Shap

I'm probably not the best person to comment on what direction adult is heading in 2014. I've been out of the loop for close to three years and haven't seen any real numbers in that time. So I may be a little bit of a dinosaur right now. So take what I say with a grain of salt that said take what most people say with a grain of salt

I think one thing that has happened more and more over the past 5 years is the gap between the industry Upper Class - Middle Class and - Lower class is widening. I know when i sold the Middle class of our industry was becoming the lower class and the upper class seemed to just keep getting bigger. The upper class can buy success. I don?t see that trend changing. In my opinion there are no fast and easy answers to success online right now. They all require at the very least long hard work. I remember spending very late nights with my wife making galleries BigBreastLovers. It would take us 4 to 5 hours to make a gallery (we worked hard to make them sales machines). We?d upload and list the gallery and within the first day have 75 signups to it from our site alone. Those days are long gone in many ways. Mostly in the way that I don?t think you can spend 5 hours on a project and see instant (and huge) results on it tomorrow. The 100m sprint is over. It?s now a marathon. The hard thing is affiliates can?t always afford to run a marathon. Many of them have to make money today to survive and cover their bills. That has prevented many of them from being able to maneuver and find something new imo.


If I were an affiliate I would try a few things.
#1 I would make sure my earnings were diversified across a few markets. Don?t rely on just pay sites for your earnings. I would think ahead and think about what sectors of the industry are doing well today and which ones will do well tomorrow. Be sure you are starting to making money with them. I think Cams and Dating have held up well over the past few years. I think any affiliate that has figured out how to make money in either or both of those has probably held up quite well these past few years.

#2 much like number one don?t rely on one way to make money. If you rely 100% on banner advertising, or 100% on gallery spots it?s a mistake. Diversify. Think of the last 5 years of the web and how much things have changed. Think the next 2 years (probably 1 year) will change just as much as the previous 5. The web operates at warp speed. Things are not slowing down. Diversify your methods of selling as well.

#3 Try new things. It?s important to try to pick up on what?s happening and where things are going. You don?t have to be the first but you have to try to be aware of the direction things are going. Spend a little bit of time each week to keep up to date with what new things are being done and what trend setters are doing.

#4 try to control your destiny. I started by owning traffic networks. By being in that position I was able to start Twistys. I didn?t need any affiliates i was my own #1 affiliate and always was. If you have traffic find a way to control it and for it to be yours. If you do then you can make moves as markets shift. Large tgps would have been smart to use their traffic base to start tubes when tubes came out. Even if it were just as a test. You have to be in the game to win. If you are sitting on the sidelines you are just going to watch the parade go by.

#5 Work on getting a following. Whether it be on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram. Social networks are there and available for you to use to your advantage. Start building a following today. Engage with every person that sends a tweet or msg to you. Work it. It won?t be a lot of work but by starting now you may find yourself with 1000, 2000, 5000 followers in a year from now. And concentrate on real numbers. 1 real follower is better than 50,000 fake ones. Don?t get too hung up on numbers. They don?t mean much anymore.

#6 follow technology and don?t be afraid to try to implement it into your product. Internet speeds increased, BW costs dropped and it results in video usage exploding. As all of this was happening if you were an affiliate that did not jump on board the trend you got left behind in the dust unless your target market clearly preferred images or text over video.

#7 behind the scenes run your operation as if you were a big business. Every month make sure your accounting is tight. Make sure all your legal and paperwork documents are in order. Make sure you know every little detail of your business. Build relationships with the people you work closely with. Whether it be programs, hosts, whatever. Ask them for a better deal. Be honest about it. Don?t ask for the sake of asking. If an affiliate legitimately approached me and said look i?m just trying to survive what can you do to help out. I?d try my best. I offered free hosting to a bunch of guys that approached me that way. I never looked at what they did with the hosting. They were good affiliates and I had full trust in them. If making an extra 3% or 5% would make a huge difference then approach the companies you are close with and ask for it. Offer to sign an NDA and tell them you just want to stay in business and the extra dollars you make you?ll do everything in your power to make it back tenfold in return for the favour. If you say it mean it. You won?t be able to use that line often and the people that would consider it will know if you are bs?ing them or not.