(apparently) Hooper's last post...
 

from another board:

I've been thinking about this quite a bit for the past few months.

Don't take any of this the wrong way or personally because some of my finest friends and colleagues came from and hang out on these boards, but I've decided the following:

1 - Message boards are fun, but they waste my valuable working and family time, much like watching sitcoms or playing video games (both of which i hate).

2 - The people who post on message boards all the time are usually has beens, never beens, or people who are bored. I will be a happier person if I watch a movie with my wife or bounce my daughter on my knee rather than posting.

3 - While I built my empire from message boards, the industry has evolved to the point where positive promotions on boards no longer aid our bottom line, and negative piss matches dont hurt or aid our bottom line, thus they have lost their usefulness to me. I think this is because there are very very very few talented new business people coming into this industry and most of the talent is moving elsewhere or has found their "point of complacency".

4 - I no longer care what people think of me or my business practices. There was a time where all that I cared about was whether I was "gaining steam" or not, but that time has passed. What once was entertaining and somehow gratifying because of the "i hate that young punk hooper" value has now turned into a much less tasteful "that guy is doing all the stuff that makes money, so i don't like him" type of petty jealousy. I also find myself as one person pointed out "fighting with pigs." and as he also said "when you fight with a pig you get dirty, and the pig probably likes it".

5 - I'm an "all or nothing" kinda guy and I don't want to end up as an old hollow bitter "has been" day trader or an obese "i sit in my underwear all day masturbating" kind of guy. I'd like to spend more time with my family and far less time online outside of normal business hours. Continual participation in the boards is only going to lead me to one of those two unhappy endings.

6 - Traditional "Affiliate marketing" is now a very small source of our income, but a very large source of our headaches. The boards are a great source of new affiliates, but we do not need new affiliates.

7 - My ego is big enough. I do not need to make it bigger by getting public attention or being "famous".

8 - The internet is no longer entertaining to me. It's a grind and has become a boring and easily winnable numbers game. I only regret that I didn't have this attitude a long time ago, i'd probably have more hair and fewer ulcers ;-)

9 - I have a fantastic team of intelligent and hard working employees who are paid well and love what they do. They do not need me on the boards making noise to drum up business.

I find 3, 6 and 9 particularly interesting (and possibly somewhat telling) on where the affiliate model might currently be heading.

your thoughts (hope you don't mind me posting this Hooper)? :glugglug

Well statement number 2 is a lot of bullshit. You are testimony to that along with a lot of other people on here.

I've been hearing that a lot from people lately. :(

The affiliate model is not going anywhere.

And all tgp's should accept free submissions. :Graucho

What a great read that was and a lot of it is fucking true.

I know that when people are losing all their money in the stock market... they stop checking out the stock prices and stop watching CNBC... the truth is too hard to swallow so they turn a blind eye.

If you wanna leave, just leave.
Posting shit like that shows that you're weak and probably won't leave the board anyway. hahah.

Though I understand where he's coming from I think he is wrong.

1 Communication is necessary in any business and there is no better meetingplace then the industry boards.

2 He may not need new affiliates NOW later? that remains to be seen.

3 From what I read it is hooper that has lost the ability to be innovative. This does not mean other have too.

One thing I do agree with is that when you feel like Hooper expressed it's time to leave and let the new blood do their thing.

My

:2 cents:

I think #2 can be dead on.

You think people like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates post on message boards like this?

Do you think they get involved in petty piss posts?

Do you think they post pics of their new cars, homes etc?

I guess you could say I'm a "haven't been yet."

I've had some success in what I do, but no where near where I need to be in order to be able to relax.

I use these boards to market myself and my services.

I have to at this point. So do many others who post here.

But I can tell you if I was anywhere near the level of some of the people who post here...I wouldn't.

I would pay people to market my services for me.

I would pay people to be my mouth piece, and I would fire them in a heartbeat if they got caught up in petty bullshit.

well, Mark De recently posted his aircraft hanger of exotic cars.

on a smaller scale, i posted my new million dollar Whistler condo, and my 911.

within this particular industry, i don't think that means much.

bill gates simply gives billions of dollars to charity. i think that get slightly more attention than posting a couple of pics lol.

yet i agree with most of your post.

