Some people are wondering how a bad economy could affect internet publishing and affiliate marketing.

There is no doubt now that specific regions are being hit very hard by the unravelling sub prime lending market — as I write this. There is not much need to discuss possibilities or causes here. The business cycle is very real and it will happen several times throughout your life. Thats reality.

Here is what you need to know:

Do not let an economic contraction stop you. The guys that plowed right on through the dot com bubble did extremely well. The secret? Run a business that actually turns a healthy profit. When things get tight you can keep on operating.

The internet is a wild ride anyways. Advertisers adjust budgets, syndicators adjust algorithms. Both Adwords advertisers and Adsense publishers are affected by smart pricing. Search engine algorithm updates can kill an entire business in hours. One of the top online ad spenders, Vonage, faces a grim future. When an advertiser makes a hasty exit, PPC ads, CPM ads, and so on can all take a hit. That means its time to adapt, not head to the hills.

Leveraging yourself in to a peaking market (or, worse, recession) is often a bad idea. If stagnation, as opposed to double digit growth, means bankruptcy then you need to play your cards more conservatively. Then again, sometimes big bets have to be made.

The media and even the Federal Reserve view recessions and depressions as a bad thing. There is a word I like better: correction. In a correction there are winners. Make sure you are one of them.