with all due respect, there's your (and many other people's) problem, you can't think out of advertisements or "the good ole business 101". If you allow yourself to think out of the "good ole whatever", maybe you'll see the clear paths. The "good ole whatever" died many years ago, so why get stuck on the memories? I never said "sell advertisements", that's a business in itself, but I'm in the business of selling ADULT ENTERTAINMENT. Hence, that's what the whole thing is about.

What has changed is the media, the delivery, the formats and the business models. The porn remains the same. You've seen the VHS market die, the magazines die, the CD-ROM die... and yet the final product (porn) is always for sale. All of the now defunct technologies had their own business models, so tell me, how is now different? The fact that you can't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it just means you can't see it.

Just as an example, let's get back to VHS. Back in the times, the whole movie industry was crying about the coming end. Yet, it didn't happen. VHS were cheaper, you'd pirate them, exchange with friends, get borrowed tapes, whatever. Cheap entertainment at its finest. Doom. Yet, the more expensive alternative is alive and kicking and making billions. Why? Because there are many, many, many, MANY things other than price.

Now, let's take our own industry: now we have those malign tube sites killing the sales. Of course there's a huge influence of tubes in the current adult business context, denying it would be ridiculous. What you can't see is that those malign tube sites aren't making as much money as they could. With CTR as low as 0.05% (believe it, I've tried a few) and horrid conversions, their only way to survive is by having shitloads of traffic (which they have), but sooner or later, that business model will eat itself. However, once a single tube owner realize where is the real money... well, be prepared. All the other copycats will follow and there will be no room for most adult webmasters, it will be just a big boys party and the only way to keep in business will be extreme specialization. But then, there's where the new wave of porn will probably come and the business will re-accommodate itself.

Either way, Paul, the real problem here is you're seeing the business as a hopeless one, and you're neglecting yourself the chances to see all the opportunities and open paths. And honestly, it's very sad to see one experienced webmaster as you having such a nihilist view

as per your previous post, I don't know why should I care about the "industry" ghost, as if there's some kind of god we should adore or something. IN any case, I'd care about some specific individuals, but the glorified term of "adult industry" means nothing to me. If I go down, will the "industry" come and save me? will it feed me? will it heal me? will it be with me in hard times? does it have a mail address to contact it, or a church for worshiping it? Come on Paul, we're grown ups, the "tubes that kill the almighty Adult Industry (blessed thy name)" are part of the industry too, let's get over it and continue working and making money, it's not like the world will stop because we decide to stop providing smut for one day or one week or one month

Whether you sell adverts, contacts, products or adult entertainment, you still have to sell something to pay for the free stuff given away. Adverts rely on sales.

Yes I agree a few will make good. The industry as a whole will decline though. Comparing the porn industry to the mainstream movie industry is not going to convince anyone. Your comparing an cow to a chicken because they both live on a farm.

Porn won't die, it just won't be as healthy.

Think about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation

Another point: people are not rational

Deflation and free are two different things.

Yes maybe website memberships deflating would improve the situation. A lot of people ague it about music.

There may be something in that as I can remember the magazine but can't say i've noticed their stuff on the internet.

In the scheme that you described, more you have free stuff and less you can make money, so you have to be cheaper and cheaper and this is like a deflation. However in our case, people are not waiting that the membership gets more affordable. A membership for an adult website is nothing if you compare this price with the price of packet of cigarettes for a smoker.

As i wrote previously, people are not rational: so it doesn't matter how easily you can get free content on the web, you have to give them the desire to buy something.
One of the main problem for me is google: it's just to easy to find the free stuff with this search engine. Sometimes warez sites have best ranking than the legit website and this is a problem.

OK, Paul, I see you're just arguing for the sake of doing it, saying the same I said in the big picture and getting lost in the details. Just to clarify, mainstream and porn may not be the same (there are many similarities though), but they're both BUSINESS MODELS. And with their own particularities, all business models always end in the same: making money. Period.

Still asking..

Say it ain't so.....

50 dead companies...

private.com
gamelink.com