Review sites using your content?

400.........

Steve i believe you win a prize for having the longest thread of the week.

They shouldn't be bashed for their success. I have a hard time swallowing this pill because it hurts other affiliates. Sponsors should make it level, but it looks like there's no resolve to this situation.

"No, nor would I. My traffic isn't so shitty (rather I haven't made it so shitty by my own doings) that I need to reduce prices and in the process fuck over other affiliates and sponsors just to generate a sale. I have consistently advocated sponsors RAISING prices across the board because that seems better for the industry as a whole, not trying to appease the lowest common denominator."

That says it all.

No kidding... This is actually one of those posts where it is a disservice to have the first post repeated on evey page, since the tone and topic have changed so drastically.

What do I win, btw? I need an Xbox 360 deluxe set!

Let me jump into the debate "mister pissed one". I remeber how you personally totally pissed of myself.

Remember when you had that small pornstar paysite, hosted on the exactly same domain name as you now use for your review site?? I bet you do. Do you also remember how you did submit it for a review? I bet you do too. And I certainly hope you remember how you deleted that paysite and started a review site on the same domain.

But from some reason you failed to inform the webmasters of the review sites who did a review of that former paysite, including us, about the change. I bet you enjoyed the pre-targeted reviews traffic we've been sending you unless all of us eventually found out and deleted the review.

So now you're pissed at a legitimate marketing tactics TBP is using, crying how it hurts you as a competitor. And at the same time you ripped the webmasters of other reviews site in the past. You've been basically knowingly stealing our traffic and building your site on it ...

You must be a real character ...

This thread just keeps getting better.

Three years ago I did have a pay site on the same domain. It was my decision to revamp Mr. Pink's and go in a new direction. Having a pay site gave me respect for all the affiliate programs out there and the hard work they do to make their sites successful. I figured most sites knew of the change since I did contact them after the review site went live to trade links with them.

Hey, i just wanted to participate at least once in this thread...in case it lasts forever and pass to history...

LOL, hey Patrice!

Despite rambling somewhat, this hasn't been a typical GFY thread. So couldn't you have addressed the contents of the thread rather than do a character job on one of the posters? What he wrote has its own validity (or not, according to your point of view) regardless of issues such as those you raised.

After all these pages, veering off into yet another you did, no I didn't, yes you did, blind alley really would be a pity.

Hey Mr.pink...

I'm with you on this one Steve....Then they have the balls to ask you for a bigger PPS.....

Guarantee if all sponsors said to review sites, you can only promote us on a rev share basis, the "How To Cancel Your Porn Membership" page will be removed....lol

I hate to gang up, but...

I hate to gang up, but what Matuloo says is absolutely true, Pinky. You did a very bad thing building a review site on your old pay site, to which we sent a decent pinch of traffic, AFTER you decided to compete with us. I sent you a note about this, and never heard back... Not that we mind competition. Heck, some of our best friends in this business compete with us Anyways, peeps who live in glass houses, etc. etc.

Also, as long as we're on the subject of ganging up, let me say in Rick's defense, and in defense of all independent affiliate marketers: we can only offer the deals paysites let us offer. TBP isn't doing this in a vaccum, or in secret. Sites are begging for TBP traffic, and many will do anything, and agree to anything, to get an edge over their competitors on a big site like TBP. What else is new?

Am I missing something? I only wish I had that kind of leverage! (Actually, we do, but it sounded good to say that)

This is a totally misguided statement. I have no idea where anyone said in this thread that we (or any other review sites) request higher PPS. Most of the top ranked sites only have revshare programs btw. Nothin wrong with that article, we're not suggesting to anyone they "should" cancel.

The tides turn

this thread needs to die already lol

It's probably fair to say that this practice is unknown to most affiliates, and what is being seen in this thread is the opinion typical affiliates hold regarding this tactic. What should really be done at this point is to make other affiliates aware of this unfair practice and then hold the appropriate sponsors liable. With effective pressure from the affiliates that deliver the vast majority of their sales, they may do away with these unfair advantages.

Obviously TBP has no interest in setting the playing field level on their own - complaining to them about it is a wasted effort. Making others aware of the situation however is not - and keeping this very discussion going is not - and could lead to a positive change (for the rest of us).

http://www.thebestporn.com/articles_output.html?id=9
"Some sites might even offer you a better price to stay longer when you go to cancel (at usually 30-50% of the normal monthly rate)."

Do you honestly believe that this is information paysite owners want their sales staff to pass on to potential customers BEFORE making the decision to cancel?

