This actually makes sense.
It is unfortunate that a lot of us truly rely on Google for the majority of our income.
So many small mom and pop business have been put out of business with their crazy algorithm changes over the years. I always felt bad for them but was always content with my own sites.
Playing by the rules and having good content sites I have made a killing from SEO. Now I am starting to see the effects of this as well (small at the moment, but I imagine it will worsen).
I have had sites dinged this week that have never budged from their #1 spot since I launched them (the main one in question is 4-5 years old and held #1 for the last 4+ years - yes it is adult related).
Everyone has been bashing this whole "Panda" thing for months and I didn't take much notice because it wasn't effecting me at the time, if anything it was helping my traffic in most aspects. But going from the #1 spot to anywhere else is an instant drop in a large percentage of my traffic for that keyword. Seeing it effect one of my most stable websites is an eye opener.
But as with anything in the online marketplace, things are always changing at a fast pace, and to stay ahead of the game you have to constantly change/adapt your strategies and pick up new techniques along the way to make up for lost profits.
I knew things would go sour at some point, just didn't think so early. Really though it is still too early to tell the overall effects of all of this. Some sites will disappear while others will prosper like never before.
While it isn't the end of the world (yet), imo this is the start to the affiliate demise (in the current SEO sense).
I agree that it has been tough enough in the past few years, now it is going to become far worse.
Those who are smart will remain in the game though.
