Originally Posted by signupdamnit

Executive summary from the affiliate perspective:

For the average affiliate who did mainly pay sites in 2008 versus now I would guesstimate that revenues are currently between 20-40% of what they used to be in 2008. This means for every $1000 affiliates used to make in 2008 they now make between $200-$400. Determining metrics and factors include increased ratios, difficulty in getting quality traffic, falling CTR%, and sponsors going out of business or no longer paying affiliates [resulting in a loss of affiliate revenue]. The top three reasons for this change are the availability of free content, piracy, and changes in Google ranking factors which favor pirate sites over affiliate sites.

The affiliate pay site market is hurting badly and many of us feel it is no longer worth it. Some claim there are a few sites which convert fairly well for them. The whole question then becomes whether you can find matching quality traffic.

Dating and cams are still relatively strong. For example with some filtering my dating conversion ratio today is better than it was in 2008. But the whole question here becomes whether or not you can get traffic. For the most part the old ways no longer work. You need new methods. Often affiliates are moving into the blackhat realm to compete.