Are Tube sites really costing you sales?

[V_RocKs]

I have noticed a small downturn in sales lately.

But my traffic is the same as always. This is leading me to believe that Tube sites have NOTHING to do with my lost sales and that people just don't have as much money to spend on porn.

I doubt that even in a full depression they would completely stop buying, but obviously they will buy less of it.

I have talked to several friends about their own porn buying habits and they all said they buy it less because the money is tighter. One even canceled his porn channels with DirecTV because he says he can't afford to keep them.

Being a nice guy I gave them all a link to Reality Kings with my linking code.

[Jens Van Assterdam]

Fuck that tube blabla.. kinda everyone with some $$$ has his Tube site these days.. all are Alexa <1000 So worthless to discuss about it.
Dont think they cost you sales at all but i cant compare it really. Started out when they were allready there, but that doesnt change anything. Iam currently pushing 3-5sales/day and dont think i would be pushing 30-50/day if there were no tubes. Get my point?

[polish_aristocrat]

Originally Posted by Machete Rodriguez

. Iam currently pushing 3-5sales/day

didn't you say that you're making $20k per month?

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by Machete Rodriguez

Fuck that tube blabla.. kinda everyone with some $$$ has his Tube site these days.. all are Alexa <1000 So worthless to discuss about it.
Dont think they cost you sales at all but i cant compare it really. Started out when they were allready there, but that doesnt change anything. Iam currently pushing 3-5sales/day and dont think i would be pushing 30-50/day if there were no tubes. Get my point?

I remember those days! Vividly...

Want some blog trades?

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by polish_aristocrat

didn't you say that you're making $20k per month?

No... That was me...

He also does mainstream and services...

[V_RocKs]

On a side note... I made $494 dollars today and I am pretty pissed off about it. But it was just one of those days... Tons of sales from 1am to 5am and then crickets and a rebill here and there...

Shit happens... even to me...*
















* but not to Boneprone.

[Nicky]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

On a side note... I made $494 dollars today and I am pretty pissed off about it. But it was just one of those days... Tons of sales from 1am to 5am and then crickets and a rebill here and there...

Shit happens... even to me...*
















* but not to Boneprone.

For me I'd be happy if I made 500 bucks a day , that's nice money IMO

[Jens Van Assterdam]

Originally Posted by polish_aristocrat

didn't you say that you're making $20k per month?

you didnt get the joke in the thread, did you?

[slapass]

They have to be. I am not a big porn consumer as I just never got into it but I use one of the big tube sites now as it is convenient as hell.

[Sam Granger]

Ofcourse it costs us sales. People have jerk material for free. Why would they pay if its freely available?

[Jens Van Assterdam]

Originally Posted by Sam Granger

Ofcourse it costs us sales. People have jerk material for free. Why would they pay if its freely available?

Its still something different if you join a paysite like ftvgirls for example, then watching a random 5min clip on youporn... just a wild wild guess..

[Jens Van Assterdam]

And on another point of view: A paysite gives you a lot more then a simple tube site. Most sites have some blogs about their actors, a forum, live cam shows and such.. thats what surfers are aiming for i think.. atleast my cant get enough of that interaction shit..

[CarlosTheGaucho]

I suppose the question is to realize WHO actually makes your sales.

Ever played with the idea, that in fact only a certain percentage of potential customers pay for the porn?

Why would anyone who has three url's (we all know even more of them) where he can find just about anything for free even bother to waste time and surf anywhere else for paid porn?

The only reason why would I want to surf for new porn, is actually to find something new to look for at the illegal tube sites.. You may want to check the recent Sunny Leone goes wild story for reference..

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by CarlosTheGaucho

I suppose the question is to realize WHO actually makes your sales.

Ever played with the idea, that in fact only a certain percentage of potential customers pay for the porn?

Why would anyone who has three url's (we all know even more of them) where he can find just about anything for free even bother to waste time and surf anywhere else for paid porn?

