Results from First UK Affiliate Census Published

January 24, 2007; 04:00 AM
E-consultancy has this week published the results of the first UK Affiliate Census, carried out in association with Affiliate Program Advice.

More than 1,500 affiliates took part in the survey at the end of 2006, answering questions about their lifestyle, working habits, their income and relationship with affiliate networks and advertisers.

The results shed some light on a thriving community of internet marketers who helped to generate an estimated £2 billion in UK e-commerce sales during 2006.

Key findings from the Census include:

• The overwhelming majority of affiliates are male (83% of respondents)
• 27% of affiliates say they do affiliate marketing as their day job (compared to 73% who do it in their spare time)
• Half of all respondents (49%) earned less that £500 a year from affiliate marketing
• Of those who do affiliate marketing as their day job, 61% earned at least £20,000 a year
• 10% of day-job affiliates earned more than £750,000 in the last year from affiliate marketing
•Only 26% of affiliates have done any marketing courses compared to 73% who have not
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is far and away the most commonly used method of promoting merchants & getting traffic. Organic search is used by 74% of affiliates compared to 38% who use Paid Search
• Affiliates are typically signed up with multiple affiliate networks. Only 15% of affiliates are signed up with just one network
• Travel and Flights is the most popular sector for affiliates, followed by Entertainment and Music.

Linus Gregoriadis, E-consultancy’s Head of Research, said: “This is a groundbreaking piece of research aimed at learning more about the thousands of affiliates in the UK who play a vital role in e-commerce, about whom very little has previously been known. There has always been a bit of mystery surrounding who exactly affiliates are, and this census helps to give us some more understanding.”

He added: “The UK Affiliate Census Report is vital reading for anyone who is interested in affiliate marketing. We are delighted by the response to the census and would like to thank all those who took part, as well as the affiliate networks which supported this research.”

The Census Report can be accessed by registered E-consultancy users at the following URL:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/publications/affiliate-census

Alternatively, email linus@e-consultancy.com or telephone 0207 681 4051.

About E-consultancy

E-consultancy is an online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides.

E-consultancy, named Publisher of the Year at the 2006 AOP Awards, also publishes buyer’s guides and has a directory of 100,000+ third party internet marketing white papers.

Since moving to a paid-content model in 2003 E-consultancy has amassed thousands of paying subscribers, more than 45,000 registered users and more than 145,000 unique users sessions per month (audited by ABC Electronic).
E-consultancy is popular among internet professionals around the world, for delivering practical, time-saving advice and insight.

Subscribers pay from £149 per year to access the exclusive and highly practical content. E-consultancy has more than 100 events lined up for 2007, including roundtables and monthly Supplier Showcases, where six suppliers pitch to an audience of pre-qualified buyers in a Central London venue.

E-consultancy also provides a range of public and in-house training programmes, such as seminars and workshops. Our 2007 training seminars will cover a range of topics including Affiliate Marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Optimisation and Email Marketing.

If you would like to know more about our training options then please visit our website or contact Craig Hanna on +44 207 681 4078 or email him at Craig@e-consultancy.com.

http://www.e-consultancy.com/about/

About Affiliate Program Advice

Affiliate Program Advice (www.affiliateprogramadvice.com) is primarily an affiliate marketing consultancy and affiliate program management agency with an emphasis upon research and development within the industry.
Its core focus is affiliate and merchant education and the promotion of affiliate marketing in the UK in terms of best practice.

For more information about Affiliate Program Advice contact Jess Luthi at info@affiliateprogramadvice.com .

What is affiliate marketing?

A system whereby an advertiser shares revenue with other websites (known as affiliates) which feature ads and content designed to drive traffic to the advertiser’s site. Affiliates receive commission on sales (or leads, or sign-ups).

The UK Affiliate Marketing sector, which has more than tripled in size since 2004, has made huge strides since it was first used by marketers ten years ago.

Online businesses increasingly see this as an invaluable way of generating extra sales by using networks of websites as a virtual sales force to broaden their reach.

Origin of affiliate marketing

It was only 10 years ago since, according to internet legend, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became the first to embrace affiliate marketing after chatting with a woman at a party about how she wanted to sell books about divorce on her website. The idea – which is central to how affiliate marketing works - was that she should link her site to Amazon.com and receive a commission on book sales as the affiliate.

Where is affiliate marketing now?

Now, just a decade later, affiliate marketing managers are commonplace within online businesses, with a number of well established networks acting as intermediaries and facilitating the relationship between retailers and thousands of publishers of all shapes and sizes.

E-consultancy analyst Linus Gregoriadis said: “Affiliate marketing has gone mainstream as companies with an online presence increasingly embrace this as a cost-efficient and low-risk channel to market. In the last few years this sector has gone from something very niche to something of strategic importance within businesses.”

E-consultancy editor Chris Lake added: “The affiliate marketing landscape is changing very quickly as online retail goes from strength to strength. An important change has been the way that the affiliates have now become more well organised and professional, reflecting the evolution of e-commerce generally. ”