Yeah, you read it right. While the recession hammered the incomes across the country, I experienced a soft spike in revenues as a part-time affiliate marketer.

I was skeptical at first when my referral commissions for game services sites such as EpicToon.com showed positive gains in the past year. I even asked: “How can I be making more money on the side when friends were losing their jobs and companies were announcing bankruptcies left and right?”

Affiliate Marketing is Cost-Efficient

Talking to other affiliates made me realize how the cost-efficient nature of affiliate marketing made it resilient against the recession. Companies who no longer had lavish budgets for advertising campaigns migrated online to attract buying customers at a fraction of the cost.

“I think 2009 was the first year where our industry was the only online marketing channel that showed growth year-over-year,” said Jonathan Levine, co-president of LinkShare in an interview last month with revenews.com.

“Because as an advertiser, if I have lots of money to spend I’ll spend it everywhere; but if I only had a very limited amount of money to spend, I’m going to spend it where I know I’m going to get a return to it. And that’s what affiliate marketing is,” Mr. Levine added.

Popular MMOs Weathered the Storm

Affiliate marketing as a whole gained traction among companies looking for internet customers. As an affiliate marketer in the game services industry, I got scared that gamers would leave their favorite massively multiplayer online (MMO) games in order to cut back on household costs.

But to my surprise, gamers still flocked the popular MMOs. Their reasoning is that online games provide cheap, but still fun entertainment. Gamers just have to shell out an average subscription cost of $15 a month per MMO in order to spend unlimited number of hours chatting with online friends or playing a fantasy character.

Looking back, the initial months of setting up websites and researching the MMO market were critical to the great supplemental income I earn today. Those early months learning from partners such as EpicToon.com enabled me to learn more about the MMO industry as well as tips on optimizing my sites for visits and clicks.

The Future for MMO Services is Looking Bright

While 2009 was a small success for me, I’m very excited for what 2010 will bring as the economy enters the road to recovery. Titles such as Star Trek Online and Final Fantasy XIV are launching this year and thousands—if not millions—around the world will sign up for these games. Being an affiliate marketer for services in these online games is looking bright as ever.

If you have the time and net-savviness to become an MMO affiliate marketer, I advise you to join the affiliate program of EpicToon.com. Feel free to look around the blog as well for more tips and information on affiliate marketing. Good luck!