For smaller affiliates watching from the sidelines, the playbook looked simple: build something with solid SEO foundations, then sell it to one of the giants for a tidy multiple. But, as Alex Windsor writes, things have changed in the US iGaming affiliate landscape and the path to growth is ever more complicated.
As an affiliate working in the fast-paced iGaming niche, standing still and being comfortable is not something we are afforded the luxury of.
Small and mid-sized affiliates are constantly faced with a strategic crossroads: should they invest time and effort into growing their own brands organically, or try to leapfrog the process by acquiring established assets? Both paths have their appeal, but both carry serious risks.
Over the past decade, the US affiliate market has seen an almost gold-rush mentality as major players snapped up every large, profitable site and company they could find. For a time, acquisitions seemed like a guaranteed path to scale and success. But that rush has cooled, and today, smaller affiliates are discovering that both buying and building come with new, more complex trade-offs than ever before.
The era of the affiliate gold rush
A few years ago, the affiliate space, especially in the US, felt like the Wild West. Larger media and performance marketing groups were on a spree, buying up high-performing sites across gambling, finance and technology niches. It wasn’t unusual to see multimillion-dollar deals announced weekly. For smaller affiliates watching from the sidelines, the playbook looked simple: build something with solid SEO foundations, then sell it to one of the giants for a tidy multiple. The exit dream became a business model in itself, and over the past few years, many have sold up and left the industry.
For a time, acquisitions seemed like a guaranteed path to scale and success, but that rush has cooled
But markets evolve, and gold rushes always end eventually. Over the past few years, acquisition activity has noticeably slowed. Part of that’s due to consolidation. There are simply fewer large, independent affiliate sites left to buy, at least this is the case if you look in the SERPs.
Another part is the macro environment: higher interest rates have made leveraged buyouts less attractive, and investors have become more cautious about the volatility of SEO-driven assets. Meanwhile, Google’s all too frequent algorithm updates have injected a level of uncertainty that even well-established sites can’t escape. For smaller affiliates, this slowdown has opened a window, but it has also introduced new strategic dilemmas.
Building from scratch
Growing your own brand from the ground up has always been the purist’s path. It offers creative freedom, total control, and the potential to carve out a lasting identity in your niche. But it’s also a long, expensive and exhausting road with no guarantee of success. For smaller affiliates with limited resources, spreading themselves too thin can quickly become a fatal mistake.
Over the past few years, having a brand has never been more of a necessity. Long gone are the days when you can duplicate sites with thin content, throw on some tables and toplists, add affiliate links and buy a few backlinks, then expect to rank and make money. Building a brand has never been more challenging than it has been today.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing too many markets or verticals at once. In theory, it sounds like a logical move: diversify traffic sources, explore multiple niches and hedge against volatility. In practice, though, this can really dilute focus. Each vertical requires specialised content, relationships and compliance knowledge.
Maintaining consistent quality and authority across multiple sites is hard enough for a team of twenty, let alone a solo operator or small marketing team. The result is often a patchwork portfolio of half-built sites, none of which generate meaningful revenue. Over the past few months, I have seen several people on LinkedIn trying to sell domains with semi-built sites, sites that have tanked with no sign of a revival, proving how hard it really has been to do this at scale successfully.
Long gone are the days when you can duplicate sites with thin content, throw on some tables and toplists, add affiliate links and buy a few backlinks, then expect to rank and make money
At the same time, putting all your energy into one brand can feel equally dangerous. As countless affiliates have learned, Google can erase years of work overnight with a single algorithm update. The Helpful Content Update, for instance, wiped out entire portfolios that had previously enjoyed strong, stable traffic. In an environment this volatile, “not putting all your eggs in one basket” is more than a cliché, it’s a survival strategy. But diversification has to be strategic, not scattershot. Smaller affiliates need to focus on depth within a manageable scope, rather than chasing every shiny new niche that comes along.
The temptation & risk of buying established assets
For affiliates who don’t have the patience, creative flair or bandwidth to build slowly, acquiring an established site can feel like a shortcut to success. A profitable domain with strong rankings, content, and backlinks promises instant scale and cash flow. For many years, that approach worked perfectly. Buying an asset with proven SEO performance was one of the most reliable ways to accelerate growth, especially when organic search was more stable and predictable.
But that reliability has largely vanished. The days when you could buy an affiliate site and confidently project steady returns are gone. Today, even strong, long-standing domains are susceptible to sharp declines.
A site might look perfect in due diligence. It can have great content, natural links, clean history and still fall off a cliff months after acquisition because of a core update. When Google decides to recalibrate what “helpful content” looks like, the rules change overnight. Suddenly, your seven-figure purchase is generating a fraction of its previous revenue.
This new reality has made many small affiliates think twice about buying. The old saying “buy once cry once” doesn’t apply when algorithmic shifts can vaporise an asset’s value with no warning. Even thorough due diligence can’t fully account for the unpredictable nature of search.
Some buyers are trying to mitigate this by focusing on brand resilience and acquiring sites that have real audiences, social followings, or email lists that reduce dependence on Google. But those assets come at a premium, and the competition for them remains fierce.
Annoyingly, the past few months, the SERPs have been littered with repurposed, spammy and hacked domains, making a mockery of the build a strong brand that Google asks of site owners. Some of these stay for a short time, some are still there today. These sites and domains are not cheap to buy and even these come with a risk that they just may not take off. Many seem to cross moral borders that most genuine affiliates won't cross.
When Google decides to recalibrate what “helpful content” looks like, the rules change overnight
We ourselves spent months looking at a potential acquisition of a site. On paper, it seemed perfect. The graphs showed traffic heading in the right direction, and everything on the surface looked clean. We looked at financing the deal and came very close to closing. But something just didn't sit right. Luckily for us, the sale never happened and a few months later, the site tanked. From over 80k organic visits a month to around 2k. A lucky escape.
The new balancing act: exposure versus safety
So where does that leave smaller affiliates? Caught between two imperfect options: the slow grind of building from scratch, or the high-risk gamble of buying something that might not hold its value. The solution likely lies somewhere in the middle.
Building exposure and brand equity organically remains the most sustainable long-term strategy, but it needs to be done with discipline. Smaller affiliates should pick their battles carefully. Focus on one or two niches where they can genuinely add expertise and depth, rather than ten where they can only scratch the surface.
The focus should shift from chasing traffic to building credibility, diversifying into channels like YouTube, newsletters or social platforms where algorithmic risk is lower.
At the same time, strategic acquisitions still have a place, but only when they fit into a broader brand ecosystem. Buying a small site that complements your main brand, rather than relying on it as a standalone revenue engine, can make sense. The key is to view acquisitions not as “quick growth hacks” but as integrations that strengthen your overall presence.
A more mature market
The slowdown in acquisitions and the volatility of organic search have created a more mature and thoughtful affiliate landscape. The days of easy wins are fading, replaced by a new era where strategy, resilience, and adaptability matter more than ever. For smaller affiliates, this can actually be an advantage. Without massive investor pressure or quarterly targets, they can experiment, pivot, and build with patience.
The modern affiliate challenge isn’t about choosing between building or buying; it’s about balancing exposure with sustainability. Growth still matters, but survival depends on diversification, creativity, and risk management. Whether you’re crafting your own brand from scratch or cautiously evaluating a purchase, the lesson is the same: in a post-gold-rush world, smart, steady builders will outlast the speculators.