Why have most affiliate forums died?

[nikki99]

Originally Posted by S3X_Jay

Yes, XBiz.net is open to affiliates.

oh no against the rules

[CaptainHowdy]

Originally Posted by nikki99

oh no against the rules

. . .

[CurrentlySober]

Originally Posted by cordoba

Is the Xbiz forum not open to affiliates? I applied last year but was rejected...

Could be that you used a 'free' email address, like gmail etc? I know they used to be tight on that. Back when I was attending the Xbiz event in 2011, I was rejected a few times, despite having paid for tickets for the event. ( I wasn't going as a free affiliate pass) I was looking to network in advance, and also for event info etc, but they wouldn't let me in!

It turned out because I was using my legitimate private business email, a gmail account, I got rejected - Had I been using my 'ilikepoo' email address, I would have been fine !

Anyway, I got manually approved in the end, but I don't know if that's still a thing over there or not. Good luck - Affiliates are welcomed.

[nikki99]

GFY is much better..........., more serious

[redwhiteandblue]

Originally Posted by CurrentlySober

Back when I was attending the Xbiz event in 2011, I was rejected a few times, despite having paid for tickets for the event.

Was that the one with the feminist protest outside?

[CurrentlySober]

yep

8char

[AmeliaG]

Some forums were for specific sponsors who did not survive the changing economic landscape shifts of our industry and some forums allowed divisive, irrelevant, ignorant, angry political fights to remove all value from interacting.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by NoWhErE

This sums it up really well. Most of us who want to help usually end up being drowned out by Paul Markham type posters. For the new people coming into the industry, it's hard to tell the difference between actual webmasters and the trolls.

Most of you wanted help and sites were happy to give it. Because it was in their interest, today it's not. 99.99% of the traffic flows via the big Tubes, so doing deals with cuts out the need for affiliates. Most of the smaller and medium sites have gone, except in minor niches and you can't all survive on those, a lot of companies are doing their own promotions because there is no great skill in being an affiliate.

Since no one cared about the decline in porn content creators, don't expect any tears from us over your decline.

Adapt or die.

[CaptainHowdy]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

Most of you wanted help and sites were happy to give it. Because it was in their interest, today it's not. 99.99% of the traffic flows via the big Tubes, so doing deals with cuts out the need for affiliates. Most of the smaller and medium sites have gone, except in minor niches and you can't all survive on those, a lot of companies are doing their own promotions because there is no great skill in being an affiliate.

Since no one cared about the decline in porn content creators, don't expect any tears from us over your decline.

Adapt or die.

You tell 'em, Paul . . .

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by NoWhErE

This sums it up really well. Most of us who want to help usually end up being drowned out by Paul Markham type posters. For the new people coming into the industry, it's hard to tell the difference between actual webmasters and the trolls.

So what?

Less affiliates more traffic for those left. Affiliates do no more than direct people to porn sites after they have decided to watch porn of their liking.

Nice to know you want more competition and lower earnings.

The demise of boards follows the demise of programs, content creators, TGP, designers, etc. Just the result of a changing industry.

Adapt or die.

[Mr Pheer]

What a silly question. The answer to what happened is in the mirror. The proof of that is a group on Reddit, making wallstreet investors their bitch. Over here, we got guys that won't work together, crying about the same thing fucking their business over for years and doing nothing about it.

[tornell]

Because the world is changing and the only way an affiliate manager is to buy traffic ... is sick

[mce]

This isn't just an adult forum issue mind you....

Even huge mainstream forums have crashed... HARD

There's only a couple of exceptions left

[VicD]

There's no money in porn anymore.

Man, i loved this board back in the day.

[mce]

Originally Posted by tornell

Because the world is changing and the only way an affiliate manager is to buy traffic ... is sick

There are still affiliate managers around?

[Forkbeard]

Originally Posted by mce

There are still affiliate managers around?

After a long gap Kink.com has one again.

[12clicks]

Consolidation.
Most affiliates didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground and neither did most program operators.
That worked while the internet grew exponentially, not so much now. I've never been a fan of affiliates who didn't have the ability to drive sales without having their hand held and once they became unnecessary they disappeared. Most of the members here are nothing but hobbyists and pretenders now, barely worth the bandwidth. And bandwidth has never been cheaper. Now I pre-pay whales. No fuss, no muss.
Things haven't really changed at the top.
If you have joins, rebills or Xs, hit me up but otherwise I'm done being witty on a chat board to attract business. So is everyone else I know........

[xsabn]

Originally Posted by Forkbeard

Fundamental changes in the business. Being "an affiliate" as a primary business model was always fraught; the power imbalances are too large, the opportunities for the affiliate to be screwed are too many. In a fast-growing highly-competitive era, this was balanced by competition for affiliate traffic, and program reputation (among affiliates, especially on boards) was important, which limited the scope for programs to grasp and steal. Once the growth and competition went away, in a world of declining margin, too many programs (not all by any means, but vast majority) came to see the affiliate percentage as an unwelcome cost. Perceived affiliate value declined, temptation to steal (because hard times) went way up. Result? Strong pressure on affiliates to diversify into other business models, and (for those of us who retained affiliation as part of our model) vastly reduced incentive to participate on boards, because their primary value (social and tech conversation aside) was to keep the programs honest. That's gone now. Nobody's honest unless that's their actual business ethic (somewhat rare) and even they don't care about affiliate boards because affiliates are a much smaller chunk of their revenue. All this vastly oversimplifies, but it explains a big chunk of the change, in my opinion.