Is Affiliate Marketing Growing Or On The Decline?

I still believe affiliate marketing will still growing healthy. It is a form of marketing that make it viral. Product creators always believe a word of mouth still be a good marketing effort that is why so many affiliate platforms have been developed and still strong till today. Even product creators sometime become affiliate to other people product to diversify income stream.

Yes I agree that affiliate marketing has a strong future. There is a huge community of us affiliating with a wide variety of programs.

As long as there is a demand there is going to be products. Step in affiliates.

Our own products are always a good thing though and essential in the our development as IM's

I believe, overall, that more people are getting into it.

I suspect that as internet penetration in countries like India and China continues to increase so markedly, the number of people trying to earn money online will continue to rise, and a fair proportion of them tend to try affiliate marketing at some point during their efforts. (And a fair proportion of the people in those countries getting internet access overlaps with the growing minority of English-speakers/readers there, too.)

I think that for every 100 people getting into it, possibly as many as 95 - 97 are getting out of it, but that would still clearly leave the general numerical trend of participants steadily climbing, overall.

I don't think there can be any "collated figures" anywhere, can there? I can't imagine how anyone could realistically measure this. It doesn't even prove anything to say that ClickBank (and/or other network) affiliate numbers are growing (which they are), because people who stop doing affiliate marketing don't often close their accounts there anyway. So it's pretty hard to tell/prove.

I "feel" like there are less... This might be because I stay far away from the tech and IM niche and only promote physical products.

I think that the increased popularity of CPA marketing has drawn a lot of affiliate marketers away from "affiliate marketing" ie. making the sale rather than getting paid for leads.

If ever I have bought a product online, I never go to what appears to be an affiliate site. I tend to go direct to sales sites such as Amazon, eBay and ebuyer etc...
I think a lot of people are more buyer savvy these days and tend not to relay on feeder sites for info and research. just mho tho'

That's a good question and a hard one to figure out. My guess is that more may be joining affiliate marketing because of the economy.

Affiliate Marketing is obviously growing. More and more products are coming up all them need more sales so Affiliate Marketing will continue to grow.

Many of the sites hit by recent Google updates are classic affiliate marketing sites. These are the low quality, 5 page EMD websites that anyone can throw together in one afternoon. So I think the entry level for affiliate marketing is being pushed higher (the required skill level, money and amount of commitment) which is surely going to drastically cut the numbers of people involved.

If you're a professional affiliate marketer that's probably good news. If you're a merchant, you'll loose affiliates but it probably won't hit your bottom line, much.

Disclaimer: the above is just a theory.

I myself asking this question. I believe I have miss the train. I seeing there an increase on cpa, local seo and offline marketer.

Due to this that why affiliate marketing is declining. Feel cheated.

Affiliate marketing is here to stay i think.

But the methods of doing it will always differ from people to people and as technology evolves.

Some people will use trickery, deceit & what not to make a buck, and then there will be those who employ methods that create trust, benefit & value, and therefore more profit for themselves.

It is not affiliate marketing per se that we have to worry about, it is the methods that we employ that need a closer scrutiny and a relook.

Affiliate marketing is alright when it relies on generating sales. When it's about generating leads, companies are usually tempted to sell crap for a price of gold.

I reckon it's always going to be around. I also think it will continue to grow but with a lot of people trying to turn a quick buck and never learning how to run it as a profitable business.

I think it'll take people a while to realize it's about building reputation and trust and not throwing affiliate links around the net to get people cookied in, just hoping for the best.