Are those claims true? For one, my sales are not dropping this year or this month for that matter. One of my biggest sponsors raised payouts 40% this month and I am seeing very positive results from it. So, I paid a visit to Xtube to see if these claims were true. Of the eight “channels” I visited I looked at the most recent videos on the front page. Few, if any, were 10 minutes in length. In fact, I would say that the average run time was around 3 min. As far as “stolen” videos, the vast majority appeared to be sponsor videos that were taken from free hosted galleries that the sponsor gives out and either combined into one or broken into clips. Most had the sponsor link as a user suggested link. I did find a few that I suspect were in a copyright violation.

I personally can’t see how any videos on Xtube would replace the real experience that one obtains in a members area. In fact, I would say that Xtube in general has converted more non paying surfers into paying members than I will do in a lifetime.

We all need to realize one thing when we look at any delivery medium - there will be flaws. While it is easy for us to point out any flaws that we may find and feel it is killing the industry, that is just not true. Take YouTube as an example, one could find many violations of copyright on that site, but is there proof that those violations are killing the industry? I would argue otherwise as one opponent of YouTube recently had all their videos of a popular comedy series removed, only later to put every single episode on their own website for free. User created and uploaded video is here to stay folks. We can like it or not. Xtube is one of the few, if not only, mediums where any guy with a video camera can film himself, upload, and make a few bucks. No waiting for a year to get in a que with a VOD company (if the VOD company will even accept his video). Is that a bad thing? Is the amount of non paying surfers that Xtube converts into paying customers on a daily basis a bad thing? You decide.

There are copyright violations in every medium. Look for a moment at the popular BlogSpot platform. It has given anyone with a desire to write a chance to express themselves on the web. That is a very positive thing, yet BlogSpot has a dark side. One can find blogs that get 25k views a day and link to stolen content on Rapid Share. Is shutting down BlogSpot the answer? You decide. One could goto a TGP and see an image as a thumbnail that they are the copyright holder and have never given anyone permission to use and click the image expecting to be able to see what gallery is using the image, only to goto another TGP site. Repeated clicks yield no better results, just different TGP sites. Should we shut down TGP galleries? Shouldn’t an image that I own a copyright on at least goto a gallery that contains my images and links to my site? Why does my image lead to another TGP? Think about it. Think about link lists loaded with links to sites with “public domain” images. Should we shut them down? You decide.

Each progression of technology has brought it’s own challenges starting in the earliest days with newsgroups. Remember those? They were suppose to kill the industry as there were just so many free pictures given away. Now we are in a “social net” era. Surfers love to interact. They want to comment on a picture, on a video, on anything for that matter. They want to upload. They want to create. It’s just the way the whole internet is going. It’s called Web 2.0. If we can’t make Web 2.0 work for us now, then what’s going to happen when we hit Web 3.0? You decide. I just don’t know.

Please Note: I have been accused of “defending thieves” by the original thread starter. This is just not true. It is my belief that one should contact the original copyright holder about copyright violations and let them decide how to proceed. I stand by that belief.

A CMS is in the works that will make that job much easier, provide more details, and be more interactive. This is not to say that I will not be throwing a post here and there for those sites that have traffic leaks, as I will be doing that when the opportunity arises.

If you produce or sell gay content and you are not listed, please let me know and I will add you to the sidebar and my new gay resource directly that is coming to a computer to you real soon. (I am using the term “coming to a computer to you real soon”, as it will not be your traditional directory style script. (All I can say on that for the moment - sorry folks).

Hit me up at cdgmedia [at] mac.com and I will list your content resource.

The good people at Google have long maintained that there is a Chinese Wall between paid search results and organic results - that is, the department responsible for advertising is completely separate from the department responsible for organic search engine placement. The company insists that Google Adwords is a completely separate entity than the Google search engine, and never the twain shall meet. This all sounds very good, in theory. But do they live up to this ideal in practice?

Read the full story at Mainstream WebMasters.

Google faces a federal patent infringement lawsuit by Northeastern University over technology used in its core Web search system, according to legal papers filed last week. The complaint was filed Nov. 6 in Marshall, in the Eastern District of Texas — the U.S. court with a history of decisions that are highly favorable to plaintiffs in patent cases — but the case only came to light over the weekend. The plaintiffs are Boston-based Northeastern University and Jarg Corp., a start-up founded by a Northeastern University professor that is the exclusive licensee of search technology patented in 1997, a year before Google was incorporated. A spokesman for Mountain View, California-based Google said it believed the suit was without merit. “While we have not been served, we are aware of the complaint and believe it to be without merit based upon our initial investigation,” Google spokesman Jon Murchison said. The leading Internet company derives 99% of its revenue from online advertising, which is delivered in response to keyword searches Google users perform to find Web links. Michael Belanger, president and co-founder of Jarg, said in a phone interview that his company had become aware of the infringement several years ago, but lacked the resources to press its case until it found a law firm willing to fund the case on a contingency-fee basis. Northeastern then signed on.

Read the full story here.

I really hate board drama, and we try hard to stay out of it, but as an owner of the company baselessly accused of fraud by Cybersocket, I hope you’ll all indulge me the following post to get a few things off of my chest. I simply can’t let this sad excuse for an apology go without comment.

