Personally I think a lot of affiliates take a rather shallow, closedminded view of things. Not all (so please call off the lynching party), but many.

I see affiliates obsessing over every single detail in a tour and what links are where and what free content is offered up and la la la la la.

I also see affiliates giving little to no credit for the single greatest sales tool they have - quality content being created by their sponsors. I'm not going to shy away from saying we spend an assload of money and put a great deal of time and effort in to recruiting hot models and creating quality content. We also put a lot of time, effort and money in to branding our name and sites - something that turns around to benefit affiliates as well when they can send traffic to a site their surfers have heard of and know they can trust. And we're not the only sponsors who do this. This board (and this thread, for that matter) is full of sponsors who work extremely hard at creating a quality product.

As an aside, I'd venture to guess the quality content these sponsors are creating is the reason why a lot of affiliates are getting the traffic they're getting. The photos and clips and other tools (beyond just banners, but actual members area content samples) are the reason why a lot of the surfers going to affiliate sites are going there.

Where's the flattering threads commending a sponsor for that?

Where's the thread that says "Hey SPONSORX! Your latest model is fucking HOT! I know I got a bunch of sales from surfers who couldn't wait to see their vid and pics! Thank you for putting all those hours in to recruiting that model and spending all the money you did on paying them and working so hard to answer their questions and fly them out to you and get them up on your site, as you've done with every single other one of your models as well, and filming that great material of them! Thanks, as well, for the free content you gave me featuring them!"