Ambush Interview #21 - Dmoney

[SleazyDream]

Ambush Interview is an information biography interview service giving webmasters profiles on the chacacters behind the scenes in Online Adult from a variety of backgrounds. Please visit our archive for other interviews on GFY with major Adult Industry Players.


Ambush Interview #22

DMoney

Anyone's who's ever been to a players ball knows it's a who's who of the Adult industry with top rap bands playing on stage. It's known the world over and not just within online adult, an acomplishment worth noting and worth giving DMoney credit for. DMoney has a long history of party promotion - even back in his college days he was hanging out backstage with the right crowd. His employment history includes sales jobs with Sears Security, Celluar One, and other home improvement related things. Starting in Cleveland, sunny California was too much of a draw to resist and he moved around a bit till he ended up in LA. He created one of the first marketing firms in Online adult, and from there made history with his uncany business sense and incredible player's ball parties.


1. What the fuck is the deal with the security at the players ball? Why don't you pay for double security (theirs and yours) to avoid the union?
2. Is it true you give entrance preference to ANYONE dressed 'pimp' over sponsers at the players ball for the benefit of the TV cameras?
3. Just how many players balls have you thrown now? Discuss
4. Do women throw themselves at you cause of the players ball?
5. What did you major in at college? Why?
6. Where did you goto College? Why?
7. What connection business wise do you have to your brother?
8. Why are you always around J$tyles?
9. What kind of parties did you throw in college? Highschool?
10. What did you do with Adult Buffet?
11. What other companies have you worked with?
12. Is it easier or harder to get sponser money these days for the players ball?
13. How much traffic does the players ball site get?
14. Do you own trademark on the players ball name? discuss
15. What exactly does the marketing firm do?
16. How many conventions do you attend a year?
17. What's your thoughts on drugs and booze at conventions?
18. How do you get all the bands lined up for the players ball?
19. How come it's always seems to be rap at the players ball?
20. Define 'old school'? 'pimp'?
21. If you coundn't work online or throw the players ball - what would you do for money?
22. How did the marketing firm get started?
23. What would you say is your best trait?
24. Who do you look upto in Adult, in business, in life? Who do you look down on for the same?
25. How did you get busty amateurs off the ground?
26. Discuss WebsideStory.
27. Why do you live in LA now? Will you ever leave LA?
28. How come the players ball isn't listed on internet expo's website anymore?
29. Have you ever had a homosexual experience?
30. How much do the players balls suits you wear cost? Where do you get them?
31. Have people from outside the adult world ever recognised you in public? If so what happened?


Dmoney knows how to dress right - lets see if we can find some pics of him all pimped out for this thread!

[Fletch XXX]

[newbreed]

Awesome, was waiting for this one.

[Juicy D. Links]

This one is goona be juicyyyyyyyy

[karlm]

Sweet Cant wait....

[pornstar2pac]

the thread title says #21

[Rui]

This one is going to be funny & interesting

[tungsten]

this one should be interesting

[hova]

this should be an interesting read

[Jman]

D$ is a super star, can't wait to read his answers.

I got much love for that Dog

[SleazyDream]

woops - dmoney is #22

[TDF]

d dollar sign

[shann]

Can't wait.

[axelcat]

[dirtysouth]

Nice catch.

[Vanilla DeVille]

WooHoo... DMoney is awesome!!

[D-Money]

OK, just saw this, about to answer these after another round of coffee.

[TheGoldenChild]

This will be good- D don't forget to tell them about the skyline pics and our very first SALE.

That's always a great sales story...

[rabbit]

looking forward to your answer to #1

Looking forward to this interview...D Money Show / Players Ball was one of the things that got me seriously interested in this industry a while back

[D-Money]

1. What the fuck is the deal with the security at the players ball? Why don't you pay for double security (theirs and yours) to avoid the union?

First, consider it's Vegas during their busiest time of the year, CES. Door people in Vegas are different then any other city. I've beefed up my team, but you still have to deal with THEIR security even if you have your own army. Out of the 7 Players Balls I've thrown in Vegas, 3 were 100% successfull at the door. The reason, management of the venue. It's not easy. My recommendation for future sponsors, consider this pary YOUR party as well and have a representative waiting at the door to play it safe. I always feel bad when our people and sponsors especially have a hard time getting inside. The downside of a successful party is also the good side, everybody wants to get inside right away. Most of the time the security can't handle the rush of people. Our crowd knocks over baracades and the ropes. Once that happens, there is no order. The venue's insurance won't allow for me to bring in my own security team either. I thought reducing the amount of people attending the event would lessen the door issues, we used to have around 5000 people per party at C2K averaging 4500 for years. The last 2 Balls have been oly 2000 people or so. My closing thought on this is, look at it like Disney World. No one gets on Space Mountain right away, every good ride has a big line.

