Are YOU guilty of helping to kill the Affiliate Marketing Industry???
When I saw the headline
How the Affiliate Marketing Industry Killed Itself over at Lee McCoy's blog and read that he agreed with the author, I had to follow the link and read the full story. I assumed it would be another doom and gloom "affiliate marketing is dead" article. In fact my 1st thought was "Molander is at it again!"
HOWEVER this time I largely agree with the author's views.
David Hawk is writing from the SEO side of the fence, so don't hold that against him. He's also largely pointing to the rogue and black hat affiliates, barely acknowledging that there are "plenty of totally legit and valuable affiliates out there."
I agree with that fact that the state of affiliate marketing today is primarily due to the rogues, black hatters and fraud affiliates that have given our industry a black eye. More importantly, the bad guys have made the business so much harder for the honest, value-add affiliates to succeed.
I also agree that
had our industry been self-policing or somehow held to best marketing practices, we would not be suffering from the stigma and set-backs he describes. He makes a strong point when he says "
Sadly, the weakest link in the chain brings down everyone else."
It's not too late to try to clean things up. When any of you "good guys" out there get the urge to try out a "gray tactic" or an outright "black hat trick" STOP and think about the big picture!
Like I always say "Market with Integrity and Everybody Wins!
The 3 main factors David says killed Affiliate Marketing are:
1. Marketers Wised Up to Affiliate Tricks
2. Search Engines Shunned Affiliates
3. Pay-Per-Performance Went Mainstream
"Affiliate marketers - most ecommerce businesses either love 'em or hate 'em...Regardless of the camp you are currently in, my sense is that affiliate marketing as an industry is in decline. As I see it, there are three main factors that are driving this demise, and each of these factors are directly the result of affiliates being too aggressive, underhanded, or a combination of both. Sadly, the weakest link in the chain brings down everyone else."
It's a long article, but well worth your time. Read the rest here:
How the Affiliate Marketing Industry Killed Itself
What do YOU think???