Originally Posted by signupdamnit

It's amazing how many sponsors still don't get this. Of course I doubt you are saying 100% no sales any other way but it is common sense. If you give it all away for free or most of it your other sales will suffer eventually at some point.

From observation I saw a common pattern:

1. Piracy causes sales to slip overall.
2. Affiliate sales decrease.
3. Sponsor gives in and starts a tube campaign with long videos.
4. Sponsor sees "success" and thinks "Oh boy! Free sales!"
5. Affiliate sales begin radically declining at an accelerated pace now.
6. Sponsor starts seeing diminishing returns from tube campaigns.
7. Affiliate sales are almost non-existent now
8. Sales from tube campaigns further decline, diminishing returns.
9. Sponsor goes out of business