Its a interesting time right now for big business. In the last couple months I have been contacted by many SEO’s that are out of a job and looking for work. They say there “clients”/employers just cant justify the costs.
During the same time I have been getting contacted by performance marketing companies who cant find people to hire fast enough. The affiliate marketing industry is on fire right now and those companies are thriving.
Azoogleads, Affiliate.com, all the major players are reporting record profits.
Even in a recession companies have an unlimited budget for marketing efforts which show a positive result and from a ROI perspective it doesn’t get much more transparent then when your paying per lead/sale/action.
I recently wrote about my experience at AD:TECH and how amazingly busy it was. It reminded me of Search Engine Strategies conferences of 4-5 years ago when Google/Yahoo/ASK/Microsoft all had amazing events and battled for the attendance of attendees.
Now at the Search Engine Strategies events the average conference goer is lucky to get a free drink ticket.
I would love to hear your opinions from those of you going to events on what you are seeing?
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2416 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
Images provided by ShutterStock
Knowing When to STFU 
5 Quick and Easy Ways To Stop Blog Spam Before It Hits Your Blog 
Men (And Women) Of Honor – In An Industry That Does Not Have Much 
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
I`m not quite understand about this??? Is it really affiliate marketing on fire???
Our head of operations just got back from the latest gaming affiliate conference in Amsterdam. He said it was very well attended and a great deal of business got done.
Your point is simple, yet powerful: Advertisers have unlimited budgets for positive ROI. We certainly do. Both as advertisers ourselves, as well as in our role hooking up poker advertisers and publishers.
No matter how many times you hear “unlimited budgets for positive ROI,” we always need to hear it again. It’s why performance marketing has really just begun.
If you can put your heart into mastering or at least applying these affiliate marketing tips in your website promotion, you would definitely make it as a successful affiliate marketer.
If I remember correctly, wasn’t this a previous post?
SEO’s out of work? Gimme a break Shoemeister.
If they were that great at getting on top of the search engines, there isn’t such thing as no work.
They must suck really bad at getting there…
Well, I can see that all kind of performance based models are doing well in this economy. Not just affiliate marketing (also On- and offline media). Search also is getting “a piece of the pie”.
Blah Blah Blah.
You talk about SEOs who just do consulting.
What about affiliate marketers who just do consulting?
I bet they are both in the same boat.
The ones making bigger money are seos and affiliates running their own shit.
I think affiliate companies have way less performing affiliates due to economic conditions, that is why they are looking to hire people who can make a change for them. I noticed my affiliate/ppc earning decline with the tough economy. People buys less, people click less and in result, earnings are smaller too. The only good thing is that it does cost less to advertise as well.
With amazon closing its PPC affiliate and people doing affiliate marketing spending less on PPC, the prices did go down on some keywords significantly, which work out for some people really good. 
However, the earning are still a third of what it was before. PPC doesn’t pay the same anymore either.
See I didn’t know SEO was a legitimate job postiion
I don’t think it is anymore.
With thouthands of people in india building links for you for pennies there is no point in having it as a job. lol
There are SEO firms that can advise you once and most of them rewrite content a little bit and suggest URL and make it SEO friendly, the texhniques are not really a secret. But I have no clue why would someone keep full time SEO.
SEO is a long term investment. I can see why they would cut SEO from the budgets (for now at least) because they want instant gratification. The ironic thing is though, the same execs that are nixing SEO are still approving TV spots.
Personally I think it is a mistake to cut out one major tactic in favor of just one channel. Especially one as self sustaining and with long term benefits as SEO. The ROI may be instant for performance, but you are dependent and there is no residual. You stop advertising and revenue stops.
Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Cliche but true.
I have a question here suppose if I were to assume that both the SEO and Affiliate options were reputable companies/schemes (not cowboys), which should I consider first?
Consider going with the Seo company because that’s a log term investment where’s affiliate options are really what you make out of it.
