Quote:
Originally Posted by jact
(Post 11380465)
So what would you be willing to do to make sure that it mattered? What if it involved a little more work? Would you go the extra mile?
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Netflix lost a class-action suit because they were proven to throttle the supposedly unlimited supply of movies to which their subscribers were entitled. So they changed their TOS. They still limit the number of movies which anyone can receive, but now they do it legally.
The point being that the main difference between a mature industry and a new industry such as online porn, is that everything is done more or less openly. Although things may still go on which many may wish did not, this is important in two ways. If I don't know something is happening I don't get to make a choice as to whether or not I am willing to tolerate it. And once the question of honesty arises, it is downright foolish to ignore the possibility that other areas may also be handled dishonestly.
The relevance to your question? That there are two perspectives. The broad one being the value in attempting to push this industry towards growing up. To that end I will post on boards, write to the FTC, use the FBI internet fraud site, and whatever else comes to mind which seems relevant.
In narrow terms, I will not "do" anything, because if someone in this business sets out to cheat you, I don't believe you can actually stop him or even be confident you can identify what he is doing. Instead, I have always had the policy of avoiding sponsors in whom I don't have confidence, whether that lack is due to rumors about honesty or obvious signs of inefficiency.
I learned a long time ago that there are sponsors who - at least from the affiliate point of view - simply don't have it together, whatever the reason. But once you have eliminated those, there are still plenty left and any significant difference in performance between them is primarily down to the affiliate: how he promotes them; how well positioned are his promos; what are his traffic sources; etc.
Occasionally there are temporary exceptions when a new bandwagon gets under way. But otherwise there is so much choice that there just isn't a good reason to work with anyone with whom you are not entirely comfortable. And if you set your sites up the right way, it is very easy to respond to both your instincts and your statistics.
You will not always choose wisely and sometimes you cannot find a way to make a particular sponsor work. But overall that approach works and if more affiliates were critical of their sponsors, the cowboys would either have to clean up their acts or see their businesses go down the toilet.