DESERT
HEAT - Lightspeed Media
Redefines Fun in the Sun
Tripp Daniels
 There is a place where all the business plans,
marketing strategies, and economic realities of
preserving an adult Internet company come
together, and - to borrow a line from Norman
Maclean - "Eventually, all things merge into one,
and a river runs through it." While the joys of
fly-fishing in Big Sky country do not altogether
correlate with producing content and developing
brand loyalty for adult-themed Web entertainment,
in the case of Steve Jones, founder and president
of Lightspeed Media, it is not a river that runs
through all of his ambition and hard work, but
rather a continuous stream of fun. It might be an
old story: See Jack frustrated with career. See
Jack lend his talents to adult Internet. See Jack
become wildly successful by utilizing sharp
marketing techniques, stylish product, and really
sexy girls. But Jones did just that. Leaving
behind the rain and Starbucks coffee of Seattle,
he moved to sunny Phoenix, Ariz. to begin anew.
After a long period of trading pictures on the Web
via newsgroups and chat rooms, Jones’ archive
eventually grew quite large. Organization was
needed. He decided he would build a Web page to
house his assorted content. With the ensuing bow
of Lightspeed University (www.ls-university.com)
- a tantalizing cheerleader fetish site - Jones
concocted a mostly softcore formula of pretty
girls wearing/not wearing cute panties; upskirt
shots; solo masturbation; voyeurism; girl-on-girl
action; and the like, "It was just a part-time
little hobby thing at first," says Jones, who
envisioned his newfound Web experience as a way to
perhaps make "a few extra hundred bucks a month."
In April 1999, he launched Lightspeed Media, a
multi-purpose collection of niche-oriented pay
sites, an affiliate revenue program (which debuted
in May 01’), and heavy doses of original content.
While a new business was gradually coming to
fruition, Jones followed the newbie path and
attended conventions like Internext and the
CyberNetExpo to learn the game from industry
veterans. "I took notes in the seminars and did
everything they told me to do," he says. Ten more
pay sites followed the success of Lightspeed
University, each one featuring cute-as-a-button
girls, top-notch design and, above all, a
prodigious archive of content. Locales like
Cum-Filled Panties (www.cumfilledpanties.com)
and Lightspeed Sorority (www.ls-sorority.com)
are good examples of where Jones has succeeded
with softcore niche sites. A by-product of Jones’
magic touch has been the emergence of a bona fide
Internet star, Tawnee Stone (www.tawneestone.com),
a sexy teen and Lightspeed contract player whose
site has been a boon to amateur teen traffic.
Although the "Matrix style,"
as Jones puts it, of ultra-slick, mega-produced
content shoots featuring professional adult stars
and cutting edge technology serves the adult
Internet industry quite well, Jones yields to a
classic, "anti-glam" style of production. "I kept
saying it doesn’t have to be all that. As long as
the girls look good, it doesn’t matter. We don’t
use heavy make-up at all. I want the girls to look
good without a lot of make-up. "What helps
us is that we shoot original content, and I’ve
been told our particular style is quite unique,"
he says. By utilizing Phoenix Talent, a modeling
agency he founded, Jones regularly meets and signs
the crème de la crème of girls for his
productions. "I was recruiting models to shoot for
myself, and I started meeting all the other
photographers in town, and we all kind of teamed
up and said, ‘Why doesn’t just one person collect
a database and then we can figure out which girls
are willing to work for who,’" says Jones. The
move to open a talent shop with a full-time
coordinator proved sound. As Jones recalls, "We
were all interviewing the same girls and wasting a
lot of time and money, so it just made sense."
With friend James "Tanker" Jestes as marketing
director, there are currently four full-time
employees and a host of contractors keeping the
ship at full speed for Jones. "I never in my
wildest dreams thought that this would become
anything. I didn’t even think it would become my
full-time job, let alone full-time jobs for five
people," Jones says. "One of those guys that
everybody likes," is how Jones describes Tanker,
formerly of Amateur Pages, on the job at
Lightspeed Media since July ‘01. "I told Tanker I
wanted to double our sales and how long will it
take," says Jones, "and he said... six weeks. "Lo
and behold, with Tanker onboard, sales did double.
Jones figures since Tanker’s arrival, business has
increased by 500 percent. Of Tanker, Jones says,
"He brought a lot of energy to this and
creativity, and his contacts alone are worth
gold."
A self-described "pro surfer," Jones has
taken stock in his Web adventures and strived to
create product without the pitfalls he’s
witnessed. "I’ve always focused on giving surfers
a good site," he says. Though he understands why
some "pack their sites full of crap that nobody
cares about," for Jones, it has always been the
same theory: "Why can’t you build a niche site
that’s just for that niche?" Jones’ attention to
what Webmasters want, combined with his own
Internet history, has paid off. An impressive
retention rate is proof positive. "I’ve always
stayed true to our sites," he says, "and if I
suddenly veer off course and start doing something
else, people are like, ‘Hey, what are you
doing?’" Even with a strong bond to the Webmaster,
Jones remains true to his own instincts. "I’m gonna do what I like," says Jones. "I figure I
have average tastes for an adult male, so if I
like it, there’s going to be other people that
like it too."
Jones has felt the push to make the
jump to more hardcore content, but he remains
steadfast in his feelings on the subject. "It’s
not what we do, and I don’t feel like we have to
do extreme porn. I don’t feel like we have to
humiliate the girls." For Jones, maybe Hefner had
it right all along. "I think Playboy had
the right idea," he says. "You get the
best-looking girls and make them look sexy. They
don’t have to turn into ultra sluts." And while
the sites continue to play well - as of mid-May,
four new sites were on deck - Jones says it’s the
revenue share program and advertising that have
helped the overall maturation of the company. "We
give away massive amounts of content on Lightspeed
Cash," he says. "We flooded the market with our
content last year and gave tons and tons away. It
was a crazy idea, but the more we gave away, the
more money we made." Even with all the content
flying around, Jones guards against over-exposure
and a swelling of creative hubris. "We don’t try
to cover every niche," says Jones, who has no
plans to create a site if he doesn’t understand
the specific niche. That means no foot fetish
sites in the foreseeable future. Through it
all, it’s been a pleasant trip for Jones, who
never loses perspective about the work he clearly
enjoys. "With me, it’s always been more about
having fun and realizing that it’s a hobby that
grew into a business."
A hobby. Just like fly-fishing.
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