Are webmaster boards dying out?
 

As I am sure everyone has noticed, webmaster boards just ain't what they used to be. Is this because there are fewer webmasters? Could it be because there is not enough money being made to spend time sig whoring?
Perhaps the business is just dying and the web boards are going down the same plughole. Who knows.
I have noticed that small focussed boards with good business and/or technical information have fewer posts, but the quality of the posts are much higher than "Happy Tuesday" or some other such meaningless drivel. I personally think it is the future of boards. Its like traffic. Huge amounts of traffic that doesn't convert is....well a shit pot of cheapskates. Small numbers and high conversion....the way of the future.

Anyone have an opinion on this?

They are indeed dying. There's only 1 board that makes significant money, and even that one makes less now.

I don't think this bodes well for the affiliate marketing system.

Can we really say they are dying? I think we are seeing a saturation in the market segment everyone has a board. Of course in these types of conditions smaller niche boards should do well. But seriously we cant say that this is bad news for the affiliate model if anything this should help smaller programs reach a higher quality audience for smaller amounts of cash.

However I do think the adult boards in general are badly in need of an overhaul. I mean come on Vbulletin is over a million years old my grandfather used to post on it in the morning before riding his dinosaur to the quarry where he worked at.

How many different ways are people going to say how the affiliate marketing system is slower than it used to be? This is just one more way. The glory days are gone.

If one wants to indulge in reminiscence, there's a board for that. ;)

If one wants to bemoan the state of affairs in the industry, there's a board for that too. Might even be the same one. ;)

I didn't say it was slower than it used to be. I said the future may not look to bright. It may disappear as an easy way into porn. A lot of discussion lately about the high cost of affiliate traffic.

The future not looking bright? Ah come on... :)

This stuff moves in waves. Up, down... Things always come around eventually.
Today's webmaster board is tomorrow's newest social media platform in another form. What the form actually is? I dunno yet... let's go ahead of the curve and come up with something.

The future is so bright.... I gotta wear shades. :cool:

Webmaster boards have died; Our industry has changed.

The truth is the economy has changed our business. Traffic is down, ratios are up; People are unable or unwilling to spend money on a paysite when they are concerned about making their next house payment or car payment. Affiliates are no longer making money like they were in 2005 or 2006, and have deserted the industry and gone out and got real paying jobs with guaranteed income.

Affiliates traditionally have been about half of our industry. So nearly half of our traffic based is dropping like flies, and in the mean time the general state of the economy has further reduced our sales. The two combined have reduced sales by roughly 70% across the board.

Because of this, programs are making radical changes. Some programs are letting go of their staffs like hot potatoes, and with no affiliate support nothing is getting done. I have messages into a dozen programs asking for help and no one is responding, and if I can't get what I need I can't promote you so you've just shot yourself in the foot. Then a lot of programs are no longer updating with new content; No new content and I can't feed my blog machine and I can't send you traffic. Another shot in the foot for programs.

With more and more affiliates giving up, webmaster boards are dieing.

Fuck you all, I'm moving forward. In the past two months in a row I've seen a sales increase of 10% per month. PinkStar Cash just had it's best day ever last Friday. My blog network, on a month by month, is making about 10% more than it was last month, which was up from the month prior. While everyone else has been bitching I've been building, and when this comes back I'll be able to retire. Granted, it will never be like it was four years ago, but there is still good morning to be made.

And I'll still be posting. And still posting here on XN.

Posssibly if you can wait another five or ten years, you could be right. Who knows.

This business is still a good earner and I still do well, but not like the "good old days". But affiliates expecting updates from mainstream porn sites might be sitting on their thumbs when many of them can't afford content.
I update regularly and always will. I am usually two years ahead in content production and up to five years on one site. So it makes little difference to me one way or the other.
The new focus in this business is video and unique video. I was fortunate enough to have shot thousands of videos...not just clips...over the years on high end video cameras (mostly hd) so am turning my attention at the moment to vod. If you don't have a huge backlog of videos, it might be time to think about feathering your video nest for the future.
VOD sites are more realistic in their aff payouts as well. See the AEBN model. It could be a way forward for affiliates and content producers.

Rochard hit the nail on the head - although boards are in a small way helping, programs need to be more creative and helpful to webmasters. Webmasters can't load up their sites with tons of programs so they need to be selective. Overall the state of the industry is only as good as the creativity of the programs. Those who maintain and continue in the old ways are struggling. Programs who ditch their reps for pay as you go commissioned people will suffer simply because webmasters are having a hard time finding those who have been around a while to trust, much less loose respect for high turn-overs. Rochard mentioned one way of getting the word out there, and there are many more, but the boards are filled now mostly with program reps told to post, surfers and fewer and fewer solid webmasters who actually know what they are doing.

My blog network pushes mostly solo girls. My biggest problem is finding content. I need massive amounts of content to keep 60 plus blogs updated daily.

