Webmasters that chase the huge $$$ payouts per signup promote shaving, it's a downward spiral. Eventually someone will have to blink.
Be an HONEST webmaster, and realize that almost no paysites can make any type of money on $35-40 signups (paying on free/cheap trials). I've worked with some rather large paysites (nothing HUGE), some with just horrid member areas, and some with what I feel are some of the best I've seen.
Guess what? Retention is not all that different. 30% across the board really, with the higher quality sites maybe hitting 40% if they are real lucky.
The fact of the matter this industry is based on selling, selling, selling. Then having surfers forget to cancel.
It was an eye opener to be sure.. I saw this guys member areas (after some REALLY NICE tours, some of the best I've seen there) and though "no fucking way ANYONE rebills!". When I saw he was getting within 5% of other "high quality" member areas I've seen I was astounded.
I won't get into shaving all that much. But I will say no paysite I've ever worked with could make enough money on $35/signup. Say retention averages 30% (make it higher if you want) month-to-month. This means that say 100 people signup for the trial, 30 convert to fulls, then 10 go on to the next month, 3 the next month, and so on. You guys can do the math yourself. ;)
Sure, sites could maybe break even, or even make a little on $35/ea... But it's not enough to run a business off of.
Shrug. After working with the mix of sites I have, my personal stuff I send to either known-honest revshares (like lightspeed!), or per-signups with a reasonable payout ($20) and a good rep from a friend or whatnot.
So.. if you are disgusted by shaving, be part of the solution and stop promoting sponsors that are quite honestly nearly forced to do it to survive in this market. Vote with your wallet guys.
In short, it's my opinion nearly anyone paying $35+/signup is shaving. Period.
-Phil