Tubes, the industry, and my over worked brain.
 

I been thinking a lot, I always do and as expected tubes came up. Now I understand that I took some vicious verbal beatings when I have shared such thoughts, like when I was trying to warn affiliates several years ago that they were pushing themselves out of the market. That by getting higher and higher payouts and demanding the programs do all the work for them some day very soon some of the sponsors would take note, switch more to in house traffic generation, buy add spots and sites, grab all the traffic they can and squeeze out anyone without pre established significant traffic or the micro niche player. Hell even the use of free content was writing on the wall, just did not expect the stealing of it. I was of course laughed at and scorned. So be it, I just worked on my small niches.

I was not surprised at the rise of the tubes. Honestly I was perhaps a few steps away from launching one of the very first ever. I just picked the wrong cms, a paysite one by chance since I figured people would be used to that format. Then mistake number 2 was that I asked the sponsors if I could use their free content in my site and yes I explained I was going to use ALL OF IT. The idea was simple, tons of free content that pushed the sponsors in a free members site format with no charge. Was not no full length movies, though I did think about adding some I had rights to. To sort of really push each area (niche) of the site.
Truth be told, I got tired of sponsors telling me no. Many did say yes though. Plus I was a bit lazy, had the wrong CMS and the US outsourcing to add the content and matching text with search words was getting very expensive so I let it fade. At first I felt I would either hit it hard or fail very hard, instead I just accepted a few thousand in losses and quit. Not sure if it was a mistake or not, really do not care much. I really did not even have youtube as a fucking model. There are still a few people here who I hired to work on it or I spoke with it about.

Anyways back to the topic at hand and what I have been thinking. There seems to be always one constant fact or equation; whatever you wish to call it in adult that shows up in everything we as an industry do. We fuck it up. Simple as that. It also will eventually be the silver lining to the current tube issue, there will be others though trust me. We are already seeing shit loads of "legal tubes" popping up. Give it a tiny bit more time and there will be sponsor branded free tubes for every one sale a month webmaster to upload and run. It will saturate, it will dilute, and of course like always it will fuck it up.

Yes there will be a handful of very successful ones who make more than their share of the money and will have either moved on to the next way to get the upper stranglehold on the traffic, or the next twist in the market. We all know a nobody site can pop up out of nowhere at in point in history, become the next juggernaut and of course original - before clones come in and fuck it up. Tubes will stay, unless some ruling changes the field. At best the will hold onto traffic like the early TGP of yesteryear while the new traffic magnet grows out of some fold or wrinkle.

Just be assured if - we as an industry will fuck it up.

No and there are no cliff notes, read bitches or just ignore me.

Interesting post.

Shhhhh...

We all know that there is no money in tubes... probably thats the reason we are expanding our network to 1.5 Gbps traffic pipe for tubes by the mid of next month :1orglaugh

who the fuck said there was or was not, not I. My long winded thread speaks nothing of what is making money right now and what is not. It just is some thoughts in my head at the moment that needed to be let out or it would continue to bug me. Often I will just type it out then say fuck it and click the forum link again. That typically at least gets them out of my head and also saves me from getting mobbed.

:Oh crap:uhoh:eyecrazy anything else :1orglaugh u have a point about the number of fake tubes. most will fade away more $$$$$ for me :pimp

why do you think it's fucked up?

I think it's PRIME for new ideas :thumbsup

Nice post ASM champ. :thumbsup

It's the adult industry's prisoner's dilemma.
Each individual adds to the degradation of profits on the whole, while still being rational.
Of course, there's some fuckheads like silentbucks who just rip amateur content and do illegal things. But that just accelerates the process.

No, I think a constant equation in adult is to fuck things up.
Find something in adults past that we have not fucked up?

You know TGP's hell you had a huge one, even had custom shit shot for it. Do you really think the 7 million fly by night traffic trading circle jerk TGP's did it no harm? Never even letting the user get the the first thumb they selected, perhaps to buy. Since it seemed productivity and trades were more important than bookmarks and sales.

Keep pulling the banana away from the monkeys enough times and they are going to go seek out some oranges.

Well, the problems of the past and present are, and not in any order,...

1. Low threshold of entry.
2. Little accountability. The internet provides it on many levels.
3. Lack of intelligence by the vast majority. Including any business, or marketing sense.
4. BRO system of kiss asses and sheep.
5. Lack of any foresight, planning, budgeting for rainy days....

Hence the 'good ole days' and why can't the golden days of the 90's go on for ever. The blame game of why competition took away your ball when you thought 1999 sales gimicks would still work a decade later. When you were one of a 100, and now you are one of 10,000.

Let's not forget good ole fashioned egos and greed. They are the catalyst for most of what has happened in the adult industry, and on the whole in real lift. Banks, insurance companies, real estate, health care, unions, pensions, corporations, religion, and the list goes on.

It is human nature friend. It always will rear it's head.

:2 cents:

I have covered those in my affiliate model is a dieing model threads and a few others. Nobody ever wants to talk about how they may become useless in the future.

Think I am actually tired now, thank you alergy medicine. Will check back latter today.

Use your magical insight cap and get me the lotto numbers.

Please and thank you.
:)

Old ideas works fine too. If the salesman act like a salesman, and not "look-at-all-the-stuff-I-can-import-to-my-script", then he might start selling something. Choose - limit - tease. It's that simple.

Never said old ideas do not work still either. Hell people can get sales from the few remaining link lists if they try.

Pretty much in accordance with what I have been thinking about tubes.

Granted I had stepped away for over two years, so I might not be as observant as someone right in the thick of things.

This tube shit is parallel to the TGP/MGP concerns. The difference is that this is affecting EVERYONE instead of JUST gallery submitters, usenet, email, bbs marketers etc.

Eventually, just as you say, every single webmaster will have tubes up - the surfer will find themselves in the same spot they're in now - go try to find porn and get jerked around somehow and get frustrated.

It used to be, the surfer would get frustrated and signup.

Now, the surfer gets frustrated and says fuck it, I can go jerk for free without the headache of figuring this shit out and after I'm done I'm gonna eat, watch TV or do some other shit that doesn't include signing up to your shit.

So, on one hand this is par for the course for adult shooting itself in the foot once again; but the speculation is over. Eventually people are going to know THE site to go find ANYTHING for free. We've been able to recover from most foot-shooting incidents, but in this instance we're blowing the whole foot off.

Which is fine. Dirty Dane said it best: Choose - limit - tease. Fact of the matter is - when you get a surfer in your network, you control his attention. ACTUAL selling; business and marketing sense is RARE in this industry. Everyone thinks they have it, but 90% have more traffic or money than sense - and eventually that won't be enough.

So, I guess my point is, the sky IS falling - but only for those of you who cannot keep your heads down & just work your shit and rely 100% on the hard work of others to keep bringing money into your pocket.

:2 cents: