Affiliate Marketing Benchmarks: 2011 Affiliate Summit Affstat Report

2 0 1 1 AFFI LI ATE S UMMI T AFFS TAT REPORT
Affiliate Marketing Benchmarks

Affiliate Summit
realdeal@affiliatesummit.com
http://www.affiliatesummit.com
http://www.affstat.com

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Table of Cont ent s
S E C T I O N 1 : T H E S U R V E Y
Af f i l i at e Mar k et i ng Nut s and Bol t s 2
Af f i l i at es and Soc i al Net w or k i ng 10
Af f i l i at es and Bl oggi ng 12
Af f i l i at e Demogr aphi c s 14
S E C T I O N 2 : T H E I R W O R D S
Af f i l i at es Speak Out 18

2 0 1 1 A F F I L I A T E S U M M I T A F F S T A T R E P O R T
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Copyr i ght 2011. Af f i l i at e Summi t ht t p://w w w .af f i l i at esummi t .c om
Al l r i ght s r eser ved. REPRODUCTI ON STRI CTLY PROHI BI TED.
Affiliat e Program
Merchant Fact s & Figures
State of the Industry in Affiliate Marketing
ver fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences,
and strategies for the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.
This section features the results of the survey.
Most affiliates work in a vacuum, and scant data exists to tell the story of the affiliate
marketer .
As an industry, we are rich in speculation, but poor when it comes to aggregating the
facts and figures that drive this business
Take a look at the following results. You are bound to find some surprises and think
twice about the way you operate as an affiliate, merchant, network, or vendor.

Section
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Affiliat e Market ing by t he Numbers


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Affiliate Summit West 2012
January 8 - 10, 2012
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

Register Today and Save 10%
http://AffiliateSummit.com

Affiliate Marketings Leading Conference & Tradeshow

For more information, please visit
http://www.AffiliateSummit.com


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Affiliat es: Their Words
When given a soapbox, what do affiliates have to say about things?
he statistics tell one version of the story. But to truly get a complete picture of
the triumphs and hurdles of affiliates, youve got to hear things straight from
their mouths.
The following is an uncensored view into the opinions of affiliates on a variety of other
subjects.
Affiliates were asked to share any complaints, ideas, suggestions or opinions they have
regarding affiliate marketing.
Read what happens when affiliates stop being polite, and start being real. This is the
Real World Affiliate style.

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Affiliat es Speak Out on t he Issues
Affiliate managers please clean up all expired links in affiliate networks; affiliate
managers please don't kick less active affiliates out; affiliate managers please
use more auto updated coupon code static banners
Affiliate managers should allow their affiliates to try their products for free so
that we, as affiliate marketers, can fairly and genuinely evaluate and then review
them.
Affiliate Managers make triple effort contacting you to screen you, but when
trying to learn about products their efforts are many times nonexistent.
Affiliate programs are all rip offs that never pay. This whole industry is staffed
by crooks, liars and shady people who won't pay for advertising and services
they got from publishers. Work on your honesty and business practices first
and then we'll talk
Automatic banner updates help
Be available to pay real income
Do you cloak/redirect links? Cloaking is black hat, redirects are for tracking.
Don't steal our campaigns and reveal our secret traffic sources
Easy access to text links rather than searching
Email queries often go unanswered or take too long to be answered
Get better structures to datafeeds, more regular feed updates, more
transparency to reversals, more transparency to shipping charges. Don't
assume the industry is dominated by "bedroom warriors" any more.
Having a video advertising is the future, so, I think it is time video affiliate
advertising start.

