Hi to any veteran affiliate marketing people.

In 2002 to 2004 I was pulling in 100s of pounds a month from affiliate links on my site, and in the end I closed it down at some point in 2005 thinking that I could come up with a better income but never did, so I reopened my affiliate site about a month ago and traffic is already starting to pour in

My question to anyone who was making money in 2002 to 2004 and still is doing so today:

what rises and falls have your affiliate revenues been through? I am wondering about whether or not the recession, for example, has lowered conversions, and indeed whether things like google adsense pose any threat (the latter is unlikely - here's a quote from an article I wrote that explains...)

So here's an example of something totally ****ing stupid I just saw when starting to create a business plan for a debt management company. I found an arse-page with a brief dilettante description of debt management company creation, involving no details at all, just a suggestion that you don't do any work other than advertising. Not even a mention of the legal side of it. And it has links to about 50 similar 'articles' which have no real detail or assistance at all. Then if you type a word into the search box at the top you get a pageload of "sponsored results" and nothing else - and by that I mean a list of 4 generic advertisers, paying google or a similar company to stick a blob of 4 adverts on the lazy i.t. illiterate bastard's sick excuse for a page, I can almost forgive the ratrace ****brain morons who think my sites like goldenbough.co.uk are things like that, when in fact my site helps 1000s of nonpaying businesses reach people who SPECIFICLY ARE LOOKING FOR THOSE BUSINESSES' PRODUCTS - and in the process sells for sponsors when it happens that users choose to use those sponsors' retail systems as a preference to all else that is on offer, which we, and ONLY WE, show them easily and swiftly. We don't put our sponsor's advertising in stupid places to detract from the actual information system being used - every bit of usage is genuinely utilitarian - a rule even Google breaks in the end, but mistakes can turn to addicted cycles of subservience - under the weight of its billions what in **** can google do to change its corrupt nature of placing paid adverts in positions meant to prevent search engine usage and drive people to sponsored areas - like building something "half" opensource - it either is or it isn't.
The bottom line is I didn't come here to tell you that page is evil. It's not. It's a ****ing ***** of a page. Pages like that have no real meaning and no potential longevity. The page will sooner or later be "found out" by the search engines and will be systematically removed from search results, and people will never go there again. It is useless ****ing ****. And far too many people really think they can "get rich" that way. ****ing morons. Grow a brain, please.

Anyway, I've learned so much in all my years out here but still haven't learned to just shut up patiently and sit and wait for the money, I still have to come out here and ask questions (to the ignorant, alas) which will never be answered (except by me).

Still, why not? Does anyone know exactly what time, what day and what weather will be in place when I get rich? And will I be wearing my blue jumper or green jumper, or maybe a suit?

Just kidding, the real question, to sum up, is this: have the affiliate networks you work with (i'm thinking afw/cj/td, obviously) seen any noticeable drop over the last decade? Or is my suspicion that they are doing bastardly well something columbo would agree with, the cigar-smoking dwarf bastard that he is.

if someone actually knew those answers, here is what normally happens. they take that idea and drain it of all its worth and hope no one else steals it, then they write a book about their brilliant idea (which includes 4 pages) and fill the rest of the pages with crap that is already common sense. Of course when they write the book they are already past the point of that idea being great.

brilliant huh?

The great thing about affiliate marketing is the fact that its a cash cow. Its super low cost makes it easier to swallow to a company then throwing out an advertisement campaign that costs $40k. ROI is almost instant if you have it set up right as a merchant. Affiliates play it right (meaning don't be a lazy bastard) update your data feeds and promocodes and banners and you'll find that money is easier to be gotten.

Nothing is free.

and screw colombo. Macgyver would blow him up with a toothpick and a hair comb.

well, the adult sector is dead.

That's about the best advice I can offer on this issue. Along with the fact that a good majority of the adult guys have gone mainstream.

Is that true? Do you have wide experience? And what about Gambling? And viagra...

I'm just curious.

I'm more interested in mainstream domestic retail, to be honest.

If only the affiliate marketing universe could absorb the business to business products and services which google adwords manages to retain greater control of.

Still, retail is the biggest recession-survivor, and business to business the widest area of risk. So it's not actually a bad thing. But you know how it is... we all want it all.

Does anyone have any stories re earnings per individual click sold? i.e. what your clicks average at, via the networks, if you add them up properly. I have figures showing my averages over many different years of activity and they were consistent in all years, across whatever traders, products, traffic sizes, etc. But I'm curious about whether people have seen any actual change in the value of their clicks (not adsense, just performance marketers) since the recession began nearly 2 years ago.

I was referring to the paysite model, I should've been more specific.

And that's because the content is "free" now.

---

regarding gambling, I don't know much about that, but I would assume it's doing well- as many people are putting money into online casinos all the time. I know quite a few people myself who do this.

And viagra, pills, toys, etc.

a lot of people use stolen content, and the tubes as tools to get people to purchase products from the markets they are affiliated to.

---

as far as content goes though: I mean movies, pictures. Nobody's paying for that anymore.