The only reason why would I want to surf for new porn, is actually to find something new to look for at the illegal tube sites.. You may want to check the recent Sunny Leone goes wild story for reference..

word....

[farkedup]

if you were running your own tube site it wouldn't be costing you sales ;) you'd be making enough to make up for any losses.

[Libertine]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

I have noticed a small downturn in sales lately.

But my traffic is the same as always. This is leading me to believe that Tube sites have NOTHING to do with my lost sales and that people just don't have as much money to spend on porn.

I doubt that even in a full depression they would completely stop buying, but obviously they will buy less of it.

I have talked to several friends about their own porn buying habits and they all said they buy it less because the money is tighter. One even canceled his porn channels with DirecTV because he says he can't afford to keep them.

Being a nice guy I gave them all a link to Reality Kings with my linking code.

Tube sites, p2p programs, tgps, etc. all cost sales.

The better the quality and the higher the quantity of free porn, the lower the incentive to spend money on porn.

Remember the old days, 10+ years ago? Conversion rates were insanely high mainly because high quality free porn was so much harder to find.

These days, however, sites have to try really hard to have any added value over the free sites out there.

[tony286]

Originally Posted by Libertine

Tube sites, p2p programs, tgps, etc. all cost sales.

The better the quality and the higher the quantity of free porn, the lower the incentive to spend money on porn.

Remember the old days, 10+ years ago? Conversion rates were insanely high mainly because high quality free porn was so much harder to find.

These days, however, sites have to try really hard to have any added value over the free sites out there.

Well said, I also think the more generic the porn the more it will get hit.

[Tat2Jr]

Gotta go sub niche to combat the plain ol' in and out that blankets the tube sites.

[HouseHead]

If you have good content and something that people want.. You will be ok

Everyone needs to stop blaming tubes on their downfalls.

[Socks]

It's like this. A bunch of porn sites opened, and made mad money. Then they opened the affiliate systems, and a bunch of people started promoting porn sites. Then the big to medium sized affiliates started wondering why they were promoting other people's stuff, when it's not super hard to make a series of sites.

Instead of making one big good site, everyone made 50 sites in a "network" with mostly non-exclusive content, and their own cash program.

Now we have 2967208967091259125 paysites, and only a very small percentage of them really focus on their niche well, and purchase/produce exclusive stuff.

The surfers can hardly tell the difference between the exclusive and non-exclusive sites, and generally go towards the big players.

With the tubes, I just see the line being tightened even more, and the major sites like FTV girls still doing better than ever, while the big whorish networks are going to take a bit of a beating. People will want something different for their bucks going forward.

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by Libertine

Tube sites, p2p programs, tgps, etc. all cost sales.

The better the quality and the higher the quantity of free porn, the lower the incentive to spend money on porn.

Remember the old days, 10+ years ago? Conversion rates were insanely high mainly because high quality free porn was so much harder to find.

These days, however, sites have to try really hard to have any added value over the free sites out there.

No, I don't remember those days... I came in the game in late 2003...

I wish I was around in 1998 with the knowledge I have now... I would be a millionaire many times over.

[Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life]

tube sites CAN and DO cost people sales. I've seen it with my own eyes and affect my own paychecks as illegal tubes have bumped specific sites of mine on the serps. i've seen sales on certain blogs go from a steady couple hundred dollars a month to $0 monthly steady all over google shuffling illegal tubes onto the same pages as my rankings. the same thing is happening to everyone else too.

[Libertine]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

No, I don't remember those days... I came in the game in late 2003...

I wish I was around in 1998 with the knowledge I have now... I would be a millionaire many times over.

I remember back in '99, I was actually getting paid $0.25 per BLIND click.