Want to know who's doing it right? Spunky Cash. Every morning promptly at 9am, I get an email with their newest galleries. Sometimes I put them up ASAP, sometimes I pass on them. But I can set my fucking watch to their email, and it's official start of my day. Why can't everyone do this?

The point I am making here is that affiliate traffic is very expensive. Producing masses of product for affiliates is expensive and perhaps that is why there is seemingly less of it. Combined with poor conversion rates for most affiliates, you have to wonder if it is worth it. The most valuable traffic has always been self generated and costs a whole lot less. So, trying to be pragmatic here and not bury my head in the sand, what is the future for affiliate marketing?

No opinions? I would have thought that on a board where folks do business that at least one person might have a thought. Or is this just proof of my original question?

Well, that's a rhetorical question, isn't it?

Hi guys! how many years haven't I logged on in here? Dunno...

Hi Chris, do you still live at the same place? Hi Rochard!

I always hated with a passion the associate programs. They are way too expensive, steal from your product innovation budget, from your product and client's experience quality budget and are generally fostering a class of businesspeople that operate on a quasi-parasitic mode, producing nothing. It came to be because those parasites highjacking search engine traffic ended up doing better than the producers themselves. Without affiliates, producers could have afforded, gradually, to sell their own stuff by themselves. But once the market gets invaded by parasites, you have no choice to adopt the same tactics. It shifts the business focus from actual value-added production to zero value-added raider-type business. Sure, the affiliate marketers are producing economic activity, but they're akin tax accountants: said economic activity would never exist without the parasites getting a free ride.

Anyhow, I delivered that rant years ago, and here I am again, skipping like an old scratched vinyl.

BTW, I still haven't bothered to sell my Angeltease.com content, I had bigger cats to skin. It's still online, but with subscription suspended, site not updated for maybe five years . I have, from the top of my head, maybe 55 photo sets and a dozen videos, a third of which were never put online. I was doing weekly updates, which was cool in those days, but way to little for today's update schedules, it seems.

Well, you would be about maybe #50 or 60. Who knows? I stopped counting.

That was an extremely well thought out rant. The best opinion I have seen yet.

............

I just haven't had time to read through this thread. Maybe tonight I'll have some more input.

There is more than one "board" that makes significant money ;)

And I'll add that while posts are down everywhere... perhaps its cuz more and more people are working smarter AND harder?

Would one begin with an n and end with a d?

Wtf does that mean? See my rant about the failure of our public education system.

That would be a big "nunya" to you...

I thought we were just discussing business boards that didn't take the money and run. Anyone can rob and steal and make money.

a lot of people do just that with little concern of the mess they're leaving in their wake

Good post!

very good post. I am enjoying this thread

Just to add to what Panky posted, I did install VBCredits to XNations, but without a defined plan in mind. You can see "xBucks" in the left column. I wasn't (and am still) sure what or where I was going with this.

Obviously, the days of remunerating webmasters for posting are gone, and I feel that this system only brings out the worst kind of posts anyway. So I'm still keeping my options open for how I can apply this type of credits system.

This is a most interesting post. I've never posted on a board because I was hoping to get paid for it, and I've never got dime from any board for posting (although one board did send me a gift last year).

I think such boards bring out the worse in posters.

Besides, I'm not desperate to the point where I need to make an extra $40 a month for posting on a board.

While I'm at it, I post here mostly because I like Evil Chris, wish to support him, and think he's really super smart about the industry. Also, I post here because it's both fun and productive to be here.

Dying? Maybe not dying.. but most certainly changing. It seems to me the adult biz has become way too corrosive and we're paying for it. I see a number of mainstream webmaster boards that are thriving in a big way and and very busy an managing to still talk a lot of business.

Wow, you can make that much?

Thanks mang! :worthy:

About the $40 thing... I'm with you. If I get paid by any board at all, it's like a surprise to me. I'm not one ot wrack up a ton of posts anywhere. I was a little taken aback with all the broohaha about the points system being revoked at Netpond, for example. I had a ton of points accumulated, but I had no idea what to do with them.

People were using their points as currency for services. Management just cancelled them and flew the coop leaving people with a bunch of worthless currency. Whatever you think of the value of these points, these folks worked for them and then had them stolen. There were other problems as well. Funny thing is, no one has made a big deal out of the principals doing a runner. I think because they were bros.

This "bro" thing is out of control. It's an insecurity issue for people who don't feel they belong.

Actually, there were many complaints from many voices. Granted, many still act like nothing bad happened, also.

That is what amazes me. Guys get ripped off and don't walk. Someone rips me off, I never do business with them or their associates....ever. That just seems like common sense. And the interesting thing is no one has ever defended them and people still keep buying advertising from them. That is a symptom of how greedy this business is. Anything for a buck. But the problem is, that in that case its anything for a nickel. In the long run, that attitude is shooting us all in our collective feet. One big wrong move at gfy and it spawns huge outcry. Over at NP, a bunch of whining and the same folks that decry the state of our business still work there taking money. That is wrong.
Dig this....a quote from NP shitlist forum.....