2. Is it true you give entrance preference to ANYONE dressed 'pimp' over sponsers at the players ball for the benefit of the TV cameras?

If I had that kind of control then Bruce from Hustler and all of the other top players would have been selected first. The only people who SHOULD have preference are the people who took the time to register and pick up their Players Cards and people with sponsor passes (which includes the sponsors). I have a system in place that worked but most sponsors chose not to work the Player Code and Player Card system. These Player Cards are a back up incase the door fucks up, which is most of the time.

3. Just how many players balls have you thrown now? Discuss

15 or 16. Sometimes I throw smaller events and sometimes change the name to Players Pool Party, but then I figured I'd keep branding the name even for smaller events. I'm starting to lose track it's been so many. The ones that matter the most are in Vegas every January, in that case 7 Vegas Players Ball. The thing to note is that I have never broken my streak since I've started. I throw at least 2 per year and last year threw 3.

At times I've felt like, fuck it, why bother. It's so hard to organize and takes so much of my time. I have to try and measure the results of this by how much business I can do during the year. The Players Ball builds my brand and name which leads people to do business with me. Over the last 2 years, I'm not getting the results I used to receive. So now it's turning into a business model. I'm looking to license the content and release DVD's in the future. I'm also looking into doing mainstream events outside of our industry. But I will always be true to our industry no matter what. Webmasters made me who I am, this party will always serve as a thank you back to everyone in the adult industry.


4. Do women throw themselves at you cause of the players ball?

Yes. Perception is a funny thing. There are women who look at this event and the players that attend, both industry and mainstream celebs. They get too caught in that stuff. I used to get a kick out of it and before meeting Jennifer, I had my fun. Most of the night I'm running around trying run this event, so I don't notice the ones checking me out or hitting on me. Believe me, I used to love that stuff when I was a single guy. But a true player has the confidence inside himself and doesn't need the ego strokes of hotties hitting on them. The only ego stroke I need is from my beautiful wife who attends every Players Ball with me.

OK, I'll be back in a few to answer some more.

[GTS Mark]

D-Money is a cool cat and he throws some of the best parties I have ever attended

DH

[SleazyDream]

we need juicy in this thread going 'pimp pimp'

[ronaldo]

Originally Posted by D-Money

I used to get a kick out of it and before meeting Jennifer, I had my fun.

Dude, you should be having even MORE fun now!

[Doctor Dre]

Pimp imp

[Doctor Dre]

this one is gonna be the shit

[yellowmenace]

great man

[TheGoldenChild]

Originally Posted by ronaldo

Dude, you should be having even MORE fun now!

Uh..he is married now
the fun was surgically removed when he returned from his honeymoon.

:-))

[TheGoldenChild]

Can u support D$'s brother by signing up for his program?

Show the love!!

http://www.joebucks.com/kb

I GUARANTEE you will never sell any other male enhancement companies again after you get your first check from us.

see sig

[Doctor Dre]

Good start so far

[SleazyDream]

Originally Posted by kBizzle

I GUARANTEE you will never sell any other male enhancement companies again after you get your first check from us.

Poison on the checks?

[TheGoldenChild]

Originally Posted by SleazyDream

Poison on the checks?

Yea- we have ricin on our check stock-
You'll all be dropping like flies soon...

At least those of you who get checks on 3/1
:-))

[Cassie]

nice....good answers

[D-Money]

5. What did you major in at college? Why?

Communications and Philosophy. I love to communicate and I've always questioned why things happen the way they happen. I question things so that I can think off a solution. In business that's a great trait.


6. Where did you go to College? Why?

I went to The Ohio State University. Growing up in Cleveland it's every kids dream. Only 2 hours from home and a known party school. My brother KB also went there. I loved to visit KB (then known as Kevin). KB is 2 years older.

