t all bad. You’ve taught me so much. I can surf the internet with either hand and I know all the keyboard shortcuts for my browser. I know positions that aren’t even in the Kamasutra. But you have such a dark side. I’ve been late for work more than once and I find myself wanting to jerkoff at six in the morning. That’s what you’ve done to me.

Even now, on the eve of Christ’s birth, I sit hunched over my computer, penis in hand. I had to turn the nativity scene around so that Jesus wouldn’t see your filth. Try as I might, I can never hide you well enough either. It is harder to find you squirreled away on my hard drive than it is to get into my online bank account. Yet there is always lingering evidence. I’ve told you time and again to stop leaving your things at my place. But you ALWAYS forget something: a shortcut here, an unclear history there.

There’s no acceptance when you are discovered either. It might have been ok when we started - just innocent flirting with softcore. But now my girlfriends discover my asphyxiation collection, or that one goat video. I hate that you always invite your shadiest friends over when you come.

So I have one request. I know I can’t get rid of you… you are the psychopathic stalker to my teenage horror film. But if you won’t leave me alone, can you at least do me one favor? If I ever die, can you please format my hard drive? All of them? If you can’t do that, just burn my place down. My family can never know of my shame.

- Your shamed lover

Original article on Craigslist: http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/518589816.html

It’s funny is because its true! I bet there are very few men who read this and it didn’t ring true to some degree, at the very least they can empathise with it.

The internet was made for porn, it has revolutionised the accessibility of it. Last week on the radio psychotherapists were claiming sex addiction had increased, almost purely down to the internet.

The trend is obvious - porn is on the up, especially now the internet is evolving to be all about content, not just information. High speed connections, large downloads and video streaming are the norm.
Whatever your views or morals you can not deny that there is big money in porn. Loads love it, some hate to love it, and another bunch of people love to hate it. I have no issues with it, from a business perspective it is time to embrace porn.

You could argue the internet is already over saturated with porn, but the truth is there is always room for more! For anyone looking to get in to affiliate marketing online, adult related sites are without a doubt the easiest to promote.
Sex sells, so if you can market it there’s always an opportunity. If you have something a little different AND can market then you’ve got something special…..

…. and I might have something special.

So, did any of you shitbags make new years resolutions?!

I hope not - because you know you’re going to fail!

The theory is simple, you shouldn’t need an excuse like New Years to do something about anything you are unhappy or unsatisfied with. If you were unprepared to make a sacrifice at any other time of the year then now is no different.

If you have made some and are still sticking to them give yourself a little patt on the back. Now give up. The Earths completion of another orbit around the sun will not change anyones abilty to motivate themselves where they could not before.

I hope you all enjoyed my motivational speech, I shall end it with telling you what my resolutions are!

• My resolutions
• Become a more efficient* - failed
• Be a nicer person - failed

In all seriousness, I did have a notion of clearing a bit of work over Christmas so that come the New Year I would have a slightly smaller or even non existant pile of work. I only partly managed this, but I will work some long hours over the next week or two to achieve it.

I have no specific resolutions other than setting myself a few very basic goals, these are silly things like: Buy a house, launch 1 or 2 new businesses etc….
These are things which I may well have been doing anyway, and do not actually require me to change anything in particular. But I do want to be constantly aware of these goals to keep me on track and so come the end of the year I can see just how many I have ticked off.

Off you lot trot then!, my rant is done.

* work shorter hours but get more done, sleep less but be more awake, eat less but have more energy.

Around the world people have already seen in the new years, it will be our turn in the UK in just over 7 hours…. so it is my turn to say HAPPY NEW YEAR.

I will be back in 2008 - with a vengeance!

In case you ever wondered what Christmas with me looked like, here you are:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

While I was busy boasting about the massive earnings I was making from my own adult dating site, fuck-buddies.com, Andrew Conru was busy making a much bigger deal…..

AdultFriendFinder.com is the biggest adult personals site on the internet, and after much speculation Its owner and founder Andrew Conru accepted $500M CASH!

Dec. 12 PRNewswire

Penthouse Media Group Inc.,
parent to Penthouse Magazine, one of the world’s leading men’s lifestyle
publications and producers of online, licensed and broadcast content and
materials, announced today that it has acquired internet social networking
giant Various, Inc. and its subsidiaries for $500 million in cash and
securities. With $340 million in projected combined 2007 revenues, this
acquisition makes Penthouse the largest adult entertainment company in the
world.

Various has an extensive affiliate network, as well as a rapidly
growing member base of more than 260 million consumers and a total paid
subscriber list in excess of 1.2 million. Various operates more than 25
online communities including adultfriendfinder.com, which is a top 50 Web
site nationwide. Adultfriendfinder.com is one of the most highly trafficked
Web sites in the world with more than 18 million members.

full story

For me there are a few very interesting points about this story:
1) Though $500M sounds like a massive amount, I estimate it is only approx 3 - 4 times the EBITDA, very low for an internet company which normally see multiples from 15+. This has got to be because of the adult nature of the business hugely reducing the number of potential buyers. Also another factor must have been that only a day before the sale the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) restricted AdultFriendFinder’s promotional activities.
2) Andrew Conru never wanted to own the largest adult site in the world! It came about by accident after launching FriendFinder… This highlights my reasoning for being involved in adults dating, there is simply huge demand for it!
3) What will happen to all of Various Inc’s other properties, not only main stream sites, but sitse such as BigChurch… I cannot imagine that its members will be delighted about financing the porn giants Penthouse!

All very interesting news, especially for anyone interested in online dating or aspiring to be a porn mogul!

Yes!

Yesterday I got asked if what I had said about my sites earnings was true. Normally my initial reaction would be to kill anyone who dares question the truth behind my preachings. However, as it was a member of the fairer sex I spared them their life.

“How?”
I don’t have time to go into full detail, but it is far more achievable than people might imagine. There was also for myself an element of good luck and timing.

Many people have tried affiliate marketing on the internet, promoting other sites and services in exchange for a commission. Most might make a small return, then decide that the time and effort involved that the return see it is not worth while. I have always looked at it as a business, you need to build the monthly turn over steadily. Naturally it will be harder and less financially rewarding in the early days.

Build your brand - It is much harder to find good domain names these days, but you can promote just about anything. I spent a long time working on the brand of my own sites, writing articles, getting others to talk about it, link exchanges etc. I knew when I over heard someone mention the site in a pub that I was on the right lines.

Know your audience and solution - again a common mistake is to see a successful site and try to imitate it. You need to understand who your customers are, why they visit their site and why they would pay. With this information you can engage with your customers, add content which they would want, and market the site effectively. Clearly it is much easier to understand what your customers might want, if you would personally use the site.

Monitor closely - I effectively just have a series of ideas for promoting my sites, the only way to determine if they are any good is to test in the real world. The marketing itself can be complex but always have a logical process for continually improving and maximising any efforts