Very interesting. I'd like very much to know what Kenster think of this.

directresponse is an awesome blog, i myself started gearing my internet business towards the long-term. DR blog definitely made some solid points

I have only skimmed over the article but here are a few of my thoughts...perhaps I will put something more thorough together when I have some more time...

As far as traditional affiliate marketing is concerned, the model will never ever go away. It's been a major part of commerce since the beginning of commerce. Saying affiliate marketing is dead is like saying the whole sales industry will die, because in many respects, salespeople are more often than not, just affiliates. Many of the people you buy your phone plans through or television through, are just glorified affiliates. Making a commission on sales and earning money for leads will never ever go away...at least not in my lifetime and not for a few lifetimes after mine.

Now moving more to the CPL or CPA model. Things are shifting. I have been saying for a long time now that the big traffic platforms will slowly push affiliates away. Google Adwords was the first but it will continue. The trend will be towards smaller niche platforms.

As for CPA Offers in general, I also believe (and have been saying for a long time) that the better, more legit CPA offers will win out and all the scammy and no-value offers will slowly die out, just because they will be less lucrative because there will be less traffic channels to promote them through. This is a good thing. This is exactly where I want to see the industry headed, to more legit CPL programs.

Promoting leads will not go away and I think many of the biggest companies will jump on the CPL train as soon as the industry gets cleaned up a bit, which we are seeing happening.

So I believe the industry is headed in the right direction because the CPL model will be based on providing true value, not just a deceptive value that many of these offers out there yield.

As with any industry, things will change and change means opportunity. If you are resilient and always looking to exploit pockets of opportunity, there will always be a way to make a lot of money through affiliate marketing.

The article brings up good points, but the industry is not going away. It will change, as it has, but it's certainly still a great model...in my opinion

I look forward to the days when there are just a dozen or so large CPL networks providing lots of value-added offers. I won't miss the days of having 1 thousand CPA networks out there hosting all kinds of crappy offers.

This is a good change for us all!

Very supportive (from affiliate side) reply Kenster. I was too upset with that article and you gave me hope again.

Looking to read more optimistic replies from Pro IMers and AMs themselves

I wrote a post about this on my blog a couple weeks back:

The Great CPA/Affiliate Marketing Hoax | ChadHamzeh.com

There is also a video on the post which followed that showed a model I've helped a couple people do that's helped them a lot.

No, nothing for sale in the post and vid, so no ulterior motive here.

You need to understand one thing about Rich's blog (directresponse.net). Yes, he provides good content, but at the same time the blog is a funnel to get people that want to become advertisers.

Now, that being said. Is he wrong in what he's saying? I wouldn't say affiliate marketing is dead, however, it's a fools game to try and run offers day in, day out the way we all used to back in the day.

Even back then, it wasn't the smartest play but it made you some quick cash which is great. But at the end of the day, you're just arbitraging traffic when you do it the way most do.

You know the metrics that real businesses work on? Things like DPL (dollar per lead). This is the type of stuff you need to know.

How long ago did you hear that "the money is in the list"? Some true words right there. Look at the CPA industry for what it is... it's a giant system for advertisers to get front end lead flow for their business.

Most affiliates don't even look at it past the conversion, which is many send poor traffic which doesn't back out.

I agree with Kenster, things change, they always do, and it's for the better.

Here's an example, related more to the MLM industry.

Some of the top MLMer type guys, they get there not by promoting the MLM company, but by promoting themselves, or their brand. They plug the MLM company offer into their funnel.

If you want to stay purely as an affiliate, I highly recommend establishing a brand in the vertical that you're strong with. And, if for some reason the magical day comes where all affiliate marketing really does die, and no companies are paying for leads/sales, then you'll have a brand and good enough pulse on your audience to develop your own kick ass offer.

Affiliate marketing has been 'dead' for years..

It's a constant/always changing industry.. affiliate marketing isn't going anywhere, it might change and shift, but in some way, shape or form, it will be here

affiliate marketing has been dead and it all has been a hype,..in my opinion,..selling a strategy on "how to make money as an affiliate" will make you money! lol..

Very interesting article and good points by all...
I won't go into all the issues that were talked about but here are my 2 cents:

For the bigger affiliates that become their own advertiser taking things into their own hands, more power to them. But the VAST majority of affiliates don't have the means, resources, knowledge, funds, or motivation to do it. The reality is most affiliates aren't super affiliates and most affiliates rely on networks to do the work for them. Sure, you could call CPA Networks "middlemen" but you could say the same for the maid that you pay to clean your house; it's a convenient service.