Had I not been foolish and lazy back then, I'd be a billionaire by now

[cspdinc]

I have found in my niche that its the smaller boards that list rapidshre links like crazy to content rips to be a bigger problem. But thats just my thought. Tubes are only so many items, but the rapidshares from the peanut galleries keep going and going.

http://Houseofswell.com

3D preggo/boob fetish

[spooky181]

Tgp's were the biggest boon for online adult. It brought millions of new surfers looking for free porn, and obviously enough of those surfers were buying memberships. Tubes also are bringing in tonnes more new surfers but the structure for buying memberships just isn't there. At least now a heap of legit tubes are opening giving us some hope of turning some $$$

[polish_aristocrat]

Originally Posted by Libertine

I remember back in '99, I was actually getting paid $0.25 per BLIND click.

Had I not been foolish and lazy back then, I'd be a billionaire by now

I also haven't been around back then but I'm, well aware how easy it was.
Right now, good luck finding a program that will pay you $0.025 per blind.

So basically conversions were 10 times better and traffic was much more easier to get. Also, imagine all the domain opportunities.

But I guess people who entered this biz a few years later, also made a good living and they just can't comprehend or don't want to think that a few years earlier, it was so much much easier. If someone entered this biz, say, 1-2 years ago, and still managed to make good money, he'll just pretend that the biz is easy, without realising that the biz is actually quite hard now, and only the smart and/or hardworking people manage to succeed right now, while 10 years ago virtually everyone could.

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by Libertine

Remember the old days, 10+ years ago? Conversion rates were insanely high mainly because high quality free porn was so much harder to find.

Hah-hah! I was there, and you're quote is incorrect in one way...there was NO quality porn on the net back then. Just a bunch of horrible paysites that all had the same exact Z-Master pics that appeared to have been taken in the mid-1980's, coupled with the same exact feed package from Pornholio.
THAT was a paysite 10 years ago. Nobody was doing exclusive content for the web. There was no broadband connection. Most people were still surfing on 28k dial up and the people with 56k were the bomb.
The ONLY reason we made so much damn money back then was because it was brand new and the first thing a person does when they get online is go look for some naked pictures.
There are a lot more variables than are ever discussed around here that have to do with "the good old days" being so good.
Remember the joke from those days? "There are really only 15 porn pics on the internet"?
We were selling shit and people were lined up to buy it because this was the coolest shit they had ever experienced. You didn't have to go to the adult bookstore anymore! Of course just downloading a very low res 100k picture took about 10 minutes back then on our shitty dial up modems...but it was such a new thing that everybody wanted to buy a membership.
Things are a lot different now. A person has a HUGE variety of choices. The selection is a million times better for a person to choose where to spend their money.
As an affiliate I have noticed a big drop in sales on the bigger programs that hire the girls and have hundreds of different girls on their themed sites. But at the same time I've noticed an increase in sales on the solo girl sites...at least the ones who do hardcore.
My humble advice would be to keep moving with the flow. Right now niche is king. Next year it may shift back to generic sites.
One thing is for sure...the guys out there who have love for the big tit girls, or the tiny tit girls, or fat ones, or black ones...those guys who have that very specific fetish aren't going anywhere.
They don't particularly find satisfaction on a tube site. They want to join a site with a girl who fulfills their fantasies and interact with her.
Those are the sites you need to target right now. Those big sites with hundreds of girls getting paid per scene? Those are more LIKE a tube site if you think about it. So the surfers who go for that kind of thing probably are staying on the tube sites. They can't really interact or develop any kind of loyalty to a website. But they can develop a loyalty to a specific girl.
However, if they can find that favorite girl all over a tube site. And they can't interact with her anyway on the big corporate sites. Then why not just watch her fuck for free?
Niche solo girls. For now that's the way to go if you have good traffic.
It's not the be-all, end-all. Shit changes every couple of years. But for now it still makes good money.
And that is my free advice.

[c-lo]

Originally Posted by Robbie

Hah-hah! I was there, and you're quote is incorrect in one way...
And that is my free advice.

Damn Robbie, your posts are always interesting and insightful.

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by c-lo

Damn Robbie, your posts are always interesting and insightful.

Not really, I'm just drunk

[V_RocKs]

Niche solo girls... You scanning my network or something?

