A Look Back at Some of 2009’s Biggest Developments That Impacted Affiliate Marketers

As far as the economy, the year 2009 will be remembered for a gigantic unemployment rate and reduced spending by businesses across a wide swath of industries, and yet at the same time, a stock market that came roaring back with a vengeance. Since the 2009 economy experienced such dire straits, many who lost jobs or simply needed extra income flocked to affiliate marketing. This boost in affiliates caused a lot of information products to sell really well in the early part of 2009, including eBooks, video tutorials, and coaching services from the industries top gurus. The rough economy also helped these same affiliates put their new knowledge to work promoting biz opp offers to the broader pool of biz opp seekers looking for any number of ways to replace lost or reduced incomes. Of course the new influx of affiliates also made for a much more competitive landscape with more and more affiliates vying for their share of the traffic pie.

Social Media Buzz

For many affiliates, 2009 shone a guiding light on Twitter and Facebook. Who doesn’t know the name Twitter? Even grandmothers have heard the term from popular news media outlets embracing the medium. Even Larry King is on it at this point. What more do you need to say. Affiliates found they could take advantage of a large following by plugging the occasional affiliate link, and many put forth more focused efforts, building and monetizing large numbers of followers.
2009 was the year that Facebook exploded almost beyond imagination, breaking past 300 million users. Affiliates have seized the opportunity aggressively, both with Facebook’s paid advertising platform and with creative use of groups and fan pages.

Federal Trade Commission Guidelines

The FTC’s new regulations have affected everyone in the online advertising world including affiliates. Yes, we all need to change the way we use testimonials and yes we need to be sure we are fully disclosing out “material” relationships, but we will adapt and life will move forward, and we will continue to make money online.

State Sales Tax

One of the most disconcerting developments to hammer the affiliate marketing world in 2008 continued to have repercussions in 2009.

Other states have joined New York or are considering it, including California, North Carolina, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. The states have decided that sales tax must be collected for sales in which the affiliate resides in their state. This in turn has caused some major online retailers to ban affiliates who reside in these states. Many industry organizations are hard at work battling the states on this, but the fight is likely to go on for some time to come.

eBay’s Affiliate Debacle

In October of 2009, eBay decided to move their affiliate model from a percentage of the sale to a varied per click value determined each day. As a result, profits from many established affiliates plummeted. Thousands upon thousands of affiliate marketers showcased their disgust for eBay through their blogs, Twitter feeds, and elsewhere on the web. But it changed nothing. eBay’s new affiliate program took shape, and they likely lost a good portion of their loyal affiliates as a result. Somehow it always seems that companies get dumber as they grow larger.

Video

It seems that video reached a critical mass at some point in 2009. Top marketers have embraced the medium on their sales pages and elsewhere as tools to boost conversion as well as to boost rankings and traffic. Video is no longer something extra or nice to find when consumers arrive at your site, it is expected, and, it works.

Mobile

2009 was more of a foundational year for mobile marketing in general and for affiliate mobile marketing in particular. By that I mean that all the necessary pieces came largely together in 2009, to make 2010 the year when we will really start to see things happen in mobile. The components of that foundation include the widespread proliferation of smart phones, particularly the iPhone and more recently, devices powered by Google’s Android OS, and the increase in bandwidth that resulted from the major carriers’ migration to 3G networks. Of course any talk of mobile in 2009 would have to include iPhone (and to a lesser degree Android) Apps. The Apple App store now has somewhere in the neighborhood of 140,000 apps. Look for smart affiliate marketers to employee the use of Apps to make money with mobile marketing. With these pieces of the puzzle now in place, 2010 may finally be able to lay claim to that fabled moniker “the year of mobile”.

Google Slaps

For affiliates who rely on Google Adwords as a main source of traffic, 2009 was a pretty rough year. Google slaps continued all year with a relentless regularity that saw many affiliate campaigns wiped out and whole accounts banned all together. While some affiliates were able to hold on and adapt to Google’s new rules, many others lost entire incomes, or fled to find other traffic sources more hospitable to affiliate marketing. The current fever for all things Pay Per View (PPV or CPV) has clearly been come about, at least partially as a result of Google’s still unfinished rampage through the affiliate landscape.

Bing

Few companies have the resources to challenge Google in the search wars, but Microsoft is one of them. 2009 saw the introduction of their new rival, Bing. It has proved to be formidable competitor and many seem to like the features and the search results. By the close of the year, Bing’s market share was at almost 11%. Microsoft continues to strike deals that should help it continue its growth, at the expense of booth Yahoo and Google. For example, they recently struck a deal with Verizon to be the default search engine on all non Android phones. While they are certainly not about to blow Google out of the water, they seem to be providing a viable alternative for some searchers. The uptake for affiliate marketers; don’t pass up on this valuable and increasing source of quality traffic.

Facebook Applications

What is Farmville? Oh, it’s just that extremely addictive Facebook game where users spent hours of their day doing chores and building their farm empire. It’s one of the hot Facebook applications for 2009. How many other online game systems can claim almost 70 million users?
The Facebook application development network also blossomed with many affiliates designing and implementing their own applications to offer tasks as simple as a survey. At the finale of the survey, when the user found out how awesome they were or which 80s star they would be, they were presented with some sort of CPA offer. In what ways will 2010 shape application development?

CPA Networks

Even before 2009 there was no shortage of CPA networks, but in 2009 it seemed that a new CPA network popped up almost daily. Many of these networks where hatched by young successful super affiliates, flush with cash from their campaigns and equally flush with confidence. As pressures mount from all sides, it will be interesting to watch the shakeout that is likely to occur. The networks left standing will no doubt have some unique qualities that help them to stand out from the crowd. Some of the more important factors will be their ability to act in an agency role – maintaining direct relationships with valuable advertisers, specialization in particular niches and verticals, willingness to deal with fraud issues and to devote significant effort to enforcing compliance, and financial stability.

Stay tuned for more as we take a look in future posts at continued issues for 2010 and beyond.