The problem comes in when CPA networks don't do it right. They don't take the proper precautions to make sure they're not letting fraudulent affiliates into their network. They're not making sure their affiliates are only using clean traffic sources. They're not working with legitimate advertisers. The networks that take the extra time and effort to keep their affiliates and advertisers happy will continue on, while other networks who are more careless will crash and burn, it's just a matter of time.

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yes its really very interesting.thanks for your share

Can you say "link bait". He just did what all good bloggers do, put out some ridiculous headline so we all jump to his blog and read it. I seriously doubt the guy even thinks affiliate marketing is dead. It's never going to die.

From a companys point of view it's an attractive addition to their marketing efforts. After all the company is only paying when an action is completed, (in the CPA world). That's too good to ignore. Sure there's a-hole affiliates who make a bad name for the good ones, but that's in any line of business.

I do agree that becoming an advertiser IS a good idea. But it's not as easy as it sounds and if people do become advertisers, why does that mean that affiliate marketing has to "die"? It's not that one way is replacing the other. Both exist now side by side and there's no reason why any of us cannot be an advertiser AND an affiliate. (I know I've been that way for years personally).



Don't limit yourself to one way. Look at all the options and do the ones you enjoy the most.

No problem Jeff, just wanted to clear things out a bit.

There is one glaring flaw in the article that I see. The writer says affiliate marketing is dead and then goes on to say being an advertiser is the only way to go. But if affiliate marketing is dead and there will be no more affiliates then being an advertiser is a dead end as well, since there will be no one to do all the free promotion for the advertisers.

The guy higher up who said that teaching people how to make money is profitable is 100% correct. I dabbled in a few CPA offers but then I got a mentor and he was just like "this is what you got to do, teach other people to make money, that way you make money, and you make friends".

Making friends = money in this world.

CPA marketing is dead,Adsense niche sites are dead,Affiliate marketing is dead ,clickbank is dead ,Amazon pay less so it is dead...freelancing is dead ...and much more you can find so many things online .but still guys doing that ..I think there must be profit in that ..that's why they doing ..Be clear what you doing ..focus is important ..you will get success..and keep avoiding these articles..they are created to get hype ...Sorry to miss ..I think blogging is also dead ..you can get so many links on first page of google ...

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People are getting smarter and are less and less likely to click on ads and buy products. HOWEVER, less people doesn't mean there zero people are doing this. There are still a lot of affiliate marketers making good cash.

In my experience, affiliate marketing has never made much. I made some, but nothing substantial. But, if we want to look at just about any type of online marketing, it all boils down to a manifestation of affiliate marketing.

CPA, you are affiliated with the business that wants the information. CPC, you are affiliate with AdSense (or AdBrite, or any of the others). CPM, you are affiliated with a business or network to show ads. CPS is going down, but it can easily come back up.

There have been constant scares like this. People say ClickBank, AdSense, arbitrage, marketing, etc are all dead. The markets may get harder, there may be slumps, but these money-making methods aren't going anywhere for years.

Total baloney. There will always be a need for lead and traffic generators, whether you are an individual affiliate or a marketing company, business ALL rely on new streams of customers.

Whether they buy it from you, from a network or generate it themselves is all a matter of quality and cost. However, the ONLY thing that counts is how this affects you right now, everything else is irrelevant.

My best tip: Get in touch with companies in need of more customers or leads, and SELL it to them. Directly. No middlemen. That's how you make real money in this business ... not via 2-3 layers anyway.

Precisely the reason you are promoting the WRONG products. Even if it converts, you will be at a huge loss. Try this:

I get up to $90 bucks for a 1 page form submit WITHOUT a credit card, just name, address and phone number. Insurance quotes, loan quotes, etc is where the REAL money is at and what I recommend ANYONE to do in CPA.

Any questions just hit me up,
Nick

I don't think we should read too much into the article, just take note of the risks and changing CPA environment. This ISN'T anything new and we have been seeing this shift for years!

Still plenty of money to be made!

Affiliate marketing is dead indeed to 80% of affiliates. Those unable to adapt die out, those who see it as an easy way to get rich get dried out of cash by those knowing the game.

To the rest it served and keeps serving as a profitable business since the beginning of e-commerce.

My personal take on this is that SEO is becoming much more o a targeted thing. businesses are now able to rank in their local area much easier than before, thanks to google being so tailored these days.

I was never massively into affiliate marketing, but it's always been interesting

Thanks for the link.

That article has one purpose: to get attention.

People have been saying this type of stuff for 10 years about affiliate marketing, about performance based marketing. Every year someone complaints about "brokers" or "middlemen" or "networks" and nothing changes...

I agree with Scott. AM is not dead; it's just in a coma. The proliferation of so many get-rich-quick schemes makes the average user very leery. IM is a wave in the ocean; another wave will come along to change it, and if you're not paying attention, it will simply knock you over and get salt up your nose.