Interview with Mr. Diesel

Mr. Diesel is an incredible talented photographer and at the same time a very successful businessman. If his name doesn’t ring a bell, he is the man behind two of the largest teen affiliate programs: DieselAction and DieselCash.

Mr. Diesel, thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask you a couple of business questions and get your opinion on various industrial issues.

Q: Let’s start with a flashback. How did your start in this business? Was it as a photographer, webmaster or paysite owner and when?
A: It was end of 1999 when I built my first gallery. From gallery posting I went to trading sites and from there to our first serious and famous project called DieselSpace.Com through which we were providing free hosting, domain and trading script to webmasters in exchange for their exit traffic.

Q: Did you ever lose interest or regretted being in this industry?
A: Our industry is seriously lacking in many fields and this is really frustrating to see. Our mission is to change it. We want to provide interesting products utilizing the latest technologies. I never lose interest because we always innovate, learn and work on new things.

Q: I know from personal experience you only just recently started attending and sponsoring webmaster events like AWMOpen. What did it change? Why now and not before?
A: My business philosophy is that Diesel Action’s mission is to build and maintain a brand name that will be know for the products it creates. I value the public relations, but as a businessman I don’t count on them for the growth of my operation. A good solid company can go far without them as well. As you said we recently started sponsoring webmaster events to thank our affiliates for their appreciation they show to our efforts and to meet new people and share ideas.

Q: What are the key characteristics of DieselAction webmasters should look at and considering sending traffic to it?
A: I can talk hours about it, so I will try to summarize it as much as possible. First of all DieselAction is a product itself. Every paysite we open is like a separate business for us. We put innumerable hours of work, creativity and we invest a lot of money for each one of them. We don’t make a dozen of tours with a common members area. Our content is totally exclusive for each site and most of our models appear for first time online. We have strict face control and every model we work with is considered as a high-class model. Most of our solo girl websites are hardcore ones; this isn’t something common in the solo girl market. I try to control all the steps of content production myself so the final outcome to be both artistic, erotic and in awesome quality. We moved to high definition video production in the middle of 2005. We shoot pictures only in RAW format and we process them for web release. All our models go live in cams at least 3 times a week each and communicate with our members through their personal boards. We have almost daily updates for all our sites. Take a look at www.sashafucksdasha.com for the samples to see what I mean.

Q: What are your thoughts on cross sales and aggressive billing? Are they a necessary evil or something that in the long run will damage our industry?
A: I think it has already damaged our industry in much higher degree than you can imagine. This practice is very disappointing and I am always trying to get webmasters’ attention on this. We have so many programs running for a quick buck at no cost…. really sad. This is the cancer of our industry. Last years billing restrictions though improved the overall quality of the sites.

Q: We frequently read that the adult industry is a main source of Internet innovation. Do you believe that? Do you have any personal contributions?
A: Wow... you see, I always thought the opposite! I think our industry is lacking a real touch with technology. At DieselAction we always enjoy to be pioneers in all fields we can. Check our recent affiliate program upgrade and Diesel Tools. Diesel Tools is a software platform that expands month after month in an effort to set new standards of what we know as webmaster tools. Possible you have heard that Russian programmers are among the best; we employee some of them.

Q: Let’s get back to your affiliate program, DieselAction. Since the very first day it remains a partnership program. Did you consider a PPS option? Have you experienced a business growth issue over the years by not following the PPS route?
A: We are getting ready for it and I believe we’ll release a PPS program as an alternative option during the year. We’ll do it without using any aggressive billing. Our paysites retention is going to be the base of it. More details soon!

Q: How do you pick models for your sites? Every girl now can be a model, but does this really work for both the site owner and the affiliates?
A: I select approximately 6 to 7 models usually after a casting of 40 to 50 girls. I usually choose slim, young looking ones, with special eyes and fine butts. For solo girls being intelligent is a must. We work for years together and it makes it much easier to work with people that can think and you can count on not only today, but tomorrow also. Intelligent girls are good for rebilling; members appreciate a personality in addition to beauty.

Q: What was the worst business decision you made last year(s)?
A: PoliceMan.Net was definitely the worst decision I made. This is a very quality website, good concept with exclusive HDV content. Unfortunately many of our affiliates are afraid to promote anything that may be related to Police… It’s funny because I asked a couple police officers what they are thinking about the paysite. They laughed. They liked the concept and enjoyed the movies I showed them. PITY!! It’s such a good domain with great content and rocking ratios. We haven’t learned to give up and we’ll make further efforts to get the affiliate traffic it deserves.

Q: What are the steps you take on starting a new paysite? Is it an easy job after all these years of experience or a new challenge for you each time?
A: It’s far from to be an easy job but it’s pretty interesting. First we perceive an idea and start building on it. After that we move to the content production. Since we shoot everything ourselves, it makes it a serious and demanding task. I know well that both our affiliates and our clients expect every time a higher quality outcome from us. This forces us to put attention on even the smallest details every time. Of course with the time it gets much easier. Our models usually come from East European countries since that’s where the best-looking models are located. We have trained local people to get the girls and work with the encoding of content. We have reached a level of organization that we do not need to supervise anymore our encoding team in order to meet the DieselAction standards.

Q: Have you considered outsourcing part of your company’s tasks to a 3rd world country with cheap labor or is it all about quality of work these days?
A: I tried it and unfortunately I wasn’t satisfied with the results. I want to keep the quality on top regardless if this is going to cost me more. It pays off every week.

Q: Last month we heard the great news that ICANN turned down the .xxx domain extension. The debates and attempts of people behind this proposal remain. Are we going to see a future comeback? Can the United States set limits on the global community we call Internet?
A: Although I’m not a law specialist I believe that it won’t be that easy. If we can show we are running a clean business and we are here to serve customers rather then rip them off, we will have a strong back.

Q: Mr. Diesel, have you considered moving to further online operations aside the adult industry? If so, which and why?
A: We are getting into software business as we speak. Actually you can see that from the work we put on DieselTools as well.

Q: How can the people reading this interview reach you for any inquires related to DieselAction?
A: They can submit a ticket on our affiliate program. I welcome them also to check our new webmaster board called www.pleaseposthere.com. Catchy name isn’t it?

That’s definitely a catchy name! Mr. Diesel, I’m glad we had this very interesting interview today. My best wishes for your current and future business ventures.

AWMOpen Magazine