State of affiliate marketing, GURUS, and other things...

ptpatil said:
The internet has grown up and is not the wild west anymore.
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The internet has always been a wild west.

Affiliate marketers were always the snake oil salesman of sorts in the wild west of the internet. Very few affiliate marketing "offers" really offered anything anyone who wasn't a moron would buy.
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There are plenty of affiliates promoting legit products. Amazon, ebay, CJ, ect

Shit like that only lasts for a while, currently the most capital resides in the app bubble, and most people who had any technical skills etc. worth anything has been sucked up in that bubble making some app or another with VC monopoly money instead of slinging berries and rebills to slack jawed retards with credit cards.
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The people who made money for a few months with acai were never real affiliates to begin with. Acai lasted a while but something new always replaces it. Affiliate marketing is better than ever. Now the barrier to entry is alot higher and and the competition has been culled. Now only the real players remain.
 


The affiliate model is becoming more important as the online advertising industry shifts toward CPA-based campaigns and "native advertising." So many people have adblockers installed (45 million in the US!!) that traditional ads are just not cutting it anymore. The only viable route for advertisers is native advertising, and that needs to be backed by some kind of tracking model, which CPA is perfect for.

The decline you are speaking of is more a decline in a specific subset of the market. People like Shoemoney, Chow, etc, may have been big names in their time, but one man businesses are only sustainable for so long. Online advertising is a cash cow and lots of companies are joining the fray. The gurus and affiliate networks are getting pushed out of the market by large advertising companies, well-funded startups, and a general push toward modernizing ("legitimizing?") the affiliate industry.

(Adblocker stats: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/study-of-ad-blocking-software-suggests-wide-use/?_r=0)
 
If you were to look at ONE major thing that changed in the last few years, which affected pretty much all of us, I personally think it would be the fact that it's not so easy any more to get ranked in Google and MAINTAIN that position, which now prevents all the not-so-savvy guys from getting traffic...No traffic = no sales = no money.

And obviously when you just start out, Google is where 99.9% of people look for visitors for their websites.

All the Panda/Penguin bollocks that hit thousands of sites in 2011-2012, that alone stopped a lot of people from milking it online, as their EMDs with "quality backlinks" all tanked in a matter of months.

You know, you could get ranked for some long-tails within a few days, if you slapped an article onto a popular article directory or Squidoo or Hubpages...Does that happen nowadays? I don't think so...

So when the entry bar lifted up from that point to where it is now, when a couple of articles with links from Linkvana is not good enough no more, getting targeted traffic really becomes a struggle for beginners.

Not to mention how many affiliates got banned from Adwords, including those who used to spend 6 figures with them...Just looking at Clickbank's marketplace, the highest gravity product doesn't even have 300 gravity, when few years ago, some were around 500-600 mark. Water4Gas almost reached 1k around 2008, if I remember correctly?

Of course, change is inevitable and in a way, it's a good thing that Google cut out the affiliates and SEO junkies, because that made a lot of people (including me) realize that Google is NOT where you build your business and it's very unreliable/inconsistent.

The way I see it, is that nowadays the best thing for beginners to do is to build a long-term, content-heavy website (Big Brand?), but then again, when you start explaining to them that they'll need to write 200 articles and it could take up to a year before they make a penny, it doesn't sound too lucrative, does it?
 
Still doing pretty well in affiliate marketing. But we're also developing our own product, having shares in two other companies with unique products and doing consulting.

I can only speak for myself of course but the situation as far as affiliate networks and ad networks go is of course different but not really that different. There's still tons of cheap traffic to be bought on hundreds of mobile networks, search is still strong, offers are more legit and stable. If I were starting out right now and applied the same principles as years ago (ie: testing, working like crazy, trying out dozens of offers and networks) I'm pretty sure I could find stuff that's profitable.
 
Blackman said:
You know, you could get ranked for some long-tails within a few days, if you slapped an article onto a popular article directory or Squidoo or Hubpages...Does that happen nowadays? I don't think so...
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<morpheus meme> What if I told you that guys are ranking top 3 within a few days of posting articles on their sites....</morpheus meme>

So when the entry bar lifted up from that point to where it is now, when a couple of articles with links from Linkvana is not good enough no more, getting targeted traffic really becomes a struggle for beginners.
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I'm all about higher bars of entry. SEO getting hard again was the best thing for affiliates who use SEO for traffic. There's going to be 10 (or 7) sites on page 1 for every query until SEO dies for real. If it's harder to be one of them, great. I'd rather fight with the authority sites than the authority sites + the thin PMD affiliate sites.

