Can you even make a living as an affiliate anymore?
 

I know there has got to be some ex-fulltimers that are no part-timers, and vice versa. People don't spend money on porn anymore. Sure you can push dating and cams, but that still leave a massive void in most webmasters income.

I can speak personally, and say that my affiliate income is down dramatically. In 2003/2004 I was pulling 2k a day or so. Now I'm happy with 100$ a day.

So I ask...

Great post Jay,
Would love to hear some feedback.

you have access to your affiliates stats, what they say?

and before some newbies read this and think to themselves "$100 a day! I would be huge with $100 a day", they should realize that Jay has an aged network of sites that the newbs have next to no hope of achieving starting from scratch today :2 cents:

$100 a day is not the worst but is that profit? I find that to keep the revenue coming in I've had to spend a lot more than I would have spent in the early years... but If you didn't get into mainstream before 2006 you kinda need to catch up... IMHO, OFC...

It is much much much harder.

Been an affiliate since early 99. These are bad times, for sure.

$100 a day is easy with smallish traffic. niche selection is vital.

My option isn't there.
Doing better now than ever and expanding into more mainstream.

You can't blame all on economy, freebies, tubes, piracy etc. There are more affiliates than before, more than the numbers of surfers can compensate for, so there is more competition. Same competition with the number of paysites. In bad times, like this, there will be many dropping out. Hopefully economy return soon. And hopefully dollar get back where it belongs..lol.. And piracy? Well, that's another story.

My income remains more or less the same, except that over 70% of revenues now comes from mobile source.

look at this board. seems like there are twenty people max that still post here ... shit has died ...

I picked one, but will soon have a different answer. One regarding a tube.

People do spend money on porn. You just have to know what kind and how.

... and not put all eggs in one nest ... and not waste all money at once. Life is not always party hardy. When do people learn it? :)

Doing better with mainstream and in house development projects.

Haven't promoted adult pay sites for awhile now..

I might try some new things out in adult later on.. I will not promote any program that is affiliate with tubes or what not

I'm going to give everyone here 1 tip.

If you aren't a multi multi multi millionaire.....then......

Keep your head down, shut the fuck up, hide out, work hard & re-emerge victorious when the smoke finally clears 1-2 years from now.

That's just my tip to everyone here. Take it with a grain of salt if you wish.

I'm going to be taking my own advice.

I think your experience is probably pretty representative. I mean, $100 is a living, but it sure isn't $2,000 a day and, as said, someone just starting out would have a harder time doing what someone as established as you does. On the other hand, you have a lot to do besides affiliate promo.

I'm finding that to stay at remotely the same total revenue level takes ridiculously more effort now. I'm having to hire more people for more hours to hit at all similar totals and the net of course shrinks there. And I've always straddled adult and non-adult revenue streams, so that is not just adult.

I think there are plenty of affiliates making money out there or my reps and I wouldn't have a job. We required X new sales/month for quotas, so our reps must have some good affiliates if they keep making/surpassing quotas. And there are a lot of new WM signups ...

interesting ........


.

Ya, I feel your pain. Back in 2003/2004 I was making an average of $500/day... 7 days a week. These days I'm between $50-$75 day at best. Interesting though that the reduction didn't happen on a slow curve, but happened over the course of 9 months about 1.5 years ago. Income had been rolling along nice and steady and then bam, it began a nosedive that only took 9 months to wipe it out and has been dwindling ever since. Some individual webmasters may be able to still make a decent full time living, but I would guess most people are happy if their income results in making the car payment or paying off some bills.

with all due respect, pr0, I think you are living with some wishful thinking there :2 cents:

yes its possible

On my personal sites. I spend 30-40 hours a week. This is on top of my fulltime gig at DTI

I just started a couple years ago. I'm doing better every month but the time and effort I put into it. It's insane

I'm really really lucky to have a very supportive wife. Any other women would have left me long time ago.

Well said. :)

I don't. I agree with every word he says.