Maybe so, but how much of the communication done on these boards is productive for business?

bingo.

I think this industry is a whole different game I agree with you there.

I think at some point it has become too costly.

The whole any news is good news only applies if you know how to spin it properly.

After awhile all of the drama, fake or real gets you labled kind of flaky and getting caught up in it diverts your attention away from more important projects.

Now regarding fake drama etc. I'm sure when a huge thread gets started and goes 3+ pages the programs involved see an increase in affiliate sign ups, but you have to ask yourself...are these the kind of people you want promoting your program?

I think this is where the "headache" part of #6 becomes involved.

"I will be a happier person if I watch a movie with my wife or bounce my daughter on my knee rather than posting."

Im definatly down with that :thumbsup

hooper?

http://www.uploadit.org/freepic1/3118-1.jpg



Good movie

bunch of crap Hooper is just crying in his beer because his peers are digging in his shit over his tool bar. Hooper ain't going no where. He's a fucking cry baby.

i don't think he meant he was going anywhere. just that he was going to leave the boards.

affiliates and boards are bad. got it.

he ain't going anywhere, might stop posting for a bit but he's not going any place. mark my words

should have made my self a little clearer, by saying not going any place, I mean he's not leaveing the boards.

read my post again. that's basically what i said.

anyway, fuck this sidetrack - my reason for posting this is to see what you think about the future of the affiliate model. i can't help but smile :)

affiliate model well get larger if anything, just stop and think about it. You are a good business man. Even in main stream the affiliate model ( dealers, resellers ) best and fastest way for MOST (not all) companies 2 get there product, service to the masses. you are one of the few exceptions 2 the rule, a lot of others but the affiliate model far far out numbers people like you.

I bet hopper loves the cack.

i don't believe #9.

He'll be back, they always come back. He made some valid points though, most imporant of them is how time consuming message boards can be.

When one looses all respect of others of course its time to leave the boards.
Its a cop out post.

Hooper isn't going anywhere.

Good for Hooper. I've been around since before he was even a punkass, and I'll agree that boards have gotten much more diluted and much less productive all around. I'll also agree that affiliates are a giant pain in the ass for most programs, hell you can say that given the 80-20 (which is more like the 90-10) rule of thumb to start with.

With a new family he should spend more time with them anywhere he can eek it out as well.

If he's hired people to take care of pr and the like, then he can do what he wants. :)

Good for him, he has looked outside the box and realized there is a world. :thumbsup

:thumbsup

theres some truth in what hes saying :2 cents:

i think you right in many aspects of what you think there.

That's a load of crap. Go to any of the business / investment / day trading boards and they are filled with guys with major money posting endlessly. They're a little more conservative than GFY, but you still get a lot of antics especially with talk about women, dirty jokes, and the like.

People have been saying the affiliate model will fade for years. It's amusing especially from people who don't have any. Even Lee Noga used to talk about it all the time several years ago. As long as "affiliates" have a lot of good traffic and know how to get it, there will always be affiliates. It's not a finite commodity.

The affiliate model in the adult online industry might evolve, but we should not expect any major changes.

The only think that can become more popular might be program owners trying to get more rferences from affiliates, in order to minimalize the risk of getting screwed by them, which is especially crucial now, when CB ratios are more important than ever.

Big changes, like f.e programs accepting only affiliates who can send over 5 sales per day, won't happen.
If some programs would introduce such requirements, affiliates would simply chose other programs to promote.
Just as TGP's that suddenly would start offering less free pics on galleries or swith to TGP2, would lose their bookmakers, similarly Silver Cash / ARS /TCG would lose webmasters if they started only accept affiliates who can send high volume.

Agreed, signup quota's are foolish. The only reason to even consider it is to limit affiliates for other reasons like maybe liability or management ease. Today's 5 signups a week affiliate could turn into 50 signups a day. Sending them to another program is an unnecessary move.

his head is so far up his ass he's choking on his own shit