I agree with a lot of the posts above (and yes, I remember Beenz lol)
My income from GPT (get paid to) sites stays pretty level even through the downturns, June and July are notoriously slow months, as are January and February, but I find it easy to pick up the slack elsewhere.
Regarding Swagbucks:
They've been pretty much ignoring their UK members since they launched Swag IQ for the US in January this year. All of their time and effort (and money) seems to be going into this, and the UK (and Canada it seems) have suffered for it.
First goals have risen while earning potential has dropped.
* Toolbar TV used to be around 25-30sb a day - it's now only 2 or 3, on a lucky day you might get 4
* Search wins have been reduced, both in frequency of wins (I used to easily get 4 a day, now i'm lucky if I get 2) and in SB awarded (the max I've seen in our GPTGenies group is 13 recently whereas we used to frequently get people getting 100)
* Swago is getting harder to earn maximum bonus, or even a half decent bonus, as they've structured it that unless you use both a phone AND a laptop/PC then the maximum bonus you can get is 5sb rather than 50 or 300)
* They've almost stopped supporting their Influencers - we used to get advance warnings of things such as Collector's Bills, Team Challenges, Swago, Extravaganza Days etc. - now we're lucky if we get any copy for anything, and it usually arrives after we've already written our own posts because if we didn't, everyone else would get there first.
* First goals have been increased - it was regularly 70-90SB last year to get a first goal bonus, now it's frequently and most often over 100SB
* Goal bonuses have reduced - they were always 10% of your actual first and second goal, now they are less - it's only a few SB but they do add up for the monthly bonus, and people notice
* And of course the apps used to be worth a minimum of 70SB a day with very little input, first they moved to ads that you had to click out of, then the 40 second ads that ran after every video, and now they've reduced it so the max you can get in a day without bonus rounds (which are also reduced now as opposed to 6 months ago) is 34SB
I wouldn't say they are in trouble as such, but they are tightening the purse strings for the UK & Canada - possibly other countries too. The US have had some tightening of earnings, but they are still earning way more than the UK (which is understandable as Swagbucks has more US advertisers).
Regarding stopping earning online:
I think once something becomes a habit or routine, or you get used to having the money - whether it be an extra £50 a month or an extra £500 - then it is difficult to stop. I'm a very routine focused person, so there are certain things I do during my day - some focused on GPT earnings, some on my 'real life' work, some on househoold and family stuff, and some on learning new things. My online earning sites and apps may change - for example I now spend more time on InstaGC than I do on Swagbucks - but the 'system' stays the same.
In our Facebook group we have a good range of ages - teenagers right up to 90 years old, and they're all happy plotting their own course as to how and how much they earn.
Of course, the Holy Grail is to get a million good referrals and earn from them, but good referrals (and I mean refs, not affiliates) need supporting and nurturing and helping - not everyone is willing to put the time into that. Which is kind of how GPTGenies.com started!
So no, I don't think people will stop earning online, but as some posters above have said, the ways in which they do will probably change. More people use phones and tablets now so apps and decent mobile sites will be the way forward, and with the success of games like Pokemon Go! and earning apps such as Snatch using AR, I'm surprised more GPT apps haven't maximised the opportunity already.