How the Affiliate Marketing Industry Killed Itself - Update

When I posted on David Hawk's comments about the affiliate marketing industry perhaps I should have qualified my comments: "and I agree with him" and "reasoned if not negative view"!

Kieron I think miss-understood this as a total support for his view - its not.

But Kieron does agree with David that "brand bidding is on the way out".

And he agrees that spyware has given the industry a bad rap.

He also agrees with David that arbitrage PPC is bad for the perception of the industry.

And he doesn't understand David's point about pay-per-performance affecting other marketing channels.

I'm not being rude Kieron, but how can you say that David is "wrong, wrong wrong" when you agree with 3 out of 4 of his points and admittedly don't understand the fourth?

I'm a bit disappointed that you were "saddened" with me agreeing with him. If you take a look at my post about Palmer Web Marketing's "3 reasons to avoid affiliate marketing" or the rest of my blog in general you'd understand my viewpoint that there are few hellbent on taking as much out of the industry as possible with blatant disregard for the rules and it is this that is killing the perception of affiliate marketing of those that need convincing the most.

You'd also realise that, I myself have broken the rules, and I know many affiliates with high moral standings have also broken the rules or at the very least bent them. I've knocked up thousands of pages in the past with a total disregard to Google - I could name many others that have done the same (and in some circumstances are still doing it).

I regularly state at how great James's Flightmapping is and I'm always quick to give kudos to affiliates who I believe are pioneers in the industry.

We'd all like to see the industry flourish and everyone to have a positive view of it. But we shouldn't let our "rose-tinted glasses" prevent us from having a deeper perception of the industry's ills and the willingness to communicate the fact.

Addendum:
Instead of writing all that, I should pointed you to Jason's post as I fully support what he said.