Thomas L. has a lot of porn sites. In fact, he doesn’t know exactly how many. At last count there were between 1,000 and 1,500 sites behind Adult Verification Services, and an additional 1,000 free sites. "Whenever I don’t know what to do," he says, "I go online, and I just start building." Some days he’ll build 15 or even 20 small, free sites, each made from about 15 pictures. In fact, most of his 2,000 sites are small.
One of his largest sites, “Tommy’s Bookmarks”, receives approximately 200,000 visitors every day, making it one of the most popular adult links on the Web. Fans who surf the Bookmarks know him simply as Tommy, unaware of the success story behind the porn empire, built in less than three years
Tommy’s Bookmarks first appeared online in 1997, when he stayed home to give out Halloween candy and started playing around on the Net. He signed up with Earthlink and put up some links on the free members space. It was the kind of site that would normally go unnoticed. But somehow, Tommy’s creation gained attention. "Two weeks later," he says, "they were throwing me off because I was using too much bandwidth."
Realizing the site’s potential, He bought some commercial space. As is often the case with adult sites, the rapid growth of Tommy’s Bookmarks was sometimes hard for hosts to handle. He switched hosts several times, until finally they told him he would need a dedicated server.
On the outset, the costs seemed exceedingly high, but now he can’t imagine life without the upgrade. "I’ll tell you the truth," he says. "Having a dedicated server is like the difference between renting an apartment and owning a house. You do whatever you want. I go to Internic and buy 50 domains, and I don’t have to worry about parking them."
A connoisseur of hosts, he’s settled down with the Virginia-based hosting company ServInt. They house Tommy’s Bookmarks, New York Whores, and the rest of his two-thousand-or-so smaller sites. Even though he’s satisfied with his host, he still shops around.
"I expect to be able to call them at 3:00 in the morning and have them pick up the phone," says Tommy, raising his voice just a bit. "I don’t want no fucking beeper numbers and I don’t want to hear no fucking machine. I don’t care if it’s Christmas Eve, at 3:00 in the morning. Somebody better fucking be there so I can yell at them." Then he laughs.
Three years after starting the first site, Tommy has retired from repairing elevators, and is working full-time on his online pursuits. His sites burn about 160 gigs a day. Now, he’s a full-fledged porn guru--an X-rated Columbus, venturing into the unknown reaches of the Net, returning to his users with maps and goods.
Given the success of his links, his advice to new webmasters is surprising. "If I was going to start over today, I would do nothing but AVS sites." He is adamant that the best money is in AVS.
Tommy’s business is still growing, and he’s got plans to keep it evolving as well. He is in the process of launching a new pay-site, Pornstarmpegs, which he hopes will eventually be bigger than New York Whores. "And I’d like to turn Tommy’s into a search engine," he says. "That’s where I see myself a year from now--fingers crossed."
Both shrewd and funny, Tommy is an accomplished webmaster, with a genuine interest in exploring the Web’s potential. New webmasters can learn from his sites and should check the webmasters section on Tommy’s Bookmarks. He knows what he’s talking about.
