jayeff

You write about "this type of site" as if online porn is the only industry which has reviews, or at least as if reviews are written without introducing an element of competition. Simply not true: pick cars, cameras, wines, pretty much anything you like, and you will find head-to-head reviews all over the place.

The way review sites are monetizing themselves is, I agree, unorthodox: newspapers, magazines, or whatever media in which reviews appear, usually sell ads rather than attempting to earn from affiliate links. Cosmetically that's certainly different to what we are seeing on most porn review sites, but is it really so different in practise? Even if yes, what options does a start-up site that isn't big enough to sell ad space have? Given the standards of this industry to date, can you imagine trying to run an honest review site on the revenue from advertisers alone, even if you had enough traffic for that to be possible in theory?