Ezoic Cuts Affiliate Program and Lays Off 28% of Staff + Serp Volatility and Weird Niche Sites

<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>This week’s episode of Niche Pursuits News is hosted by Jared Bauman, of <a href="https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">201 Creative</a>, and Shawn Hill, a previous podcast guest and the brains behind <a href="https://thegrillingdad.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Grilling Dad</a>.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>The first topic they dive into is Ezoic’s announcement of the end of its affiliate program and its plan to lay off workers. They talk about the blow to affiliates but also mention how it created an interesting juxtaposition in providing a financial incentive for referring people. </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>They talk about the <a href= "https://www.ezoic.com/why-a-more-strategic-approach-was-needed-for-ezoic-affiliates/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> from Tyler Bishop, the company’s CMO, about the discontinuation of the program, in which he shares some interesting data, as well as <a href="https://www.ezoic.com/ceo-dwayne-letter-to-employees/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the letter</a> from CEO Dwayne Lafleur about the layoffs. They also discuss whether there needs to be an entry-level ad provider for website owners.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Jared and Shawn then move on to a different topic: <a href= "https://claude.ai/login" target="_blank" rel= "noreferrer noopener">the Claud 2 launch</a>, by Anthropic. Claud is an AI language model which is gaining attention for having more human-like responses. Claud also allows users to upload files and ask questions about different documents, which is a unique feature. </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Shawn shares his thoughts on it after using it a little bit and comparing it with ChatGPT, and Jared has some ideas about how to leverage Claud for SEO. Listen in to hear what they have to say!</p> <p><!-