The way I see it, is that nowadays the best thing for beginners to do is to build a long-term, content-heavy website (Big Brand?), but then again, when you start explaining to them that they'll need to write 200 articles and it could take up to a year before they make a penny, it doesn't sound too lucrative, does it?
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*
 
super said:
Where you build instead? Social media sites?
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Wherever you want, but NOT in a 3rd party source, where you have no control over your business/website. Google is the most obvious traffic choice, so everyone wants to get in there as fast as possible and for all the relevant keywords for their site.

In a ideal scenario, YOU want to be your own traffic source, when people would remember your name/domain and come back for more of your stuff. Of course, this is where branding comes into play, so your shit has to be really good, catchy domain name, great layout, social stuff, etc, etc.

Grindstone, I'm sure you know better than me that it's all about maintaining the rank, rather than jumping on top within 3 days and then disappearing after a month, because Google didn't like something about your site/backlinks/whatever.

Your name perfectly represents SEO - it's a constant, never-ending grind, you vs Google. I guess it's a personal choice that people make, and if you manage to squeeze a few k's from a site before it gets slapped and assuming you make a profit, then some people are happy going through that exact cycle all the time.

1. Make a website
2. Slap backlinks
3. Get ranked > get traffic > make money > get slapped
4. Start again

That's how I see and possibly I'm wrong, but from personal experience and what I've read, that's the SEO game.

In my opinion, as a long-term consistent business model, it makes no sense at all - trying to please another business for your own temporary again with no foundation.

But then, what do I know...You probably made more money doing SEO this year, than I made in the last 8.

Best of luck to you.
 
^ The other SEO game is how TheHobbster (I think) laid it out in that Authority Site thread and as several other sites have sprung up teaching how to do, basically the Niche Pursuits - Find Business Ideas, Niche Websites, and much more! method and that guy does well, but he is also in other markets. I think the niche authority site should be a launching point to consilidation through buyouts, product creation, list creation, forum etc, all of which require money.
 
This isn't related to marketing, but if you have a decent sum of money saved up >$30K you can make steady money selling weekly at-the-money SPY option straddles. Let's say the SPY is at $209 ...if you sell 2 weekly at the money puts and 1 call, you collect about $600-800 a week if it's flat and you don't lose money unless it falls 3%, which is quite rare.

Marketing has become too hard. I have a Skype list and everyone on it is inactive, gone , and while ago we did well, but it just seems like everything has faded. Big media seems to rule everything...they rule google, reddit, facebook...Good traffic hard to obtain when you're competing with publishing giants and VC-backed firms.

however, I'm not keen on the idea of running it like a business, meaning that i'f I'm using my own money, I need profit margins near 100%, which is not how most businesses work.
 
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however, I'm not keen on the idea of running it like a business, meaning that if I'm using my own money or I'm on a net-payment schedule, I need profit margins near 100%, which is not how most businesses work. If I get paid first and then provide the service (instead of being an affiliate on Google adsense , amazon, etc) I can have much, much lower margins. That means eliminating all middlemen and getting the clients, and that guarantees you get paid before you lift a finger.
 
bitfiend said:
Marketing has become too hard. I have a Skype list and everyone on it is inactive, gone , and while ago we did well, but it just seems like everything has faded.
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Not too long ago, if you wanted to sell shit, you had to put down money for a physical location, buy your stuff in advance, and get people to walk into your store. Then you had to buy TV, radio, newspaper ads.

Starting a business meant you were putting your lifesavings into a venture, not throwing up a Wordpress site and buying Facebook ads.

We still have it ridiculously easy compared to 99.9999999% of the history of human commerce. The truth is that a lot of people who are inactive and gone probably didn't deserve to be there in the first place. What's that saying...everyone is a genius in a bull market?

bitfiend said:
Big media seems to rule everything...they rule google, reddit, facebook...Good traffic hard to obtain when you're competing with publishing giants and VC-backed firms.
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This guy disagrees.
 
Once you reach "super affiliate" status there comes a day when you realize that you are spending your time/money/energy building someone elses business.

If you got sick or died, you are left with nothing. Affiliate marketing is a great cash flow operation, but rarely are you building a real business with intrinsic value that can be sold down the line.

At this point most super affiliates branch out and do other things like own an offer, start a network, app development, invest in something completely different, etc.

However, there are rare people who become gurus.

Why? If you ask me, it's not because they enjoy helping people. I think they just enjoy being admired and put on a pedestal.