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Higher Commission Rates
I am an ethical affiliate and I am hurt everyday by unethical practices by other
affiliates. Adware has become a bigger issue lately and until there is a way for
merchants and affiliates to recognize when adware is at play, legitimate
affiliates will lose money every day.
I am not sure that I am confident with the reporting. I check my stats multiple
times a day and have seen the number of clicks decrease in just a matter of
hours (in one case, minutes).
I can go to the website and make my own creatives... or I can post them ALL
getting you more business.... I don't go on the sites that often, I am busy
finding the deals I am posting. If I were sent scripts for EVERY deal, I would
post them all thus generating more traffic for you.
I could really use a lot more ways to redirect traffic
I don't like it when a program never changes or updates their banners. I would
expect them to change/update their banners at least once a month.
I don't think this affiliate business is a real business.
I feel that the stats are not accurate, which really bothers me. My site shows
inflated numbers for views and clicks. I know I am not getting as many visitors
as the stats claim. This puts a question of legitimacy in the back of my mind.
I hate when I make a "deep" link to a product, check to make sure it's working,
and then later when I go back weeks or months later, that link is linking to a
different product (usually different version of the same product). I understand
when the original version of the product is no longer available, but it seems
like well over half the time it is still available, but the page now defaults to
some other color/style/version of the product.
I have a MAJOR problem with reporting. I checked my stats before closing
out for the night and had 323 clicks. I get up the next morning, check my
clicks and it is 220! How is that? I check my stats multiple times a day. I am
not liking what I am seeing when this happens. I would like an explanation
other than I would have to call right when it happens. On the reporting

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options, there needs to be a date so that I can keep more accurate records.
There is no option of a date when I am looking at my reports.
I have always felt this industry lacks adequate oversight, especially as to the
networks. They allow all websites in without vetting them and their owners
and have poor and inadequate customer service and sometimes account
managers.
I have never received a dime from any affiliate links, even though people have
told me that they used my links to make purchases, there is nothing in any of
my accounts. I think the whole thing is a scam, or their tracking system is
horridly flawed. Just my opinion for using it for the last three years
I love affiliate marketing
I love when affiliate managers email out info complete with links containing
my affiliate id for easy posting. I don't have time to go and dig for deals or
info, so having info come to me on upcoming promotions, deals, hot items is
invaluable.
I need to learn how the heck to get sales. I have not sold a single item and
need to and want to.
I prefer to deal with merchants who manage their own affiliate program (not
through affiliate networks).
I really like the program. One area we would like to see improve is the front
end communication with affiliate program managers before they visit the site.
As a review site, program managers often approve/disapprove our request
based on the home page review. This makes the approval process somewhat
random. For example, if apparel outlets happen to visit us while a apparel
review is on the home page, they approve us 100 percent of the time.
However, if there is a music review on the home page, they deny us without
ever looking at the fashion section. Eventually, we will contact them to
reconsider but it would make it much easier to establish the connection up
front without having to follow up. Of course, we appreciate we have unique
product for programs. Our strength is in the reviews rather than banners
(which we rotate from time to time). It requires more patience on the part of
the program manager, but our site and social networks are growing as a result.

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I really like to deep link straight to specific products. It would be really nice if a
product went offline if a quick note was sent out to affiliates, or the failing link
would at least goes to another landing page. It sure would make my
day/month/year to have lifetime cookies and repeat customers in more
affiliate programs.
I sincerely tell others about companies I admire and prefer. I've gotten
hundreds of people into X merchant and Y merchant but neither one of those
companies will let me be an affiliate. Those that do hold back. They don't pay
unless you earn so much. How hard is it to transfer $20? I can understand not
wasting time with a check but how hard is a direct deposit? A thousand people
bringing in 2 people is still 2,000 new customers. Also, some affiliate networks
take no responsibility for affiliates being turned down. Affiliates get snubbed
and rejected based on page ratings or something else and never get told why so
we can't fix it. If I like a company, I'll send them business...paid or not.
I think Affiliate Networks should support Direct deposit, its faster than pay by
International Check. Direct deposit by using routing numbers can expedite
payments worldwide if affiliates have USA branch at their local Bank. .
I wish affiliate managers were familiar with their products enough to give
better suggestions on their products. Ex: if I ask an affiliate manager "What
products would be good to market to 10 year old girls who like to fish, and
play chess", an answer like "They're all good" is not helpful.
I would like more help in getting my web site known and draw in customers
and sales
I would love for affiliate programs to send out a regular, timely email with
current promotions. It's so much easier than going to each affiliate's page
within the affiliate network. It would also be great if they removed expired
promotions and gave definitive expiration dates when possible.
I'd like affiliate managers to work more closely with me to better promote their
products. I'm always open to suggestions or partnerships or promotions.
If new creatives and links are added, would be good to have the end date
noted in that e-mail, too. Also, banners and links that automatically update
would be nice to have.

