Affiliate Marketing is dead

I think this really depends on the niche you are in. It's certainly not like it was in the "good ole days" but there is still money to be made in certain areas online. Thanks for your input!

Your niche perhaps. But I disagree you can make more money from a day job

I disagree. I promote PPL (pay per lead...lead generation) offers and there is tons of money to be made/is being made. I have also been doing it for 16 years and the ROI isn't as high as it was when I first started, but what is. You need to adapt or as others have said, maybe it is your niche.

Dead? Tell that to Pat Flynn.

All I know is I started building my list in 2010, and the bigger my list gets the more money in affiliate commissions I make. I see a steady sales increase every year. About 3 years ago the growth slowed, as it did for most.

Still, my bottom line improves a little every year. I need to add more leads to my list now than before to hit higher sales, but that's just the way it is.

List building in the niche I'm in has simply becoming a numbers game. So, you just adapt and overcome. I constantly discover new ways to add leads to my list and go for it. As long as email marketing exists I'll NEVER get a day job. I'm 42 now so I doubt I'll ever work a day job ever again.

As far as Affiliate Marketing being dead?

Not even close...

I don't think they flip burgers at McD's. I believe they put them in some sort of magic box and they come out all cooked in shit.

Frankly I think its pretty hard to make serious income with aff marketing now.
It can be a nice model for newbies to gain some experience.
But these days it's hard to call it a serious and legit business.
For people that have all this experience it's better to take it and build your own funnel and products.
Doesn't even have to be in the mmo niche cause its a crappy niche.
Teach real businesses with real products and services how to market their stuff better.
Sure it takes more time but it's a more serious model.

Here is my Take, if you are an advertiser and you can Build Value then Affiliate Marketing Is alive more than ever Before - I have been in Aff marketing for 7 years Now.

Especially if you are selling High Ticket Products 10k 25k then you are in for a treat what u used to make in a month can be Made in a day.

Now The other Way to a 7 8 figure business is Ecom, nothing Beats Ecom if you know what you are doing Best month for me and My student I thought was December when people had Money well I am now realising this month could be even better in Ecom.

you're just used to the easy old days, you're an old timer...nowadays more management is involved..I guess, if you wanna complain about it..SEO has never changed, just a sweep and the way sites are made and distributed these days....don't put allot of thought into it..you shouldn't be filling up your money sites with affiliates links to begin with anyways if you're not sure you're gonna rank..that's what gets you hit..the project isn't worth it until it ranks and sticks..why put so much work into uncertainty.

Affiliate marketing never was and never will be "dead" - it depends how you execute it.

Sure, if you go for the mass only, hosting hundreds of websites with thin content, chances are that others surpass you and you get penalties here and there. I mean someone focusing solely on a certain niche will gain more traffic and a higher perceived value than someone who just operates in a niche besides 100 others with average effort and content (I just make assumptions here).

Content is king, people look for value and entertainment and reward those who can give one (or both) to them by signing up to their lists, consuming their content and eventually buying products as well. Its definetly a tough job: providing a ton of free content, establishing a relationship with your audience, being helpful and seeing the whole thing as a longterm venture.

I agree though, starting simple websites about common niches will take you nowhere with todays competition and customer demands.

Everything depends upon the niche you choose. Please make sure you go for some long tail keywords.

it's true affiliate marketing is not like old days but its not dead. the system has been changed since then it's the monopoly of affiliate managers these are like pandas , penguins and hummingbirds for google algorithm. Affiliate marketing is dead how it can be possible it seems that economy has been crashed or companies no longer need any money or decreases there marketing funds. I think that it can't be possible.
there must be a problem in your own side

Affiliate marketing will never be dead. It is stronger and larger today than ever before in the history of earth...

I know of someone making $70k a month promoting a niche (not going to say what it is).

I do agree that it's only really the true SEO experts who are making very good amounts though.

Sorry but this part concerned me the most about what you wrote "You can make more money flipping burgers at McDonalds than wasting your time at affiliate marketing" which is utter nonsense...

You have said you have made $2 Million from Affiliate Marketing yet you can make more in McDonalds flipping burgers?

The TRUTH is that affiliate marketing isn't dead, but maybe some of the old hat methods of driving traffic etc have? The idea people have stopped purchasing through others to earn commission is crazy, it is simply the way we reach people that has changed.

In my opinion, the way the Internet has now grown, there has never been a better time for the SERIOUS people to take up Affiliate Marketing and to create a successful digital business!

Long as you give VALUE to your clients then you will always do well, soon as you start creating rushed up websites giving nothing in return except the "Buy this now" attitude then yeah, affiliate marketing is dead!

This thread is not asking "is affiliate marketing profitable"...it's giving a personal view of a busienss that was highly profitable and then changed. For the OP, the cash cow kicked the bucket BUT produced a lot of milk before that happened.

I wonder how many saying "it isn't so" have earned $30k per month at ANY time. How many earned $2 million by age 30?

Something seldom mentioned here is that no online method keeps working forever...or even long term. Product creators can be profitable for a long time on sales from a premium product....but at some point they will need to upgrade or create new products to keep money flowing. Running dozens or hundreds of micro niche affiliate sites used to be very profitable - but things change.