But wtf do I know right, I'm still ewhoring on ICQ...
 
erifdekciw said:
I remember the days when everyone here laughed at the idea of gurus and people "selling-out" because they couldn't hack it in the affiliate game anymore.
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had to lol at this line, if it makes money and legal, who cares. not as if we're musicians or filmmakers worried about our art.

i haven't made money in AM since 2011 (then why do i still hang around here? i dunno). did a bit of app development outsourcing but been making money fulltime off apps since 2013. i've said it loads of times here, EVERYBODY has to get into the app game! it's a goldmine, smartphones really are taking over from laptops/desktops. i made over $200k last year on some shitty app that i didn't even look at past June.

i never see posts from other people here in the app game. problem must be that most of ye can't code but if you can make a PHP website you should be able to figure it out.

i'm mystified why the proven coders here aren't in apps, people like Kiopa_Matt, rage9 and mattseh.
 
harrymouni said:
had to lol at this line, if it makes money and legal, who cares. not as if we're musicians or filmmakers worried about our art.

i haven't made money in AM since 2011 (then why do i still hang around here? i dunno). did a bit of app development outsourcing but been making money fulltime off apps since 2013. i've said it loads of times here, EVERYBODY has to get into the app game! it's a goldmine, smartphones really are taking over from laptops/desktops. i made over $200k last year on some shitty app that i didn't even look at past June.

i never see posts from other people here in the app game. problem must be that most of ye can't code but if you can make a PHP website you should be able to figure it out.

i'm mystified why the proven coders here aren't in apps, people like Kiopa_Matt, rage9 and mattseh.
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Jesus you made 200k on the tinder app. Nice. I am guessing most of the traffic came from the misc and google you are #1 for "tinder autoliker". I wish I learned to programme when I was younger.
 
no way 200k on Tinder, i only shared that for a reason :) that was never making over $1k a month IIRC

well might as well share what I did make $200k on as I think it's dead....
snapsave. an Android app that saved Snapchats without letting sender know.

i got the idea like I get all my app ideas these days, monitor the top grossing lists and copy! i launched a shitty test version I made in 2 days and that made $50 a day out of nothing so I knew demand was there for a better version. i launched that and was making solid $200 a day which I was happy with as I was behind in the rankings on all the competitors.

then Snapchat got onto Google to ban all the saver apps. all my competitors were like 'oh well Google banned us, guess game is over'. i was laughing away as I was buying my VCCs to open multiple new developer accounts, well used to it from the Facebook days. so from Jan 2014 to June 2014 I was the top app on Google Play and Snapchat was exploding then (it's probably 3 times as big now). you would not believe the demand from users, kids mostly. i was peaking 12-13 million impressions a day. the beauty was I was piggybacking off Snapchat's popularity so people were using my app loads, viewing loads of my ads. I was kind of a marked app by then on Google, I was constantly banned though unknown competitors were staying up for months. Google really improved their banning and I couldn't get my app to last longer than a week, it just wasn't worth it anymore.

key takeaways for AMers wanting to get into apps
1) don't be original. it's too risky. copy others from the top grossing lists. remember mgrunin's theft app? i knew straightoff it would go nowhere. it's too original
2) best coders don't make the most money. they have retarded ideas and no hustle. example above is not making new Android dev accounts
3) yes you need to code. it's never too late to learn. some apps are a lot easier than others, stick to the easy ones first. i love coding so I've an advantage there
 
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harrymouni said:
no way 200k on Tinder, i only shared that for a reason :) that was never making over $1k a month IIRC

well might as well share what I did make $200k on as I think it's dead....
snapsave. an Android app that saved Snapchats without letting sender know.

i got the idea like I get all my app ideas these days, monitor the top grossing lists and copy! i launched a shitty test version I made in 2 days and that made $50 a day out of nothing so I knew demand was there for a better version. i launched that and was making solid $200 a day which I was happy with as I was behind in the rankings on all the competitors.

then Snapchat got onto Google to ban all the saver apps. all my competitors were like 'oh well Google banned us, guess game is over'. i was laughing away as I was buying my VCCs to open multiple new developer accounts, well used to it from the Facebook days. so from Jan 2014 to June 2014 I was the top app on Google Play and Snapchat was exploding then (it's probably 3 times as big now). you would not believe the demand from users, kids mostly. i was peaking 12-13 million impressions a day. the beauty was I was piggybacking off Snapchat's popularity so people were using my app loads, viewing loads of my ads. I was kind of a marked app by then on Google, I was constantly banned though unknown competitors were staying up for months. Google really improved their banning and I couldn't get my app to last longer than a week, it just wasn't worth it anymore.

key takeaways for AMers wanting to get into apps
1) don't be original. it's too risky. copy others from the top grossing lists. remember mgrunin's theft app? i knew straightoff it would go nowhere. it's too original
2) best coders don't make the most money. they have retarded ideas and no hustle. example above is not making new Android dev accounts
3) yes you need to code. it's never too late to learn. some apps are a lot easier than others, stick to the easy ones first. i love coding so I've an advantage there
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I agree about not being original. How hard would it be to build the apps you built I despise math which is why I never got into programming.
 
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