I have several affiliates under me that are pretty new to the game and making a living. The game is not over.

The game.

When ten to the enemy's one, surround him. When five times his strength, attack him. If double his strength, divide him. If equally matched, you may engage him with some good plan. If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing. And if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding him, for a small force is but booty for one more powerful if it fights recklessly.

well the affiliates are the ones that will suffer most.
although I think some will survive, it depends a lot on skills now, as in the ones that got into the game when you needed no skills, only work hard, do not survive.

whether you are right or not, thank you for lifting my mood and motivation :thumbsup

now, i'll just stfu and get back to work.

There was no spot for I am doing the same as always.

my plan is the same is pr0s - get off the grid and build for 2 years down the road when things begin to reemerge and most other webmasters have been wiped off the map ...

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Speaking of making 2k a day in '04... I see a lot of affiliates with the same promo up now that they had up in 2003-4, especially with solo girl stuff. If dude is out there sending traffic to the free galleries of dull, old or dead sites, dude is wasting clicks and also diminishing his site's credibility with the surfer.

I call bullshit if you say you are happy pulling in $100 a day. There is no way you are making less than 100$ a day :2 cents:

psst you spelled illegal wrong every time jay. Personally do not care as I am not one of the gfy spelling and grammar police.

I personally and sick of this shit, sick of my income dropping. Primarily because my fucking medical bills sure in the fuck are not dropping and they are not charging me less. Not only do I have to devote more time to my damn health which takes away from time I can work to earn money to pay them. Having to work twice as hard to earn less than I earned a year before and by guesswork I would need to work four times as hard to be making more than I did two years ago.

People saying innovate, think out of the box, blah fucking blah. Just about everyone saying it though are mostly those who were bitching during the easier days about making money, so why the fuck should they be talking now like they are earning shit. Of course there are the those in bed with the fucking problem also spouting it too.

To me it's simple.
We're going through a huge huge change in the way the business works.
Trimming the fat.
Guys like me who only had a couple ways don't make it any more.
Especially if we weren't paying attention when the change was going on.
For those who evolved and stayed with it there is simply less white noise.. the masses will give up and drop like flies.. collectively they'll leave a fortune on the table for the big guys..

It's just that simple

Can you make a living as an affiliate?
The real question is do you know how to make a living as an affiliate, and if so, is that the best way to spend your time and skills.. ?

I know what I'm talking about.. I have uncanny insight into alot of things
Pay attention

my point is, waiting 2 years for things to reemerge is wishful, because things aren't going to "re-" anything, it will be as new of a situation as the situation is now, as it was new 5 years ago, and 10 years ago, etc..... it is not going to be a two year clean out of affiliates and webmasters and a sudden new glorious age coming where money will rain on the ones that are left, from now on there will always be a million "webmasters" swarming to any possible dime to be made on the internet, unless one is truly innovative it is not simply a matter of waiting 2 years or so for things to straighten out

that is from an affiliate perspective, of course, but from the content producer side then I do think that things could get better again, but it is no sure thing :2 cents:

* no doubt sales of individual sites are down, but the industry is growing in gross revenue. the top level aggregates are making lots of money by having hundreds of properties all making a few bucks a day.

* nubie webmasters can still get rich if they have some new ideas. the problem is that the old ideas (tgp, links, trades, even tubes) dont make you rich anymore. i've had more sales lately with social video postings than with tgp/mgp posts. shows me that customer influence is moving out of our realm of influence.

* i spend a lot of time trying to figure out the next new thing, LIKE we all did in 2003/2004 and the wave before in 1999/2000. now we gotta try to figure out where the 2010/2011 wave of cash will come from. there will be a way. always is.

* there's something to the long tail, although it takes more than multiplying eyeballs to make money on the web today. you have to have public opinion on your side too.

:2 cents:

you are right, it's too bad the public is generally so damn annoying and lame :1orglaugh

listen to this caucasian.