Consider going with the Seo company because that’s a long term investment where’s affiliate options are really what you make out of it.
Very interesting. It makes you wonder how big the industry will get? Sky is the limit.
It will continue to grow for a while. Eventually the networks will merge or die off with competition.
In the long run, customer service to the affiliates will be the deciding factor.
I finally realized Jeremy doesn’t answer questions in comments so I will do it for you.
I would get an affiliate and or ppc campaign running right away and then continue to work on the SEO from there. SEO takes time to see rseults/ROI so think of that as your long term plan.
didnt think any questions were asked =P
appreciate you chiming in though
Oops looks like I replied to the wrong comment. Your “upside down” comments get me confused.
I had been asking questions in previous posts of yours and never got replies from you. But you owe me nothing so I am not complaining. Was just trying add to the discussion =P But hey it’s not a forum is it?
I always miss your Q&A sessions!!
Anyway the question asked is below….. or is that above??
haha that’s a great point you make there because I haven’t noticed that their are anyone being asked either
SEO is a waste of time. But you SEO guys keep doing your job so I can put my campaigns on your “high ranking websites” for pennies.
In recession only peoples understand how to fight and grow.
i certainly agree no one know’s what to do until times get rough and when they do its the tough ones that get stronger and grow as an individual.,
People actually charge exorbitant prices for better SEO.
Jeremy: it would be amazing if you start a series of basic posts to orientate the novice people (like me) about how initially we can enter in the affiliate world in order to make money. I have tried with several systems (clickbank, amazon, etc) with no great results.
SEO or Affiliate marketer the point to make some money right…)
When you have started making a name for yourself within the market and have built a substantial list then you may like to move onto product creation itself. This way you get to keep the profits and recruit affiliates to do much of the work for you. This will help create long term income and a successful business.
It’s cool that affiliate marketing is so hot right now.
I just recently started affiliate marketing so hoping it goes well but if it doesn’t I’m still gonna keep trying.
Go to network…you can’t go wrong with that!
what are you talking about buddy? Go to Network? What is that? What does that mean? Can you speak English?
Do you mean CEO’s or SEO’s because if it is CEO their costs are way overpriced, but if they are SEO then they need to learn that they need to do more for the company. Like me I try to improve SEO stats and now that I have gone full time I help with other things such as answering email questions, sample requests and putting in orders.
Weather you are a CEO or SEO out of a job and are trying to find one, here is some advise expand your ability to do work.
Come on – I mean I hope you are all seeing the reason why Shoe made this post? Not because it is true but because it is meant to drive traffic through getting SEO’s up in arms or people talking about performance marketing which Shoe is getting HEAVY in.
In fact I personally see the opposite of what is being said – companies DONT want to pay for affiliate, PPC and other paid campaigns because the ROI is suspect. SEO its core is about driving free traffic (with an up front fee of course
.
You know who are the only SEO’s getting killed? The d-bags who talk a great game, charge 150 an hour and dont get results.
I don’t go to conferences so I can’t comment on what’s happening there.
But if SEO’s are losing their jobs, the only reason would be because they weren’t getting results – i.e. not making any money. Why else would a salesman lose their job?
I do SEO and affiliate marketing. Both methods work, and both can produce massive positive ROI’s.
I won’t give details, but let’s just say I know for a fact that a #1 Google ranking can make more money in one month than what a SEO would earn in a year. If SEO’s could achieve that type of result, their employers would be mad to let them go.
If SEO’s are confident of their abilities, I highly recommend they create a website, optimize it, and monetize the traffic with some affiliate products and/or AdSense ads. An amazing thing might just happen: they might start making more money than they did in their old jobs.
Even if they’re not confident of their abilities, they should give it a go while they’re looking for work. And read a few more books, and do more research and training on SEO. They might also want to learn about affiliate marketing as well.
Affiliate marketing is on fire because of the recession. I think people are taking online business a lot more serious now. New ideas will come out of this soon…you’ll see.
yes you are right..It is 2009 and a huge financial crisis has engulfed almost the entire world plunging many countries into a recession.
