I agree that MPA2 is not a trend but that cascading billing definately is. No doubt. Good point. I must say, however, that Mansion Productions' creation of MPA2 was a good trigger for this trend with marketing of the product in an outstanding way and educating webmasters about the huge advantages using cascading billing solutions. So I am agreeing to agree on this point ;)

On another note, I have personally seen a positive trend where webmasters now are getting better at protecting themselves and their business. The trend was that lots of webmasters stole ideas and content, now this has shiftet over to the other side where webmasters and content producers are starting to crack down on all the theft by taking action and actually go after companies that are blatantly stealing ideas and properties. Great trend if you ask me. Webmaster community finally starting to police themselves and nipping serious issues in the butt...

AcidMax, you have made me realize another trend in our business, that of spam sensitivity.

I'm not being facetious either. There's no problem with this however some people go a little overboard with spam calls to people who might just otherwise be trying to drum up a little honest business.

To be quite honest, I never knew of this boards existence before Poppy sent me an ICQ with the link to the post. Now I am actually enjoying it. Seems to be a quite nice board. :)

And Amber - Miss ya! Lets do lunch! I am buying!

I agree with you Chris. This isn't directed at AcidMax at all but in the comment in general...

I advertise at X-Nations because everyone is friendly and I can post information about my program without getting yelled at for it. This is the one of the few places where I know my message will get recieved.

I was considering advertising at another popular board last week for a new product. My salesman introduced himself on that board a few days ago. He posted he was new, his name and where he worked including a URL and got slammed left and right for spamming. There were some positive posts but about 50% of his welcome was a big "fuck off". The board of course, lost my business.

I miss you too, Oystein!...it would be my pleasure to have lunch with you; Anytime. :)

Will I see you in Miami?...I hope so - we'll have to do some late-night hanging too (ya know, we'll bust out some old-school maxin' and relaxin' - LOL).

BobbyR, I totally agree; XNations is The Bomb board and one of the few that I read regularly (and actually care about what's said here). Besides, there aren't many people as awesome as EvilChris, in or outside the biz as far as I'm concerned.

Hope ya'll have an excellent day...and by all means, enjoy the weekend to the fullest! :cool:

Can I? I think you mean.. "do I?" :D

either way, the answer is the same ;)

Don't listen to Amber, she is evil.:cool:

Is she evil or Quasi-evil... That is the question :confused:

The diet coke of evil... just one calorie.. not enough. ;)

You hit it right on the nose Chris. It is one thing to BLATANTLY spam your company or product but it is another to talk good about a company that you think has a great product. I think the whole purpose of message boards is to share ideas and make new business deals benefiting everyone. All too many times I see someone talking about a product they like and get told to fuck off. But if someone says "I'd like to screw her mother" well then thats cool and the person that started the thread gets a thumbs up. There are so many nice and awesome webmasters in this industry but at the same time there are so many angry ones that are just waiting to blame someone one for spam cause they have nothing better to do. We all need remember that we are all in this industry together and we need to work together and make better relationships so that we ALL are sucessful.

This post is not directed towards anyone at all just in general. I have just seen this too many times and I have kept my mouth shut soooo many times. But I fianally feel the need to say something because this is just not the vibe at Xnations. The vibe at X nations is nice and positive and respectful and that is why I feel at home here. There are other boards that I will not ever visit any more due to all the bullshit and people talking down to one another.

Anyhow just my 2 cents. Have a great weekend everyone =) :sunshine:

AJ,

My post wasn't meant to be the biggest spam post you have ever seen. The thing I like about this message board is that the vibe is mellow, unlike other places. If I have an announcent that is related to a thread, then I will share it w/ other webmasters on this board. Yes, cascading billing has been around, but correct if I am wrong in saying that MPA2 has really brought it to the forefront.

Perhaps other webmasters on Xnations are not as saavy as you are when it comes to being in the "know" on cascading billing? I took a look at JetBucks (yes that was a plug) and noticed you are only using CCBill. Perhaps you should consider using cascading billing. ;)

Poppy

hehehe :cackle:

awww man, no matter how hard I try... :shucks:

:D

You wanna see blatant spam?

