My Reflections on the 2009 UK Affiliate Marketing Census

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Having now had a chance to read through the full report, here are my reflections on some of the points and issues raised. One thing that sticks out to me being a woman is Where are all the female affiliates? According to the affiliate census only 18% of respondents were female. This is only a 1% increase on the 2007 figure of 17%. Female affiliates are much better represented over in the USA with just over a quarter (27%) according to similar research.

‘Are You a Male or Female Affiliate?’

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A question was raised about how affiliates see the current poor economic climate affecting them. Just over half (55%) believe it is an opportunity whilst 30% see it as a threat. I personally believe the economic crisis is an opportunity for affiliates, particularly cashback, voucher code and comparison sites to take advantage of an upturn in online sales. Consumers are looking to make savings wherever possible; the affiliate disciplines mentioned above cater for this exactly.

I was encouraged to see that the most important method of affiliate marketing is “true content,” with 36% of affiliates citing it as their top category for generating revenue. 20% of the affiliates are most reliant on PPC. See the below list for a full break down of the methods used by affiliates ranked in order of how much revenue they generate.

• True content (SEO) (36%)
• PPC (20%)
• Price comparison (11%)
• Blogs and forums (8%)
• Email marketing (5%)
• Voucher codes (5%)
• Cashback and reward (5%)
• Shopping directories (4%)
• Social networking (3%)
• Corporate intranet (2%)

43% of respondents claim the rise of voucher code sites is a threat to them. I tend to agree with these affiliates. As consumers are becoming more clued up and the economic climate is forcing them to become savvier if a shopper sees the “enter your promotion code here” on the sales confirmation page they are likely to look online for a voucher code. If they successfully find a voucher code on another affiliate’s site the affiliate who originally drove the sale will not earn any commission.

The 2009 UK Affiliate Census Report is very comprehensive with 64 pages full of information about the UK affiliate community including age, gender, full or part time workers, home or office based, length of time in the industry etc. There is also information relating to merchants and networks. This blog post is by no means a full summary of the report but it does give my opinion about some of the issues raised by the report.