Yeah, I hear it’s only going to get worse before it gets better, but it’s a good thing online business provides an alternative.
i never quite so it that way until now very interesting point.
Stopped reading when I hit the first “there”.
This is the second time I’ve read a comment like this of yours. It’s getting annoying. If Jeremy wanted an editor he would have hired one 5 (?) years ago.
To answer your question, I don’t know what is going on at conferences, I haven’t attended any. I can’t imagine they are giving away much of anything these days though. With the economy as it is companies are cutting back on everything including the free-bee’s.
But seriously, SEO’s are out of work and contacting you? Hmmm, I guess that is surprising for that field … or… are you just yanking our chain?
As an Account Manager at XY7.com I can see I agree 100%. Performance marketing will continue to grow and what you said was very well stated, “even in a recession companies have an unlimited budget for marketing efforts which show a positive result.”
I know publishers spending $10,000/day and BANKING BIG BUCKS.
affiliate marketing revolves around these 5 major points. This is not to say that other methods don’t exist because they do. But these points represent key ideas to get you going in the right direction toward your financial independence in affiliate marketing.
People may be losing their jobs because of the global recession, but as one reader mentioned above, maybe they were just not getting the expected results from their efforts and were therefore given the boot as “a waste of money”.
To answer your question, I don’t know what is going on at conferences, I haven’t attended any. I can’t imagine they are giving away much of anything these days though. With the economy as it is companies are cutting back on everything including the free-bee’s.
But seriously, SEO’s are out of work and contacting you? Hmmm, I guess that is surprising for that field … or… are you just yanking our chain?
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
Shoe these days all conferences are kind of so much packed with the people, i am still wondering from where this sudden jump has come ??
Previously when i use to attend Adtech rush was not this much as only concerned people use to come to attend the conference.
Performance marketing is becoming one of the most important aspect from advertisers point of view these days. What do you think Shoe ??
Affiliate marketers need to follow the “Big Money” and jump on board with CPA marketing. I would love to see a blog post on how to take advantage of the movement towards performance marketing.
I still fail to under stand what is is unqiue about affiliate marketing ? Is this some kind of quick start or amyway ?
I hope Jeremy would explain the difference in one of his posts
Great post, I think in the recession time 80% revenue compared to the previous time is still a success and performance marketing does not work with me at least now
really i’ve noticed that with many people either their making a couple more dollars or their making a lot less than anything
In every recession, the business that drop some cash on marketing and seize the opportunity to dominate their competitors who are pulling back, come out way ahead of the curve. This trend is being discussed everywhere.
When people lose jobs they look for alternative streams of income. Small businesses which are easily understandable are the first target, especially trading activities.
Even those who have suffered pay cuts would be looking for additional income.
Online businesses can be worked from home, so probably that is why there is a spurt in the whole affiliate marketing sector.
A real benefit would be if new businesses in an area are brought within the online scheme.
I learn many things about internet marketing from your blog, thank you and good luck.
its really good to every person.
Hey there! Your post was really helpful. I was just searching for this, and here it is. I am new to Jeff Paul’s Internet Marketing but quite amazed find you people around him. Felt really good reading your post
Interestingly enouph, my business has also been thriving during this recession.
Exciting times. Those companies that continue to invest in the downturn shall emerge stronger at the back end.
I think it might be due to people getting laid off from their jobs and trying their hand at affiliate marketing.
I know a couple of people who have lost their jobs and have seen their income rise now they are ploughing all their time into their blogs.
Interesting!
I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. Good marketing means which can convert the leads into sales. The only marketing that has moved me in the last couple of years is Search Engine Optimization.
Wow! Thank you! I continually wanted to write on my blog something like that. Can I include a part of your post to my website?
A person necessarily help to make critically posts I would state. That is the first time I frequented your web page and so far? I amazed with the research you made to make this actual put up amazing. Excellent activity!