I wrote this rather quickly and haven’t run it by the lawyers or anything like that. I’m sure it could be more soundly worded and professionally composed, but it is a genuine expression of my personal frustration and absolute disgust with Cybersocket’s behavior and subsequent attempt to sweep it under the rug. Now that I’ve seen how they intend to handle these issues, I feel compelled to directly and forcefully respond.

I have only a few questions I’d like to ask of Morgan, and then I’ll get out of your hair and go back to work.

“
Dear Morgan,

I’ve waited patiently over the past month for you to do the right thing and make amends for your false and repugnant accusations. Perhaps I’ve grown cynical as the days have turned into weeks, but if this is the extent of your efforts at making amends… the best you can do… it really raises more questions than it answers. (more…)

]]> http://www.gaywebmastering.com/just-us-boys-responds-to-apology-and-allegations-of-fraud-made-by-cybercocket-magazine/feed/ http://www.gaywebmastering.com/barebuxxx-announces-switch-to-epoch-new-site-and-increased-payouts/ http://www.gaywebmastering.com/barebuxxx-announces-switch-to-epoch-new-site-and-increased-payouts/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:14:03 +0000 Porn Master http://www.gaywebmastering.com/barebuxxx-announces-switch-to-epoch-new-site-and-increased-payouts/

Gay affiliate sponsor BareBuxx announced that they are making some important changes in their affiliate program.

Payouts have been raised from 50% to 60%

Epoch is now the billing processor for their bareback paysite Hot Desert Knights. In an email BareBuxx had this to say,

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, in order to continue to refer customers to Hot Desert Knights you must go to EPOCH and create an account. If you all ready have an Epoch account all you need to do is to add us to your existing account and get your NEW Epoch affiliate code for Hot Desert Knights/Barebuxxx. If you do not have an Epoch account, you must create one by clicking the “Create New Account” tab. It’s a simple process which takes only a couple of minutes.

 

(more…)

]]> http://www.gaywebmastering.com/barebuxxx-announces-switch-to-epoch-new-site-and-increased-payouts/feed/ http://www.gaywebmastering.com/porn-sites-losing-ground-with-young-adults/ http://www.gaywebmastering.com/porn-sites-losing-ground-with-young-adults/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:54:25 +0000 Porn Master http://www.gaywebmastering.com/porn-sites-losing-ground-with-young-adults/ MELBOURNE, Australia - According to a study conducted in October by Web-analytic company Hitwise, while social-networking sites have become more popular with Internet users 18 to 24 years old over the past few years, adult sites’ popularity with those users has declined.

“I’ve actually been puzzled by the decrease in visits to the adult-entertainment category over the last two years,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise and a writer for Time. “Visits to porn sites have dropped from 16.9 percent of all site visits in the U.S. in October 2005 to 11.9 percent as of the week of Oct. 21, a 33 percent decline.”

Full story can be found at AVNONLINE.

My reason is simple. I want to go back to my roots. When I got in this business in 1999 I was selling amateur porn on the net. I then started doing “traffic” and created a very nice network of free sites, aen sites, tgp galleries. Eventually I branched out into the paysite business. Now I am doing consulting, blog writing, blogging, and working on various other projects.

Through most of my adult career I was “not connected” as I am now with the webmaster community. Running a webmaster resource sites almost forces you to be even more “connected”. It is something that I just don’t enjoy.

What I enjoy and what I want to accomplish is to build a traffic base for future projects I have planned, work with reputable companies and friends in the business, and just have fun. Just like I was doing when I first got in the business.

You will see a paysite from this webmaster soon. It’s been a burning desire for me for over a year now. After waiting and waiting for someone to create one in a niche that I enjoy, I am doing it myself. That and my traffic project will take all my time.

A big thank you and hug for all those that encouraged me and supported this blog. It may be back in some form or another in the future.

I want to stress that I am NOT on a sponsor witch hunt. Plain and Simple. The whole idea behind listing sites that have traffic leaks is to provide information.  Webmasters can determine if a leak mattes to them. Information is a good thing.

My “personal” feeling about leaks, which is different from InGayPorn’s is as follows -

Leaks that don’t bother me -

1.  Links to newsletters. I just don’t care about them at all. I send a surfer and he has a period of time to check out the tour and see if he will join. He either does or he doesn’t. If a program owner wants to get his email address and try and sell him at a later date, then that is a smart business move imho.
2. Links to Video Stores. Keep them not too obtrusive please. But a video store link (with the paysite’s videos only) can actually help me make the sale as imho it helps brand the site as more than just a piece of crap thrown up by someone.

Leaks that I don’t like -

1. VOD - Please. Please. Please. There are many webmasters that don’t want to send surfers to bareback. Most webmastes have their own VOD theater as well. The same type of surfer that visits a paysite will also buy VOD minutes. Let’s be fair on this one.
2. Blogs - If you have a blog on your tour, then carry the affiliate code and don’t have links to outside sources. It sucks for a webmaster to pay $20 for a blog entry to promote your site only to have that surfer who came from his blog find another damn blog on your site.
3. Friends - How much money does a banner to a link list make you? Let’s get real here.
4. Alternate Billing - If you are serious about having a second billing option that affiliates don’t get paid for, then invest in some affiliate software. That’s why the software was created in the first place.

I probably missed some, but those are the main ones. Let me know what you think.