[Simon]

@ecchi - think of MySpace and other mostly static websites, which may have had framesets and blink / marquee tags plus lots of animated gifs. That was the start of Web 1.0 which had what you could think of as many, many version updates (guestbooks, mailto forms, etc) that were mostly still static pages. They were also mostly created by the individual webmaster or site owner.

Today's various social networks are good(?) examples of what Web 2.0 means. Most pages are not static, but instead database-driven. And most of the content is not created by the site owners, but instead is driven by the users' contributions. Blogs with open comments, and lots of readers commenting also fit, along with video sharing sites like YouTube (and some of the adult versions). The loyalty component is important here, with visitors returning to see new comments and content added by others, plus seeing how their own comments, posts, videos, etc. were received by the interactive/collaborative audience of these sites.

--Bonus content below for those who don't bore easily--

Unfortunately for most affiliates who market other people's sites or programs and who don't have suitable products of their own, the advancements of Web 2.0+(Web 3.0) will mean that almost everything now seen on computer screens will come to the television screen. There will still be some small market slivers that savvy IMs will be able to profit from, but a lot of the online revenues will be flowing directly from customer to seller.

The adoption of tablets and smartphones require websites and email campaigns to be redesigned in order to best profit from that market segment, but most affiliate marketers don't bother doing that. Instead sending that valuable traffic away via mobile redirect scripts that mostly lead to different domains (btw, the Big G doesn't like that).

The same thing is about to happen as more and more of the audience with the most disposable income moves to Internet television. How many affiliates will have sites ready to be viewed on large flat screen televisions? I don't mean just able to be opened like plugging your computer's video out port into a television. I mean a site which is designed to look great on a television-based browser in full screen mode on a 60 inch display. And ready to be navigated using gestures or voice control.

The point is, once consumers get used to being able to talk to and gesture at their big screen TVs to read their emails, get text messages, have video conversations, and enjoy their favorite cat videos on YouTube while checking their friends' Facebook status and ordering from Amazon, it's going to be a whole new world for the traditional middlemen who used to depend on surfers visiting their online sites first in order to be credited for sales, signups, etc.

Adult affiliates who think it's bad now, with so much of the traffic going directly to the big tube sites, are going to be absolutely devastated if they don't adapt to the coming convergence of media delivery methods.

Here's something fun to do. Try asking "how do you set a cookie on a television" and see how many internet marketers know what you're talking about. Then see how many good answers you get.

:-|