I am fairly new to the webmaster business. My expertise comes from being a
porn surfer since the Internet stone age. I probably have a better porn collection on my HD than most pay sites can offer. The vast majority of that porn comes from paid memberships to sites I joined. The main reason I pulled out my CC was:
1) I was shown enough samples to get a read on the quality of the content, and yes that does require some hardcore content.
2)Usually when my interest moved in a new direction. I would start with surfing bbs,tgps,and mgps, to see what type of content was available in that niche.
3)I always started my collection with the free porn. One thing the industry does do right to get my $$ is make it tedious to collect the free stuff. After a while of wading through piles of shit looking for the free stuff and running around in circles, I would get bored and, focus on the sites I had run across that seem to have the best quality and quantity.
One other thing I might note if I hit a popup, popunder, or esp if someone went around my blocker it was fuck you, bye, forever. I hear about the sales people make with this shit but what about the permanent loss of sales from the pissed off surfer?
4)Then the CC would come out.
The point I am making is that people who are willing to pay for porn are paying for quality, quantity, and
convenience.
As others have stated this does not necessarily apply to micro niches.
One thing I have noticed on this board is the willingness to out a scammer or cheater and the immediate condemnation by the members.
It seems to me that we as an industry are not powerless to control the webmasters who make it too easy for the surfer to get ENOUGH of the good stuff that they don't need to pay for it.
If you, as a webmaster, think that someone was giving away too much, pull their link, refuse to take their ads, get drama started on all the boards,etc.
Even someone as big as AEBN might have 2nd thoughts.
There is a massive number of good quality sites, run by honest webmasters.
We don't have to support anyone who we feel is doing real damage to the industry.
I observed the response on this board to the Met-Art cp drama and the Big Dildo rape drama.
IMHO there is no need for whining and hand wringing when there are steps that each one of us can take individually to make a difference.
Maybe I am too much of a NOOB to understand that when a program gets big enough they can make their own rules and the rest of us can get fucked.
Maybe,all webmasters are anarchists at heart and so are doomed to fail separately.
My
. If anyone wants to educate this noob I alway willing to learn.