GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - A sign of the times

signupdamnit · 12-10-2012, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Webmaster Advertising

You just don't seem to grasp what I am saying.

The only reason piracy is even an issue, albeit a small one on the grand scale of the loss of profits of affiliate programs is because affiliate programs created the issue themselves, by freely giving away what they were supposed to be selling to the point of market saturation, I'm not talking about 30 second video clips, or 15 watermarked images from a specific photo shoot, I'm talking about the very same thing YOU mentioned in your post, the sponsor owned and operated tube sites where they posted 15-30 minute scenes from a custom shoot or entire DVD rips... Thinking that would make them more revenue, it didnt, it won't and now we are seeing the trickle down effects of this business model, sales are stagnant, content theft if rife and surfers have the mentality that porn should be free, because program owners pandered to the affiliate, who in turn gave surfers a sense of entitlement to adult content.

When a surfer feels they are entitled to 30+ minute clips of hardcore, triple anal gaping action, if they can't find it, they're going to steal it.

The fact that tube sites and piracy is rampant TODAY is because for the past 10 YEARS programs and affiliates have been promoting the notion that "more is more" guess what, it isn't, not when it comes to running a long term profitable business.

Affiliates simply do not want to work any more, they have been conditioned to think that all they have to do to make money is throw up a hosted free site, gallery or tube, send a few visitors to it and money will start to flow, because that is how programs attracted affiliates, by telling them "we do all the work, so you don't have to".

If, as you say, piracy started in 2006 ish, you should also be able to say what else started in 2006' the proliferation of exclusive content hitting the net and being handed out like it wasn't costing the program owners a dime, to anyone who asked for it.

Why was there no piracy when the vast majority of pay sites used purchased content from places like Ounique and Max Candy? Simple, because back then, content actually had a value to it, that was higher than the value of a handful of affiliates each making 1 sale every couple of weeks.

Nowadays content is looked at as a promotional tool, it isn't, content is the very product we are attempting to sell.

Walk in to any sub shop, ice cream store, local deli and ask for a sample, you get a taster if anything, they don't give you a 3 course meal, fine wine and a free blowjob from their hottest waiter or waitress to make sure you are happy so you may come back again and spend a few bucks with them at some point in the future... If they did, everyone would want one and they'd go out of business pretty quickly because their profits can't sustain the hemmoraging overhead costs, just like what is happening in the industry with the affiliate business model right now, everyone saw that 3 course meals were being handed out, everyone wanted one, now we are all paying the price.

Now I think here we mostly agree. The difference is I don't believe in blaming this on the affiliate and saying "It's all because they don't want to work!". No. What actually happened was Mansef/Brazzers came along and changed the model. They started stealing your content and using it to generate revenue for themselves and WE/YOU/I let them do it. We let them continue doing it for years until it got to the point where they became #1 in the industry and the pay sites and companies started dropping like dead flies. Few people said shit. Especially those at the top of the industry. They just kissed ass and blamed others (such as affiliates) for the decline in sales. Here we are today.

Affiliates had some responsibility in giving things away before 2006. And you might say that if affiliates were satisfied with only 25% revshare and had to buy their own content then Mansef and the piracy would have never arose. But that's just speculation. We know for a fact that piracy is the cause of most of the declines in 2012. And getting more specific there is a good case for saying ultimately that the DMCA opened the doors for all of this.