Menu

• Dictionary
• Hot Shots

Directory

• Sponsors
• Billing Options
• Content Providers
• Web Hosting
• Traffic Counters
• Website Designers
• Resource Sites

Last week I talked about the way things are changing in the adult online industry. I pointed out that we had even reached the stage where one of the most respected sponsors in our industry had started openly taking sign-ups from a tube site and that was a clear indication just how much things were changing.

Of course since then the sponsor in question has recanted and now says that he's not going to take sign-ups from tube sites but that doesn't really change the situation. Just because a whole bunch of affiliate marketers jumped up and down and stamped their feet like spoilt little children until the sponsor decided he'd rather give in than go on trying to defend his position really hasn't altered a thing.

The fundamentals in this industry are shifting and affiliate marketers can make as much noise as they like but sooner rather than later sponsors are going to embrace tube sites ... if they haven't already. It won't be a matter of being loyal to affiliate marketers, for the sponsors it will be a matter of survival because tube sites will have the traffic

Now I don't want to enter into the ethical debate about the use of stolen content on tube sites. Even though the use of stolen content is quite wrong the simple fact is that the sponsors in this industry doesn't really care. If they cared the tube sites wouldn't be hosting all that stolen content because the sponsors would have claimed their copyright.

But they haven't cared, they've been too busy making money to get serious about protecting their content and affiliates have never done anything much to encourage them to protect their copyright either. All the affiliates care about is making more and more money from the sign-ups they send and what affiliate would be happy if their favorite sponsor had to cut payouts so that they could re-direct some money to fighting copyright issues?

So if we didn't do anything to encourage sponsors to care about the copyright on their content how can we now demand that sponsors not take sign-ups from those tube sites that stole their content? Remember, the rights and wrongs of the situation don't matter here ... these days it's all about survival and if you have to take sign-ups from those who steal your content ... well ... at least it helps a sponsor to remain in business.

Obviously there will be some affiliates who will suggest that it's not up to us to encourage sponsors to protect their content but many of those will be the same people who seem to think that the sponsors owe some loyalty to their affiliates. They'll suggest that making money in this industry is a partnership between affiliates and sponsors and if that's so why can't the sponsors claim some of the benefits of that partnership when it comes to paying for the cost of fighting those pirates?

Nah ... the fact is that there's no partnership here and there's no real loyalty between affiliates and sponsors either. We affiliates might like to think there is but that's just delusional and we drop sponsors who aren't converting in the blink of an eye so why shouldn't the sponsors drop us as a business model if our sales are declining while sales from some other business model is increasing?

Even if there was some vague hope that sponsors might stick with their affiliates to the exclusion of other marketing models I think the coming recession in the United States will soon destroy that.

A report that I read today suggests that 45% of the leading economists in the United States are now suggesting that an recession there is inevitable and when it really starts to bite then natural survival instinct suggests that sponsors will take sign-ups from anywhere they can get them. If that's the case then it really is time to start looking at the way you sell your product and see if there isn't something you can be develop that will take the place of tube sites.

It's a shame that we've looked at the Asian countries and not bothered to consider ways that we could sell our products there. Obviously there are lots of barriers to be overcome but there could be some real benefits for anyone who can sell their product into Asia in the months ahead. A different economic report that also came out today suggests that while America suffers through a recession Asia will continue to grow and prosper.

If that's so then we really are facing some massive changes and if we want to survive then we really going to have to start thinking of marketing our product in new and innovative ways ... ways that are beyond tube sites and well beyond the old gallery and free site model.

If we don't then all these changes that lay ahead of us are going to steamroll us.