That comment alone should tell you the OP ran a smart business. Yes, he could have adapted, built bigger lists, changed the way he conducted affiliate marketing. On the other hand, what's wrong with working 13 years and having earned enough to support yourself for life?????

Isn't that one form of "passive income"???

Fact 1: While there are People, there will always be products.
Fact 2. Where there are products, there will always be affiliate programs.
Fact 3: If you are willing to put in the work, time, and effort you can make a good income with those affiliate programs.

Jonathan

What a bunch of B.S!!!

Long before the Internet spawned the term "affiliate marketing" many thousands of people made their daily bread as independent sales reps.

Back in my MLM days, one of my trainers liked to tell a story.

This was still in the days of the hotel meeting, where one rep or trainer would do the sticks-and-balls show and each rep would then attempt to sign up the guests they brought to the meeting.

At one meeting, one of the guests was a full-on biker chick, complete with leathers, tattoos and piercings. She was ready to sign up, but the trainer was reluctant because of her appearance. He asked her why she thought she could do the business.

She told him that she knew a lot of bikers who all used similar products, and she'd have no problem signing them up. They trusted her, unlike any outsider in a slick suit and tie who tried to pitch them.

The whole reason affiliate marketing exists is so companies can gain access to customers they could not otherwise reach.

Methods and techniques change, as the OP found to his chagrin. But the idea of connecting sellers and buyers while getting a taste of the transaction will always be around.

You only need two things to make a full time affiliate income.

1. Quality product(s) with affiliate program.
2. Targeted traffic.

Both are very much alive.

Affiliate marketing has been "dead" for 10 years now. Or at least that's what I keep reading.

It's really only "dead" to the people who cannot adapt. There is a famous saying in the online world - "adapt or die".

A few years ago when everyone jumped on the rebill bandwagon, the money will flowing and many were making money, it was a bubble that was sure to burst and it did. Unfortunately many people were using some grey methods (and some straight shady methods) to promote these and the FTC, networks and merchants have really cracked down on this. Many of these people weren't able to adapt to a more whitehat and legit approach.

I don't believe Affiliate marketing will ever really die. It will just constantly change.

Another interesting example of how things have changed. Approx 10 years ago, everyone had small simple landing pages on Google Adwords, this was the thing and it worked well. Until one day, Google had enough and started suspending people for this, the ones who could adapt did and found other traffic sources, the ones who didn't were forced to look for a job.

It changed. Its not dead, it is just different. It evolved. That is why any entrepreneur, especially internet entrepreneur, has to be constantly learning and constantly trying to improve themselves and their skills. 2004? You have to see how much the internet has changed since 2004 and then ask yourself. Are you doing the same things now as you did in 2004? If yes, that is why it is not working

If you are a newbie - seems to me you'd be happy to know some people are able to retire after working a dozen or so years online. The constant mention on this forum of "passive income" leads me to believe most newbies want to create/invest an income that lasts even when they aren't working.

Many products and services sold offline over the years have become obsolete and been replaced with automation or better products. Some of those companies were able to change and adapt - some went out of business. Why should it be any different online?

Hosty ( OP),
Thank you for sharing your story.

I feel for you. Making that type of income and then going to near zero is a tough pill for anyone to swallow.

But I too believe Aff. Marketing is more lucrative than ever.

Just have to find the right balance in what you can offer a solution to peoples' problems and what products out there that are available to offer.

It could be a whole paradigm shift for you where you have to totally change your business plan, the products etc...

But seriousy good luck to you.

And thanks again.

-Robert Andrew



P.S. I love Posts that instruct and give real life examples of how to make money with a particular model

BUT

I also like having personal stories told that people can learn and be inspired from as well.

Be careful what you wish for..."retirement" sucks!

I just started another new site, just for "something to do." Last winter's "hobby" site is doing pretty well.

Tell me about it - I've tried retirement now for about 3 years - and while it was fun for a while to have no obligations...I'm beginning to bore myself.

I'm currently researching/thinking/deciding whether I want to do a hobby site or two with perhaps future potential...or do some serious writing. If I haven't decided by next month - going to toss a coin.

There's a freedom in choosing what you WANT to do without worrying about how much you need to earn. In my case it's extended my laziness....

I think you are right the way you are doing,but isn't meant that you can't make money -The thing is ,Affiliate depend on Niche ,SEO and they way you are promoting .
But today's time competition is high so that why Affiliate doesn't make alots-
Thanks for a brief overview

I think it has to do with your niche. A lot of people know graphic designing these day, thank to memes and photoshop. But on the long run, I think people shouldn't rely only on affiliate marketing. Build your own empire online and offline. Acquire businesses while you're still cashing out a lot of money.
That's my advice!

no way affiliate marketing is dead, you just need more customers. Where did you go wrong in your customer acquisition? What's wrong with your marketing ideas? Find avenues where you can bring in more emotional trust between you and your buyers. You can make a ton of money in affiliate marketing, just find the venue that works fo you best and ditch the ones that consume too much of your time. Your doing great by posting here, but I don't think quitting is the option. Figure out a way to make more money. It's inevitable that you will make more money if you put your mind to it and don't stop. Keep working, the money will come in droves!

