interesting thread Jon.
My experience with this industry went a different way. I really got bummed with the whole FTC/ACAI/Dr. OZ shit that happened in the past. Got burned with attorney generals, lawsuits, merchant account shit. I started reflecting after that on all the scamming diet shit being sold (health/nutrition was an interest of mine) and was just eating away at me. I ended up getting out of the business and took a very long break from it. Its been a tough road but getting back into it slowly. Was a mistake to take such a long time off, I lost most of my connections to the biz.
One trend I always see in this industry is ponzi like. Selling information or a product that isn't really creating value or is just fake. Most of the biz opps are like that, no? Go to your favorite affiliate network and look at the offers. Think about what the whole process is to the end user. Does it really deliver value?
I think this industry needs to evolve (which it will when the cheap money dries up). Whats going to happen when consumers discretionary income falls off a cliff because all the cheap money is gone?
The answers to this should be obvious.
In response to your first paragraph, I fell into the same trap of making easy money by doing shady things. When you get a windfall of money doing things that way, it warps your mindset into making you think you can get away with it over and over again. I made a quick 6 figures in a few months doing sketchy stuff, and I spent the next 4 years (not the entirety of 4 years, but on and off during that time period) trying to replicate that success through SEO, media buys, etc. I made little money here and there, but it was never stable enough to make consistent income because it was not legitimate.
It was a complete waste of time.
Finally, my mind reached clarity and realized that you must contribute real value to the world if you want a long lasting and consistent business. It's funny because it's true even though it sounds corny as hell, but it's hard to accept when you're used to shady scheme money. Truth is there's tons more money in legit business.
Somehow, karma (whether or not it exists, but i always see people who dont contribute/sell scam value to the world get screwed over in the end, and those who do contribute value become prosperous) always finds its way with you in either deluding you and making you waste time going in the wrong direction (e.g. taking a very long break. if you did something legitimate from the beginning, you'd continue to work on it and rarely take a break), or worse (martin grunin or ryan eagle for example).
In response to your second paragraph, this industry is incredibly ponzi like in that it doesn't contribute much value to humans. Eventually the public consciousness gains awareness (like it will with the college "scam"), and people will wake up and stop falling for it.
This industry is full of bullshit.
Look at any affiliate network and you'll find that 99% of its "offers" are complete scams (bizop especially, health with its rebills, insurance when you can find cheaper insurance elsewhere, credit reports when there are free credit reports, finance, payday is a giant scam in and of itself, and the list goes on).
The industry must evolve, and it will.
There are two insights to take away from the current state of affiliate marketing if you want to make a ton of money.
1. Offers must provide real value to people. Most people are stupid in that they have little insight to the world around them, but they're not that stupid, and they'll eventually wake up to your bullshit offers. By value I mean does the offer make the person happier with their lives in the long term (e.g. a workout routine for nature lovers that helps them keep off the pounds and reel in the endorphins for the rest of their lives)? If it doesn't, then it's not valuable (e.g. a fad diet that someone does once and never does again, or even worse, a straight up scam).
If you're selling intangibles in the form of information products, then provide people with information that they've never seen before by consolidating information from multiple places together to create a new piece of information, or simply consolidate information and make it easier to read for your buyers.
Don't just regurgitate crap that they've seen before. Information evolves, and there will always be new information in the future for you to sell if you have the insight to generate new information.
Yes, you can profit off people's stupidity, and nobody's stopping you, but it's likely that that sort of business won't last in the long run, so it's wiser to build a business that'll last you into the future.
2. Affiliate networks must consolidate into a handful of networks. It's too big of a hassle to search for the hundreds of niche networks out there. It's much more profitable to consolidate all offers into 1 or a few networks.
The affiliate networks that will reign supreme are the ones who contain the most offers that provide the most value, because those are the offers that last the longest and prove to be money makers.
In conclusion...
Basically, if you want to make long term money in this industry (as in decades lasting), then stay away from the current affiliate networks, and create your own offers.
There are very few people creating their own offers that add value and selling them, surprisingly, so if you're one of the first movers to sling products that add real value to people in these times of stagnation not only in the industry, but in the economy, then you'll profit very handsomely.
Take advantage. We live in tough times now, and these tough times are ripe with opportunity. Unfortunately, these times will pass, but fortunately, these times will pass.
