Adult entertainment began its migration to the internet in the second half of the 1990s, before behemoths like Google, Facebook and Twitter even existed. Amazon was just a fledgling online bookseller with big dreams. Many people still used telephone lines to connect to the internet and browse the web. Smartphones didn’t exist. It was a period often compared to the “wild wild west” because most marketers and developers were operating in an environment with few established rules or norms.

In this dynamic time, technically savvy entrepreneurs looking for a quick path to riches online would often turn to adult since it was the biggest game in town. It sometimes took affiliate marketers and developers only weeks, not months, to start earning 4-figure payouts — shortly followed by 5-figure payouts and maybe even more.  Affiliate programs like SilverCash, TopBucks, Maximum Cash, CE Cash and others were giants in the business. The annual “IA 2000” tradeshow (which eventually became Internext Expo) attracted thousands of participants and filled Las Vegas expo halls with expensive booths and enthusiastic attendees.

As the industry matured though, some of the top players started to “win” the game — which made large payouts a bit more work for the smaller affiliates.

And then the “tube sites” happened.

MindGeek, previously known as Manwin, started to buy up a large number of online adult properties. Their signature sites like PornHub and RedTube gave away for free what previously was typically only sold: hardcore adult videos. And it wasn’t just them, as sites like XVideos and xHamster also thrived. Porn fans found fewer reasons to pay for video with so much available for free, and many of the former giants disappeared from the industry. Others simply evolved, moving into more interactive adult services that didn’t rely on pre-recorded video.

Those who remember this “golden age” are sometimes angry and upset at how much the industry has changed. There is little denying that the volume of affiliates isn’t the same now. There is also no denying that many adult companies are nonetheless thriving in 2021. Today’s winners have succeeded by adapting to modern conditions.

Given how the industry has evolved so dramatically in the past 15 years, many wonder if a skilled affiliate marketer can still earn big payouts promoting adult entertainment verticals?

Courtney Rudolph is Business Development Manager at FriendFinder Networks, one of the companies that adapted to adult’s changing landscape by focusing on dating and live webcams. She says plenty of opportunities remain for affiliates who focus on these lucrative verticals.

“Dating and live cams … are still going strong in the affiliate world,” said Rudolph. “Yes it’s more difficult than it used to be, but if you are making sure to adjust your strategies with the changing times you will be successful.”

Martin Jager is Head of Products and Sales with AWEmpire, or AWE as it’s more commonly known. AWE is the affiliate program behind popular live cam products such as LiveJasmin, BimBim and (most recently) Oranum.

”I cannot count how many times affiliate marketing has been called ‘dead’ in the last decade, and not just in the adult industry,” said Jager.  “The mainstream market has also declared affiliate marketing dead and gone a few times. It’s a catchy punchline because it’s polarizing, but nothing more.”

According to Jager, affiliates will succeed or fail over the years based on their ability to adapt to regular changes in the business environment.

“With [the] proliferation and rise of free tube sites, the market has changed with some players leaving … but many new players popping up,” he added. “Affiliate marketing is still big, especially in the adult industry.

CrakRevenue is another company that has thrived in the new affiliate world and is now one of the most successful CPA networks in existence. According to Maxime Bergeron, who serves as Affiliation Sales Director for the company, conditions have only been improving for affiliates in recent years.

“I’ve been with CrakRevenue for more than six years now, and I have to say adult affiliate marketing have never been better,” said Bergeron. “In fact, the past year has been the best for us by far.”

Bergeron acknowledges the pandemic was probably a boon for online marketers, but says the positive trends pre-date the start of the lockdowns. He largely attributes the upswing to a change in focus, with less emphasis on ‘lead generation’ and more emphasis on customer long term value. He believes the newer approach creates better returns for advertisers and bigger payouts for affiliates.

Is it all sustainable? “Unless human beings stop being interested [in] sex, I don’t see why adult affiliate marketing would slow down,” Bergeron adds.

Affiliates can choose from a number of verticals. Adult video games and VR videos are on the rise, and retail products are also a popular choice. There is pretty broad agreement though that the live webcam and adult dating verticals are the consistent money-makers for many affiliates.

“The ‘live cams’ vertical is undoubtedly a great market,” said Bergeron. “It’s been on the rise for a while, and the pandemic has skyrocketed the numbers. There are more models and more spenders than ever. But not all typical adult affiliates can get in and start pushing a crazy amount of leads, as we often see on the dating vertical.”

Rudolph for her part agrees that dating is big and says the vertical puts some marketing channels in play that are less accessible to affiliates marketing services that are explicitly adult.

“Being that ‘adult dating’ is our bread and butter I always recommend it,” she said. “Dating sites straddle that line of adult and mainstream, so we are still able to tap into SEO and SEM. Focusing on more PG and mainstream style pags has proven to be key in recent times.”

Jager says quite a few affiliates choose to specialize in live cams and many are quite successful at what they do. He pointed out that live cams also make a good supplementary income for companies who run their own content-rich destination websites.

