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Nano
 Personal
Information
Mariano F.co Benítez Mulet
Member Since March 25, 2003
Date of Birth: July 7, 1977
Company: Sexplanets
Network
I was born in Rosario, Argentina. At the age of 12 I moved to
Italy, where I studied. After 10 years I decided to relocate
and move to Spain. It's been 4 years already since I arrived
in Barcelona.
1.) What exactly is it that you do in the Adult Industry?
What company do you currently work for? What's your job title
or duties?
I
wish I could tell what I do exactly! I started working here
as a front-end and usability expert. Over the years many people
developed programming and designing skills but only a few wanted
to think about the user experience, how things look to somebody
when he sees a product for the first time. I think every serious
company should have a usability expert, and Sexplanets Network
(SN) is one of the very first to have such.
After a while I continued also with one of my passions, programming.
Now I do a little of everything, including working on our community
of webmasters. Currently SN is the company I mainly work for,
but some times mainstream companies hire me to fine tune their
sites.
2.) When did you actually get started in the industry?
On January 2002 I arrived to the Adult Entertainment
Industry. I used to work for a big European dotcom founded in
Silicon Valley and now based in Barcelona, Spain.
It was the old golden times for dotcoms, where investors were
willing to spend fortunes on startups. We all remember those
times. But sooner or later this bubble had to meet reality and
many mainstream on-line companies had to close their doors.
The company I use to work for is still alive and even makes
money, but I decided to change targets, so here I am.
3.) If you could change one thing about the Adult Industry
what would it be and why?
I think what I'd change is that many people (not everybody,
but still many) in this Industry don't even spend 5 minutes
of their time for helping people that just got started in this
business. I think it's time companies give a little more of
importance to new and enthusiastic people and not only to the
"big guys" because they might do you some favor in
the future.
I personally take care of part of the support requests I get
daily and I can tell you that it makes no difference to me who
asked me for help. If our company currently serves now more
than 7M page views a day it's thanks to every body, not only
to big and experienced webmasters.
4.) What advice would you offer to anyone that's just
starting out in the industry?
I'd tell her/him not to think this is a paradise, where
sex and money converge and everybody's happy. I'd tell them
that this business might make you rich but they have to think
the only way to earn tons of money is with some brilliant and
unique idea or with long hard work. And this means that if you
don't have an original idea you better be patient and work hard.
I'd also remind them that lies have short legs, so they better
not pretend to be someone they are not.
5.) Tell us about any sites you might operate or that
you're most proud of.
The original idea of our platform always was to be able
to offer as many services as possible to our customers. Currently
we have hosting services, billing solutions, affiliate programs,
content, etc. and all together it's many sites, but I'm still
proud of StarTgp, which was my first site. After 8 months it
was in the top 20 of Sextracker. It was at the end merged with
Absolut-Series, but I heard rumors saying that it will be back
again soon ;)
When I created that site I was a newbie and I didn't care how
experienced the author of the gallery was. If the gallery was
clean and content was good I listed it, and if it wasn't I tried
to explain why it wasn't listed and how to get it listed the
next time. I think many people appreciated that and I was happy
to do so.
6.)
What are your hobbies?
I have to say I'm not dedicating much time to hobbies lately
but I do have some.
During my last years in the north of Italy I used to play guitar
in small jazz clubs, where I met incredible musicians (and some
nice girls too). I never played live anymore since I arrived
to Spain.
I
also like to write articles, transcriptions and short tales
too. Some month ago I was asked to write the script for a short
movie, which was very satisfying to me.
7.)
Are you married? Have a girlfriend or boyfriend? Or both? *giggle*
No
wife, no girl friend. I'm a disaster!!! I prefer to think it's
because I'm working too much and I don't have time enough for
women lately :D Ladies, if anyone's interested hit me on ICQ!!!
:D
8.)
How much time would you say you spend working in a day and do
you take regular vacations?
I
never work less than 8 hours a day, and some times I realize
I spend 12 hours in the same position, in front of a computer.
At least I try not to work on weekends.
Oh, vacations! Last time I took vacations was. Damn, 1 year
ago! I had some rest this summer but not more than that. I'll
travel a bit around South America next January. Can't wait for
it!
9.) Is there anything personal or professional that you
would like to add or that you would like others to know about
you?
Well, there's not much to say about me, to be honest with you.
Only thing I can say is that I'm always willing to share some
experience and to welcome every feedback.
10.)
What's the one thing you like best about Rated Hot?
You know, usability is so important to me and it is
true that the whole site is so comprehensible, as so the content
is too. In addition, I always found Rated Hot's message board
a place where business and pleasure could perfectly converge.
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