For nearly a year True.com had one of the most lucrative dating affiliate programs on the internet. Around two months ago they made some changes, dramatically cutting payouts and shutting down several offers. I know nothing about the companies profitability, but the results to their overall traffic standing have been pretty dramatic.

Case number two, Wikipedia verse About.com. Wikipedia has been dominating Google’s natural listings. About.com, once the “omni” site of information has seen their listings slide, both due to Wikipedia as well as from large volumes of niche competitor sites drawn in through easy advertising revenues.

Whether you are about to spend $1 billion or $100,000 it is critical to understand both traffic sources and trends. With some homework and free traffic data sites you can correlate growth and contraction to specific events. Although one can provide 100% accurate traffic numbers, the following sites are great for identifying trends:

Here are a few I use: Compete.com, Alexa, WebSearch WebRanking, Google Trends (people type .com’s into Google search)