Affiliate marketing is dead for you, man.

I am surprised someone as experienced as you could be making such statements as Affiliate Marketers like myself are still making lots of money from it.You need to diversify your portfolio and set up multiple streams of income. Since you been in the game i presume you should have a sizeable email list that you have built up over those years. You need to concentrate on high ticket items and earn big commissions like myself rather than those $20,$30,$50 commissions. You should also try e-commerce as that is the money tree nowadays!

I am a beginner here, but I would like to say one thing, if you don't like this business and don't want to deal with it just quit.

Making money is always hard, doesn't matter in what kind of business are you in. If you feel 8 to 5 job is for you, than that you should pursue, but I am still not convinced that working for someone else will guaranty your income. Maybe one beautiful day they will fire you because the economy doesn't doing so great, than what.

I think you know what you need to do now.

Trouble is . . . for you at least . . . you haven't changed with the times. You haven't kept pace with the latest strategies and you're depending upon organic rankings, probably without doing much updating of your sites.

Affiliate marketing as you do it may be dead, but I personally know quite a number of very successful marketers that make six and seven figures every year from their affiliate marketing systems.

Steve

I've found that the neatest thing about flipping a coin is that by the time the coin lands, I usually know what I want it to be...

**Message to newbies!**

There are only TWO things to learn from the OP's post.

1. Smart and profitable affiliate marketers are ALWAYS adapting!

2. Smart and profitable affiliate marketers NEVER count on just one company for commissions or one form of traffic to last forever!

In recent years some things have died or are on life support but it is NOT affiliate marketing.

Don't listen to any whiners about lower commissions, length of cookies, organic traffic harder to get, or how many old-timers have quit! Every one of those things is somewhat true. So what!

Those same whiners forget to mention things like the population increasing, people trusting buying online more then ever, more people buying online then ever in history, more ways for people to pay online, people being a lot less suspicious of affiliate links now even when they are not cloaked, people making buying decisions in seconds with their mobile phones, people buying with their phones that don't even own computers, companies that pay commissions having far, far better tracking software so you get more commissions, and companies being more honest with crediting commissions because they know it benefits them in so many ways as opposed to skimming some minor profits. I could go on but those are just at the top of my head. There were lots of negative things that were hard to deal with in the past also.

Just my opinion - and I started online in 2001 - there has never been a better time to be an affiliate marketer! Are the old methods still working? Not totally. That doesn't prove anything about affiliate marketing being dead.

This is true and always has been - a good niche, a good product(s), good methods to get targeted traffic. And lastly - be ready to adapt ANY of those things.

The end!

This thread has been a very interesting and polarizing thread.

It scares the entire crap out of me to even dream of doing affiliate marketing they way some have described. I couldn't imagine going out and following this sequence:

1. Generate some traffic.

2. Convert the crap out of that traffic into subscribers.

3. Identify offers to pitch to subscribers.

4. Sell other peoples' stuff.

It's one thing for me to promote the products of folks I have relationships with as an affiliate. That make sense to me. If I have a relationship with John and his product may be a fit for my list of people who've bought my stuff, then yeah, I'll promote John's stuff. I'm sure John would do the same for me.

But, anyone doing steps 1-4 as listed above... man o man you guys are hard core and you make me feel like I'm not wearing big boy pants... lol.

Salute!

wow I hope its not dead! I just started 2 new sites!
A Travel blog for Men only
and an Amazon Associate site

Well we know that the good days are gone so it a new day in affiliate marketing thing have change, so you have to change too in order to make the income that you were making. Nothing stays the same we in this business have to go with the flow. That's it there are still many Affiliate Marketing make good income. Just my opinion.

Affiliate marketing is definately becomes more difficult over the years but is not really dead...What to succeed in today's affiliate world is to build email list...

Email list is the asset in affiliate marketing...the bigger the list you have, the more money you can make from affiliate marketing...Google, Facebook constantly change their algorithms...It is dangerous solely relying on these platforms to drive traffic to the affiliate offers alone...

The focus should be building as many email list as possible so that you can build meaningful relationship with your subscribers and reach out your subscribers again and again with your offer....

For example, AMP is a great example of affiliate marketing platform for anyone to see success. They has provided affiliate marketers with all the marketing tools necessary, plus with email autoresponders completes with email follow up sequences and also a converting landing page http://myvault.ampstore.io/tour

What marketers need to do is drive traffic to the landing page and when people subscribed under them...email follow-up would be sent to the subscribers automatically without having the marketers to build their own landing page or email responders...This saved marketers from all the headached..

I don't agree.

Affiliate Marketing is not dead.

And it's not less profitable.

OP, you got great results.

But things change in marketing (and in life), this is a certainty.

What worked 10 years ago is not working now. And yes many people who were living the Internet Marketing Dream are back in their jobs again.

But it isn't because they couldn't adapt to changes, it's because they didn't.

