Hey cybermike...there are some fees that they are not splitting with you. When a chargeback occurs you lose the money you made off the sale. So if it was a $34 revshare sale, and a chargeback happens...then you get $17 deducted from your affiliate pay. But that's NOT sharing the fees like you might think.
On the paysite end...the paysite gets charged $55 on TOP of their half that they lose when the chargeback occurs AND don't forget the $6 to $7 in processing fees in the beginning. So when a chargeback happens you don't split anything. It's all the paysite owners' risk and loss. And that doesn't even get into the hosting and paying to either produce (as I do) or buy (as many others do) content. Plus man hours building the site and updating the site.
I've been an affiliate for over 10 years (I was ampland.com until Nov. of 2006 and I'm still grampland.com and shavedgoat.com) and I have never expected to make anything other than my share of the website that I sold a membership to. I'm not saying that my opinion of it should over-ride yours. I'm just saying that I have always worked as an affiliate to make revshare (and I have NEVER asked for more than 50% like Freeones did). I feel that 50% of a sale is MORE than generous and is far more than the 3 to 5% that mainstream pays.
As a paysite owner...I can tell you right now that I put 100 times more hours and effort into the paysite than I ever did or do as a TGP owner. I still run 4 TGP's by hand...and over the years I've gotten good enough at it that I can maximize my time down to about 3 hours of work a day to do all 4 of them. The paysite, on the other hand is an 8 to 10 hour a day job everyday. If I'm not shooting, or talent scouting, or editing, or printing and filing paperwork (model releases, id, in triplicate, and then shipping one copy out to another location), or updating, or working on photos, then I'm probably doing support.
It's a LOT of work. And I think I earn every penny I make at it. Especially compared to the amount of work I do as an affiliate which isn't even close. And "no" I don't run bullshit tgps'. My shit is a labor of love with a lot of stuff that I built and maintain: Check out
http://www.grampland.com/mmpage.html and you will see what I mean.
My opinion is...as an affiliate I expect to do revshare. I don't expect 70, 80, and 90%. I am grateful for 50% revshare of the site I SOLD. Nothing more, nothing less.
As a paysite owner I expect to pay out to my affiliates 50% of the sale to my paysite. They get $17.49 After I pay the processing fee, I get $11.38 After all my work, risk, and expense. Anything after that that I do to monetize my site is my business.
I'm the one who has to eat any chargeback. I'm the one who eats the processing fee. I'm the one at risk of the govt. kicking in my door to "inspect" my 2257 files. I'm the one who bought 30 grand worth of gear and software to film, light, edit, and produce the site. And I'm the one who hosts the whole thing.
If I can make more than $11.38 it makes me a happy person.
And think about this...IF that sale chargesback...Then I lose my $11.38. Plus I lost the processing fee (they don't give that back). So I'm out of my half. THEN I lose $55 more dollars on top of that!
And here's another fee that you may not have thought about and that you do not share in: Declines. If you send a surfer and they try to sign up, but their card isn't accepted for any reason...I get charged for a "decline". Don't know if you're aware of that or not.
Anyway, I'm not trying to argue. I'm just trying to show you what it's like on the paysite side. I know as an affiliate for all these years, I always thought the paysite owners were greedy scumbags. But I didn't understand what it's like on this side until I did it myself.
Now I can see both sides pretty clearly.