7. What connection business wise do you have to your brother?

KB taught me sales when I was fresh out of college. We went door to door selling pictures of the city of Cleveland mixed with pics of Black culture art and also cartoon pics of Mickey Mouse. Once he taught me the process of the sale, I told my older brother, sit back and watch. I'd go anywhere to make a sale, even the hood! KB and I are 2 of the best sales people you've ever met, believe that. We went office to office hustling pics and making great money for sales people coming up in the game. Eventually we both went corporate with fortune 500 companies. Both of us have always been top sales producers in the corporate world and we've been trained professionally by some pretty big companies.

Today, we do our own things, he has his consulting biz which is more PR related and I do my consulting as a marketing/promotions consultant. I'll refer him a client here and there, it's time for bro man needs to send me a few clients! When I throw the Players Ball, KB helps me hand out passes to the right players and also serves as an MC for the evening of the Players Ball, which he does very well. I bounce all kinds of ideas past KB about the Ball. He usually tells me I hire too many artists and then agrees with me after the party it was the right call.

But to this day, KB will always be greatful to his little brother because I truly brought him into this game. KB was always porn, he always wanted into this biz. I had a 2 year head start and had built a name for myself in that time. He used to beg for me to bring him in, so one day I gave him initiation. I told him if he colored his hair platinum blond, I'd hook him up with a job in adult. Living in pacific beach, that look was in style, but it would look funny on a jew like KB from Cleveland! He did it without hesitation and I hooked him up with Tommy from Bluegravity who floated KB's paycheck for a while. Funny times.


More in a minute.

[TheGoldenChild]

Oh you had to tell them the "billy idol" hair story huh?

I forgot about that!!!
I still remember that day vividly as my hair scalp was burning from the bleach I glanced out the window only to find my pontiac grand prix at the time being lifted onto a flatbed truck-

I was too broke to pay for my parking tix back then :-((

[D-Money]

Originally Posted by ronaldo

Dude, you should be having even MORE fun now!

LOL

It's always a great feeling when someone thinks your good looking and hits on you, but it's a better feeling to know that and walk away.

I ain't a playa I just crush a lot.

[ronaldo]

Question-How many women have you and KB tag teamed? Who got the front, and who got the back?

[TheGoldenChild]

Originally Posted by ronaldo

Question-How many women have you and KB tag teamed? Who got the front, and who got the back?

That is a great question...

[magicmike]

Cool stuff.

The players ball always is a great party.

[Nylz]

Great one!!

D$ is teh pimp!

[D-Money]

8. Why are you always around J$tyles?

I love J$tyle$! He's a real person. People from New York are ball busters and they tend to be brutally honest. What's not to like about J$tyle$? The thing I've always admired most about Jonathan is his ability to win over people. He represented IEG back when the entire adult industry was owed money from Seth. Then you'd see this bald guy in a suit with a NY accent laughing and hanging out with everyone including the bigger players. Even though people hated IEG and Seth, they always loved J$tyle$. Isn't that impressive? Plus he's a fun guy with lot's of great ideas and has more hustle in him then just about anyone in this biz. ContentBlowout.com! There, that's for you Jonathan. I hear that voice in the back of my head saying that even when I'm writing about you!


9. What kind of parties did you throw in college? Highschool?

High School, I just attended the parties. I never touched drugs through high school. But man, I hit every party in every school system in a 40 mile radius. My player days were at a very young age. I had a different girl over the house every night of the week, school nights and all. I'd tell my mom, we're playing video games upstairs.

College, I was a refounding father of a fraternity called Tau Epsilon Ph (TEP). About 25 of us didn't like the other frats, were weren't your typical frat people. So we started our own house and got chartered at the Ohio State University. As Rush Chairman, it was in my hands to recruit more brothers, so I took over not only my rush budget, but the social chairmans budget as well. I worked in the concert clubs, so I knew how to produce a party. Here we were, just 25 guys competing with other houses who had over 125 guys in their frats, how would we get the hot chicks to party with us over the others? I threw parties with live bands and 75 kegs in beer trucks on our yard, the entire yard was fenced in and I hired my own security team I worked with at the club I was a security guy for (Newport at OSU).

To this day, I threw the very last keg party in the greek system at Ohio State. The next day, Ohio State voted on a NO KEG policy in the greek system. My party was the bomb, nothing bad happened, they just thought the sound of 75 kegs was getting too crazy. I always thought big I guess. Not bad for 25 guys. After that, every hot sorority wanted to do social funtions with us and we dominated.