Things are not harder now, there is more people online and more education, tools and systems (that work) but there is still the same GAP between beginner and success.

The gap hasn't changed.

It still takes a lot for a person to become a successful entrepreneur now (just like it did 10 years ago).

10 Years ago we still had 97% of the people online failing hand over fist.

Nothing has changed now (still 97% failure rate).

Products will come and go.

Comp plans will come and go.

And the people who can 'adapt' to these changes, will still reap the rewards.

Everyone else will become 'obsolete'.

It's far from dead, especially in the Non-IM niches. They pay better as well. The key is to choose products with recurring commissions.

Kevin

2 million dollars? Why do you need to work again? Take your money and put it into an Ecuador CD which is US dollars since they use US currency and get 9-10% and chill on that money.

No need for a day job. With 2 million you shouldn't have needed a day job. Did you waste your money?

I make a load of money still with CPL affiliate marketing, my network I work with are calling out for more affiliates as the merchants are hungry for more and more leads. Great CPL payouts in the UK and Europe market. Maybe expanding to a new market would help. Certain markets are dead I agree.

Dead ... I don't think so!

I recently researched over 100 sites (it's on going research) and got the RPM's for each monetization type... (revenue per 1000 page views)

There is nothing wrong with affiliate income if you do it right

Adsense $13.09
Amazon $124.04
Affiliate $357.54
Amazon FBA $616.88
E-commerce $625.61

It's ALL about paid traffic and media buying now.

Affiliate marketing via organic reach and free methods is not as effective as it used to be.

Media buyers/super affiliates like Charles Ngo, Malan Darras and others are still profiting thousands of dollars everyday from AM, but from "launching campaigns" and NOT the way you're doing it.

OP -

I never got to your level but was making about $9,000 a month running a collection of mini niche sites and after Google changes etc. it all started to dry up.

I've seen refocused entirely on one niche and promoting affiliate offers in that niche. PPC, Social Media PPC & all to my list.

I promote to my list once or twice per week and send a lot of content. My sites get reasonable content via SEO but it's all white hat now - no effort in link building now.

I'm now over $10K per month with a much more scalable business model that isn't dependent on Google, Facebook etc..

You have done this before - you can do it again.

Affiliate Marketing is not dead - in my opinion, when done right it still can be profitable! Maybe even more profitable hoho :-)

No, Affiliate Marketing is not dead however, I think it's tougher for people online marketers to earn money particularly if they will use the same kind of ways of generating visitors to their offers (Search engine optimization, niche websites, blogging, social networking, etc).

Nowadays, if you wish to earn money from internet affiliate marketing, you should know and understand media buying, that's, buying targeted online audience through ad placements online, mobile, pop.

This can be done through either direct buys (from individual publishers) or programmatically through self-serve DSPs with real-time putting in a bidding feature.

Media buying provides you with leverage, particularly when done programmatically. DSPs will instantly provide you with the use of vast amounts of ad views worldwide. Being an affiliate, your work would be to understand your offer and know your audience. When you are aware your audience, you are able to effectively acquire them around the beginning. If you do not know your audience, you are able to perform a number of tests before you do.

Buying traffic from DSPs may also permit you to test multiple offers every day. I did previously test countless offers having a budget of $50 per offer in order to find out the best-performing ones. I Then scale the campaign that generates positive Return on investment.

Yes, this really is dangerous but may also be very rewarding, particularly when you can get cheap traffic and be capable of drive countless targeted audience for your offer.

Man i think you dont speak serious ? affiliate marketing its not dead and people are makes lot of money .Theproblem its what experience you have to get traffic and targeted traffic of course .And it also depend the niche you can be also in a niche where people dont hurry so much to buy

It is no where near dead. Like everything in life Internet Marketing changes and evolves, nothing is set in stone. You have to learn to adapt to new trends and methods even in fields you have already been established. Learn Grow Evolve Succeed.

Affiliate marketing is not dead. It's depend on your method. Every day there are many peoples' successes. Amazon Affiliate is a good way to make money

I would like to agree with OP.
The truth is, there are ZERO affiliate sites in google nowadays, only "big brands" or big affiliate websites.

If OP worked with CJ, that means that there was a lot of datafeed products, and he made money from niche websites.

I cannot agree more. This part of affiliate marketing is dead.

I start my affiliate journey few days ago, but there was no success. I think it depend on demand of customer product and good seo for site.

I don't think affiliate marketing is dead but the competition is definitely fierce. You're right,commission payouts aren't as sexy as they used to be and cookie duration is becoming less and less by the day. You can still make good money on the affiliate side of things but the secret is to create your own products and services so you can leverage your efforts through affiliates and JVs.

Right, so.... At 30% of what you used to make you're making $10,000/mo and you say it's dead? Are you just trying to be controversial?

Yes that true

Me to verry bad resultat in 2016

Affiliate marketing is not famous or not used to..

Affiliate marketing is not dead at all I make a solid income by doing affiliate marketing. If you can't make good money with affiliate marketing that means that your focus is money in this case you never make good income.You should focus on value to provide to others.