Amazing how clueless some people are. Its called the fair use exception. There is NOTHING you can do about it. Critical reviews, including those that we dont like, are part of a free press.

Die bitch die!!!!

Here's to hoping this is the last post.

RIP Thread

I'd forgotten about that!

Unfortunately, he's not the only one whose site was reviewed and then changed formats ...

This kinda sucks, I just lost a whole review spot!

Especially when I got the idea from review sites in the first place to have two sites:

A that has B as bonus content (Lightspeedworld) AND
B that has A as bonus content (Lightspeedgirls)

Doh!

I feel the same way

Unfortunately, what this thread has really demonstrated is that most affiliates apparently don't give a damn

That apart, underpinning this issue is that no matter how successful people are, in this business they always seem to fear it is about to end. They think that if they don't grab every chance to make some extra money today, they will be gone tomorrow. They rarely consider how today's decisions will affect tomorrow's revenue.

It is a no-brainer that if your site is highlighted with a discount, your sales will increase. That doesn't only apply to review sites: if TGPs replaced the hall-of-fame commonly at the top of the front page with a section devoted to galleries from discounted sponsors, their sales would increase. For that matter, if you stuck a "special this week" notice with a reduced price on your signup page, your conversions would increase. Etc. Discounts work, we all know that and it isn't the issue here.

Nor is the issue whether big sellers are rewarded more than small-time affiliates (although I guarantee this industry is wasting a fortune on backend incentives which don't pay for themselves).

The point is this. Porn affiliates are cyberspace middlemen, passing surfers on to sponsors. We cannot choose whether to put carpet or vinyl tiles on our stores' floors, because we have no stores. We cannot add value via after-sales service and we don't have a way to make more money off a surfer once we have passed him along. So we can use a variety of traffic models and we can play with the cosmetics of our sites. But what we cannot do is choose whether we operate as the porn equivalent of Sam's Cl*b or as an online Neiman Marc*s of smut. And we are already open 24/7.

Therefore if sponsors begin offering special prices to only a limited number of sellers, basically everyone else is screwed. We have nothing whatever to offer surfers as justification for higher prices.

"So what? I'm making lots of money from TBP (or whoever), I don't need your trickle of sales". True of itself, except that there are a thousand affiliates producing a "trickle of sales". And next year some of those will be producing a steady stream of sales. The year after, a few will be a significant presence in the market. Why should those who become successful working with sponsors who offered them a level playing field from day one, switch to you later?

Oh well. There's only so many ways to make an argument and anyway, for the first time since Thursday my angina has backed off so my meds are back to normal. I can actually hold a thought for more than a couple of minutes at a time and type without my fingers tripping over themselves. So my posting spree is over and I'm back to work. I have a trickle of sales to send somewhere else...

I have adressed the contents of this thread in two posts within this thread already. I gave my view of the subject in those two posts already.

But seeing how "Mr.Pink" cries about different pricing, complaining about it being unfair and saying how he's pissed about it... I just had to say what I did. He's all excited about what he believes is unfair and at the same time he had no problems with screwing other review sites and basically stealing their traffic. And as you can see, I wasnt the only one he did it to.

When I had a paysite, I had traffic from only a handfull on review sites. Not many and it wasn't a lot of traffic. At that time there wasn't as many review sites as there are now. I had traffic from other sources and there was no reason for me to just dump the domain. I gradually transferred over to a review site and let me customers know what is going on. I didn't screw them over and I considered keeping the pay site portion, which I didn't because I thought it wouldn't be fair on a review site. I am sorry if I screwed some of you over and you feel majorly screwed which you shouldn't. Sites shut down and that's their decision to make. Booble Bob, I wish I got your email. It must have gotten in my spam folder. I am sorry about that.

There are a ton of review sites now, but a lot of the original ones all trade links, RSS feeds and the like, and know each other and help each other.

I don't like to send traffic to a paysite, thinking that I can make a sale from it, and then find out 6 months later that the site in question is now a different type of site, let alone a competing site.

I've had people email to tell me they were changing their site format but unfortunately, a lot of people don't bother. I found a site just last night that was a paysite and is now simply a place holder with a full-page ad with his referral code in it.

The bottom line in all this is affiliates need to think ouside the box.

bump for a killer thread

what happens when that happened?, can one do something legally?

Hi Steve

I run ReviewCash with CuriousToyBoy ... What is your email/icq mate ...?

did you happen to check the thread date?