Adult Check is terminating payouts.
 

Webmaster:

On November 16, 2003, Adult Check will replace its existing system with a new hybrid affiliate program. Adult Check will be removing your sites from its system due to new banking regulations. However, out of thousands of webmasters, you are one of only a few hundred selected to join Adult Check in this new venture.

The affiliate program will allow you to continue accumulating new sales with Adult Check at your current commission levels without the burden of having to build, host, and maintain an adult website. A new tour system has been setup that will allow you to push traffic and make conversions similar to other standard affiliate programs on the internet.

This new affiliate program provides you with a special opportunity to keep your rebills if you elect to join and meet the requirements of the Adult Check Affiliate Program.

The sites affected by this notice will be removed from the links list on November 10, 2003. On or about November 16, 2003, all the sites affected by this notice will be deactivated. AC Customers will no longer be able to access your site through the ID authentication process and no new sales will be processed through the apply link.

As a member of our Webmaster Affiliate Program, you will have the opportunity to keep existing rebills and grow your business. You must visit your MSM to confirm your participation as a Tier 2 affiliate. Please read the agreement carefully so that you fully understand the requirements of the program.

Should you choose not to participate, final payments will be paid out pursuant to existing accounting policies for any sums due and payable prior to November 16, 2003.

Furthermore, if you do not participate as a Tier 2 affiliate, this email is intended to serve as our official notification to you, that as of November 15, 2003, any limited use license to use any Adult Check registered service marks is revoked and all agreements and obligations of Adult Check to you are terminated.

We realize that this announcement may come as a surprise, and it is with regret that we must take the steps outlined above. Adult Check has always strived to be an industry leader in regards to current and future trends, and thus we have reevaluated our entire business model. We want you to know that these decisions were not made hastily. We believe they are necessary for the continued viability of our business. Everyone at Adult Check has appreciated the opportunity to work with you in the past and we wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavors.

For more information, you may call our information hotline at 818-464-0735.

*crash*

VISA bags another one.:( But.... the perfect10 litigation/copyright issues may have colored this decision as well. Oh well.... on to bigger, better, more innovative models.:2 cents:

as long as sexkey is still good, I'm cool.....I think Hank has it under control...

they better not fuck with rebills. :mad:

If your not 1 of the 400 or so webmasters they picked after nov 16 your rebills STOP.. end of story.

Who cares let them crash and burn, theirs other AVS's that are way better.

Sure sounds like AC fired almost everyone. :(

Since I have 200+ regular sites and I didn't get an email from them I guess.

Personal option is that AC started dying a long while ago and has been all but useless for ages now. Seems it was obvious to everyone except the people running AC and a few people who live by the blind faith principle.

This news sucks, what are some other Gold type programs out there?

holy,i know people receiving many thousands on rebills every pay period..... Can you imagine tommy bookmarks how many rebills he's gonna lose?

cyberage do one. oneverify has one too.

I agree that AC has been going for a long time. But for those that still depend on those thousands every month in rebills this has to be killer for them.

http://www.adultverifier.com/ does well http://cyberage.com/ is 2 biggest and their support is far better.

I had 10k+ sites with them..

plus.. not paying out on past partnerships would be bad.

The best one I´ve tried has been ProAdult sends a bit of linklist traffic but they are easy to convert and the members keep rebilling.
They also offer freehosting with or without your domains even for movies.

Run by a friendly staff that are quick to answer if you´ll ever need support they also have a rev-share program where other webmasters can promote you sites :)

They are #1 in my book regarding gold/premium sites

Webmasters of that size would be safely in the new tier1 program and wont lose rebills.

Check out the official release
http://www.aclounge.com/viewtopic.php?t=1224

This really sucks, as I have built up a lot of AC Gold members, and will lose a lot of money if the rebills stop.

Moral of lesson, I suppose is not to put all your eggs in one basket, as the same could happen to any AVS system.

I have a choice between accepting their new terms, or not. I suppose it makes sense to accept them. Because if I don't, they will just stop all payments to me period - according to them.

Is this right? Or do we have any legal recourse? I suppose not, unless we want to take them to court for breach of contract in the British West Indies.

So we are basically stuffed. Accepting is probably the best option, especially if we get enough sales to keep our rebills. But I think my customers will not want to rebill, if AC Gold becomes a normal porn site anyway.

It just sounds like a restructuring to me - it said "you were selected" so it doesn't sound like you're out of business - just won't have to build your own sites anymore -
"The affiliate program will allow you to continue accumulating new sales with Adult Check at your current commission levels without the burden of having to build, host, and maintain an adult website"

It also says that YOU get to keep your rebills - if you accept the agreement. It just means you'll be selling general memberships like other affiliate programs, the way I read it. Not to your specific sites.

This makes me happy - maybe now there won't be a bunch of content stealing bastards putting up sites right and left. The content will be regulated better.

I wouldn't be surprised if the other avs sites don't emulate this - Visa doesn't play favorites. To me, this is a sign that Adult Check is going to STAY in business - not go out.

Man..

We made over 6 figures with AC back in the day.. and still getting rebills..

Now they want to fuck me..


:1orglaugh What a class act.


Thanks for the free traffic assholes! :321GFY

It says to visit your MSM. Anyone have a clue as to who that would be or what that is?

MSM=your account=Multiple Site Module

Pro adult does do ok for me, Just from their links list i get a sign up now and then.
See this goes to show
"YOU SHOULD NEVER KEEP ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET"
Their are other's out their "AVS's" that is that will pick up on sales were other fail. I lost 3600 regular sites from them after they did that clean up on their links page for those that havent made a sale in a month or so. So fuck them. Glad I had other to bring in the cash.

Thanks web4x. I signed up lets see how I do.