BUY MY CONTENT. VIRTUCONTENT.COM

But you people wouldn't have me any other way. And that's a trend I plan to stick with. I won't stop until the OTHER HALF of you have my feeds. Muahhaaaaaaaaa!

Amen Laurie :cool:

Yep, I agree the vibe is mellow and that X-Nations is a cool board. As far as the MPA2 thing, I will just say that it is a good software program. Has it brought cascading billing to the forefront? Possibly for normal users but from what I know most of the bigger companies have been using it for quite some time, so it very well could have brought it to everyone else at a more affordable price. My point was simply that ... well nevermind I think we have beat that to death.

As far as JetBucks going cascading billing, I am in the process of looking for a buyer for JetBucks and its sites because my business is concentrated elsewhere at the moment. Maybe if someone buys JetBucks they will take the responsibility of doing their own payouts and using cascading billing. The problem for me is I have a small crew, mostly of developers, and managing our own payouts was not an option. In order for webmasters to promote they need to be paid, and CCBill offered the best services at the time the sites were created.

Anyhow, lets move on with this thread :)

AJ

My business seems to do better when I denie my affiliation to it.
I can't figure out why though.:huh:

It's that freakazoid avatar you've got; it scares people off. ::-|

Awesome thread!
No predictions, but trends I see going on *right now*...

- Content providers are happily and eagering following in the footsteps of TGP; giving out HUGE packs of free content "to drum up business" and then wondering why business has dropped so much. It's because no one needs to buy content anymore guys, there's at least 3 huge packs being given away each week. Even message boards are doing it.

- More webmasters are leaving virtual hosting and going with their own dedicated servers for more control and cheaper prices.

- "Veterans" in the industry are finally trying things they've never tried before - like TGP, because what they've been doing all of this time is no longer bringing in the $$ it used to.

- Everyone and their brother is opening up a message board in the hopes of selling advertising and supplementing their plummeting income.

- 12Clicks nailed one of them - industry gurus are putting their heads down and working on new projects, and not telling a soul about what they're doing in order to really protect their new traffic/$$ source.

- Newbies are having a *harder* time doing things because they're being handed everything - from pre-made galleries to pre-made free sites (?!?), banner-free unlimited bandwidth free hosting, free *quality* and hardcore content - EVERYTHING is free and they have no reason, no incentive to LEARN how to do it themselves. If they don't learn it, they won't understand it - and they'll expect to keep being handed things for free rather than doing the work themselves.

- Bigger folks who were making 200+ signups a day are now down to 20+ signups a day and they're panicking.

- Softcore sites are quickly catching up with reality sites (bikini, drunk girls, cheerleaders etc) and as the legislation keeps coming, more folks are turning to these types of sites.

- People are finally realizing that "teens" and "tits" aren't cutting it anymore and that it's not the amount of traffic that you have, but what you DO with the traffic you've got. More folks are turning to more specific niches that have way less traffic but its ROI is higher.

That's what I've seen going on recently, the "recent trends"... as for what's coming? Wait until September and see if you can believe the differences between then and today. With the left-hooks that many webmasters have taken over the past 8 months, this summer is going to be the death of them business-wise.

So what makes a good marketing person?

that's right! business like this is like the bush fire in Australia......that no one can stop them.....

Carrie! Are you trying to scare us all? LOL
Of course a lot of what you're saying is on the mark. Maybe not to the extent you're taking it though...

And I agree with you on the many different boards that are popping up. I'm just glad that xnations has prospered amongst them all. I personally feel that the usual webmaster hangouts will experience an eventual exodus as webmasters grow and/or grow up. Hopefully right here is one of the places that they will make their daily visits.

Re: hmmm
 

it won't happen
there are FLASH-OVERS now (at least thats what they call em here in Australia)

just like a popup but done with flash and you cant close them - agh! so much more annoying!!! :mad:
but oh so effective :D