This will be a long read and also full of spelling and grammer fuckups, if your a grammer nazi or
don't want to read bump the thread and move the fuck along.....
After reading alot of these 'drama threads' it got me to thinking, you people STILL don't get it do
you? Affiliates by nature are NOT a top priority of MOST sponsor programs, and honestly never really were.
When I first found the porn biz (off line stuff, shooting, designing box covers etc) the net was just a small hyped thing full of nothing but text. a few years later and viola the overnight cash cow was born, I jumped in and hid in the back and I watched alot of the total shit that went down.
MY timeline will be a bit broken or missing stuff but try to follow along....
IRC, MIRC, Internet Rely Chat: places like "_____" , "________" , and others were full of people sharing "STOLEN" (Watermarked) content, alot of times (If you took the time to SPEEK to people you would find out....... they WORKED FOR THE SITES... no shit!
PASSWORD CRACKERS: there were rooms on irc JUST for cracking passwords to paysites and in 1998-2000 I was modding for friend of mine a "_____" server, I used to lurk in alot of rooms and I was AMAZED at the shit I saw going down in the cracker rooms....
Alot of times program owners themselves would jump in the room and "have their security tested" and pretty much let in a few hundred ppl into their members area for an hour or two then ban all the accounts and lock it back down. (Why? just like the old drug joke... "The first one's free"
Other times "Crackers" would work from a sponsor PROVIDED list of dummy accounts that would only work for 10 mins - a few hours for the same reason above. Other times it was honest to goodness 'crackers' using software like "____" "____" & "______" (not naming names lol)
PASSWORD SITES: These were my favorite, MOST of these sites that had the HIGHEST rankings in search engines could be traced back (sometimes with alot of work) right back to SPONSORS (Again Not gonna name names here) but lets say it was a playground of drama years ago.
USENET / NEWSGROUPS: (See IRC Explanation)
NAPSTER / KAZA / LIMEWIRE / (P2P or Peer 2 Peer) etc: Take Usenet and Irc and roll it into a ball and make searchable indexes on users computers and what do you get? MORE DRAMA! Again tons and TONS of members only content is flooded onto these platforms....
Again lots of watermarked content, "go here to see more" and password protected files (the passes you can get if you SIGN UP HERE and enter the 4th word from the thank you page) but for some reason not allot of ref codes, just right to the paysites....
TORRENTS: ahhh the evolution of all the prior shit all rolled into nice little hash check files lol, here is a hybrid of all the other methods with a much faster result resulting in instant gratification for all those involved, the "search sites" are flooded with TARGETED traffic, the ads get seen like mad, and the files are snagged and if the surfer gets hooked it's RIGHT TO THE PAYSITE.
Each and every method above are ways that sponsors can CUT OUT EXPENSES! if they can just buy some links or 'leak' some files think of how much money they can save in the long run???
And sorry to say BUT it makes for SMART BIZ! maybe not FAIR but deff SMART, if I can keep X amount MORE of my money then why the fuck not?
I mean, It's the SPONSOR'S content right? they have every right to give it away (they give it away to ANYONE CLAIMING to be an affiliate right?)
What you all need to realize is that MOST of the sponsors in this business do not give two shits about you, and if they SAY they do it's ONLY because you bring them in 'higher amounts' then their other 'employees'
That's the trick here folks, YOU are all EMPLOYEES of sponsors, YOU SELL THEIR SHIT, YOU GET PAID FOR IT.
You are a commission based sales rep, nothing more nothing less, and in ANY other industry you would be SHITCANNED for bitching about what the boss is doing to promote their products.
But some will say, Socrates, their breaking the laws, WHAT LAWS? If it is THEIR CONTENT they can do whatever the fuck they want with it right??
Is it fair? NOPE, is it smart HELL YES! what can you do about it? Well, there is no 'webmaster union'
so your choices are pretty limited, you can do one or more of the following....
(1) Grow up and deal with it, find better ways to USE the tools your EMPLOYERS have utilized since THEY created them (in some cases) OR GTFO of this industry and go dawn a paper hat somewhere.
(2) Identify those sponsors who deal in "shady biz" as you all cry it, and NOT PROMOTE THEM, trust me when you read this though, IT WON'T HURT THEM ONE BIT!
(3) Grab a lawyer (or two) a shitload of money and START YOUR OWN PROGRAM, but for the love of god do SOMETHING ORIGINAL!
(4) RESEARCH the next up and coming 'free' trends and FIND WAYS TO PROFIT FROM THEM!!!!!
(5) See #4
Thats all for now
~Socrates~