With the latest Google update, the online marketing circles are buzzing with the question: "Does affiliate marketing still work?" That's because tens of thousands of affiliate marketers have seen their affiliate earnings severely impacted by the latest Google update, and some of them have even seen their business models collapse altogether. They're the ones taking to the popular affiliate forums to stir up the notion that affiliate marketing is dead.

Does affiliate marketing still work? In my opinion, true affiliate marketing is still alive and well, and in fact, it's in far better health now that the latest Google update has come and gone. By the end of this article, you'll know how to cash in on this huge opportunity for smart affiliates.

Does Affiliate Marketing Still Work For Lazy Marketers? No.

Gone are the days when you could churn out a lousy piece of content, or rip off someone else's content, and get ranked highly in the search engines for your articles or blog posts. Google has come down hard on duplicate content, and rightly so, because some unscrupulous marketers were just plain plagiarizing other people's content. Does affiliate marketing still work for these lazy, dishonest marketers? No, and rightfully so. In fact, all this was creating a very negative search experience for consumers, and made it very hard for hard working affiliates creating their own unique content to make the money they deserved.

Does Affiliate Marketing Still Work For Smart Affiliates? Yes.

Right now, while the lazy marketers are complaining and throwing their toys out of the pram, there exists a great opportunity for you if you're willing to do the work of an affiliate. So what exactly does an affiliate do? Basically as an affiliate, your job is to connect a consumer with a need with a product that meets that need in the best possible way. It's nothing to do with SEO, Email Marketing, Facebook Advertising or the 101 other "magic bullet" solutions touted by the "gurus". Yes, all these are avenues for you to connect with your niche audience, but the tools aren't as important as the essence of what you're trying to do.

To answer the question: "Does affiliate marketing still work", I want to propose a radical answer: it will work for you if you're willing and able to fill the need of the consumers you connect with. If you want to make more money as an affiliate, then the best thing you can do is to meet the needs of the consumers in your niche audience with the relevant information, and the relevant products of which you are an affiliate. The more people you serve in this way, the more money you will make. It's that simple.

So does affiliate marketing still work? Yes, but only if you understand the essence of what it means to be an affiliate, which is to deliver the relevant information and the relevant products to the right audience. Master this process, and you'll be showing your big fat affiliate check to the next person who asks you: "Does affiliate marketing still work?"