I think Panda/Penguin hurt A LOT of people. I think many people were already seeing a decline and that just sent them over the edge. I imagine it's kind of hard to remain optimistic when Google can just kill your productive traffic in one day. It used to be more subtle and isolated it seems (only happened to a few people and maybe was just a site or two that dropped)... then A LOT of people just had their traffic dry up seemingly over night.

I'll admit that I was more than happy when Jay offered to buy my sites and I was able to transition into a position at Stunner. Panda gave me a pounding (not the good kind we all enjoy) and things were so up and down that I didn't know if I'd be able to feed myself from month to month. It took lots of tight budgeting and caused a lot of anxiety, which of course caused my Crohn's to flare (our gut and mind is incredibly interconnected). Everything was great pre-Panda and I couldn't figure out how to climb my way back.

It does seem like some programs are trying to focus more on in-house traffic. I think part of that is they are not seeing the retention that they used to so the pressure of giving PPS to stay competitive makes them focus elsewhere. Our retention is excellent and we love our affiliates and traffic, but I also see where that may not necessarily be the same with all programs. If that sponsor isn't properly staffed they may very well dedicate more man hours to driving in-house traffic and less time putting out the tools affiliates need to send sales. No worries there with us ... I'm the one that adds tools to NATS!

I think there is a lot of fear right now, but if someone has survived the last few years they should keep going for as long as they can. Even with all of the things that can hurt sales, there is still a lot of money out there to be made.

I predict a lot more consolidation going on. The online porn industry is maturing. When the car was first introduced there were quickly something like 1,000 or 2,000 car companies. Eventually they consolidated into the few big companies we know today. I predict a lot of M&A activity over the next 5 or 10 years. It's what happens when most industries mature.

As for affiliate marketing, that is hard to say. From what I've seen on Facebook, a few very smart people in this industry that make A LOT of money by redirecting traffic to sponsors (meaning they use landers and send to sponsors...do not focus on building content sites) think that Google is trying to cut out the middle man. Whether that is true or not is still be determined, but people are going to have to get creative if Google tries to filter out all sites with affiliate links. If that happens there are ways around it, but it would require a lot of people re-building their sites from the ground up to trick the G.

Interesting times for sure.