I did move on from the adult business. Mostly. I have kept my websites up but have done little work on them. I did a revamp of GayGeek in 2013 but by then it was too late. Traffic had dropped off and failed to rise after my changes, and once I realized I was earning 50 cents an hour on my time I set it back down again.

I got in so early with AEBN that even after I closed down most of my main business in 2004 (this is pre-GayGeek), residual income was still quite high and came in for years. Such was the fame of the Aaron Lawrence name back then. For years I did well with AEBN after that although it gradually dropped off at about 10-15% per year. That's why I trusted AEBN. The traffic I was sending them was much lower -- it was the momentum from all the lifelong accounts that had been created via my website that were paying so well. As they gradually stopped buying on AEBN (died, took up downloading free porn, whatever) the income decreased.

Therein lay the crux of AEBN's problem. They had saturated the market so fully from early-on people like me that there wasn't a lot of reward for newer affiliates to get into the mix. They could make some money, but a lot of the traffic they sent had preciously established an account with AEBN. In which case I got the affiliate income, not the newer site that sent the user back to them.

Obviously the newer affiliates love the program revamp. The older ones like me are pissed off. I suspect I'm one of the harder hit accounts via the new system, but from AEBN's perspective they don't give a shit about me any more. If I'm not sending them a ton of new traffic, of what use am I to them?

As for your question, I think you'd have received money had you bought via that link. They don't need your affiliate ID in the url. The person's account has been flagged internally as having been created via your website. Once they login using their old account login/password they'd know to credit you with any sales that generate.

My son is 5 years old now which makes working with adult businesses highly difficult. I'm content to have moved on to other endeavors, even if I miss the "glamour" (read: sex and sleaze) of the porn industry.