[Libertine]

Originally Posted by Robbie

Hah-hah! I was there, and you're quote is incorrect in one way...there was NO quality porn on the net back then. Just a bunch of horrible paysites that all had the same exact Z-Master pics that appeared to have been taken in the mid-1980's, coupled with the same exact feed package from Pornholio.
THAT was a paysite 10 years ago. Nobody was doing exclusive content for the web. There was no broadband connection. Most people were still surfing on 28k dial up and the people with 56k were the bomb.
The ONLY reason we made so much damn money back then was because it was brand new and the first thing a person does when they get online is go look for some naked pictures.
There are a lot more variables than are ever discussed around here that have to do with "the good old days" being so good.
Remember the joke from those days? "There are really only 15 porn pics on the internet"?
We were selling shit and people were lined up to buy it because this was the coolest shit they had ever experienced. You didn't have to go to the adult bookstore anymore! Of course just downloading a very low res 100k picture took about 10 minutes back then on our shitty dial up modems...but it was such a new thing that everybody wanted to buy a membership.
Things are a lot different now. A person has a HUGE variety of choices. The selection is a million times better for a person to choose where to spend their money.
As an affiliate I have noticed a big drop in sales on the bigger programs that hire the girls and have hundreds of different girls on their themed sites. But at the same time I've noticed an increase in sales on the solo girl sites...at least the ones who do hardcore.
My humble advice would be to keep moving with the flow. Right now niche is king. Next year it may shift back to generic sites.
One thing is for sure...the guys out there who have love for the big tit girls, or the tiny tit girls, or fat ones, or black ones...those guys who have that very specific fetish aren't going anywhere.
They don't particularly find satisfaction on a tube site. They want to join a site with a girl who fulfills their fantasies and interact with her.
Those are the sites you need to target right now. Those big sites with hundreds of girls getting paid per scene? Those are more LIKE a tube site if you think about it. So the surfers who go for that kind of thing probably are staying on the tube sites. They can't really interact or develop any kind of loyalty to a website. But they can develop a loyalty to a specific girl.
However, if they can find that favorite girl all over a tube site. And they can't interact with her anyway on the big corporate sites. Then why not just watch her fuck for free?
Niche solo girls. For now that's the way to go if you have good traffic.
It's not the be-all, end-all. Shit changes every couple of years. But for now it still makes good money.
And that is my free advice.

Sure there was high quality porn. High quality meaning a 20-picture set in 640*480 :p

What you are describing is more like 12-15 years ago than 10 years ago, though. 10 years ago I actually had broadband already, and was scouring the web for free porn to copy and put on my own freehosted (geocities, lol) sites).

Also, there were already a few decent adult sites in those days. Sure, most had shitloads of feeds, and maybe a dozen picture sets, but a few had decent content. Back in '98, the password sites were already starting to pop up - with many site owners still almost unable to block stolen passwords.

Hell, The Hun already existed 10 years ago.

How time flies...

[Sam Granger]

Originally Posted by Machete Rodriguez

Its still something different if you join a paysite like ftvgirls for example, then watching a random 5min clip on youporn... just a wild wild guess..

To be honest, I have never visited a porn tube so I don't know what the content is. But do some have full videos? Anyway, porn sharing forums are the worst in my opinion. Please check my thread here, http://www.gfy.com/fucking-around-and-business-discussion/815816-protecting-content-illegal-file-sharing.html

Would love some feedback/ideas.

[Libertine]

Originally Posted by Sam Granger

To be honest, I have never visited a porn tube so I don't know what the content is. But do some have full videos? Anyway, porn sharing forums are the worst in my opinion. Please check my thread here, http://www.gfy.com/fucking-around-and-business-discussion/815816-protecting-content-illegal-file-sharing.html

Would love some feedback/ideas.

http://www.tnaflix.com

There. Knock yourself out.

