In an email sent to webmasters, Freeones blamed a weakening dollar for the policy change.
"With little relief in sight, we are asking our partners to consider raising our rate of 60 percent in revenue share to 70 percent for 2008 so we can remain profitable," the letter read. "If this is not a feasible request for you, we regret to inform you that we will not be able to promote your program at the same level as we have before. Instead, we will be focusing on the programs that are able to meet our needs."
Reaction was mixed among adult webmasters posting on the GFY.com message board, where word of this development emerged. Many webmasters supported the new policy, pointing toward Freeones' vast, high-converting traffic.
But web developer and programmer Dario told XBIZ he thought Freeone's justification for the revshare change was a "tactic."
"Look at it this way – we all know the dollar is going to bounce back up, but there is no way Freeones will take a pay cut once it does," said Dario, who is not affiliated with Freeones.
A representative for Freeones clarified the new policy.
"The sponsors who raise our payout will get the same amount of traffic or more from us, because they pay better than the rest," he said. "The ones who don't raise the payout will lose traffic, because we are sending it to our more interesting partners."
The representative did not say whether this email went out to all webmasters, but former adult webmaster Dan Spanno told XBIZ that he received the message even though he longer works in adult.
Representatives for Freeones declined to comment as of post time.