|pink Well, gotta make money in this biz someplace :D need banners quick and easy make them wth this i have used it for 2 years its great Banners

Thanks for the laugh UW... Those are some kickass banners, Hey, the straight one might actually get someone to click!

The gay banner is a classic.

LMAO UW......love the gay banner :D

A nice little text tool is X-Fonter from Black Sun. One helpful thing is it lets me use the +20,000 fonts on a CD without installing them.

We released a bunch of new softcore, and text banners a few weeks ago. The older, more explicit ones have been left up for those who prefer to use them and feel safe doing so.

Lololol..OMG..TOO FUNNY..
uw, i NEED ABOUT 25 for some gay avs sites, ok?

|mml|

I think this is the perfect way of doing things - some of the new "softcore" banners I have seen quite frankly suck eggs, and look exactly like what they are - thrown together at the last minute. I wish more sponsors would leave the older ones up (as long as they have the docs themselves, of course) and let the individual affiliate decide what they want to use.

I WANT HARDCORE! :D

Ponygirl

Ponygirl, the problem is US affiliates will make the mistake and start using them without the documents, and then get in trouble.

So instead of allowing us to be adults, programs are choosing to play it safe.

Oh well!

Alex

This is what I don't get, I gotta be missing something so please someone tell me what that is. If a sponsor - wait, it has FINALLY just come to me. I was going to say, if a sponsor has a hardcore banner they have removed, why do I need to remove it from my server if I personally don't want to, it would be me (if I was in the US) breaking the law right? So I should be allowed to download a hardcore banner and serve it if I wish. So why can't I? Because of course if the sponsor doesn't have the docs then they can't put it up in the first instance for me to download.
Phew, if anyone else was still wondering, there it is (although you're all probably way ahead of me!). I still don't agree with sponsors telling me I need to remove certain banners if it's myself that's hosting them, and I don't fall under the US law, or for people like Jim and Useless Warrior, if they plain don't want to.

Layman's opinion: Said sponsor can:
1) File a DMCA against you for copyright infringement, since they have recended said rights to distribute/publish said banner.
2) They can terminate you because their new TOS states you are now inviolation of their policies concerning promotion of their sites.

It's a business decision, not a legal decision, in this situation. If you are using "their" banners then you play by their rules. If you wanna build your own banners with hardcore content then I don't think they can really justify axing you - as long as your marketing is within the confins of their TOS and the bounds of said site's genre.
It's akin to building sites/galleries for Lightspeed (at least a while back) with marketing text saying "Watch Tawny Stone Gag on Big Mongolian Cocks Now!" - false advertising and mis-representation of the sponsor program == you're axed.

They can feel free to axe me. If they are pulling the tools necessary to promote them just because they're afraid of a little prison time, fuck them anyway. I think most people realize that I'm far too lazy to build my own banners.

I'm in the process of following MML's advice from Saturday's OTB. I'm adding text links and pulling most banners, starting with Whoring Wives (which now accepts free sites, btw ;) ) but it's not because sponsors have told me to do so. (It's because MML did) I'm a rebel. |viking|

I hear what you're saying Venturi, I probably didn't make myself that clear. I realise thaey can drop me, file a dmca if they really wanted to, but my question is why? From a legal or a business standpoint, why would someone take umbrage to a banner someone else is hosting, of their own free will, knowing and accepting that they and only they are not covered, to promote that companies product? Assuming of course that the model(s) are of legal age, which I'm to the persuasion of believing, seeing as the banner(s) were available up until this new change to the law, which is more of a record keeping situation than the other possibility?

I may be (and often am) completely wrong, but what kind of business decision is that? Of course, it is their choice to require that, as said, it's their program so you got to play by their rules or get another sponsor :)

Not sure about the part being akin to the false or misleading advertising, after all, a site that had hardcore banners I assume had/has hardcore content.

oh that's right, I forgot most people can't be trusted to make their own decisions.
(you think I'm kidding, right? ;) )

I don't know what % US affilliates make up for most sponsors, but I think some are really alienating a large group - and for what? what happens if this joke of a law is scrapped -esp the 2ndary producer crap - will they allow the hardcore stuff again? I think not - I think that your powers that be are trying to bully and intimitate us out of business, and put the threat there that even if this doesn't go through -watch out cuz they will keep trying.

I started in this biz not too long ago, so I can deal with whatever needs to be pulled or changed as I don't have a ton of it yet...I feel for those who have had their whole livelihoods destroyed by this.

It's also disappointing to see this whole fiasco with the TRO because I really think we need some cohesion in this industry to make sure everyone's free speech rights aren't just trampled on -it will certainly affect much more than just porn in the long run.

I better stop now cuz I'm in a shitty mood anyway & I'll just go on forever :D

Ponygirl

I have to be a dumb guy here |waves| & ask this question:

what will happened if a sale comes from my hardcore banner for witch I, of course don't have 2257 :-) & that banner lies on one of my long forgotten domains & sponsor has that particular banner taken off because of 2257 ... will sponsor count it as before or check from where did it come from or ... what ever?!

You see I got to ask it because it's a bit strange that my sales have dropped since 23rd while the source is the same (yahoo) & oddly enough amount of traffic is the same (so no summer slowdown here)!?

Anyone experienced or have the same worries?! or am I just being paranoid :D

?? care to elaborate?

Vivaldi,

I've had just the opposite - sales have just about doubled since 6/23 - maybe the banners I was using just sucked...now I'm using mostly text links |thumb

hehe...I only submit to LL owners :D

It is very interesting to see all the banners that are either changing or the image is just an X on the page. I'm paying right now to have banners made and asked for them to not be hardcore. But I also make my own as a one man band here. I have no inspiration other then UW banners / banner. I think I came to this post to late as I only saw a BIG red and white text one that was funny as hell.

Ponygirl, some sponsors are leaving their hardcore banners up for non-US people, just got to look around and maybe find some new ones. :) For the ones pulling them, I think it's different reasons for different ones -- some don't have the docs for them, some don't trust affils to use the right ones, some might be worried about that conspiracy clause. I really wish they'd get their new ones up though.

Some of my sponsors are a little confused about what softcore/exempt means too. I have one program that has S&M all over their new-2257exempt-nobody-needs-docs banners. |huh

Useless, are your banners for lease? :D

madleinx - yes, I'm lookin :)
I think this is going to affect the sponsors WAY more than the affiliates, to be honest - I see lots of shifting tides here. I don't care really what kind of banners are available, soft, hard, flashy or not it really doesn't matter if they are done well. I have also noticed that some of these new "softcore" banners are, well, not really softcore lol.

My main beef is the lack of them - if they had been replaced on an ongoing basis or all at once, I don't think I'd be bitching (or at least I'd find something else to bitch about:D)

Ponygirl

Pusher ... Thanks on the info. I might as well try mostly text link way :-)

Is this something most affiliates are looking for? I have never had a request for our banner psd files but woule be more then happy to start offering them if this is something affiliates can use.

I'm not sure how many affiliates have the necessary graphics software and know-how to use the psd's, but there are definitely some of us that do.

Kenny, at least reasonable PSD files with a clear background logo, and perhaps a text file with a short list of tag lines and such. It's not hard from there to come up with some reasonable banners.

The most boring job in the universe I think is using photoshop to cut out a logo from a site.

:(

Alex