I’d like to take a moment to thank all my readers and sponsors for their support in 2007. I wish the very best for everyone in 2008. Lets make it a great year!

The Next-Generation Administration and Tracking System (NATS), a popular adult industry third party affiliate backend solution, has recently come under fire for mismanagement of a security issue involving admin passwords they maintain for support of their clients.

A few sponsor programs, using NATS, have recommended webmasters log into their account and check for any alterations of their personal data. These same sponsor programs are suggesting webmasters change their password immediately, using a strong, random alphanumeric password that is unique to the account.

As of this writing there does not appear to be any hard evidence any damage has been done to affiliate webmasters, or consumers, as a result of the security breach. While some webmasters have expressed concerns over identity theft, it is entirely possible the only real damage will be felt by NATS owned Too Much Media (TMM) and their clients.

The timing of this could not have been worse for TMM, as they just purchased Segregated Payments, Ltd. (SegPay), an adult billing company accused by industry pundants of being a rebirth of the now defunct iBill. Some speculate protecting their recent investment had a lot to do with TMM trying to keep a lid on their NATS security woes.

For sponsor programs, NATS has been a huge selling point in affiliate webmaster recruitment. Now some programs are questioning how much of a liability the NATS label might be in both recruitment and retention. Consumer confidence has also been raised as an issue. While there is no evidence consumers have anything to worry about, regarding the security of their credit card data, media hype has the potential of generating unwarranted fears of NATS powered sites.

I have accounts with dozens of NATS powered programs, but have only received messages from four sponsors regarding this issue. It is a bit disturbing only a few have been assertive in addressing this problem with their affiliate base. Granted, this all surfaced over the Christmas holiday, but I’m impressed by the handful that jumped on it immediately. It remains to be seen how many programs will take any action before year’s end.

Today I received an Email from the Euro Twink site Enigmatic Boys notifying me of some new free hosted galleries. I decided to spot check their site for any traffic leaks and discovered they have added Verotel as a secondary processor.

I found it interesting that in the same Email they made this false statement…

We remind that you can affiliate with our website on a 50:50 basis (of all the sales and future rebills)!

I sent the sponsor this brief statement…

Sorry, but I will not send you my traffic when you have both CCBill and Verotel on the Join page.

and got this reply…

Please mail us your CCBill referrall ID and we’ll remove you from our affiliates list, therefore you won’t receive any more our mails,
thanks,

Obviously there is nothing enigmatic about their respect for affiliate traffic.

IntenseCash has announced on December 25th all joins through the per signup with consoles will be paid $60.00, and all joins through the per signup without consoles with be paid $50.00. This is in addition to their other bonus days for December. All Fridays are $40.00 per signup for the per signup campaign with consoles and $30.00 per signup for the per signup campaign without consoles. The sponsor is also going to have another hidden bonus day. This is where the day and amount and not disclosed. These bonus days are good for all sites and all trials and monthly memberships.

IntenseCash has also added 30 new flash galleries for their popular Broke Straight Boys reality site.

WNCash has just announced they have increased their rev-share pay out to 60% for all new sales and recurring. The sponsor has also increased the webmaster referral commission to 10%.

WNCash Gay Properties:
Strong Men
Stud Port
Gay Pier

Blake Mason, the popular UK gay amateur hardcore video site, officially announced today the addition of Lloyd Cox as their new Head of Affiliate Marketing. I spoke to Lloyd earlier this week about his plans, and while I’m not at liberty to go into any detail, I can say he’s got some great new tools on the way.

Knowing what benchmarks Lloyd is using to develop the Blake Mason V2 Affiliate Program, I’m confident webmasters will be very pleased. That coupled with some new innovative ideas Lloyd is working on, we could see Blake Mason emerge as one of the new standards other programs will want to follow.

I should also mention that while we were talking I expressed a concern over their CCBill cookie being set at only one day. Before Lloyd and I finished our conversation the cookie setting had been changed to the standard 3 days.

Blake Mason is fortunate to have Lloyd on their team. I’m confident his contributions will bring them to the next level.

I’d like to thank zBUCKz for renewing their sponsorship of In Gay Porn for another year. These guys have been supporting IGP from its earliest days, and are the longest continuous sponsor of the project.

zBUCKz is the largest gay Asian niche sponsor in the biz, with 5 properties and growing. Webmasters can promote the following zBUCKz sites - Japan Boyz, Gay Asian Amateurs, Asian Boykakke, Gay Asian Anime, and the new Gay Asian Network designed for promoting their 4 sites for the price of one package.

This week Puppy Cash, sponsor program for the gay porn mega site Badpuppy, announced they have added a $30 PPS program, and increased rev-share payouts to 60% on all sales and rebills. They have also bumped up the webmaster referral commission to 10%. For existing affiliates, the new payment structure is retroactive to December 1.

Adult talent management company FabScout Entertainment has just released this new policy statement regarding safe sex practices.

At FabScout Entertainment, we take safe sex practices very serious. As such, FabScout has made the decision to only represent models to those Studios and Producers who promote safe sex practices within their productions and require the use of condoms. Additionally, FabScout will no longer represent models who wish to be in bareback productions.

We respect everyone’s personal decisions when it comes to their personal sexual preferences. However, as a talent management company, we feel that we have a moral responsibility when it comes to protecting the best interest of our models. As such we stand behind our decision to only work with Studios, Producers and Models who share our views in promoting Safe Sex practices within the Adult Entertainment Business.

I just popped over to English Lads and noticed all the traffic leaks in his site tour have been removed.