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Improved commission, automatic updated banners & links (i.e. publisher
website has a banner/link, and if it changes, it should automatically linked to
old link to get updated automatically.)
Integrity is priority one.
It is too common for banners and links to lead only to the advertiser's home
page. Most of my sales are from links to specific pages, so the availability of
various smart links is important to me.
It is very annoying to have unusable promo materials. Like broken datafeeds,
with invalid links, missing pictures. Or banners only 1 size, not answering
emails for weeks, not activating affiliate accounts for several days, declining
without a real reason.
It would be good if you can create business cards for a small fee to affiliates
members with the names and websites on the card, etc
It would be great to have direct deposit payment to South African affiliates
It would be nice to have an affiliate manager help me succeed and improve as
affiliate.
It would be very nice to have the ability for me to show or promote an affiliate
through the use of video marketing. Instead of just text and link marketing,
video marketing would be very useful in marketing brand names. Even a five
or 10 minute introduction of a product would be very welcoming to
customers. Not everyone has the time to read a text then click on the link, but
video marketing would take all that away. My site support includes all kinds of
marketing methods, but having a good quality HD video marketing is good for
any brand. If I am to rate the importance of video marketing to texts, or link
marketing method, I would rate video marketing at 55%,texts marketing at
15%,Banner marketing 20%, then link marketing at 10%. Video marketing is
the best, companies that can afford it should use it. I would prefer to have
video marketing deals. The era of just link, texts, or banner only marketing
should start to decrease, while video marketing is the deal now!
I've been trying this for 4 months and haven't made a dime. I must be doing
something wrong.

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I've never had any sales accept to myself. How do I get traffic?
Lack of datafeeds or networks charging a fee to access data feeds
Let me know where I stand compared to other affiliates promoting the same
product in terms of conversions and conversion rates. Competition is a huge
motivator and I like knowing how well I rank compared to other affiliates.
Affiliate Network relations are horrendous. Requests for help with problems
are never responded to and I have moved most of my business to other
affiliate companies.
Affiliate Networks payment method is annoying. I am about to dump the one
I use because they keep sending me $10 US cheques (which cost me $20 to
bank). I should be able to switch to direct deposit but the option never
becomes available, no matter how many checks I cash. Frustrating!
Local government should stay out of Internet based businesses.
Make what you share worthwhile for the effort, or don't bother. Our effort is a
fixed cost.
More lead programs needed
More quality, more details, more need, more education materials, more and
more
More relevant programs for a mobile age. phone carriers, etc. Like the random
banner option. Think it needs some tweaks for when it converts some
banners to certain sizes... Some banners get too stretched and look like crap...
Most of the time I don't read Affiliate Network emails anymore. My inbox is
overflowed by useless merchants newsletter and bulk emails from AMs. This
is causing communication issues because when the networks want to reach me
for important matters, I miss the emails most of the time.
Most of their tracking and reporting are incorrect and they cheat their affiliates
out of their commissions

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Most of them pay us way, way too low!
My complaints are that I sometimes purchase something from my own
website and I am suppose to have some credits but I never see the credit I
suppose to have for that transaction.
My job is to send potential customers to you. Your job is to sell them
something. Don't blame me and threaten to drop me if your site, company or
store cannot sell your wares. I am not a salesperson. I am a lead provider.
Need the option of Master SKU data feeds from merchants. Too many times
merchants include all sizes and colors of a product as their own individual
product SKUs in the datafeed. Leads to lots of duplications of the same
product in the feed, which have to be manually removed from affiliate's WP
store. Very time consuming. Would love to see just one Master SKU used in
a datafeed, with various available size and color detail included within the
description fields. Such available size and color info should be updated
frequently by merchant so that the datafeed represents current available
inventory accurately). Up to date sale and promo prices are also needed in the
datafeeds. Quite often prices in the data feeds do not match the promo prices
on the site, which impairs affiliate's ability to drive traffic during a merchant
promotion or sale.
One thing I don't appreciate about the Affiliate Marketing supply sites is when
I haven't made too much money on my account from an affiliate links, they
take my earning after a period of time. I don't think they should do that.
Pay Per Call is becoming the #1 affiliate marketing method on and offline. I
think it would be a good idea if there was more exposure to this method of
affiliate marketing.
Paypal should be considered for payment method since it's the safest and
fastest option. This has been my dilemma with affiliate networks. I like the
affiliate network I work withvery much. Because they are professional and
have an excellent reputation. However, I have stopped promoting their
advertisers since 2004 because I had hard time cashing foreign checks in my
country. Although, they offer direct deposits, it's only for selected countries.
And they also require that you have successfully cashed two paper checks to
be eligible. That's difficult to do in my country. 2) If Paypal is not possible,
try also to issue paper checks to the local currency of the affiliate marketer like
me. This is very possible. To sum it up, Payment method is really a big issue

