[Hell Puppy]

No easy answers here.

Where's the line between "fantasy" and outright "deception"?

Where's the line between aggressive "marketing" and "fraud"?

For me, it's in the underlying attitude and approach. I'm not trying to separate the surfer at all costs and willing to do absolutely anything I can get away with in order to do it. I am aggressive, but I do deliver what I advertise, and I do treat them with respect as any business should do a paying customer.

The results? Customer acquisition has become tougher and tougher as surfers get more and more savvy from being burned. It costs more and more to get a new paying customer. Meanwhile, I've focused on keeping the customers I have over getting new ones since 1997. It's easier to keep one than to get a new one in many businesses, our's is no different. It's worked well for me.

Most guys who run what we would've used to call "amateur" sites will tell you the same thing. Treat 'em right and they're loyal to a fault. You can have big membership numbers without having to feed 100s of new signups a day just to fight the churn.

However, the industry in general attracts people who dont really fit anywhere else and are lured by an easy dollar. Thus you get a lot of people who'd rather take a short cut, fleece the sheep for all they're worth and never worry about tomorrow or where the next buck is coming from. Just get all you can today at all costs. Now just because there are so many people in the biz with that attitude, does that make it right or acceptable? To me, no.