Being a porn affiliate in the late 90s meant being part of a almost magical time. I was a broke college student at the time and I stumbled across the adult webmaster thing. I gave it a go and put up a site with an AVS company. They declined the site but something like a month later they sent me $60 or $80 something as a check for the sales I made in the couple hours that the site was taking sales.
In the mean time I opened another site with a different AVS and made over $1000 in the first month. Within three months I went from being an absolutely broke college student to having more disposable income than my parents. Within a year my server and advertising costs alone were almost double their mortgage.
It was a great time. The industry was filled with good middle class people too. Sponsors didn't tend to be as scummy and even the boards were more affiliate focused and friendly. People would actually help one another and look out for each other more back then. It wasn't just a bunch of platitudes and Bro and rep bullshit where everyone is kissing ass in desperation. Then no one was desperate. If you kissed scumbag ass back then people would laugh at you and call you on it.
I still like what I do but the people and the money are different. You have to work much harder now. In the old days you could make thousands a week with two hours a week of work. This wasn't the exception. It was the rule. It was unbelievable.
I remember when lensman was posting at porncity and talking about his cameras. This brings back some memories for sure. I think I still remember my porncity number and street/avenue name. It would be funny if archive.org still had it up.