[campimp]

I focus on webcam sites... i have only seen my sales go consistently up over the past couple years....

i dont think the tube sites (as mentioned earlier) offer guys the "fantasy" that some well run solo girl sites, and of course live cam girls can offer

just my opinion

[Robbie]

If you had broadband...then you were one of the very few. Though, I do remember finally getting cable broadband in 1998 so yeah you are probably right about that. Up until then the only people with broadband were on a T-1 and that was only 1.5 mps
And in 1998 my then-partner and I were flying high. AL4A was the number one free site and Ampland was the sister site. We were making money hand over fist.
But the main programs were MaxCash and ARS. And at that time the business model for them was to build a network of sites and then throw a million pop ups on the surfer that basically sent clicks back and forth to each other.
Horrible.
The good old days did make money. But that kind of thing...bad sites coupled with a million pop ups....screwed things up for years to come. Even to this very day, a surfer is still shy of clicking on anything because they still remember the pop up hell those old sites put on them. I can remember having to shut down my machine hard because you couldn't stop all those pop ups. LOL!
I also remember countless arguments at the shows with the people who loved putting those pop ups on their sites. It was quick easy money...but definitely hurt them for a few years after that.
But of course, that led some very smart people (Ernesto) to open a new kind of paysite. The so-called "reality" sites.
So after that initial gold rush...another one came.
Fuck...I remember making sooooo much money off of Milf Hunter when that first came out it was ridiculous. My only regret is that they didn't offer revshare.
My observation has been that every few years everybody thinks the sky is falling. And everyone pines for the good old days when the money was easy.
Hell, the money is still easy.
We're making more money than God just by sitting on our asses in front of a computer in a home office. In comparison to what most people have to do for a living...it's ridiculously easy.
The key for me has been to change up and try to get a feel for what people want.
"Internet time" is fast. A year on the net is almost like 10 years in real life.
What I mean is....look back at a popular show on television from the 1970's and then try to imagine that same show being put out today.
It would be canceled almost immediately because nobody wants to see that kind of show anymore.
Same with the stuff on the web, only the timeline is accelerated.
Sure, a select few sites DO stand the test of time. Just like 60 Minutes is still on t.v. Or The Simpsons LOL!
But for the most part, if you're promoting the big generic sites...you have to jump on the newest sites as they release them. And once you find the one that you make the most sales out of...then you need to milk that bitch for all it's worth.
The window of opportunity won't last. So make all the money you can with a big push as long as it does. And all the while keep your eyes open for the next one.
I know some affiliates get hung up on just promoting one program or one site. Don't fall into that trap. Keep your options open. Test out different sites. And when I say test...I mean give them a good fair shake. Push them for a couple of weeks and send a ton of traffic their way and then make a decision.
It ain't brain surgery, but I have found I DO have to put in the hours personally to get the most bang for the buck.

[Antonio]

sales are down mostly because of the bad US economy

and on top of that "normal porn sites" sales are down because of tubes/file sharing, if you don't send to cams and dating today you're basically fucking yourself over - with the effort you put into making 1 sale from a "normal porn site" you can make 3-4 times more money with dating/cams

[CarlosTheGaucho]

Originally Posted by Antonio

sales are down mostly because of the bad US economy

and on top of that "normal porn sites" sales are down because of tubes/file sharing, if you don't send to cams and dating today you're basically fucking yourself over - with the effort you put into making 1 sale from a "normal porn site" you can make 3-4 times more money with dating/cams

Is that why are they financing the illegal tube sites? to ruin the video business?

I guess we have a point here.

[crockett]

Originally Posted by V_RocKs

I have noticed a small downturn in sales lately.

But my traffic is the same as always. This is leading me to believe that Tube sites have NOTHING to do with my lost sales and that people just don't have as much money to spend on porn.

I doubt that even in a full depression they would completely stop buying, but obviously they will buy less of it.

I have talked to several friends about their own porn buying habits and they all said they buy it less because the money is tighter. One even canceled his porn channels with DirecTV because he says he can't afford to keep them.

Being a nice guy I gave them all a link to Reality Kings with my linking code.

Are they the only reason sales are down of course not. We are also still dealing with torrents, rapidshare, forums, trojans that steal ref links.. spyware and of course the economy.

