The state of affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing—using one site to drive traffic to another site—is becoming more complex, to judge by consultant Shawn Collins’ annual survey of marketers who use affiliates. His latest report—AffStat 2006—shows an increase in the number of affiliates in the mid range—23% of this year’s respondents report 5,001-10,000 affiliates vs. 13% a year ago, yet 18% report they have too many affiliates to manage effectively. A year ago, 26% of respondents had 5,000 or more affiliates; this year, it’s 29%. A year ago, 16% of respondents had 2,001 to 5,000 affiliates; today it’s 23%. Another interesting bit of information from the survey: nearly two-thirds of in-house affiliate managers earn $40,000 to $80,000 a year. Here are a few other findings from the survey of 200 affiliate managers: