This question comes up from the muddy waters of Internet marketing every year.

SEO is dead.

PPV is dead.

Display is dead.

Pops are dead.

Mobile is dead.

Facebook is dead (Oh, wait… wait, Facebook is still alive!)

So what is my personal viewpoint on the industry in 2018?

There’s 1 thing that is definitely true.

There are methods and techniques that don’t work the same way now as they worked back in the “good old days”.

This is what I call EVOLUTION.

It happens in every industry around us.

One could say:

… taxis are dead because everyone uses Uber now.

or

… hotel booking sites are dead because everyone uses Airbnb now.

Things are changing all the time, and the one who can adapt will be the one who wins in the long run.

“Be formless, shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

– Bruce Lee

What I learned while being in this industry is that the majority of affiliates are lazy.

We are used to shortcuts and instant results.

If it doesn’t work for me TODAY, then it must be dead.

Instant gratification.

Instant traffic, instant conversions, and instant profits.

Okay, Erik, we all know that things constantly change, stop babbling about it… instead, tell us: how are you making money these days?

Well, things don’t change as much as they seem.

I would say that change comes in the form of strong waves that hit the masses from time to time.

Almost every other year there’s a major new trend that shakes things up.

Since I entered the industry, I’ve recognized at least these ones:

• 2014/2015 – Mobile
• 2015/2016 – Native
• 2016/2017 – E-commerce

If you’re still wondering about me, I’ve been in the mobile space since I started; while I’m keeping up with the latest trends and experimenting here and there, I’m still a mobile guy.

My roots just run too deep now.

Sure, I can’t run with the same old landing pages, angles, and offers that I had in 2015, but that’s the evolution part.

Even some of the good old traffic sources are not profitable anymore, but guess what? There are new ones!

However, what’s more important is that most of the stuff mentioned throughout this post still works.

It’s just how you approach things and how deeply you dig into them.

Don’t be the one who jumps from one thing to another.

Be the one who can master at least 1 thing properly and be the best at it.

Affiliate marketing is not dead (at least for now).

What do you guys think?

Where do you think the industry is headed?

Let me know below in the comments!