The Collapse of the Affiliate Marketing Model

[gonzo]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

What people on the Adult Internet were able to forget is this is a 3 way track. The sponsor, the affiliate and the buyers. There were so many buyers with so few options everything was concentrated on getting more traffic to a site come what may.

Today the surfer has many options, quality sites, VOD, PPV, Tubes. He's now king and if you don't have what he needs all the tricks to make an affiliates life better are not going to count.

Sell to the buyer, not the guy who goes out on the street with a placard.

The customer has ALWAYS been king. Why should anyone use trickery?
Dialers,spyware installs etc all of these things are short term revenue streams and totally 100% theft by deception.

This is the kind of shit that gives our business the reputation that we all want to avoid. Treat the comsumer like a customer, treat him like fucking GOLD and give him more than advertised you would and you will have a customer for life.

You wonder why all these get rich quick buck guys that started out in this business are gone? They treated surfers like SUCKERS not customers.

Now the money has dried up and they are back with a new grift of prechecked cross sales or zango installs or whatever the scam of the month is.

Everyone should be selling to the buyer.

However . . .if you dont want affiliiates why are you trolling for them in your signature?

Your posts usually make my head hurt.

[Jace]

just so everyone is clear, 2Much is NOT Too Much Media...it is two seperate companies

[Sexyteaser]

All Clear Here!

[Sexyteaser]

Originally Posted by gonzo

The customer has ALWAYS been king. Why should anyone use trickery?
Dialers,spyware installs etc all of these things are short term revenue streams and totally 100% theft by deception.

This is the kind of shit that gives our business the reputation that we all want to avoid. Treat the comsumer like a customer, treat him like fucking GOLD and give him more than advertised you would and you will have a customer for life.

You wonder why all these get rich quick buck guys that started out in this business are gone? They treated surfers like SUCKERS not customers.

Now the money has dried up and they are back with a new grift of prechecked cross sales or zango installs or whatever the scam of the month is.

Everyone should be selling to the buyer.

However . . .if you dont want affiliiates why are you trolling for them in your signature?

Your posts usually make my head hurt.

Never have an unsatisifed customer. Not always possible but a great thing to strive for.

[Toby]

Originally Posted by Shelleehale

Never have an unsatisifed customer. Not always possible but a great thing to strive for.

True, but after 15 years in retail management I must add a caveat.

When someone tries to knowingly rip you off, then they are no longer a customer, but a common thief.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Shelleehale

Never have an unsatisifed customer. Not always possible but a great thing to strive for.

This is true, but you're using a term that isn't often even uttered in this industry. "Customer".

Few if any talk about a "customer". Likewise you dont hear words like "customer care", "customer satisfaction", etc.

The words you hear instead are "signups", "clicks", "traffic".

The adult industry strip mines surfers. We move them thru en masse, in any way we can, filtering out the nuggets which are the ones we can manage to separate from their credit cards.

Do we talk about "value"? Never. Do we try to give them what they paid for? Rarely. We focus everything on convincing them to signup and very little on delivering quality once it's done. And once we have them, do we actively try to retain them? Yes, but not by providing good service, instead it's often the opposite. Make it a pain to cancel, maybe they'll forget to cancel month after month.

There are exceptions...most of the amateur site community would be one. I also have customers for some sites recurring since the late 90's. But I've also left a ton of money on the table over the years by refusing to do things like blind cross sells and other monkey business.

This is why paypal and amex wont touch adult, it's why visa keeps putting tighter and tighter restrictions. Yet, the strip miners keep on cooking with offshore merchant accounts, etc.

It wont stop until an adult transaction on the web requires a double auth.

[EmporerEJ]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

This is true, but you're using a term that isn't often even uttered in this industry. "Customer".

Few if any talk about a "customer". Likewise you dont hear words like "customer care", "customer satisfaction", etc.

The words you hear instead are "signups", "clicks", "traffic".

The adult industry strip mines surfers. We move them thru en masse, in any way we can, filtering out the nuggets which are the ones we can manage to separate from their credit cards.

Do we talk about "value"? Never. Do we try to give them what they paid for? Rarely. We focus everything on convincing them to signup and very little on delivering quality once it's done. And once we have them, do we actively try to retain them? Yes, but not by providing good service, instead it's often the opposite. Make it a pain to cancel, maybe they'll forget to cancel month after month.
.

I take serious exception to this.
At the risk of being accused of "not being in the adult industry" again, we DO have customer service, we do take care of our customers, and we do care.
Go 'head...do a search. see if there is anyone posting negative stuff about us. See if there are any "charge backs" from us.
The answer is no.

Don't lump us in with the bottom feeders.