There will always be a need for hard working valuable affiliates and partners, even when regulation comes in. Without a doubt!
Affiliates provide customers with value added information and services such as strategy guides, product reviews, exclusive promotions etc. Most affiliate style marketing excludes the corporate propaganda found in the main stream advertising these day and customers are becoming increasingly aware of this!
The biggest change i see are the revenue models, unfortunately for the affiliates, i don’t think they will be seeing the same commission rates as they are used to i.e. 25 – 50%. I think it will be more like 10 – 15% however with the regulation comes increased volumes so it should even out at the end of the day.