Will they be causing a much bigger issue in the next year or so when all these tube sites start taking over SE listings for more and more keywords. Well I think the answer is obvious in reguard to that..

I mean hell, even with all the stolen content there is still quite a bit of user generated content on them. As that gets more and more popular it's gonna make it harder and harder on us.

With all the tube sites, I almost wonder if 2257 would have been a blessing in disguise if it would have held up.

[Martin]

Are Tube sites really costing you sales?

Well they sure aren't helping my sales.

[crockett]

Originally Posted by Libertine

http://www.tnaflix.com

There. Knock yourself out.

This one is charging for premuim members..

http://www.tnaflix.com/register.php?b=view

can content owners not go after their processing, not to mention how on Earth did they get visa processing?

[tranza]

Here we go again.........

[SHANESWORLD]

one word. recession. porn is an impulse luxury item, thusly the first to go in downward financial times. i can guarantee you that someone who smokes cigs, drinks, and buys porn will not stop smoking or drinking before they stop buying porn and find other places to whack it for free. of course porn will always demand a supply of it be around, but when you're the luxury impulse buy at the bottom of the vice list, you can expect to see sales affected. it now costs more to live in general. gas. eggs. milk. all doubled and tripled this year. you can bet if baby needs milk and eggs, daddies porno is gonna go first.

we are officially in a recession.

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by SHANESWORLD

one word. recession. porn is an impulse luxury item, thusly the first to go in downward financial times. i can guarantee you that someone who smokes cigs, drinks, and buys porn will not stop smoking or drinking before they stop buying porn and find other places to whack it for free. of course porn will always demand a supply of it be around, but when you're the luxury impulse buy at the bottom of the vice list, you can expect to see sales affected. it now costs more to live in general. gas. eggs. milk. all doubled and tripled this year. you can bet if baby needs milk and eggs, daddies porno is gonna go first.

we are officially in a recession.

With all due respect to you...you're off on that one. I've been an entertainer in the music business all my life. Started playing professionally in 1978 in the middle of the Carter administration. Gas shortages, recession, it was 100 x worse than now. And the bar business was BOOMING. So were strip clubs and porn video sales. Believe it or not...and as illogical as it sounds...people look for escape during hard times. Everytime I've seen the economy take a downturn since 1978, I've seen my personal situation improve in the entertainment biz. Just my observations from the years, and having been married to 3 different feature dancers over the years I can tell you that the adult entertainment business parallelled the live music biz almost exactly.
I'm not sure but if you looked up theater movie ticket stats it would probably be the same.
My observation is that our business is pretty much immune to recession...up to a point. Obviously if people lose their credit cards from debt...we're screwed.
Just wanted to throw that in. No disrespect meant.

[SHANESWORLD]

Originally Posted by Robbie

With all due respect to you...you're off on that one. I've been an entertainer in the music business all my life. Started playing professionally in 1978 in the middle of the Carter administration. Gas shortages, recession, it was 100 x worse than now. And the bar business was BOOMING. So were strip clubs and porn video sales. Believe it or not...and as illogical as it sounds...people look for escape during hard times. Everytime I've seen the economy take a downturn since 1978, I've seen my personal situation improve in the entertainment biz. Just my observations from the years, and having been married to 3 different feature dancers over the years I can tell you that the adult entertainment business parallelled the live music biz almost exactly.
I'm not sure but if you looked up theater movie ticket stats it would probably be the same.
My observation is that our business is pretty much immune to recession...up to a point. Obviously if people lose their credit cards from debt...we're screwed.
Just wanted to throw that in. No disrespect meant.

none taken. i can agree to disagree.

we've just proven we're grownups and not gfy keyboard warriors.