More in a couple minutes.

[D-Money]

10. What did you do with Adult Buffet?

AdultBuffet deserves a long answer because it's a great story.

Back in 1997, I worked at WebSideStory and started the hosting division. I'd cold call everyone for their business, everyone knew from us, but didn't know that we offered hosting. We charged big money, more then 5 times that of what other hosting companies charged. But back then, the other hosts would crash and burn when they maxed routers. At WSS, we had over 45 servers already hosting the counters, so we needed to make sure our NOC was up and running to protect our own investment. I convinced our company owners to hire the very best technical staff and upgrade to the very best equipment. I said, if we're gonna charge the most, we better be the very best out there. They placed it all on me and I promised if they stepped it up I'd produce big numbers. Well, they stepped it up and so did I. Everyone I called asked if we hosted any top 10 sites. I'd say, well, we get more traffic then anyone in the top ten, but that answer didn't fly because we didn't show our numbers. So I hit up the top 10 sites that used our counter and Adultbuffet was number 1. I cold called and spoke with James, hit it off right away. He was scared to move his servers at that time, but I convinced him it would increase his traffic because we had zero packet loss 24/7 and we'd never go down. He switched over to our network and I had my trophy piece. The next calls I made was to the rest of the top ten, then the entire top 10,000 sites. We hosted PicPost.com, Adultbuffet.com and PureHardcore.com, 3 out of the top 10 within the next week. Picpost didn't want to switch over until he would experience problems with his current host. So Adultbuffet unleased the traffic G_ds on his server by adding the words "Buffet Family Member" next to his link and sure enough, Picpost had server problems from the extra traffic. He called me the next day and switched over right away. How could he be mad that I helped create that much traffic? Pretty funny, I was an internet gangsta from the start!

After I left WSS I regged the name Marketingfirm.com and made a horrible looking page in Netscape Composer. I sent James from Adultbuffet the link to see what he thought, without telling me, he added that link to the webmasers area of his site. Over night I took 3 clients each paying a nice fee and I was on my own since then. It was just a rough draft of a site, no design, I still can't believe it brought me 3 clients over night.

I'll always love and respect Adultbuffet for truly giving me a shot at being independant in this biz. And all TGP's are like family to me since then. Nothing but love. I always gave them a ton of passes back then for the Players Balls to make sure the TGP people were taken care of.

More in a few.

[Xenophage]

Thats right its the player D$

[SleazyDream]

Originally Posted by D-Money

10. What did you do with Adult Buffet?

AdultBuffet deserves a long answer because it's a great story.

Back in 1997, I worked at WebSideStory and started the hosting division. I'd cold call everyone for their business, everyone knew from us, but didn't know that we offered hosting. We charged big money, more then 5 times that of what other hosting companies charged. But back then, the other hosts would crash and burn when they maxed routers. At WSS, we had over 45 servers already hosting the counters, so we needed to make sure our NOC was up and running to protect our own investment. I convinced our company owners to hire the very best technical staff and upgrade to the very best equipment. I said, if we're gonna charge the most, we better be the very best out there. They placed it all on me and I promised if they stepped it up I'd produce big numbers. Well, they stepped it up and so did I. Everyone I called asked if we hosted any top 10 sites. I'd say, well, we get more traffic then anyone in the top ten, but that answer didn't fly because we didn't show our numbers. So I hit up the top 10 sites that used our counter and Adultbuffet was number 1. I cold called and spoke with James, hit it off right away. He was scared to move his servers at that time, but I convinced him it would increase his traffic because we had zero packet loss 24/7 and we'd never go down. He switched over to our network and I had my trophy piece. The next calls I made was to the rest of the top ten, then the entire top 10,000 sites. We hosted PicPost.com, Adultbuffet.com and PureHardcore.com, 3 out of the top 10 within the next week. Picpost didn't want to switch over until he would experience problems with his current host. So Adultbuffet unleased the traffic G_ds on his server by adding the words "Buffet Family Member" next to his link and sure enough, Picpost had server problems from the extra traffic. He called me the next day and switched over right away. How could he be mad that I helped create that much traffic? Pretty funny, I was an internet gangsta from the start!