I dont think Affiliate Marketing is dead. Affiliate Marketing 10 years ago, is different to Affiliate Marketing in 2017. A lot has changed and for you to still be successful off Affiliate Marketing, ones marketing sytem must be adapted to what is currently working. The Niche, the type of offer and the traffic type is a major determinant in the success of Affiliate Marketing

There have been dozens of "affiliate marketing is dead" threads and blog posts since at least 2008 and it just goes on ticking.

What catch me is the dead, but possibly I don' agree you, I've been in Affiliate marketing just two weeks,not bad, I think

You can still make money in affiliate marketing, if you have a good blog with a good traffic. I mean, "good blog".

No ,I do not think affiliate marketing is dead.

Because the scope of affiliate marketing is increasing day by day.Amazon, ebay, alibaba , clickbank etc are investing more money to expanding their business.

Many people all over the world are involving every day in this marketing.Many people are earning a lot of money by affiliating products

So, how do you think affiliate marketing is dead ?

Share your great, more and more competitive markets so that higher and more difficult. I believe that with the experience of your old will revive in your affiliate marketing, when you refresh your thinking. Travel less negative.

Some fascinating opinions in this thread.

Firstly, I am sorry to hear about your challenges HostPython. I know, I've been there.

As a bit of a background summary, I have been working working full-time in affiliate marketing since 1997, regularly working 100 hour weeks running a business which not only operates as an affiliate, but provides Outsourced Affiliate Management Services for advertisers and also has provided consultancy services for three of the four largest affiliate networks in the world etc.; I have probably spent more of my life on online affiliate marketing than anybody in the world.

Like you, I drove many millions of dollars worth of sales via affilite marketing in the years running up to the late noughties. We were one of the biggest affiliates on various networks.

As you rightfully say, in the last few years it has certainly become a LOT harder. Networks like CJ which you refer to have gone down the pan, commissions have been slashed, commission tracking for many advertisers is highly dubious, Google has been on a war-path against affiliate websites of most types, ISPs obsessively filter out affiliates' emails, ad blockers have also hurt affiliates' revenues, cookie and therefore commission theft by coupon websites, and many leads driven by affiliates on mobile devices are not tracked for a variety of reasons etc. etc.

It's not just ABestWeb, but the a4u affiliate marketing forums in the UK and many others that have died a death. Yesterday I was working on my training slides for my staff and of six of the affiliate marketing forums I encouraged them to join and participate in, four have shut down in the last three years.

There's a lot that can be said in terms of strategum to deal with the decline of mainstream affiliate marketing, but our agency has largely moved away from the vagaries of CPA and CPL to far more robust, profitable and stable models, aka CPM, CPC and tenancy fees. We have the likes of Dell, Disney, HP and Google biting our hands off to book CPM campaigns.

That means building a brand and a reputation that is on a completely different level to how the average affiliate runs their business, and I would encourage my Warrior friends to do the same. It takes time, it takes patience, it takes diligence and it takes investment. 99% of online marketers are not willing to make those sacrifices (as nicheblogger75 states in his post above), so the barrier to entry means if you do have the right fortitude and attitude, you have significantly higher chances of succeeding than slugging it out in the cesspit of low-grade grey-hat-style affiliate marketing.

If one is in the CPA and CPL arena, it's essential to pick out advertisers that pay generous commissions: 75 cents here and $2 there on an eventual sale is not going to make anyone rich.

Critically, the tracking must work - which it doesn't on a regular basis for many advertisers and networks - and the advertiser must have multiple forms of tracking. Ideally they should pay recurring commissions.

Alongside just passing a customer onto an advertiser, it's essential to add the customer to one's own databases so that one can market to them again and again.

After going through some tough years, we are now far more profitable than ever. I know I'm not allowed to hyperlink on Warrior forums, but look up our blog if you can where my team and I have written many articles on how we grew our business after moving away from being overly-dependent on the affiliate channel.

Good luck everyone.

I still know personally a lot of people making good money doing affiliate marketing.

Bro, you just have to focus on giving your target market VALUE. Yeah, if you are going for the niche that is being dominated by big players, it will take consistency at your blog to win them over. Provide Value and Solve Problems, and you will make money in affiliate marketing!

Even though we have been selling shirts for 8 years, we just started selling our products through affiliate marketing a year ago. I have found that most everyone advertising for us is just using our website brand name through coupon websites in the hope of making a conversion. Although it is still relatively inexpensive to advertise our brand name, our thousands of affiliates keep driving up the price of it, and yet not many people are using it for search, most people searching for us by brand are most likely to just use our URL, so this is a failed plan.We basically give 100% of our profits to the affiliate in the hope of making a future customer and spreading brand awareness.

We advertise ourselves to specific products and do make a profit, the cost of our per product advertising is usually less than our brand name, now that the affiliates have all driven up the cost of it, and direct to product has the highest conversion rate. I think, there will always be an opening for people who target our products rather than our brand, I feel most of the affiliates out there are very lazy when it comes to their advertising and targeting, and are leaving almost all of the profit possibilities on the table. I am pretty sure this will apply to almost all affiliate marketing out there.

