You're trying to unring a bell....it isn't going to happen.
Also my take on things is alot different. Here are 2 reasons for the drop in productivity over the years.
1) The influx of foreign surfers to the web. In the early days it was primarily US traffic on the net, obviously this traffic converts alot better than foreign traffic who have no payment vehicle to purchase a subscription for your site. (And most of them couldn't afford it anyways)
2) Shitty members areas. There was a trend a few years ago where sponsors came out with as many "niche" sites as they could, some of them had well over 100. Of course these weren't individual sites, they were just different tours for the same members area that was filled with the same plugin content that everyone else had.
A surfer signs up only to find that the content in the members area is no better than what he can find for free.
Add to that the pre-checked cross sales, hidden charges etc....and after a $100 fleecing for low quality porn, these surfers will never sign up again.
If you want to make money, especially on gallery traffic, you have to have something unique that the surfers haven't seen before.
A $3000 flashy tour just isn't going to do it. You have to sell the steak, not the sizzle.
