I still don't get why so many people blame tubes when it's the US economy that has been the main issue (tubes are a small one).
#1 - Foreign sales have been increasing for most adult industries and products
#2 - Banks in the US killed a lot of people's credit cards or lowered their limits. Many paysites are not using much alternative billing methods. I bet if you compare the ones who do offer many alternatives (900, echeck, sms) to ones who pretty much only accept credit cards, the sales drop was a lot bigger for the credit card only people. Basically, even people who still wanted to purchase, couldn't because they were maxed out (buying things like, you know, food) or declined.
#3 - People looking for tube sites generally know they are going after free content. Their intention is not to pay for porn. These people were never going to pay anyways (the exception being a small % if you sell something good enough, or micro-niche enough it's not all over the tubes yet). The same applies for P2P and Torrents.
#4 - Due to the economy, more people who either couldn't afford or couldn't buy porn (see reason #2) began to become the type of person described in #3. This is why tube sites are seeing huge rises in traffic.
#5 - Programs feeling the hurt have been increasing their shady practices. Shaving in particular. This makes affiliates' sales and revenue even more magnified. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is indeed fact and though I won't name any names, I have noticed the code myself of certain programs (since I do freelance coding from time to time). I also have access to stats across a huge range of programs and months of history on the traffic and drops in sales/recurring sales.
In the end, the economy is the underlying factor and people adapt in different ways. Tube sites sprung into action taking advantage of a larger userbase; many programs responded with short-term practices in shaving and real hidden cross-sells (I have no problem with typical cross-sales, but I've heard of some company selling audio books and charging the mainstream consumer's card for adult paysites LOL)
You could come up with the next big thing and take advantage of where things are headed. You could secure your content using newer DRM technology or help evolve further technology - adult in the 90s was a pioneer in technological advances, but now it is lazy and just copies large ideas mainstream is doing first. You could also just sit back and wait it out and hope the economy rebounds (which I've noticed lately it is slightly).
Or, you could bitch all day long on GFY
/Rant Done.