So how do you expect someone to do business with you when you have 3600 sites and don't make a single SALE in a month?
Wake up.

Well yes, but two problems with this.

All my marketing, and traffic is geared towards the existing setup. I don't think my traffic will want to join just another porn site, without the sheer variety you used to get on AC Gold. So my signups may dip below the 10 a fortnight needed to stay in.

Also, all my existing members will get pissed off, and cancel a lot earlier than their average 8 months. As all the sites will now go. They don't want to be members of a normal porn site.

It wasnt just that, I was a exemploy that quit on their asses. So their more to the story then what I posted above.

This might be a good thing for some if you're Tier 1 or Tier 2.

I'm Tier 2. Had a couple dozen sites, half-dozen of them Gold. Maybe now it'll be easier this way as Tier 2 if you don't have to manage your own content and site. Just send traffic. And you get to keep rebills.

But now, however, without the AC link list, you can't get traffic from there. Only Tier 1 webmasters can.

This is actually very good for Tier 1 webmasters. It cuts a lot of the competition off, and there are only 100 of them.

Not that many as I was teir 2 for all my sites. My guess would be 300-400 wemasters fall under tier 1, and thats just a guess.

Any idea how to move up to teir 1?

Based on specific and objective criteria, select Adult Check vendors have been asked to help create a new program that integrates the marketability of an AVS with the accountability of a paysite. These 100 select vendors, known as "Tier 1," entered into a contractual relationship with Adult Check to supply adult content to Adult Check's end-users. An additional 250 webmasters have been given the opportunity to participate as a "Tier 2" affiliates, driving traffic to the Adult Check system.

By entering into a contractual relationship, Adult Check and its vendors have confirmed a long-term commitment, and each has assumed greater accountability for the product's success. By forging tight bonds with a select group of content providers, Adult Check has dramatically reduced its liability, and can assume tighter control of the end user experience, assuring quick compliance with any card association and governmental regulations.

http://www.aclounge.com/viewtopic.php?t=1224

Overall i agree it has to be good for those who are left. Shit you have traffic that is now moved to a much smaller group of sites or whatever they are doing.
BUT this shit always sucks as I want to just keep working on my stuff not figure out wtf they are changing.

Man am I glad I never fucked with AVS.

I would think the ones who stand to loose 1000's are the ones they chose to save... don't you??

I don't know why people are still doing the AVS thing. It has been known since the last Internext convention (and even before that) that AVS is going the way of the dodo. They are either going to do what Adult Check is doing and make a paysite with affiliates or do like CyberAge and start offering alternative forms of payment besides CC. The credit card companies are coming down on AVS sites and won't be letting them take CC under the current way that the AVS system is setup.

If you belong to a AVS system, be ready for some changes or some of them to go down under like a 3rd party biller. This has been known for awhile now.

Why would anyone do recurring based program now?

people..WAKE UP..

yes,on first glance i thought they would stop processing rebills for everyone. If someone is below at #200 rank with AC most probably is getting less than 10 sales per month.

for AVS? it's a suicide attempt. The last thing someone should check at the moment is to move to a new recurring AVS.

No, that's no true. 10 sales a month isn't enough for them to give you your rebills. They will steal them for a lot more than 10 sales a month :321GFY

{{{It just sounds like a restructuring to me}}}


They moved everything(servers and all) to Panama, and Beliese, and then sent out the letter. Scumbags. AC was dead anyway.

This is just their old classic way of screwing over their own webmasters.

Oh well it looks like I've been officially pushed into turning my website which is updated daily and has lots of returning traffic into a paysite like I should have 3 years ago. The site as too good for Adult Check anyway. Maybe this will be a positive thing for me overall.

I can understand the reasons why they have to change but a little more notice would of been considerate.

Why give notice? This is AC we're talking about. Crooks don't usually give notice that they're about to steal your money.

I've been using AC since 4-98 and am outraged. My lost rebills will cost me dearly and pad their coffers at the same time. There really are no words to accurately describe how I feel about AC right now.

They are going to can 1000's of webmasters rebills with little notice and expect a handfull of webmasters to stand beside them. Who is to say in 5 years they wont fuck over the rest of their affilate webmasters..

You'd have to be a fool to support them even if you're one of the few they didn't rape today. Any company that does that once will do it again. It was a nice move they pulled moving everything to Panama and registering their domains to the Cook Islands 3 weeks before they stuck it up your ass.

That's premeditated theft but good luck suing them.

Some of you guys crack me up. 10,000 sites with AC? Gimme a fucking break.

I was one of the first AC affiliates. AC used to be cool, but turned into nothing but mini sites whose member sections had about as many pics as a thumbnail gallery. I was at one site a couple weeks ago that had just 1 single page of pics in its members areas.

Most people who understand how this business has to be reinvented now under new processing regs saw this coming long ago. It was inevitable.

Its crappy that AC flung it on its affiliates that didn't see the writing on the wall like it looks like they're doing.

But you gotta remember nothing lasts forever, especially in this industry, and I know many webmasters who became millionaires off AC, so at the end of the day don't be pissed, that's just the nature of the beast we ride on.

The AVS model is outdated now as are many other structures. Its time to change. Some folks are going to lose a shit load of money and that is unfortunate, but if you're smart, you should always diversify and like I preach constantly, save for the rainy days, because they will happen and hit all of us.

Good luck to you guys that stuck it out with them and like I said be thankful you made what you did.

The fact that they moved offshore will make it very difficult and unprofitable to pursue any legal recourse you think you have also.

You, Sir, are correct. :thumbsup

It's like those freehosts that used to let you host sites for free, promote wherever you could, and then delete all the sites, and redirect the residual traffic to their own ads.