Perhaps the age of the lazy affiliate marketer is dead.

Affiliate Marketing isnt dead, but its actually gone back to completely old school and local word of mouth style.

You cant compete with the social media generation and pretty much everyone knows the SEO tricks are are competing together.

Completely feel the ops pain, I guess when riding a wave you always need to know when to ditch and start again.

Affiliate marketing does not dead, your niche is dead.

I'm sorry, but blaming your failure on "the system" is just an excuse to not feel bad about yourself.

I started an Amazon affiliate site a year ago and I'v been making $4,000 monthly for the past 5 months. In fact, I made 7k+ in November and 13k+ in December.

Seems pretty much alive to me

Try creating your own products and let others sell. My close friends are making close to $2 million a month through Apps and Downloadable files.

The internet is bigger than ever. Affiliate marketing is not dead. You just have to move with the times, adapt, and be better than the next guy.

It is not dead. There are many companies that Collapsed when they were making millions of dollars every month. and now we don't hear about them why because they didn't invest in what is working in the market . If you have Money and you don't invest some of it. you end up losing .

The Game is To Invest To Have the right midset and always bring New things in your business. always come up with changes and what working now might not work tomorrow. But as Nicheblogger75 said . that's True Focus on that you will never Fail

affiliate marketing his dead for those who just want to profit from other people but if you really want to help other people live their dream and you follow a mentor like mine its vick strizehus he has 30 000 people following him just on one of his page on facebook. you can get far with that find someone that is really legitimate and that help you build a long term business with multiple stream of income. imagine giving all the practical action you have to take to build a long term business and really give independant way to do it people are gonna want to follow you because we all want to be free and do what we are passionate about. i suggest you find what it is and follow a mentor that has all the results you want to get why because some day your gonna be bored by the fact of not giving value to the world if its something you want to do. ask yourself what you would like to give as legacy when you die

The fact that you are not good at something, doesn't mean that it's dead.

Thanks! BUT, keep moving forward, nothing unable

People are still making a huge amount of money from affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is not dead. If you are using affiliate products to help you create a business there are certain things that do not die. I think blogging is still viable, but it is not the only medium

Floreman, good point!

I've just written an essay in my blog on this very subject and have argued there that most marketers don't think affiliate marketing is dead. If anything, the opportunities are bigger than ever. When I started out in affiliate marketing in the mid-1990s hardly anybody even knew what the internet was; now half the Western world is almost dependent on it.

It’s not affiliate marketing that is dead, but the culture. In the early days, it was like the gold rush days in California, with individuals panning for gold; now the big guys with the industrial diggers have come in (or the one man bands of old have grown to larger entities).



In many ways the evolution has beeen a positive development, as the industry was run very haphazardly fifteen and twenty years ago.



In other ways some affiliate’s business models are flakier than ever – as an astute industry observer I was in a meeting with a few days ago pointed out, the reason 100% cashback sites haven’t been bought up is because, by giving away almost all their commission earnings, he stated they are not particularly profitable – and, as a result, have destroyed margins for other affiliate businesses as well.

I always saw it as way of making a quick buck and getting out. Never really saw it as a long term business, however I know a few people that are still making money off it. So it really does depend on your niche.

Sorry, disagree.

Affiliate marketing is not dead, it has grown, changed, adapted to the market today which is vastly different to what it was 10 years ago.

So long as we grow, change and adapt to those changes - affiliate marketing still provides a good income and potential for growth of a structured, managed business - whether it be a single person at home or a corporate team.

Regards

Rufus

What's a "sizeable email list"

Affiliate marketing is huge income sources and affiliate marketing did not dead in the future, if you start single niche with any affiliate networks, I believe you will be successful.

Thank you for your insight.

I think it's all about offering value to your users. If your users are getting some value from what you're offering, you can generate some income.

I think affiliate marketing is still alive and well. Like everything you have to change and keep up with the times. A lot of money is made during launches but there can be residual income, depending on what you are doing and in what niche. I found a really good free report called the affiliate blueprint at brendanmace.com and I was amazed, because the report was slightly aged and yet super relevant still. I get no paid endorsement from the site, just thought it might help.

i think its not dead! we have to more focus on it . there are many ways to do affiliate marketing.... Google, Facebook constantly change their algorithms.

Who killed the market?

I've been reading many threads here, and I came to the conclusion that Affiliate Marketing is definitely not dead, but we have to adapt to the changing environment. This gave me an idea which I've been struggling to get about starting in affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is not dead.

I agree with you, the entry bar is a lot higher than it was in 2004. The biggest problem is the huge increase in PPC. You basically need to have enough money to burn; not for the faint of heart.

But, the old school way of niche blogging, getting an audience through SM, winning their trust and then selling them stuff is still a legitimate model.

I hate seeing subject lines like this. Again affiliate marketing is stronger than ever but it's the wheel spinners or people who can't take a action when the challenges arrive that say this!

