Originally Posted by Barefootsies

The beer money baron affiliates simply have to come to accept the facts. The business model has changed. Many programs had started developing their own traffic sources back in 2008 to bring more in house so they did not have to keep paying the high ransoms some whales were demanding.

This was openly talked about at the conferences and on panels. Long story short, at the time that the PPS was getting to $75/100/200.00 PPS, because the whale held all of the cards. Programs were overly dependent on them for traffic. The whales were demanding higher PPS, and payments upfront (among other things) or they would pull all of their traffic. Which would essentially crush the program. They essentially broke the camel's back, or killed the golden goose.

Programs wised up, developed their own tubes and in-house traffic sources so they could keep more of the profits for themselves, and stay in business. The more successful they became in their own traffic, the more you saw them slowly phasing out the high PPS, PPS in general, or affiliate program all together. They no longer needed it. Perhaps they kept a handful of whales, but they shut down the rest of the hassle and expense (affiliate managers salary, & support expense of providing tools, etc.).

They "good ole days" of the adult affiliate are over. Unless you're a whale.