Comments on: David Hawk is wrong – the Affiliate Marketing Industry is alive and kicking

By: Paul Hardingham

Paul Hardingham — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:37:38 +0000

Just wondering if there will be a massive technology change (that we can’t foresee) that could chance the affiliate marketing world as we know it in the same way that the technology created the affiliate marketing world in the first place. That worries me (but not a lot).

By: zowoco

zowoco — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:54:26 +0000

of course! affiliate marketing is a potential that can never be saturated.

By: 2007 at Here.org.uk. The year in review

2007 at Here.org.uk. The year in review — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:02:49 +0000

[...] Some guy writes about how the affiliate industry is killing itself. I put him right. [...]

By: Matt Sweet

Matt Sweet — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:21:05 +0000

I largely agree with you Keiron that the industry is still positive and will continue to be so. It won’t die, it will just evolve. The Google changes will continue, but so will the development of top affiliates and also the more dedicated of the smaller guys. I hope so anyway or we’ll all be out of a job…

However while Davids article is definitely towards the negative end of the scale, I think he’s perfectly entitled to write something like this without it being accused of being link bait. There are enough reasoned (if a little biased) points of view to back this up.

BTW – As far as I can see, all Lee has done is link to the article to generate some debate on his blog and I think it would be disapointing if your comments made him change anything.

By: James Jenkins-Yates

James Jenkins-Yates — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:05:23 +0000

But I am sure you will agree that, with Google being the major source of traffic for affiliates, not being able to advertise on it would cause affiliate to lose traffic, therefore lose revenue and ultimately profit. The affiliate marketings industry’s barriers to entry are a lot higher than they were in 2005, which will slow the growth of our industry. What we need to do is diversify and change so that most affiliate are not dependent on PPC search engine traffic.

By: Kieron

Kieron — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 08:01:22 +0000

James – you’re assuming that just because competition is more evident on Google, that has a negative effect on affiliates? There are plenty of ways to drive traffic to affiliate sites without using Google AdWords.

By: James Jenkins-Yates

James Jenkins-Yates — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:34:07 +0000

I have to say I agree with David on this one. The affiliate marketing industry is dieing. In 2005, it was the wild west, anyone could put an ad on Google for a really cheap price. But now competition for the keywords has increased and Google has artificially raised the price.
I think the industry still has its roll to play, but it won’t expand at the rate it has in the last few years.

By: Morley Mouse » A merchants point of view - Cashback

Morley Mouse » A merchants point of view - Cashback — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:27:52 +0000

[...] next? Kieron on �David Hawk is wrong – the Affiliate Marketing Industry is alive and kicking� im with both [...]

By: Stephen Pratley’s Online Marketing Blog » Affiliate Marketing vs the Tradgedy of the commons

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:07:16 +0000

[...] on how affiliate marketing ‘killed itself’, along with some well written critiques by Kieron from UKOffer and Jason from [...]

By: Stephen Pratley

Stephen Pratley — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:06:38 +0000

Couldn’t agree more Kieron.
Is everyone who goes into a bank, a robber?

I meet and talk to great affiliates every day who make a point of sticking to the rules, so I know there’s plenty of good ones out there, you just have to do a little sifting for the gold to rise to the top.