never seen this one done before. ill answer what i can, i know certain areas in that market very well (and others poorly) and have some free time this morning.
started this thread and it got some interest, posted some of the main parts below.
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...ebmasterchecks
Affiliate networks/systems
In mainstream many merchants (programs) have their own merchant accounts for the sales they send themselves and use affiliate networks for traffic from partners.
See, in adult you have ccbill, nats, mpa3, netbilling, etc, and these are systems attached to processors or leased out/handbuilt. In mainstream there are hundreds of affiliate networks, and its their own business model. Their purpose is to attract affiliates to join, then they lure the merchants with the promise of many affiliates promoting them (they take 20-30% of the margin on the products from the advertiser/client.)
Much more spread out than adult, you have many huge companies with some very smart people and I would guess 20% of the market is biased against adult.
the affiliate networks generally use pixel tracking on the signup page, was something interesting to mention
i guess the general thought is that the first years of the net (1995-2001) or so adult made it big. all the new innovations were done in adult, including the move from the CPM (paying per impressions) to CPA (cost per acquisition/sale). much of mainstream is still using indirect methods, which adult moved out of for the most part 4-5 years ago.
mainstream shows used to suck and be very tame with few parties and everyone going home or doing their own thing after the convention, but now they are catching up to shows like internext/WA/phoenix forum
many more cute girls in mainstream. ironic, isnt it. its much easier to get action at a mainstream show than adult (the ratio of girls/guys is around 50/50, if not better, and they tend to send the attractive ones to the show ;))