Why Did We Go Back To Cookie Cutter Sites?
 

I recall that affiliates used to bitch and moan about cookie cutter style site tours yet today, it seems like every major site looks like its competitors, all with tube style tours, tiny header and those stupid 'Sign Up To View Movie' screens when you click on what is supposed to be a preview movie clip on the tour.

When did affiliates decide promoting cookie cutter style tours was 'ok' again?

The biz has become about how fast you can jump on the band wagon - Every time it happens the cash pool is watered down a little because a little more is given away.

Cookie cutters have advantages like: quicker and faster to make. Making customized pages that are better style will take more time and effort.

So site owners have become lazy is the general consensus?

So its not just affiliates any more, interesting...

Yet piracy is still the main cause of sales declining in the business LOL

Maybe people standardized on what 'works'?

i luv sugar cookies

I like sugar cookie pop tarts :)

Because those layouts work the best.

If you look at some of the bigger sites you can see they always make small changes to try to improve ratios. Sometimes they revert, sometimes they leave it. It's just a matter of split testing and seeing what works best. For some it might be laziness (they just copy what others do), but for some it's all based on data.

I agree about the cookie cutter thing. They do all look alike and I'm not really that impressed with it.

Also, what ever happened to video previews on the main tour page? Or even the join page? I feel like tours have reverted to an earlier time. I see the 'play' buttons that say, "Watch Video" and then when you click it, it goes to the join page. It's not a huge deal but I thought that fooling the surfer was passe.

industry will change and adopt over time, so it's time for cutters again :D

No, it's the tours. Behave...