all just pixels on a monitor
trying to relearn advanced algebra and some calculus while i work... so i don't have much time really dig into this and put together well laid out arguments. i honestly think that people in these discussions are missing the fact that these guys who are currently ranking number one, two, three etc are ranking for porns most competitive phrases because of their SEO efforts. i watch all the sites very closely. i know who is who, who links to what and what everyone is doing. whether or not viral traffic and the subsequent low quality, short lived links play a role or not.. its a minor one and they aren't the reason they rank number one for "sex", or "porn" or "free movies" ;)
you can trust me on viral traffic. having created many sites like felonspy dot com which has been all over national news, or medical adoptions dot com (which prompted calls from the FBI among other agencies) or revengecrabs.com where we launched a massive radio talk show campaign to promote it as real... and many many many more. i am well aware of what viral traffic is, how it works, where it typically comes from, the value of those links and how FAST they drop away.
pornhub.com claims to get 10,000,000 uniques a day. assuming that's true, and there's no reason not to believe it.. most likely at least 2-3 million of that is search hits. ... and that's just one site of several working together to take over THE most searched porn related phrases. there is a dozen sites that literally get over of 10,000,000 search engine hits a day combined. that didn't happen and isn't happening because of piracy
in fact, everyone keeps making this argument about piracy as THE unfair advantage they have... but i've yet to see someone actually prove a site like tube8.com or keezmovies.com isn't licensing full length videos and cutting them into scenes. whatever piracy does exist, if it does on those sites, is most likely very negligible.
everyone keeps arguing that "prepaid" cam ads are the single greatest reason they are in business and the top tube sites don't have cam ads. they have their own white labels. if its profitable (which it obviously is) that's not going to go away.. so its a moot point anyway.
and in these conversations:
everyone refuses to accept that tube sites convert traffic
everyone refuses to accept that tube sites with full length videos convert traffic
everyone refuses to accept that surfers just aren't interested in blogs, link lists, tgp's and mgp's
everyone refuses to accept the 100 other reasons their conversions are plummeting and willfully ignore those who say "hey, i've been sending XXXX hits a day to bangbus for 5 years and conversions have never changed for me"
everyone refused to accept how much of their traffic was being robbed by malware like zango and others
everyone refuses to consider how many people in the last 2 years just got fucked by everyone's "Free Pass" crap where they say $0.00 and then hit the card 4-5 times for $39.95 - all recurring - some of which is STILL going on in spite of looming prosecutions and civil suits.
everyone refuses to accept the sheer volume of surfers who have been fucked over, being sold a site that has shit for a members area
this list of reasons can go on and on and on and on as to what affects conversions and their cumulative effects today. there certainly isn't one single factor.
from my perspective, these conversations are not about an objective, reasonable, logical look at whats going on.. weighing all the facts and evidence, having a rigorous debate and then reaching a conclusion... these conversations are about people venting frustration and assigning blame and who don't want to hear anything other than what was already predetermined to be the "cause".
as link directories continue to plummet in the search results because of GOOGLE, people like Marc or Jay or others are lurching forward and backward, side to side trying to figure out what to do... and ignoring the fact that the most important plan that needs to be followed is public information, published at Stanford and remains just as relevant today as ever. Marc is adding dirty jokes to hoes.com. he could spend his time doing that, or he could spend his time building a large network of sites to slow the bleed of traffic and eventually start regaining it. he built a beautiful Ferrari... tuned it up, made it fast... then drove it right down a muddy hillside and is heading towards the bushes.
my single point in all this is that the "its piracy" argument is weak... if a factor at all, its one tiny factor of many many many. blaming a tube site for ranking number 1 for "porn movies" because of "piracy" leaves you with zero options unless you are going to change federal law. that's not a reasonable goal. no more reasonable than trying to change the rules of war while you are under attack. you regroup... you assess the situation, you identify all the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy. you devise a strategy to user their weaknesses against them... and you continue until there is parity and you can take them head on.
or... you can just let them, surfers and Google sort it out for you.
personally, i choose to be proactive and the "hows" and "why's" and "who's" are mostly irrelevant and at best, just details to overcome... not insurmountable obstacles, at the foot of which, you lie down and give up.