What Direction Is Our Buisness Headed In????

east west

north south

ok Im not sure exactly what that means please elaborate on it a lil.............

LOL ok same deal here??

How bout this?

Up yours in the middle!

This is a serious thread not for crackheads!

ok now that that is over lets get on with the program.

"shitter"

I feel the same thats why I want to hear back from some people as to what we can do to turn this around!

bump bump

Pretty much west at the end of the month. Then back east again and a little south.

I think its going to change its like when the car industry started there were like 250 car companies in America now there are 3. Bigger companies are buying smaller ones. Change is good.

thank you for your input!

what damage do you think all of this has had on future surfers?

Bump for business thread

Bump for surfers!

south east for about 18 miles then a sharp turn north until you see the burnt down Texaco, then west

It's definitely headed south...

With all the harcore stuff out there in the open, and other bullshit things happening in this industry, the gov't will be forced to take drastic measures, as will other countries.. The free speech wall that everyone thinks they can hide behind will be knocked down and the industry will have so many eyes on it that even an exposed breast outside of a members' area will bring big problems..
As has been said.. This industry is its own worst enemy..

We have perhaps 3 more years of consolidation - businesses buying up smaller businesses - and then most of those enlarged businesses will fall apart, having been expanded in too many directions and/or beyond the abilities of their owners to operate them successfully.

Within 10 years there will be 3 tiers in this business. The top tier will be made up initially of maybe 5 corporate-style businesses: AEBN might make this tier, otherwise I think they will be operators new to online porn or presently only on the periphery. Some or all of these newcomers may buy their way in via some of the failing/stagnant businesses I mentioned in para one.

Tier two, probably in real terms operating at about the same size as our biggest sponsors today, will likely be around 20 companies. They will include some of today's "names", but also some newcomers. Very few of the people behind the big programs today, will survive the next decade, even if their businesses still exist at the end of it.

Tier three will be everyone else, from webmasters to service providers. It will become increasingly difficult to make more than pocket money as an individual and the next 5 years in particular will be hard for everyone.

However, once we are fully out of the "wild west" phase and begin our third decade, I think we shall see major growth for the industry as a whole. The law will begin to catch up with the realities of the internet. The large companies will be operating according to higher standards and demand them from anyone who wishes to work with them. The scams and frauds will likely never go away, but as the industry grows, they will become largely an irrelevance on the sidelines.

The numbers and timelines are guesswork, but basically I'm just describing the phases through which every new industry goes. Needless to say, many will imagine we shall prove to be unique. I guess anything is possible, but most people of that opinion will likely be the ones who get left behind.

ADG Webmaster

the dumpster. but those who are clever and not held back by phony ethics will still be able to survive.

Consolidation and maturity.

I'm going to go out on the limb and say that not much will change in the next few years. There could be a major law passed or some kind of crackdown, but short of that I think things will be business as usually. About 3 years ago people were saying that there would be fewer and fewer sponsor programs out there, yet today there are more than ever. I think some big companies will buy smaller companies and expand, but I what I think the major change will be is more and more focus on exclusive content and customer service for the surfers. Sites that have the same old content in them as everyone else will struggle, but sites that produce exclusive stuff you can't get everywhere will grow. Look at the explosion of solo girl sites. These sites focus on exclusive content and forming a personal relationship with the members and many of them are very successful.

In the end this business is too easy to get into (it takes little or no money to start) and the ways of making money are too wide open for the little guys to just go away. Most affiliate programs rely on their webmasters for their traffic and they want little webmasters to stick around. If all the little webmasters go away, most affiliate programs would die off because there are just not enough whales around to support them all. so it is in the sponsors best interest to keep the little guys around and many programs do whatever they can to encourage them to keep sending those few sales each month.

Don't believe the hype chicken little.

The people who control the money (programs) and the people who control their money (processors) are the ones that can change the business. At this point, it is down to being a very, very warped business where programs accept traffic from crappy sources, pay them premium money, and shit down the necks of the rest of their affiliates.

I personally find it to be getting close to the time that someone is going to get a lawyer and an accountant and start going to actions of audit programs. It is truly out of hand.

So the solutions lie mostly in programs smartening up, cutting back the shave to something close to 50% instead of the current 90%, and allow affiliates to actually make a living, rather than diverting all the cash to the buddies that bought them a beer at the last convention.

Very well said gentlemen I value all of your insights and Ideas.

So Basically how would anyone who would like to get started right now or in the near future get up and going?

Without takin it up the cornhole!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With all the (hype) that flies around it can be quite confusing for any newcomer!

Should we all take it up the corn hole??????????