My Take On The Affiliate Census 2009

Well the Affiliate Window sponsored UK Affiliate Census 2009 has been released thanks to Econsultancy

It's 63 pages long, and thankfully I got an advanced review.

Some of the headlines are great. 55% of the >1000 affiliates responded agree with me that the current financial situation is an opportunity, whilst 30% view it as a threat. I don't doubt it is a threat for certain affiliate business models or affiliates that operate in highly-vulnerable markets.

The things that annoy most affiliates, according to this survey is the entry of Google in to the affiliate marketing industry, the rise of "super-affiliates" and the increased success of voucher code sites. Personally I have no negative thoughts of Google being a network. I think I'm signed up to one of their programmes, but it hasn't affected me one-jot. I'm sure affiliates have a natural tendency to thinking about Google as a threat given their changes on PPC policy, their impact on some affiliate's rankings and the such like. But they seem to forget what Google has done for us!

Looking at the "rise of super-affiliates" I think that's also a bit of a grey area. Many super affiliates you'll never hear from, they're not interested in polishing their egos with a blog or shout about stuff on the forum. In many cases I view the negativity towards "super affiliates" as one of jealousy - strike me down I know! There are instances where "super affiliates" may be seen to abuse their power in a Microsoft kind of way insisting that they get better deals than the rest - but wouldn't you in their position?

What I found interesting was that 2% of people thought that anyone earning less than £50 was a super affiliate, whilst 17% thought it was over £50k a month.

And the rise voucher code sites, many get the wrong idea what my views are. They seem to think I am carte-blanch against voucher code sites. But if you take this particular example, you can see why I have my grievances. Not only that, but I get data from merchant analytics that often proves that the benefits of code sites aren't as fantastically profitable to them as some are keen to show. At least we've have some good progress from the IAB recently with the help of the networks.

And on to another topic that has got a load of attention. It appears from the survey that "true content" is the most important method for generating affiliate sales at 36%. I'd be interested in seeing how many actually create truly unique and useful content. The second most important method for affiliates is PPC at 20%, whilst voucher codes and cash-back sites are the top generating category for 10% of publishers. This works out to over 100 sites in these two spaces - one heck of a load!

And from a merchant's point of view ... They value SEO /content affiliates as the most valuable - that's above PPC, price comparison (blogs even), voucher codes and cash-back sites - interesting!

But how the world changes. I remember when everyone was big on price comparison sites. But they're still the third most important category at 11%. What startled me was that Blogs and forums only accounted for 8% which is significantly less than the 36% for "true content". It's also nice to see "shopping directories" hanging on with 3% - these are a blast from the past for me, but they still out do the social networking sites - until they build in SEO into them more effectively I doubt this figure will increase substantially next year.

What affiliates think of the networks is key, and mirrors my own feelings. I feel that networks should be a bit more "severe" on affiliates that break the rules. Even though I hear things, I'm sure we don't get to find out about everything that goes on.

One thing that did strike me was that 70% of affiliates believe they only have limited communication from merchants. I feel that these people must be doing something wrong. In a recent post I stated how affiliates can make their own life easier by employing a few tactics, and I feel the onus is on us now-a-days to get and organise the information that is made available to us. I was thinking about the massive levels of communication about Christmas and Valentines and am starting to see a whole load about Easter already. I even had Hotel Chocolat email me late last night about products to review for one of my sites. I feel these 70% of affiliates should be thinking about what they can do to improve the communication. There are some merchants that just don't communicate, but its their choice, they can enhance their campaign or not.

A nice side note was that affiliates are getting older as group. The under 30's now account for 26% of the sample instead of 31% two years ago which is surprising considering that 40% of the respondents have joined the industry in the past two years.

If you look at the proportion of affiliates that are engaged in the industry as hobbyists (20%) and then compare that to the fact that the survey shows that 40% of affiliates are generating less than £100 a month then that's a bit worrying. Some people are doing it part time or full time and not making "a lot".

And apparently 13% of the respondents (>130) affiliates are making over £50k a month - reet! This figure is statistically doubtful (or doubtbull) given the trend of the other revenue brackets).


Another bit of information is that full timers are more likely to use text links and PPC to market the merchants whilst part-timers and hobbyists are more likely to use banners. If they tried to incorporate text-links and content then perhaps they could become full-timers?

A worrying factor is that affiliates are more concerned with the "breadth" of the merchant base for a network OVER tracking reliability. You may have loads of nice merchants to promote, but you're less likely to be concerned if you earn from them - interesting.

Something else I just didn't get was that the most important reason for not promoting a merchant was the "quality and quantity of links". But can't you deep-link to every merchant from content? Some merchants like Buyagift, Prezzybox, Firebox have some awesome tools, but it wouldn't stop me promoting other merchants in the same category that don't have these cool creatives.

And we're "merchant tarts" the most common reason for dropping a merchant is that we've found a better/different merchant to promote instead, followed by changes in commission rates.

I'd find it hard to disagree. What I still find interesting (from personal experience) is that CJ are still the most important network to 10% of affiliates. I'm sure this figure is slightly skewed by which networks promoted the census, but I'd be inclined to run a survey on the A4UForum to get a second opinion.

And the debate about "last click wins" continues. 34% of affiliates agree with the general status quo whilst 18% of affiliates agree with the me that commission should be based on an analysis of contribution - but how? mmmm

Another bit I found interesting was that despite the downturn, more affiliates have moved into the travel sector whilst there's been a big move out of gambling.

Of real interest to me was the data regarding the proportion of B2B affiliates. I manage the Angels Den Affiliate Programme and I'm still shocked to see that only 4% of affiliates operate exclusively in that sector.

And the bit about merchants being loyal to affiliates showed that being honest about why transactions are rejected is a key factor, as well as the de-dupping process. Whilst others argued that merchants shouldn't show loyalty as affiliates aren't loyal in return.

61% of affiliates are content in how they can learn from other affiliates, whilst 39% would like more opportunity. What can us affiliate bloggers do to help?

Also many affiliates were worried about the arrival of large-scale affiliates in the form of established media owners such as the Mirror etc. Whilst one affiliate wrote "Voucher code and incentive-based sites are going to destroy affiliate marketing for normal people and small businesses completely if the systems that are currently allowed for them remain unchecked!" Contentious, but accurate?

Also many affiliates believe that merchants don't often understand affiliate marketing or online marketing in general.

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