I think the complete opposite, the internet is currently buzzing with affiliate marketing concepts and assuming you do your niche research correctly (every niche is profitable), success is just a matter of time and effort.
The fact that you say you can stay financially free for the rest of your life is a testimonial for success anyway!

It is not dead but it may be more difficult in some niches maybe. People like Michael Cheney are making big money with affiliate marketing.

I don't find it dead at all, it just gets cleaner from all the junk, scam, fraud and hype... and that is actually very good.

Affiliate Marketing is dead??? Damn I just got started!!!

I can say that you're right. I started affiliate marketing 6 years ago, and I did fairly well in the beginning. I didn't reach $30,000 a month like you did, the max I made was $10,000 a month, but it was consistent. $2,000 a month was a low month for me, back in the day.

Same as you, I made less than a thousand dollars last month. I have another business (clothing), and I made great profit last month.

I can't help but notice too that affiliate marketing is not going to last for much longer, especially because everyone's doing it, the merchants are reducing the rates and getting stricter with their rules (with good reason), and search engines are breathing down our necks.

I still haven't given up though. But, I cannot rely on this business any longer.

For those who are still seeing success, can you share what niches you are working on?

Cheers!

I agree. Fact is, we would make less than minimum wage. That is why people complain about sad sense. Still, it is possible to pay part of your hosting fee and you tube stars can make some money. However, it is curtains for most of us.

I started in the early 90's and it was easy. The river was full of big shiny gold nuggets and all you needed was a pan. Well, those days are over. Mud is all I see now. It is time to find a new river.

I think to survive being affiliate marketeer is required upgrade knowladge

It's time to consider the white side of affiliate marketing If you have sufficient experience in the field - there is no better time to start promoting legal products/services + brand awareness will do it's job facilitating your efforts.

But still .... for most of you affiliate marketing constitutes of adult/finance/health/gambling ...... and that side is stagnating, I agree

Affiliate marketing will NEVER be dead... Its just all about how you do it and how much you want it... Yes affiliate marketing dead for the lazy get rich tomorrow wannabees (95% of you) but if you really want it only the sky's the limit... Never give up and keep it simple.. Good luck!

Hi ,

Clearly it isnt. The landscape is changing but not dying.

Lets discuss the goal of Affiliate marketing (in short).
1.) For Company/brands is to generate SALES.
2.) For Affiliate ( individual/network) is to earn money is the form of commissions.

I am saying NO because :

- Companies/brands never stops selling goods/products with the help of the others,
- Each day they are innovating,hence need different platforms for the promotion,
- Some people are running their living by doing affiliate marketing,
- Some companies business model depends on affiliate marketing .
No chance of DEAD affiliate marketing.

Some stats to tell:

- 38 % marketers call affiliate marketing its one of the top customer acquisition method,
- 15% of revenue of digital industry comes from affiliate marketing,
- 80% brands utilize affiliate marketing.
So, I dont think Affiliate marketing ever dead.

The affiliate marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. It is certainly not easy, but if you do things that work now rather than a year or so ago then it is still not difficult to make a considerable income from it.

The difference between now and 24 months ago is that real concerted effort is required, especially in the outset of a new site.

2 / 3 years ago we would rank anything with spammy links and the sites would stay at the top. We can still spam to the top but they wont stay. With well laid out linking plans and quality content that provided value, as well as a good user experience then you can be a success in any market.

Below are 2 screenshots from affiliate programs. The first is sales from an 18 month old website, the other is another affiliate program although that is a split project between myself and 2 other people so cant say that is all mine. But it gives you a rough idea. Also note that I only spend around 20% of my time on affiliate marketing so with just a little time each week you can still smash it.





This is not to boast about earnings but to show it is still very possible if you approach it in a businesses like manner.

The problem is that there are still a lot of people pushing awful products. You could have the best website in the world and stacks of traffic but if the product is bad then you will have low to no sales and a huge refund rate.

I will never expose my niches because that would just be stupid. But what I will say is that they are both software products that enable people to do things to make their lives easier.

The best advice I was ever given when I started out was to ignore ClickBank (yes there are still some good products but still 85% garbage) but search footprints for stand alone affiliate programs. Generally those with stand alone programs have high end products and useful products that are so much easier to promote!

In short it can still be done. Affiliate marketing methods circa 2014/15 are dead yes, but doing things right still wield results.

Affiliate marketing never was death and never will

No, who says? Affiliated marketing is running. you can go for amazon affiliate, flipkart amazon and so many websites. They are paying commission if you are selling company's product..

Can you still make money being an amazon affiliate or are there better companies to do it with?

Hi, I'm new to the affiliate marketing world and am looking for professionals to promote my products. I would like to know what percentage commission you consider worth your while. (Financial products-crowdfunding investments private equity-startups-real estate)
Immediate start.

I think that the affiliate marketing will never ever die till the internet world is living and affiliate marketing till know is the most easy,best way to earn money online.

It's only dead for the spammy affiliates.

If John Doe sets up a website, and genuinely reviews the shit that is in his house, he'll get some traffic and gain a following from his "genuine" reviews.

The key word is "Genuine".

Genuine:
adjective
Definition - truly what something is said to be; authentic.


