Will 2009 see the return of the honest webmaster?
 

Just a few months ago, the feeling was that illegal tube sites were just going to get bigger and more profitable and a program without insane cross sales just couldn't make it anymore. If you tried to argue it here on GFY you were either called clueless or schooled on how "free is the future".

But now MasterCard seems to be trying to reign in cross sales and AFF, who subsidizes most of the free illegal tubes seems to be going under. Leaving tube sites with few alternatives as not many advertisers can be profitable there.

These are just a few things but my spidey sense is telling me the wind is starting to blow in a slightly different direction than it was even just a few months ago.

Anyway, just thinking out loud here. :upsidedow

Any thoughts on what changes are coming in 2009?

If the FriendFinder IPO doesn't bail them out and they do go under, that will take a significant chunk of change from a lot of warez/torrent/tube sites right there indeed. I'm not too sue what's up with the x-sales end of things, but if they get slammed down on too, it could spell good things for legitimate whitehat webmasters. Especially in adult....

Aren't there literally hundreds of other viable cam and dating alternatives to AFF that would gladly accept tube traffic? I'm not sure how AFF going under is going to be the "big downfall" of tube sites everybody is talking about.

Maybe I'm missing something.

That's what I was thinking, sort of a 1-2 punch if everything stays on the current course.

I think the torrents should fare a little better as they don't host anything and have more options for alternative advertisers if AFF dies. Plus, my guess is their overhead is waaaay lower than a big tube site.