The Long Term Future of Affiliate Marketing

[MasterOfNone]

Hello all,

As I stated in the newbie intro thread, I am currently a college student who has recently gotten into affiliate marketing. Now, my success so far has been small, but I am still building and learning, and I have the confidence that I will be able to break into that succesful 1% sometime in the not too distant future.

Now, my concern is, if I do become succesful enough to support myself, should I rely on affiliate marketing as a career? More broadly, do you think that affiliate marketing will remain a viable source of income for the long term? The field seems lucrative enough now, but will it remain so 40 years into the future? Imaging how different the world was 40 years ago, it seems unlikely that the future will be anything like the present.

However, I myself remain optimistic. I believe that as the internet evolves, we will be able to use the advancing technology to market to customers much more efficiently. I think the wave of the future will be increased visibility for local small businesses on the internet, as well as better handling of very abstract search queries. I think the convergence of these two spaces will lead to exciting advances in the aff marketing field, as well as providing a much better customer experience.

So, bringing things into focus, what are your views on the long term future of affiliate marketing?

 

[marketingmama]

I truly admire your confidence and your goals as an affiliate marketer.

I think there is definitely a future in affiliate marketing. It's really come into it's own and it's a recognized business model.

Just keep on promoting products and services that you truly believe in and keep the positive attitude and you'll do awesome.

Once you've mastered the art of affiliate marketing, you can also think about adding other monetization methods to your website(s) as well.

The 1 thing that I would tell anyone who is new to Internet marketing of any sort is always continue your education. You want to continue to expand your knowledge and skill set no matter what. The Internet is ever changing so you'll also want to keep up on new trends as well.

Sheree

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great topic and great reply!

Affiliate marketing will evolve and change. It always has and will continue to.
As the industry has evolved there were many changes that made some people cry "affiliate marketing is dead." Through each of these industry transitions AM evolved and adapted and each time got stronger.

New advances in technology and user behavior will create change (like Web 2.0 for example). And the smart affiliates will just evolve. There's too much money in this industry for it to ever just go away.

The other important thing to realize is that the skills you develop can be stepping stones to many other things. So if AM ever did get rough you'd be equipped to move into direct sales, dropshipping or whatever.

Looking 40 years into the future is impossible though. Will there even be cars in 40 years or cell phones? Not sure - those industries could be totally gone and replaced by hovercraft and brain implanted tele chips.

It's good to look ahead. Just be sure you don't let yourself catch "analysis paralysis", one of the deadliest affiliate afflictions. "Make hay while the sun shines" as they say. And since any business, especially sales, can have it's ups and downs, always save a large percentage of what you make to live on during the lean times, if needed.

 

[kbldshmn]

I'm optimistic in thinking that affiliate marketing is here to stay in some form or another. The so-called viral marketing is effective, but relies on folks like you and me to work. Enhancing that technique with affiliate marketing, e.g. there's something in it for whoever's spreading the info, makes it easier to spread the product.

In any case, Happy New Year's to all.

 

[Sire]

I agree that like everything else in the business world affiliate marketing will change. Those who change with it will continu to profit from it and those who refuse to change or keep up will be left behind.

 

[Rob_TID]

I basically operate on a three tier level.

Tier three is junk that may be dead tomorrow. Experiments in new techniques that I read about. Stuff that seems to me to be low quality or not adding much value.

Tier two is basically ppc to cpa. I think this has a reasonable shelf life but I am not going to bet my entire existence on it existing in its current form for the longer term. The big players will figure ways to scale and automate and it will become more and more difficult to compete. The rules will change over time a lot.

Tier one is large, solid content sites that don't rely solely on any one form of traffic and get repeat users without ppc, search engines or whatever. These have been around for years and will be around for ever. People like the same type of information in 2008 that they liked in 1908 and 1808.

 

[Arun Lakhera]

Everything changes and will change with time be it affiliate marketing or any other profession you choose. Once you become successful in AM, you will never like to leave it. Believe it or not AM is here to stay for a much longer period than your prediction.