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and factor in selecting Affiliate Manager/Network to join. Thank you so much
for allowing me to participate in this survey. More power!
Please be responsive but do not bug me...
Please keep affiliate links current and relevant with good landing pages.
Please provide clarity on what is wanted in partners; please provide a variety of
linking options and content; please provide feeds or apis when possible; please
don't low-ball on fees, especially when we bring totally new clients; please
create various affiliate product offerings; offer recurring revenue for
subscription referrals; please tell us how we can help you!
Sales copy would be nice so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Descriptive
text is also nice without copying from the product page.
Share the wealth
Some of us are relatively new and sometimes need additional assistance.
Responses are appreciated.
The affiliates should receive awards, such as best new campaign, most
impressions, most clicks, most sales, highest percentage, etc make being an
Affiliate is just as important as being a Publishers.. The Publishers are failing to
realize we make this company not them.. We can turn any company into
money.. They wouldn't be coming to us if they was doing great in a recession..
Affiliate Networks need to get their Advertisers to realize this and calm their
demands down.. Our system our way. Not do it their way. Our customers are
buying what we are selling and the Advertisers are just reaping the benefits of
our promotional schemes..
The best market from affiliate marketing now is in East Asia
The first time I worked as an affiliatethe affiliate network did not pay me any
money. This is my second trial and I have a friend who is a computer
programmer and computer scientist who will monitor my website especially
the sales and also look out for redirected links.
The manager needs to help with ideas

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Affiliate programs need a longer revisit time for their cookies. Three days is
just way too short.
There are two or more avenues to pursue utilizing and maximizing income
stream via affiliate marketing .1) Aggressive bombarding the airwaves with
every trick and bell and whistle available in the arsenal of marketing and even
changing the attack based on whims or customer moods and thus being totally
dedicated to grabbing a sale. 2) Passive consistent offer the products in a
standard no joke format and allowing customer to do buainess on the basis of
demand for a proven product. No chasing the ambulance grubbing for a sale.
Affiliate marketed goods should be a discerning effort--i:e Let some site
owners market the old fashioned way with standard ads which are good for a
duration of time and market goods via the high flying bells and whistles
changing every week or month based on events holidays or such. Some sites
should be allowed to use the old standard country style and let other sites play
the glitz and glamour whooping and hollering for attention salesmanship. I
personally prefer for my site standard banner long term standard sales pitch
which does not change chasing the fringe customer. Then again my sales rate
and income stream with affiliate marketing is nil nano zero so what the hey do
I know. I'm from the old school and have been left at the train station as the
train was loaded and pulled away from the station.
Time to diversify out of affiliate marketing. toolbars, merchants join multiple
networks & other situations that result in poor tracking, high merchant
reversals (e.g., One merchant just reversed 20-25% over holiday season citing
they made an "SKU" mistake), newsletter popups on first visit from aff site,
cookie stuffing, etc. come between a legit sale & the affiliate receiving their
commission. The writing has been on the wall for awhile, now it's beginning to
be carved in stone. When I see very few or no sales after thousands of clicks
from targeted product pages, I know something else is at play. I'm through
providing free advertising for some merchants.
Very upset at the dropping of programs with the Nexus NY Law. Do not like
when managers threaten to terminate you for not having enough sales in a
certain quarter.
We are very satisfied with our affiliate network and its affiliate merchants.
When I write affiliate managers, some do not respond. Some left me in the
dark and don't come back to me on questions or comments I have.

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When I'm approved by an affiliate network I want approval on all of my
channels. I don't like being rejected by a company I have been approved by on
another channel.
When posting text links to Facebook, it's more effective to have links that
show a photo and description of the site than to show just the affiliate link

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Affiliate Summit
realdeal@affiliatesummit.com
http://www.affiliatesummit.com
http://www.affstat.com

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2 0 1 1 AFFI LI ATE S UMMI T AFFS TAT REPORT

Affiliate Marketing Benchmarks

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