After I left WSS I regged the name Marketingfirm.com and made a horrible looking page in Netscape Composer. I sent James from Adultbuffet the link to see what he thought, without telling me, he added that link to the webmasers area of his site. Over night I took 3 clients each paying a nice fee and I was on my own since then. It was just a rough draft of a site, no design, I still can't believe it brought me 3 clients over night.

I'll always love and respect Adultbuffet for truly giving me a shot at being independant in this biz. And all TGP's are like family to me since then. Nothing but love. I always gave them a ton of passes back then for the Players Balls to make sure the TGP people were taken care of.

More in a few.

James ROCKS!

[Xenophage]

But to this day, KB will always be greatful to his little brother because I truly brought him into this game. KB was always porn, he always wanted into this biz. I had a 2 year head start and had built a name for myself in that time. He used to beg for me to bring him in, so one day I gave him initiation. I told him if he colored his hair platinum blond, I'd hook him up with a job in adult. Living in pacific beach, that look was in style, but it would look funny on a jew like KB from Cleveland! He did it without hesitation and I hooked him up with Tommy from Bluegravity who floated KB's paycheck for a while. Funny times.


Nice got any pics

[D-Money]

11. What other companies have you worked with?

Back in the day, I helped Busty-Amateurs start off and then get to the next level. We tore it up and became the biggest amateur site on the web at that time. I've helped Marilyn Manson get started as well. I work with most of the big players out there in some capacity one way or another these days. Not all of my deals are made public. I work with Epassporte and Epoch on new projects behind the scenes and a few others. One of the most recent deals I've put together is the Paris Hilton sex tape. I got a call from Rick Saloman right after his first Howard Stern interview. He was refered to me from a friend, he was told I'm the guy for internet. So I laid out a plan that involved an affiliate based program and then teamed up with my good friends from XPays on that. XPays got the contracts done to make us the exclusive place on the internet to see the Paris Hilton video (legally). It's been a tough road with that project because so many people took that video and placed it out there illegally, then big programs paid out saying they also had that content. XPays and Rick spent tons of money and hours to protect our content and these days it's starting to pay off. Paris is contantly in the spotlight which helps our affiliates get more sales. No one has known publically that I'm a silent partner on that deal until now. So work, HotelHeiress.com, it's one of my babies! And huge thanks to XPays for doing all of the work and spending many sleepless nights to make sure affiliates are happy.

Today, I'm looking to take on more clients. I'm a marketing mind and an innovator. When I take on a client, I treat it like I'm a partner in their company and look after their investments as I would my own. Hit me up at darren at marketingfirm .com if anyone out there needs to reach the next level. Unlike lot's of other consulting companies, if I don't think I can help you, I'll pass on the business. But at least I'll give some honest advice and point them in the right direction in hoping that one day our paths will cross again and we'll do business some how.

[SleazyDream]

[Manowar]

this will be good.

[D-Money]

12. Is it easier or harder to get sponser money these days for the players ball?

It's always been hard. These days it's harder, bigger players don't have the money they used to have. And lot's of those bigger players only want their names on the party with a bunch of other names. So I had to come up with a formula to raise the amount needed by only giving 3 main sponsors with a bunch of other sponsors helping to offset the costs of these huge budgets. It's really a great deal for the main sponsors, in my opinion. They get to be a main sponsor on an event that is sure to be the big event of January for only a fraction of the costs. And I do all of the work. The smaller sponsors have gotten much better with helping us all promote this event. This last Players Ball was the most successfull in that regard. The sponsors now understand that it's THEIR party, so they can promote it on the boards as much as they'd like. As a matter of fact, I didn't even give myself a sponsorship because I don't like when sponsors accuse me of giveing myself most of the exposure, I've never done that. It's very hard for me to promote my own stuff while I'm on the mic. It just seems weird to thank myself while thanking the sponsors. I realize that I get out of these parties what I've set out for in the beginning. Branding. People know it's "D-Money Presents The Players Ball". That's good enough with me. I like to keep an underground vibe about what I do. It makes people approach me when they know I'm out there, they see me everywhere, but what do I do? The ones that approach me find out while the rest think I just throw a kick ass party. It's best that way because I don't need to waste my time speaking with hundreds of bullshitters thinking about using my services. The ones that approach me are usually hip to what I do or know that I can in some way do some biz with them.

So in a nutshell, it's hard to raise the money and I give the sponsors 100% of the exposure in return.

[aimeesweet]

D Money....Lion Paw....lol...great interview!