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Whatever Happened to Affiliate Blogs?

August 5, 2009 at 6:25 pm · Filed under Affiliate Summit, Twitter

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When I started CostPerNews in October of 2006, the affiliate marketing blogging scene was quite crowded. Between ReveNews, Shawn’s AffiliateTip Blog, Jeff’s ThoughtShapers, Scott Jangro’s blog, Jim Kukral’s blog and smaller blogs like Mark’s 45n5, there was always something to read and always some place to get into an argument about the early days of Twitter.

However, as we approach Affiliate Summit East 2009, it seems that the once-crowded scene has become emptier than a 4pm ASE session on legalese for network executives with no wet bar.

What happened?

1) Jangro’s BUMPzee went away. Scott, save the cheerleader, save the world. Bring the site back and save affiliate blogging. Please.

2) Twitter. Like it or not, Twitter took the place of the town watering hole that affiliate blogs had previously filled. As we all become more comfortable with Twitter, I expect that process to reverse.

3) Affiliate marketing is growing outside of its old wardrobe and it’s become increasingly hard to write as about “affiliate marketing” and stay sane. Trust me. My particular take is to focus more on the tech/geeky side of affiliate marketing. Maybe nichification will bring more folks back to the blogging fold?

4) There’s no money in it. I made decent money by selling CostPerNews (twice), but there really wasn’t much there in terms of monthly revenue (I did have some great sponsors, though). It made for some nice PayPal gadget money, but the time invested there against the money return is/was laughable. I’m not doing this for the money, either. And I suspect that keeps some bright (or non-bright) people from actively blogging when they could be making much more money doing something else. My line is to always remind people that blogging doesn’t give you an ROI directly, but the opportunities, gigs, speaking events, etc that you do get as a result of blogging will more than pay the bills.

5) Attention is short. That’s never going to change.

So, what can we do?

I’m not sure. I’d love to see more affiliate bloggers, though.

[Edit] I should include that there are still a number of great affiliate blogs out there like Tim Jones’ blog, Andrew Wee’s site, TrishaLyn.com, Mike Buechele (nice theme), Daniel Clark and a few more that I’m forgetting. Go read them and support affiliate blogs.

[EDIT 2] I completely forgot Geno Prussakov’s well-written Affiliate Marketing Navigator blog as well. Many apologies.

Looks like this post has helped to remind me that despite my earlier thought, there are still some great affiliate blogs out there. If only we had a place to discover them all (cough BUMPzee cough).

  • I believe that Twitter has taken up a lot of the slack for affiliate blogs that have gone bye bye. I also think there is less controversial things happening in affiliate marketing that need a post about it where a Tweet will just due.
  • Yeah, agreed there. I do think we'll see more folks blogging as things such as state tax laws continue to change the affiliate landscape, though.
  • Thanks for the mention Sam. I tried before with my previous blog to write more about Affiliate Marketing, but I just didn’t have the drive to write every day about it - I like working in it more than writing about it. For the past few months I’ve been missing it, and missing creating video, so this time around I'll have more fun and I’m not going to try to force it. It will be rolling just in time for Affiliate Summit.

    I think Trisha Lyn and Stephanie Lichtenstein do a great job blogging. Not the make money online type (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but more of a perspective of someone in the trenches and will rise to be a thought leader in the future.
  • I try to blog about some affiliate stuff from time to time on my blog but the problem I run it to is I end up thinking either what I have to share isn't important or useful to anyone else or I have already seen it covered in many other places whether they be blogs, twitter, forums, etc.

    Is there some particular aspect of affiliate marketing you would like to see more blogs talking about? Niches? How to build an affiliate site? The basics of affiliate marketing?
  • Thanks for the mention, Sam! Like Mike said, I'm trying to really re-focus on it, too -- hopefully, some good content coming up -- not to mention, coverage of the upcoming Affiliate Summit -- you know, the one you're missing. Slacker. :)
  • See pages 25-29 of the latest AffStat report - quite a few affiliate blogs listed there: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16411991/2009-Affilia...
  • thanks, Shawn.
  • Thanks for the mention, Sam. I highly appreciate it.

    See you this weekend.

    Geno
  • I've really got to get someone to help set me up with some Yahoo Pipes or something because my Google Alerts are freakin' failing me and I just saw this.

    D'oh! Glad to see you back.
  • I'm having a lot of fun with Y! Pipes right now, and got some great ideas from Wil Reynold's session (when does he not drop gems on us). I think I got Jen Goode into using pipes too.
  • Not to brag, but I introduced Wil to Pipe's usefulness :)
  • @Sam

    As one who gets his updates equally between blogs and twitter, i think the affiliate-related blogosphere is still thriving, as evidenced by the number of blogs at AffBuzz.com.

    What may have happened is that the bloggers you've mentioned have moved on to new projects, the new gen of affiliate bloggers tend to be more CPA and PPC focused, and may be moving in a different circle?

    Even as Twitter or whichever micro-blogging platform du jour stakes its airtime on late night talk shows, newspapers, mags or tech news blogs, they're often used as a redirect to a blog or other content publishing CMS.

    As people blogging less? Maybe, because twitter is taking up more of their free available time.

    Will it go away? Not by a long shot.
  • Affiliate program is an excellent alternative if you want to make money.
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