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Sunday, 28 January 2007 @ 4:31 pm (Chris Frost)After having a quick glance at the UK Affiliate Census that was published last week by e-Consultancy in association with Affiliate Program Advice, I found quite a few surprises from the responses submitted.
The paper itself makes interesting reading, not only to affiliates, but should also prompt a few merchants into action. The questions asked were quite indepth and the responses, although not surprising to affiliates, may come as a wake up call to merchants and networks alike. 32% of affiliates will join a merchant and do nothing further for the simple reason of poor quality links. This is something that could quickly and easily be fixed and I’d expect to be part of the role of an affiliate manager.
The report itself may stimulate affiliates to target new markets. I for one have never touched the travel / flights side of things, however 30% of respondants say they consider this sector as their biggest!Â
With over 45% of affiliates starting out in the past 2 years, it makes me think it may well be worth putting pen to paper! I can see it now…
Many thanks to e-Consultancy, Affiliate Program Advice, and all participating networks for this extremely useful and interesting report. If you would like to read more, you can download it here.
Horaayy..there are 3 comment(s) for me so far ;)
I do wonder how much value this presents; for example, who is the census aimed at? The results seem quote focused on “bedroom” affiliates and a pretty much all of the sucessful(ish) affiliates I have spoken to did not fill it out.
Do you think the results a true reflection of the UK Affiliate Marketplace?
What do you determine as sucessful(ish) affiliates? I am aware of a few major players who have completed the census, and I think the results themselves (37 earning over £750k) confirms they are in the mix of respondants.
I agree as to the number of ‘bedroom’ affiliates and again, this is shown by some of the responses to the questions as to whether people work from home, are part time etc.
I think its a good a reflection as we can expect from the census, and does give a relatively realistic reflection of the marketplace as we see it today. However I suspect that as these report become more commonplace, the more changes we are likely to see too.
As for who it is aimed at, personally, the way the questions have been worded, it is aimed predominantly at networks and merchants. I do however think it also contains some valuable information for us affiliates too.
Thanks Chris - I think it’s a great think that there has been a Census on the Marketplace but it’s something I’ll take with a pinch of salt. As with all surveys, they are easily manipulated (some people will have filled it rubbish values just to get a copy of it for free at the end, as an example).
I honestly think that some of the questions are not a fair reflection but hopefully as it gets more popular we’ll see some more accurate results coming out.