Over time, they'll have people coming to them for reviews and will eagerly pay through affiliate links.

The days of spam are long gone. We're cleaning up this Wild West once and for all.

You can also see my article about the hot scam today Solo Ad Scams

It's not dead, it's not dying & it never will die.

There are thousands, in fact internet-wide probably millions of different affiliate programs out there, each paying different commissions & each with different conversion rates.

Sure, trends change and businesses die off as a result, but as an entrepreneur it's all about adapting to the current market. Unfortunately most IM'ers get stuck in their ways & then question why things are no longer working.

Providing you keep pushing forward, keep scaling traffic & keep building subscriber bases there will always be money to be made online through affiliate marketing (and lot's of it to).

No, yet I believe it's harder for individual associate advertisers to profit particularly on the off chance that they utilize a similar old systems to create activity to their offers (SEO, specialty destinations, blogging, web-based social networking, and so on).
Nowadays, in the event that you need to profit from partner promoting, you have to know and comprehend media purchasing, that is, purchasing focused on online group of onlookers through advertisement situations on sites, portable, pop.
you can do this either through direct purchases (from individual distributers) or automatically through self-serve DSPs with constant offering highlight.

Hey HostPython,

Have you tried promoting affiliate products by placing ads?

I am talking about both free and paid methods.

Free as in classified advertising in sites like Adlandpro, Craiglist, Gumtree, US Free Ads etc.

And paid as in Bing, Facebook, Google Adwords and even solo ads.

Before I even heard about affiliate marketing and list building, I made my first $100 through placing ads through a work-from-work data-entry program.

Through that program, that is how I got to know Clickbank and Paydotcom.

Besides the data entry program, I also made my first dollar promoting Mike Filsaime's Butterfly Marketing for some of you who might have done IM earlier and heard about that product.

Having your own product is the way to go.

At least that's how I convince myself of.

Build a customer list with the product, then sell affiliate products to the list.

Affiliate marketing can't be dead. That's like saying sales and consumerism is dead - which is just nonsense!

What is dead is the old cheap and easy ways of generating traffic to affiliate offers - those are dead, probably for the better too.

What I see working now are three main things:

- Email Marketing (List Building)
- Blogging
- Authority sites

You might notice a trend here. They're all focused on building a community or tribe as some like to refer to it.

If you had a email list of 5,000 people on the east coast that like fishing, that could supply you income for a life-time with the correct kind of list nurturing. You could be selling affiliate products (fishing gear) and also hosting and selling fishing trips, all off your list.

People who love sea fishing will reach deep into their pockets, trust me. You could offer very exclusive $1500 fishing trips on the Jersey Shore, 100 places only per year. That's $150,000 minus expenses - plus all the affiliate commissions you'll be making with your fortnightly newsletter or whatever...

Don't so naive - there's UNLIMITED amounts of opportunity out there if you just open yourself to it.

I still see large sums of money going to affiliate marketers. It is really just a matter of switching to methods that work.

Nothing stays the same forever - neither should it. Affiliate marketing may not be as easy as in the past but it can be profitable. Depends on the niche and your approach.

Interesting Journey you have had..Many of us have had similar.

Its funny how time and algorithms has affected or "infected" the online marketers game change. Its not always us marketers and affiliations to blame. Ive seen how some affiliate marketers have gone from extremely selfish to complete team build transparency and many of them are doing well.

I laugh every time I see this thread and every time I hear "affiliate marketing is dead". I've been hearing this for the past 10 years, and it's never been dead. Things just change

I totally disagree,

I believe affiliate marketing is going up rather than going down,

A lot of businesses are getting into affiliate marketing, Amazon, Apple
, HP, Best buy, you name it...

There have never been more affiliate programs than ever before and there are MILLIONS of products to promote.

People spend MORE money online nowadays than ever before

So it's hardly dead, while there are more competitors that do not necessarily mean it's dead, you can definitely find your own angle and make a full-time income from Affiliate marketing if you put in the hard work.

Of course, it was easier to rank before than today and also the big players are not guaranteed to stay on the top pages of Google,

There are MILLIONS of untapped keywords you can go for to find your own angle, when you are big enough you can compete with the big players.
Google does give you a chance to reach the big players you just need to be hard working smart and consistent just like the big players when they first started

P.S: If Affiliate marketing is dead, how the did I succeed with my Amazon niche site in 2015? and my IM website (Very competitive niche) that I started just 6 months ago?

Not dead at all. There's guys who make 100k in a week on certain offers. What happened to you is what happens when you don't diversify or plan ahead.

I dont agree either.
i make my money from affiliate marketing.
and i have been doing this for 5 years now.
and year my income just increasing.
and you started earlier than me....
but i'm seeing things in a different way......

and i do have a community of students whom i teach affiliate marketing, and they are all making money.
may be you need to invest your self in education.

I wrote a post which can help you here,
go here and check it out,

How To Make Money With Clickbank Step By Step. These are Some of the steps i use personally. | Warrior Forum


cheers

Dawood

My main business model is affiliate marketing... and I'm still making money.