2005 is a great year for affiliate marketers, as online businesses will continue to grow exponentially. 2004 showed a major transition to the type of products sold in affiliate markets.

Did you notice all the other major changes in the Internet Marketing scene in 2004? Or did they pass you by, and you missed out on the opportunities to make money with the new types of products. EBooks are still the most popular type of information product being sold at this point. But lots of ground has been lost to the other methods of delivering information.

Every week there are lots of tele-seminars provided. Most of them are at no cost. Those that charge are increasing in scope, and are real moneymakers for the hosts. Web casts and video presentations are growing in popularity.

Most of the above are recorded, and can often be viewed or downloaded after the event is over. I have collected 1 GB of Audio and video files and am overwhelmed by it all. I just can't find enough time to listen to them all.

That of course, is one of the advantages of written text in ebook form. One can scan through the ebook, and select the areas we want to absorb more fully. An audio recording must be listened to in its entirety, so it takes much more time.

In spite of this, the popularity of this media is growing very fast. People feel more involved participating in a teleseminar, or even a recording of it, as compared to the reading of an ebook. You must give your market what they want, or you lose out big time.

Another important shift in product popularity that boomed in 2004 is the home delivery of printed text books along with DVD or CD media. There were several Big Deals last year of very expensive products that made record breaking sales.

John Reece sold over $1 million dollars of products in 24 hours. The product delivered to your door cost $997. The commission paid to those that he invited to Joint Venture with him is 50%. Up to $500,000 affiliate commissions were made in 24 hours. The product is still selling at the same price.

This all gives you a clue as to what will continue to change and expand in 2005. These trends will blossom further in 2005. The frantic craze of Blogging and RSS are roaring ahead and being installed like a runaway freight train.

Will you join these trends in some way? You should. I know I will. Take RSS for example. There are 2 ways to get involved. The easiest and almost a must-have is to just install an RSS reader. This permits you to subscribe to blogs and newsletters that are delivered direct to your desktop without email spam filters blocking the reception.

The alternative is to install an RSS publishing system. This is much more complex and not for everyone.

As an online marketer it is imperative that you keep up to date on the major trend shifts in 2005. Failure to do this could mean that you're using the traditional methods that were successful 12 months ago, and may be 'old news' today, Your results will quite probably be sub-standard.

It is imperative that you recognize and react quickly to any changing trends. This is the key to success in 2005 and only those who "stay awake" and have the desire to constantly improve their business model will succeed this year.

Fred Farah
copyright 2005