Why Most Affiliate Bloggers Don't Last

Recently I got a interesting question:

Shoe - How come you see all these affiliate bloggers startup, deliver awesome content, then dissapear into the woodwork? I am talking about sites like Nickycakes, bluehatseo, seoblackhat, ppc.bz and the like.

That is a really good question. There are several reasons why people stop. I would say the average lifespan of an affiliate blog is about 1 year... or 200 posts on average. When people start an affiliate blog they are super gung ho and want to show the world how smart they are. And they are unbelievably smart... don't get me wrong. But how long can they maintain that sort of value? Honestly? Here at ShoeMoney this blog is about me and whatever interests me. I talk about lots of random crap but occasionally some internet marketing stuff which people find valuable. Someday maybe I will completely retire and just blog about life and my thoughts on other stuff... and nobody in the internet marketing industry will care. I will still be here writing my average 1.2 posts a day. I wrote for a long time when nobody read and when nobody reads again I will still be here. Back to your question though. I also believe their is a pyramid in the affiliate blogging space. Let me try to visualize it:

So my point is that the more savvy the blogger becomes the less people he can actually help by sharing knowledge. The blogs you see that are successful, make a lot of money, and continue to grow are ones that stay on that basic level that can relate to millions of people. Sites like John Chow and Pro Blogger are very good at this. I believe its because a lot of their content is from guest others that are on that basic level and can deliver value (in john chows case he is just always on that basic level =P ). So far this has all been thinking positively though. Sadly a lot of people who start blogs eventually get big enough that they just can't handle the spotlight. The first time they get haters they crawl into a hole. Anyway great question and I hope that answers it!