[tony286]

Originally Posted by Robbie

With all due respect to you...you're off on that one. I've been an entertainer in the music business all my life. Started playing professionally in 1978 in the middle of the Carter administration. Gas shortages, recession, it was 100 x worse than now. And the bar business was BOOMING. So were strip clubs and porn video sales. Believe it or not...and as illogical as it sounds...people look for escape during hard times. Everytime I've seen the economy take a downturn since 1978, I've seen my personal situation improve in the entertainment biz. Just my observations from the years, and having been married to 3 different feature dancers over the years I can tell you that the adult entertainment business parallelled the live music biz almost exactly.
I'm not sure but if you looked up theater movie ticket stats it would probably be the same.
My observation is that our business is pretty much immune to recession...up to a point. Obviously if people lose their credit cards from debt...we're screwed.
Just wanted to throw that in. No disrespect meant.

The adult industry was recession proof back during the bricks and mortar days because there was no free porn. So that model is gone. I have worked in adult entertainment on and off for over 21 yrs(god Im fucking old).Also strip clubs arent same as buying porn. We arent immune anymore.

[Holly]

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by tony404

The adult industry was recession proof back during the bricks and mortar days because there was no free porn. So that model is gone. I have worked in adult entertainment on and off for over 21 yrs(god Im fucking old).Also strip clubs arent same as buying porn. We arent immune anymore.

I think it's who you are and the things you know that count...I've always made great money at this. And the last year I'm doing better than ever. Up until 2007 I had two equal partners. I brought in a ton of money. Now I have no partner, 1/10th of the traffic, but I'm still grossing 2/3 of what I did back then. Which needess to say means I'm netting twice as much. I have not YET seen the economy affect me in any way in this business or any other entertainment business. Not saying it can't. Just haven't seen it yet. And the point about the strip clubs not being the same as buying porn may be valid. But that wasn't the point that shanesworld was making.
He was hypothesizing that all luxury items such as porn would be hurt because people had to spend all their money on survival. I pointed out that I have not found that to be the case over the years.
So you're right that it's not like strip clubs...people spend a whole lot more on porn online. As far as people's spending habits...so far I haven't seen a big difference between brick & mortar and online, with the exception that they seem to spend more money over a longer period of time with online porn because of the convenience of the thing.
Now that I've spouted all that...watch the economy completely tank, everybody lose their credit cards, and fail to pay their ISP bill.
Just my luck...

[aico]

I see more traffic, less sign ups for sure. Not sure what this could mean, but couldn't it mean that the surfers are coming to our tours, seeing what they like, then going to the tube sites and doing a search for it?

Something like "wow I like this girl, wonder if she is on Tube8 let me check".

[Robbie]

Originally Posted by aico

I see more traffic, less sign ups for sure. Not sure what this could mean, but couldn't it mean that the surfers are coming to our tours, seeing what they like, then going to the tube sites and doing a search for it?

Something like "wow I like this girl, wonder if she is on Tube8 let me check".

You KNOW they do. And then the minute they find it they report back to whichever forum they are members of and spread the word. I'm still not 100&#37; convinced that those surfers were ever gonna spend any money or even have money (for instance, I'll bet those tube sites surfers are 99.9% underage teenage boys jerking off), but it DAMN sure pisses me off when I find my content on those sites. I think that's one thing we can all 100% agree on. When something is mine...it's mine! I don't care what the excuse is, it pisses me off to see it stolen. It's almost as infuriating to me over the principle of the matter as it is on any perceived money that I may or may not be making.

[V_RocKs]

Originally Posted by SHANESWORLD

one word. recession. porn is an impulse luxury item, thusly the first to go in downward financial times. i can guarantee you that someone who smokes cigs, drinks, and buys porn will not stop smoking or drinking before they stop buying porn and find other places to whack it for free. of course porn will always demand a supply of it be around, but when you're the luxury impulse buy at the bottom of the vice list, you can expect to see sales affected. it now costs more to live in general. gas. eggs. milk. all doubled and tripled this year. you can bet if baby needs milk and eggs, daddies porno is gonna go first.

we are officially in a recession.

Sure, but even in a recession people still go to their vices. During the great depression mobsters were not feeling the pinch like the average joe. People still got drunk, got hookers and gambled with what they didn't have just like when times were going great.