I had 2 people this week ask me the same question; I bet there is an email going around about it.

Here’s the question:

Will affiliate marketing still be around in a few years? (He was worried that if he put all the work into now, it might all be wasted if affiliate marketing dies.)

Here’s my answer:

I told him that I didn’t know. But also, I told him I did not care. He seemed shocked at first I would say such a thing.

I quickly explained what I meant. I told him there were four aspects to online success.

1. Choosing an area to market (Find a niche)
2. Building websites (Not just with such things as instant site builders, web 2.0 sites, etc.)
3. Utilize a method for getting traffic to the site (via SEO, social media, etc.)
4. Making income with the site’s traffic

Items 1, 2 and 4 above are the easy parts. There are tons of great niches, and they are easy and quick to find once you know how. Plus, anyone can learn to build a simple and nice looking site. Also, making income on the site IS easy…once the site gets targeted traffic.

That leaves #3. That is the tough one. That is where all the work is. #3 is why 97% of beginning marketers never succeed.

The original question is about #4. Affiliate marketing is one way to monetize a site now. If affiliate marketing goes away tomorrow, no problem…we will simply use another method. Right now there are AdSense ads, banner impression advertising, selling clicks directly, lead generation (then selling those leads), selling your own stuff directly, etc.

Who knows what new methods will evolve down the road.

I told him I was not worried if affiliate marketing goes away or not.

As long as people spend money online (that is one thing that seems a given), we will ALWAYS be able to monetize targeted traffic to our sites. There will ALWAYS be advertisers who, in some way shape or form, want access to our targeted traffic.

Again, if your niche selection is good, and your site attracts plenty of targeted traffic, you will ALWAYS have methods to monetize that traffic.

So let’s deal with numbers 1, 2, and 3 above. #4 really is the easiest part and will always take care of itself one way or the other.

Steve