“The fact that cams are a great supplement has been noticed by many paysite [operators] whose main focus is selling their own content,” he added. “This might sound cliché, but we are very far from something that could replace the personal touch a cam session offers to both parties, thus the experience will remain sought after for a long time.”

Affiliates often want to know what’s the best offer they should promote and what kind of conversions they can expect, but the answers to these questions aren’t always simple to provide. Bottom line, how much can affiliates earn with popular adult verticals? Things get pretty murky when you consider all the variables involved in affiliate marketing.

“Everyone wants an answer to that, but it’s not that easy,” said Jager. “A short and unhelpful answer would be: ‘Well, it depends!’  At first glance, you would think that this answer is not helpful, but indeed it varies so much that it’s difficult to give a clear answer.”

There are good reasons why Jager can’t give a simple answer to how much the average affiliate makes. There are all kinds of factors that impact payouts, including the type of websites being promoted, the quality of the affiliate’s traffic and even the GEOs in play. For these reasons and more, different affiliates can see wildly different results even when promoting the same offers.

“To give an easy example: if you are a webmaster who is focusing on Google Ads with very expensive keywords, you will need a decent conversion rate,” explained Jager. “If your conversion is low, you most probably won’t be profitable. On the other hand, if your traffic is mainly referral traffic from tube sites for example, you won’t know enough about your customer to target them the best way. Here, your advantage is that you offer free content, and you get tons of users but it’s difficult to convert them. If we compare the conversion of a webmaster, we always try to find other webmasters with the same prerequisites.”

Bergeron too admitted that the “how much can I earn” question has a complicated answer. He pointed out that traffic quality, proper traffic ‘match’ to the offers promoted, and funnel consistency are all factors in conversions and payouts. He also said the type of payout can impact the end results.

“You’ll get completely different results if working with a PPL / DOI than if you’re working on PPS,” said Bergeron. “For the same traffic source and quantity, you will get a much lower CR if you’re on a pay-per-sale model.”

There are however some clear things that successful affiliates do on a regular basis, as well as mistakes that less successful ones tend to make.

Rudolph said that FFN’s most successful affiliates stay informed about the latest trends in online marketing. She said they have a good understanding of traffic and how to adapt from one source to the next as conditions change.

“Our most successful affiliates understand and know how to adapt to new regulations from mainstream and adult traffic sources,” she said. “Along with that, they are focused on following trends that we see in the affiliate game.”

For Bergeron, traffic is also central to the success of adult affiliates. He believes the most successful affiliates build content-rich websites that produce a steady flow of organic traffic. These affiliates have more control and better sustainability.

“The most successful affiliates we see nowadays are the ones building organic traffic,” said Bergeron. “They are usually also the ones promoting the greatest content. Their users are, most of the time, better qualified and will have a greater long-term value. These affiliates usually generate fewer clicks, but their EPCs will be 5 to 10 times higher. Plus, they are most likely to receive payout bumps and bigger caps and be able to negotiate special requests for custom ad tools, custom sales funnels, promo codes, etc.

Testing, tinkering and evolving are all key activities for successful affiliates.

“The biggest webmasters focus on optimizing their conversion by trying different ways of promoting offers,” explained Jager. “It’s not about having tons of ads on your sites; it’s about how smartly you advertise them.”

Jager points to pop-up ads, which annoy and harass users but are nonetheless popular tools for affiliates. He said alternative ad tools like AWE’s ‘Video Promotion API” helps affiliates get offers in front of audiences without annoying them in the process.

“All in all, the most successful webmasters focus on quality of integration rather than quantity,” he said.

Which means affiliates who bombard their audience with promotions are going to be less successful both in the short term and the long term.

“Less successful affiliates do not think about their customer journey,” added Jager. “The biggest mistake is to think that adding tons of pops, banners, header links, etc. will automatically result in good revenues. You should not count on earning big money on day one.  It is important to look at user behavior, offer clear benefits for the customer of your website, and choose quality sponsors that you focus on optimizing.”

Bergeron agreed the affiliates trying to rush things are just going to get frustrated.

“The least successful affiliates are the ones taking shortcuts,” he said. “They are the ones using other people’s content to build a website or an IG account quickly. They are the ones buying cheap traffic from untrustworthy sources. Creating great content and great traffic IS hard work. It requires time and effort. If you’re not 100% dedicated, you will fail. At best, you’ll have a good 3 to 4 days run with SOI offers, and you’ll get paused after a week.”

For those affiliates who remember the “golden age” of adult and lost faith somewhere along the way, Rudolph wants them to know they can be successful today if they update their tactics.

“What worked in the 90’s and early 2000’s does not necessarily work anymore,” she said. “Yes you can still make money doing TGP’s or tubes, but you are not going to see a great free-to-paid ratio. With that being said, smaller affiliates are just as important as the bigger guys and it’s usually the mistakes they learn from that helps them grow into a whale.”

“From that point it’s really about how successful they want to be.”