Why I haven't logged into ICQ in years:

This thread on GFY epitomizes all that is charmingly dysfunctional about the special working relationship between affiliates and sponsors.

On this particular issue? I can see it from both perspectives; each person has some valid points AND says other things that are pretty fucked up.

I for one think a program owner is going above and beyond to even BE on icq available to talk one-on-one to affiliates (or anyone else, for that matter). I know that I don't have time for it. It's not that I don't think it's a great idea to be able to respond to affiliate questions, feedback, requests, etc., I just think it's pretty hard to run a business and be on call and interrupted like that at the drop of a hat. You'd think, though, that if the guy makes as much money as he says he does and is so willing to reinvest tons of it back into his business ("noone spends more money than me on updates and on models and on keeping things unique") that he'd fucking hire somebody whose JOB it is to MAKE time to respond to affiliates in a better way and people to make sure the promo content really represents the high quality he claims to spend THE MOST MONEY IN THE INDUSTRY TO MAKE (why do people say such ludicrous things? WHY?). I totally understand feeling run-ragged by affiliate requests, but that's because I don't have the money to hire people to be run ragged FOR me. If I had the kind of money this guy says he has, I would not be sitting on icq chatting with affiliates. Seriously. I'd be making love to my hitachi magic wand on my own private island.

I think he could have handled it better, for sure, but I totally understand not having the motivation to do so. Finding a polite way to say, "I don't have time to customize content for you (or we do not want to give away too much high-quality video or whatever) nor do I have the need to because it has a proven record of converting" is probably not as satisfying from a personal perspective as ripping somebody a new asshole for assuming that just because you are a paysite owner and sponsor that someone can tell you your content is junk and you should JUMP to accommodate their desires, though I don't think what the affiliate said was THAT offensive. I mean, if you are in the habit of being offended by stuff like that, why make yourself available on icq and even give the impression that you care? Of course, not seeing the promo content in question OR any of the affiliate's work it's pretty hard to judge whether either of them has a point. Years ago I posted a guest gallery from one of the TushyCash sites and I thought the content was hot (if the quality was average it really didn't detract from it's worth because of the hotness of the fetish/role-playing); I haven't looked at it much in recent years because I always felt like I had to doublecheck my link codes more than usual because of the way their program is set up (kind of confusing); maybe it's changed since then, though.

I agree with the person who said they're both acting like crybabies. I also have to laugh any time anyone in this industry accuses someone else of not being "professional". For one thing, anyone who levels that accusation almost always has a huge double standard/is a total hypocrite when it comes to their own behavior (usually not professional) versus what they expect from other people (bowing, scraping, and dishing out "the customeraffiliate (or sponsor, depending on who's doing the whining) is always right" nonsense). Mostly I just think it's funny because people want to apply standards of professionalism from OTHER industries to an industry in which modeling many of those standards is totally absurd. THIS IS THE PORN INDUSTRY. If you expect me to not use foul language in my communications with you because "it's not professional" to do so I think you are confused about what my profession is: I am a whore, a pimp, and a pornographer. It would be unprofessional of me NOT to say "fuck" or "cunt" on a regular basis. I make money on my fucking cunt, okay?

Don't misunderstand me, though; I do think it's important to treat everybody with kindness and decency (unless it would be reinforcing or rewarding indecent/unkind behavior to do so), but that has nothing to do with being "professional", it has to do with being a good person to everybody you meet regardless of whether it's at work or not. Working on the internet DOES make that hard, though. Not seeing people face-to-face makes it pretty easy to treat other people like shit. Still, I think there's a difference between being frank and full of a certain amount of bluster/larger-than-life-personality (a good thing, perhaps, when trying to establish yourself online) and being genuinely mean. I don't think anything said by either of those guys is a reason for someone's feelings to be hurt.

Sometimes telling someone to fuck off IS professional when you're an internet pornographer or smut peddler. It's pretty hilarious when people go to a board called "Go Fuck Yourself" to complain about someone telling them to do just that.

A Bitter Sigh of Relief?

I constantly stress out about slacking over releasing new promo content, especially hosted galleries, for affiliates. I always think that the big corporate sites have so much more to offer (and indeed they do, in many ways).

But now that I've been collecting sponsor galleries to use on my tgp area on Trixie.com I no longer feel quite so bad. Just a little bewildered. So many programs with so many sites I've heard make so many people so much money that are talked up so much on boards? Many of them haven't released new galleries in three months, six months, YEARS even. What the fuck? And it also seems like it's often the best sites, the sites that are supposedly our competition (solo girl sites) or the ones that have really great concepts (if only the gallery builders wouldn't write such fucking retarded sales text) that are stagnant or have grown cold.

I'm not saying that I want to be like those sites or that I think it's fine or serves me well to not release more promo stuff (if I had two of me, I'd totally be getting it done at least on a weekly basis), it just amazes me how much we do with TWO PEOPLE. Me and my partner. And we're IN all the content and SHOOT it all ourselves. Contrasting that with these big programs with money to throw around skinning GFY and shit and it just frustrates me. If we had one tenth of those people's resources to hire just one helper and sink the rest into better equipment, locations, costumes and a third talent wheel every so often? Oh my god. We would fucking ROCK. I'm not saying this as someone just months out of the gate in this business -- I've been in it since 2000, and seriously since 2002 so I *know* what we could do with just an extra $25k to $50k a year. Toilet paper money for some of these programs.

SIGH.

It really kills me that there are so many dead sites out there, not updating or rotating old content, and they get so much play. They even get good reviews on review sites. It boggles my mind that sites with no interaction, only about 15% of the content we have, and no real updates for months manage to get scores close to ours when we do live shows every week, have 24/7 spycams, REAL blogs, etc. I honestly think that maybe we offer TOO much and it reaches a ceiling beyond which people cannot even measure or grasp what it is we do. Maybe they think we're lying about doing all that stuff, since most sites promising interaction don't really have anything except maybe some cam upsells with Eastern European girls in fishtanks.

It's so easy to believe the hype on the boards about the big programs and thinking they have superior products. In some cases they do (Raven Riley's site comes to mind), but in most cases? I just don't see it.

I have got. To get. Me some. OF THAT MONEY.

Do I have the most unprofessional sponsor blog in the industry? Inquiring minds want to know.